Haiti: Helping Out or Ripping Off? III

[Bob T]

* HAITI: HELPING OUT OR RIPPING OFF? III

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Dear Thirsters Worldwide:
This essay is by Thirster at Baoding College, Baoding, Hebei, China JIM BISHOP, former career airlines pilot who is currently serving as a professor and administrator at that college. Jim has now been in that rapidly developing country for several years -- long enough to develop all sorts of ideas and insights about what enables authentic development to be realized. Here, Jim responds to essays by JEFF SMITH and DARRELL OWEN.

Thanks, Jim!

Best,
Bob

####################################

BY JIM BISHOP:

I need more information.

In point 2 of his comments Mr. Smith advises.

(2) "make every single import from Haiti totally duty free, sans tariff, no matter where its nation of origin, for a decade."

How can this be done in a way that spreads economic development among an uneducated, impoverished, and completely demoralized population? Certainly, the average Haitian cannot suddenly become able to engage in international trade, and those people who do have the skills are not renowned for their sharing nature.

If Mr. Owen is going to regale us with the following tirade he earns an obligation to explain the basis for the final sentence in its bombast:
“This is about as one-sided as anything I have ever read re: Haiti. By the sounds of this piece, two things abound; 1) the U.S. really is Satan, and 2) the Haitians really are the world's greatest victims. In fact neither is true.”

It seems to me that the poverty and desperate circumstances encountered nearly everywhere to the south of our country are the direct result of traditional American foreign policy. Basically, we have stated to the world, via the Monroe Doctrine, that the southern portion of the ‘American hemisphere’ is ours to do with as we like, and we will fight to keep it that way. Then, with the tender mercies of the Christian church in attendance, we have extracted resources and made damned certain nobody got organized enough to resist. Allende was elected, in large part, because he sought to resist our venal ways, and many believe our CIA made sure he pushed up daisies as a reward. Just where does Mr. Owen’s assurance come from?

Jim