The Glorious Republic of Haiti! Proud to be their neighbor and ally!
An inspiring history for sure. It was the island on which Columbus first set up a colony and immediately subjugated the native peoples. Africans were imported in large numbers to work sugar cane fields. Soon, the ratio of African slaves was 10-1 of the white slave owners. Inspired by the French Revolution and the words of slave holder Thomas Jefferson the slaves revolted. They defeated the armies of Napoleon and became the Second Republic founded in the Western hemisphere. The only nation in history founded on a slave rebellion! Jefferson himself, was afraid to acknowledge these brave peoples achievement lest he inspire the slaves of the U.S. to also revolt.
Since then these folks have endured many hardships. Hurricanes, epidemics, corruption, brutal dictatorships. No thanks to most American presidents or religious leaders. Mother Theresa was happy to take the money the Duvalier's stole from their own people. She never acknowledged the source of the filthy lucre or returned it.
Trump issued his idiotic comments on the 8th anniversary of a devastating earthquake. He also (2016 campaign) promised (lied) to be their champion.
Haitian immigration to the U.S. has been fruitful for both countries. Prominent Haitian-Americans are:
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable - Founder of the city of Chicago.
W. E. B. DuBois
Henri Ronald Ford - Chief of Surgery Children's Hospital L.A.
Eugene Bullard - First Black U.S. military pilot.
Jean-Michel Basquiat - Artist, whose work has only recently contributed vast sums of money to the world economy (not his).
Charles Reason - Mathematician, first black professor at a white U.S. University.
And, not to be so ethno-centered on Haitians of African descent, we can add:
John Audubon - Naturalist and slave holder in both Haiti and the U.S.
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Awesome. thanks
During the enlightened rule of the Duvaliers, Haiti developed a thriving trade in medical products. The voodoo enforcers of the Tonton Macoutes supplied cadavers and blood to hospitals in the US. Thanks to their power to kidnap, torture, rape and kill anyone, the Tonton Macoutes had an unlimited supply of low-cost raw materials.
It's a great example of the benefits that can be achieved when religion, government, and business work together.
A lot of white politicians and religious leaders are still pissed off that the black Haitian slaves defeated the white French Chistian slave owners.
It's also a warning from history not to let the corrupt, criminal or egotistical have political power or financial resources. Perhaps added to the corruption of their leaders, the worst aspect was lack of political institutions and effective checks and balances. Quote:
As Stephen Keppel of the Economist Intelligence Unit puts it, Haiti's revolution may have brought it independence but it also "ended up destroying the country's infrastructure and most of its plantations. It wasn't the best of starts for a fledgling republic." Moreover, in exchange for diplomatic recognition from France, the new republic was forced to pay enormous reparations: some 150m francs, in gold. It was an immense sum, and even reduced by more than half in 1830, far more than Haiti could afford.
"The long and the short of it is that Haiti was paying reparations to France from 1825 until 1947," says Von Tunzelmann. "To come up with the money, it took out huge loans from American, German and French banks, at exorbitant rates of interest. By 1900, Haiti was spending about 80% of its national budget on loan repayments. It completely wrecked their economy. By the time the original reparations and interest were paid off, the place was basically destitute and trapped in a spiral of debt. Plus, a succession of leaders had more or less given up on trying to resolve Haiti's problems, and started looting it instead."...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/14/haiti-history-earthquake-d...
Arguably, it was reparations that sank or contributed to the unpopularity of the Weimar Republic. It shows what a good job USAmericans and Japanese did in Japan in 1946-1952.