What makes Haiti a poor country?

[Veg_Athei_Socialist]

What reasons are there to explain why Haiti has so much poverty?

We were discussing this in my economics class. One person suggested there was too much government control, another said because of the disease no stable business could survive well there, I suggested that it may have had to do with US market policy or something related to capitalism but they seemed critical.

Could any of you provide some good explanations? We might talk about it again next class.

[Gorilla]

Haiti had to pay reparations to France for liberating the slaves. These were settled by taking an enormous loan out from Wall Street that they were still paying it off til quite recently. That's basically 90% of the reason. Details from reliable sources Wonkette and the Daily Beast:

http://wonkette.com/413169/pat-robertson-was-right-haiti-is-cursed
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-14/why-haitis-earthquake-is-frances-problem/#

[The Man]

Haiti had to pay reparations to France for liberating the slaves. Yeah, no kidding. In the '20's, this was paid off by taking an enormous loan out from Wall Street. They were paying it off til quite recently. That's basically 90% of the reason. I'll look up and post the details in a bit.

Plus, the curernt "Laisse Fairez" Capitalism isn't helping either.

[Kléber]

I think the real question is: How have the Haitians managed to survive or at least stay nominally independent, after everything was done to kill, rob and rape them by the genocidal imperialists? Instead of feeling sorry for the Haitian people, we should salute them and their heroic, ongoing struggle against the criminal imperialist occupation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Stabilisation_Mission_in_Haiti).

Haiti was never given a chance to develop and trade like other (European) capitalist countries. The Haitian people were never forgiven by the Western imperialists for daring to rebel, ever since Thomas Jefferson referred to the Haitian people as "Cannibals of the terrible republic." It started in the early colonial era: Haiti's indigenous population was completely eradicated through murder, torture, overwork and disease during the Spanish conquest in the 16th Century, and the island was burnt to the ground. The laboring population was replaced by African slaves, who eventually used the French Revolution as an opportunity to seize power and set up a black republic, defeating the British and Spanish armies in the process. In 1802, a year after the country became semi-independent under Toussaint Louverture and 9 years after slavery was abolished, and the economy was just recovering from 10 years of revolution and burning of fields, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Haiti to restore slavery. The French generals openly said that their objective was to annihilate half of the black population to terrify the other half into submission. In spite of overwhelming odds, the Haitians won through sheer revolutionary determination, but half of their population (250,000 out of 500,000) was killed by the imperialist genocide and the island was burned again.

If you want to read a Marxist analysis of the Haitian Revolution I recommend The Black Jacobins by CLR James (http://ifile.it/gihysm/ebooksclub.org__The_Black_Jacobins__Toussaint_L__0 39_Ouverture_and_the_San_Domingo_Revolution__Secon d_Edition_Revised_.l_45x2k032oxz5xn5.pdf). Another book, Avengers of the New World by Laurent Dubois (http://ifile.it/t5l1op/ebooksclub.org__Avengers_of_the_New_World__The_Sto ry_of_the_Haitian_Revolution.l_45x2k032oxz5xn5.pdf ) is also good, if less Marxist. And there is a cool Haitian Revolution history wiki set up recently called The Louverture Project (http://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Main_Page).

After the revolution succeeded in 1804, French imperialism intimidated Haiti into paying for its own independence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_debt_of_Haiti) in return for the right to trade with other countries, and Haitian governments spent the 19th Century paying off their "debt" to France, debt which has seemingly stuck with them forever thanks to the criminal imperialists. In the 20th Century, the United States invaded the island and turned it into a US semi-colony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_Haiti). US imperialism brutalized the Haitian people again and again during the 1900's, assassinating the leaders, stunting the economy and slaughtering the people, while sponsoring reactionary pro-imperialist governments of the tiny Haitian bourgeoisie led by the Duvaliers Sr. and Jr. More recently the US imperialists promoted a right-wing mafia coup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Haitian_rebellion) to eject the legitimately-elected President Aristide from power.

[Octavian]

Jean-Claude Duvalier. This asshole who became president through inheritance and went on a shopping spree at haiti's expense.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

a simple read into haiti's history will give you the answer. the country has been suffocated by imperialistic powers since it was colonised. chomsky's 'hopes and prospects' has an excellent analysis on haiti that outlines haiti in the context of imperialism brilliantly.

[#FF0000]

What reasons are there to explain why Haiti has so much poverty?

We were discussing this in my economics class. One person suggested there was too much government control, another said because of the disease no stable business could survive well there, I suggested that it may have had to do with US market policy or something related to capitalism but they seemed critical.

Maybe they should've enrolled in a history class. Holy shit. It was laissez faire economic policies that lead to the fucking famine they had just a year or so before the earthquake.

you go to school with idiots

[NoOneIsIllegal]

The poorest country in the western hemisphere grows massive amounts of crops and sells them to the most rich and advanced countries in the world, while they starve and live in absolute poverty.
I think a simple observation like this speaks worlds about what's wrong with Haiti.

[a rebel]

I guess when you have struggled to barely get by for so long, and pissed off the Europeans in the process, you aren't getting far in the world.

[Gorilla]

lol @ quoting history in a mainstream economics class. May as well quote Darwin at Baptist sunday school.