The French are kicking off in true Gallic style after a scuffle between a US commander on the ground and a French aid worker a Mr Joyandet who said. "This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,"
Just for the record the US aircraft carrier and support group can and have done more for Haitian's than the combined effort of the whole of the EU put together.....however commentators have being saying that the condition Haiti is in is a shameful condemnation of the USA - how could it allow its near neighbour to wallow in corruption and poverty etc? Though when the US does intervene to help it avariably gets a bad press and little thanks but I thought a history lesson for the French with short memories on why Haiti is so poor and lacks such basic infrastructure might be helpful. From nowhere has the condemnation of the USA "invasion" of Haiti been stronger than from the Francophile euroweenies. This article is a refreshing reminder of the real appalling history of Haiti:
The fault line in Haiti runs straight to France:
In the 18th century, Haiti was France’s imperial jewel, the Pearl of the Caribbean, the largest sugar exporter in the world. Even by colonial standards, the treatment of slaves working the Haitian plantations was truly vile. They died so fast that, at times, France was importing 50,000 slaves a year to keep up the numbers and the profits.
Inspired by the principles of the French Revolution, in 1791 the slaves rebelled under the leadership of the self-educated slave Toussaint L’Ouverture. After a vicious war, Napoleon’s forces were defeated. Haiti declared independence in 1804.
As Haiti struggles with new misfortune, it is worth remembering that noble achievement — this is the only nation to gain independence by a slave-led rebellion, the first black republic, and the second oldest republic in the western hemisphere. Haiti was founded on a demand for liberty from people whose liberty had been stolen: the country itself is a tribute to human resilience and freedom.
France did not forgive the impertinence and loss of earnings: 800 destroyed sugar plantations, 3,000 lost coffee estates. A brutal trade blockade was imposed. Former plantation owners demanded that Haiti be invaded, its population enslaved once more. Instead, the French State opted to bleed the new black republic white.
In 1825, in return for recognising Haitian independence, France demanded indemnity on a staggering scale: 150 million gold francs, five times the country’s annual export revenue. The Royal Ordinance was backed up by 12 French warships with 150 cannon.
The terms were non-negotiable. The fledgeling nation acceded, since it had little choice. Haiti must pay for its freedom, and pay it did, through the nose, for the next 122 years.
Historical accountancy is an inexact business, but the scale of French usury was astonishing. Even when the total indemnity was reduced to 90 million francs, Haiti remained crippled by debt. The country took out loans from US, German and French banks at extortionate rates. To put the cost into perspective, in 1803 France agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory, an area 74 times the size of Haiti, to the US, for 60 million francs.
Weighed down by this financial burden, Haiti was born almost bankrupt. In 1900 some 80 per cent of the national budget was still being swallowed up by debt repayments. Money that might have been spent on building a stable economy went to foreign bankers.
The debt was not finally paid off until 1947.
Haiti does not need more words, conferences or commissions of reflection. It needs money and aid, urgently. So far, official donations from France are less than half of those from Britain, and even that is dwarfed by the US effort!
The legacy of colonialism worldwide is a bitter one in places, but in few countries is there a more direct link between the sins of the past and the horrors of the present. Merely a French acknowledgement that the unfolding catastrophe is partly the consequence of history, and not merely blind fate, would go some way to salving Haiti’s wounds.
France does not pay for its history. But imagine what the reaction might be if, the next time you receive an outrageous bill in a French restaurant, you declare that payment is non-pertinent, set up a commission of reflection and walk out! Voila
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