Bad choice of word, mea culpa. You don't have to tell me about it, I have visited the place, and it looks like it has been bombed all over again. I'm of the opinion that they never really rebuilt after their so called "revolution", and just kept fighting on until the Yanks and the authoritarians among them (Magloire, Papa Doc and baby Doc) came and forced them to stand down for a while.
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Haiti, a Caribbean country, is joining the African Union
Bad choice of word, mea culpa. You don't have to tell me about it, I have visited the place, and it looks like it has been bombed all over again. I'm of the opinion that they never really rebuilt after their so called "revolution", and just kept fighting on until the Yanks and the authoritarians among them (Magloire, Papa Doc and baby Doc) came and forced them to stand down for a while.
Personally (and I'm not the only one that think this), France needs to do something with its former 'Pearl of the Antilles.' They can't continue to turn a blind eye to Haiti, especially because they ARE the fundamental cause for the existence of Haiti. Without the arrival of the French, there would be no Haiti. Even the Haitian Revolution (despite the fact that Haitian historians love to ignore this detail) it truly started in Paris by what today would had been considered an NGO that called itself "Friends of the Blacks". The Frenchmen that were members of that organization were the ones that went to Saint-Domingue and spread the idea of revolting among the slaves in Saint-Domingue; and there is even historical evidence that many of them encouraged the slave leaders to commit the indiscriminate slaughter (even though once the massacre started even those that encouraged and the slave revolts were killed simply for being white, courtesy of Dessalines. Some eyewitness accounts of those events claim that Dessalines himself said that he knew many innocent people were being killed, but that it was necessary to assure the independence of Haiti).
At this moment France has a huge territory in South America called French Guyana. The place is literally an extremely depopulated jungle. Its one of the largest regions of the French Republic, its much bigger than the whole island of Santo Domingo. If the French wanted to truly help Haiti, say as an act of forgiveness for all the things that were done in the past, they can give Haiti a true helping hand that will get them back on their feet.
1. Offer Haiti some sort of political/economic relationship that will allow France to develop Haiti's infrastructure, improve its sanitation, etc; while taking advantage of the economic potential Haiti has in various fields (tourism, logistics for distributing French products in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti can even become a major logistic center for the expansion of Air France as a leading airline connecting all major cities in the Western Hemisphere and give Copa Airlines a run for their money).
2. France needs to open French Guyana to large numbers of Haitian migrants. Half of Haiti's population can actually move over there (especially the rural population which would be the most apt to adapt to an undisturbed wilderness with huge agricultural potential). This will reduce the population pressure on the Haitian environment and in its labor market, increasing wages in many sectors as well as technification and productivity by necessity.
It would be a one-two-developmental-punch similar to how the USA developed Puerto Rico. Open the human flood gates while massively investing in modernizing the infrastructure and improving the economic situation. In less than a generation miserable Puerto Rico began to resemble much better its very own namesake.
But, unfortunately, this will never happen. It seems to me that France has a much better overall relationship with Dominican Republic than with Haiti, even when Haiti is of her own creation.
At this moment France has a huge territory in South America called French Guyana. The place is literally an extremely depopulated jungle. Its one of the largest regions of the French Republic, its much bigger than the whole island of Santo Domingo. If the French wanted to truly help Haiti, say as an act of forgiveness for all the things that were done in the past, they can give Haiti a true helping hand that will get them back on their feet.
1. Offer Haiti some sort of political/economic relationship that will allow France to develop Haiti's infrastructure, improve its sanitation, etc; while taking advantage of the economic potential Haiti has in various fields (tourism, logistics for distributing French products in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti can even become a major logistic center for the expansion of Air France as a leading airline connecting all major cities in the Western Hemisphere and give Copa Airlines a run for their money).
2. France needs to open French Guyana to large numbers of Haitian migrants. Half of Haiti's population can actually move over there (especially the rural population which would be the most apt to adapt to an undisturbed wilderness with huge agricultural potential). This will reduce the population pressure on the Haitian environment and in its labor market, increasing wages in many sectors as well as technification and productivity by necessity.
It would be a one-two-developmental-punch similar to how the USA developed Puerto Rico. Open the human flood gates while massively investing in modernizing the infrastructure and improving the economic situation. In less than a generation miserable Puerto Rico began to resemble much better its very own namesake.
But, unfortunately, this will never happen. It seems to me that France has a much better overall relationship with Dominican Republic than with Haiti, even when Haiti is of her own creation.
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France? Why not go direct to the European Union? just add another problem. Their is still some money left in Germany after all what happens with the refugee from middle east and northern africa. Just ask Mrs Merkel the German dictator!!!
At this moment France has a huge territory in South America called French Guyana. The place is literally an extremely depopulated jungle. Its one of the largest regions of the French Republic, its much bigger than the whole island of Santo Domingo. If the French wanted to truly help Haiti, say as an act of forgiveness for all the things that were done in the past, they can give Haiti a true helping hand that will get them back on their feet.
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French Guiana, as I understand, is a pretty unhealthy place. I doubt that the French taxpayers would like to fund a program to keep all the proposed immigrants healthy.
And even if it did, this would not do much to aid the impoverished Haitians still in Hispaniola.
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French Guiana, as I understand, is a pretty unhealthy place. I doubt that the French taxpayers would like to fund a program to keep all the proposed immigrants healthy.
And even if it did, this would not do much to aid the impoverished Haitians still in Hispaniola.
They need that site for their Ariane program.Close to the equator and nobody much around.
I reckon they would drop it like a hot potato otherwise.
France forgive Haiti for all the things that were done in the past?
That's like a wolf forgiving a lamb after choking on it.
Strange sense of history around here. The French version of plantation slavery wasn't much different from the Portuguese model. Slaves were treated worse than farm animals and more like farm equipment, values amortized over a short period of years, discarded and replaced by newer models. A transformational leader will rise in Haiti and Haiti will fix itself if the rest of the world stops interfering with its internal governance in the name of "helping". The last thing Haiti needs is help from France. France doesn't give. France only takes.
I highly recommend Isabel Allende's The Island Under the Sea (La isla bajo el mar), which starts on a plantation in Haiti near Le Cap and ends in New Orleans in the 1830's. The main character is a slave girl.
I read it once in English and once in Spanish.
As for French Guiana, the Wikipedia article is pretty good and very interesting.
population is still barely 250,000. There are some Haitians there already.
Expensive to visit, they say.
I read it once in English and once in Spanish.
As for French Guiana, the Wikipedia article is pretty good and very interesting.
population is still barely 250,000. There are some Haitians there already.
Expensive to visit, they say.
Dont "just say". You dont have a grasp on economic colonialism, Eurocentricism, and neoliberal economic policies to make those conclusions you did, any of them.
All the lovely qualities which have stood in the way of African development and Haiti's recovery. Africa and Haiti need each other more than ever as transcontinental trade is shifting away from European and American hubs and Africa has developed deeper trade ties directly with Asian partners and as a result is experiencing the growth of middle classes and the accumulation of wealth throughout many nations. There are 900 million Africans and almost 3 billion Asians who don't require any assistance from America or Europe to trade successfully together and build a brighter future for themselves. Haiti should be a part of that future.
Africa is still managed by their former colonizers in Europe, through money policies, ( Franc CFA which is the money used in many West African countries, is still controlled by the National Bank Of France...), through Banking organizations created by them like the CBEAO (Central Bank of West African Countries) who has the power to issue their money, fixed the interest rates, decide the monetaries policies..French multinationals have also their part to play in that "neocolonialism", I am talking about Total, Elf, Areva, Groupe Bollor? etc and the mercenaries they hire when a government try to resist their current racket...This is why they are turning to China, but I still think that they should take their own destiny into their hands,and use their natural resources as collateral instead of contracting Debts in Europe or China...
Haiti's current state can be explained by several facts :
- US and European nations took revenge ( from 1804 to nowadays..) because they destroyed the biggest slave plantation economy in the caribbean , and their revolution was the real fire who lit emancipation all over the Caribbeans, North and South America. Anyone can read Robin Blackburn's "The Overthrow Of Colonial Slavery", these facts are clear and documented
- That unjust "Debt" payed to France who made billions out of Haiti three times : profits generated by the Slave Trade, outputs sold from that forced labor (Sugar, Coffee, Indigo), and that "Freedom" fee payed through war threats
- The unneccessary cast rivalry which destroyed (civil war) that unity after the Haitian revolution
- Haiti has mostly been led by useless people (usually former colonists' chosen people) who were not fit to lead a nation and solve issues, and sometimes foreign people kicked out some of their leaders which added even more chaos
Finally Haiti has not been admitted to that African Union...
Haiti's current state can be explained by several facts :
- US and European nations took revenge ( from 1804 to nowadays..) because they destroyed the biggest slave plantation economy in the caribbean , and their revolution was the real fire who lit emancipation all over the Caribbeans, North and South America. Anyone can read Robin Blackburn's "The Overthrow Of Colonial Slavery", these facts are clear and documented
- That unjust "Debt" payed to France who made billions out of Haiti three times : profits generated by the Slave Trade, outputs sold from that forced labor (Sugar, Coffee, Indigo), and that "Freedom" fee payed through war threats
- The unneccessary cast rivalry which destroyed (civil war) that unity after the Haitian revolution
- Haiti has mostly been led by useless people (usually former colonists' chosen people) who were not fit to lead a nation and solve issues, and sometimes foreign people kicked out some of their leaders which added even more chaos
Finally Haiti has not been admitted to that African Union...
France will not help Haiti with one Euro cent and usually speaking does not care about her former colonies in Africa or in any other places like Guyana, Viet Nam, Cambodia etc. The crime rate (shootings) in Guadeloupe( a French department) is alarming and is not even seen in Paris deadliest suburbs or "banlieues". Former French colonies (compared to former Great Britain like Ghana or Nigeria) are usually in a bad state, is it by mere chance ?
Africa (the biggest continent after Asia...bigger than Europe, North America, South America etc) has the potential (wealth, natural resources, demography ) and the means to be a big "Dog" however this is not wanted by the former colonists powers who are still sucking African wealth like the vampires they are. People should take time and analyze how they destroyed (using lies to justify their action) and are taking advantage of Lybia (natural resources)...Those jihadists groupe used by NATO forces to destroy Khadafi are now spreading all over Africa like a cancer (Mali,Chad, Nigeria, Niger etc),and Nigerian army asked politely few months ago to France that they should stop selling weapons and ammunitions to terrorist group Boko Haram...
Africa (the biggest continent after Asia...bigger than Europe, North America, South America etc) has the potential (wealth, natural resources, demography ) and the means to be a big "Dog" however this is not wanted by the former colonists powers who are still sucking African wealth like the vampires they are. People should take time and analyze how they destroyed (using lies to justify their action) and are taking advantage of Lybia (natural resources)...Those jihadists groupe used by NATO forces to destroy Khadafi are now spreading all over Africa like a cancer (Mali,Chad, Nigeria, Niger etc),and Nigerian army asked politely few months ago to France that they should stop selling weapons and ammunitions to terrorist group Boko Haram...
1. Haiti's admission to the African Union as a Member State will have to wait for another time. Haiti has been an Observing Member since 2012.
http://madamenoire.com/699128/african-union-haiti/
2. Your suggestion (bolded) is exactly what Muamar Khadafi was in the process of implementing, bringing the entire continent under one currency, the African Dinar and one African central banking system backing that currency in GOLD. This is also exactly why he was killed.
Honestly speaking... I don't see any benefits for Haiti or Africa, because their current and respective issues cannot be solved (at the moment being) by this African Union. Sometimes I am wondering if it's not because Michaelle Jean (married to a French) is the current secretary of Francophony ? Francophony another illusion to keep some former colonies under France's feet... I have visited Africa many times (Ivory Coast, Niger, Burkina Faso,Senegal, Morocco) and the only solution IMHO is to kick out all the multinationals, and African puppet presidents nominated in the US,UK, France etc. Africa should unite herself into a unique federal government with different states..A unique money, and a common army...Africa from N/S/E/W has the wealth, land (agricultural) and people to be self-sufficient...But It will never happened except after a bloody WAR against the western powers (they would lose billions and billions of dollars).
Now I agree Khadafi was the only one who knew how to fight "neocolonialism" using Lybia's natural resources, in a smart way. By removing him they added more chaos : Unchecked Migrants waves towards Europe, Jihadist groups, higher insecurity, more poverty...One of my uncle worked 10 years in Lybia as a Banker...Lybia was a good country under Khadafi's rule...And they messed up everything because of their greed and will to see Africa into a bad shape...