“Bush Was Responsible for Destroying Haitian Democracy” – Randall Robinson (Democracy Now)

[struggle4progress]

“Bush Was Responsible for Destroying Haitian Democracy”–Randall Robinson on Obama Tapping Bush to Co-Chair US Relief Efforts

... AMY GOODMAN: President Obama has tapped President Clinton and former President George W. Bush to coordinate the aid relief to Haiti. I was wondering your thoughts on that.

RANDALL ROBINSON: Well, Amy, I’m, of course, troubled by that. I don’t think this is the time—neither the time nor the place to discuss those things that have troubled me for a long time in the history of American policy towards Haiti. Now the focus must be upon the rescue efforts that are underway to save lives.

But I hope that this experience, this disaster, causes American media to take a keener look at Haiti, at the Haitian people, at their wonderful creativity, at their art, at their culture, and what they’ve had to bear. It has been described to the American people as a problem of their own making. Well, that’s simply not the case. Haiti has been, of course, put upon by outside powers for its whole post-slavery history, from 1804 up until the present.

Of course, President Bush was responsible for destroying Haitian democracy in 2004, when he and American forces abducted President Aristide and his wife, taking them off to Africa, and they are now in South Africa. President Clinton has largely sponsored a program of economic development that supports the idea of sweatshops. Haitians in Haiti today make 38 cents an hour. They don’t make a high enough wage to pay for their lunch and transportation to and from work. But this is the kind of economic program that President Clinton has supported. I think that is sad, that these two should be joined in this kind of effort. It sends, I think, the wrong kind of signal. But that is not what we should focus on now. We should focus on saving lives ...

http://i1.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian

[Mimosa]

1. Bush alone couldn't do all that.

Struggleforprogress, Haiti is among the most overpopulated nations on the planet. Overpopulation alone can almost doom a country. :(

[struggle4progress]

12. Haiti has a lower population density than the Netherlands, South Korea, or many other countries.

It has a lower population density than Puerto Rico. The population of Haiti is something like the population of New York City, which has ten times the population density

Poverty reflects power relations: "population" is not an explanation of Haiti's poverty

[HBravo]

2. Haiti has had problems for years/decades

little bush has nothing to do with that. Sorry.

[pocoloco]

4. are you series??11!

[HBravo]

9. Check out "Island of Darkness" nt

[LakeSamish706]

5. The Bushs have had everything to do with it actually. n/t

[sabrina 1]

6. Bush is one in a long line of Western bullies who

have interfered in Haiti's struggle for independence. He was just the most recent. His role in helping to remove Haiti's first democratically elected president, causing untold numbers of deaths is well documented, including by such members of Congress as Maxine Waters.

The country needed support as it struggled to recover from decades of brutality and oppression by the Duvaliers, also befriended as they murdered and persecuted Haitians, by prominent American Capitalists. Instead the Bush administration continued the US policies of interfering in their struggle for independence by illegally removing their president.

Bush didn't do it alone, he had plenty of help. But Haiti can be added to the list of crimes committed by his administration.

[HBravo]

10. Agreed but, Check out out "Island of Darkness" nt

[sabrina 1]

16. Thanks, I am not familiar with it, but I will check it out.

[struggle4progress]

13. After the earthquake, Haiti needs more than your latte money

By Renee Martin
January 16, 2010 – 7:14 pm

... France considered Haiti to be the pearl of the Caribbean and set about stealing both its natural and human resources ... The average lifespan of a slave in Haiti was a scant twenty-one years ... Haitians won their freedom from France through armed conflict, defeating Napoleon Bonaparte ... France demanded the sum of 150 million francs in payment for the freedom of the Haitian people ... It was not until 1947 that Haiti managed to pay off the debt it incurred to achieve its freedom ... Woodrow Wilson .. would invade Haiti in 1915 ... U.S. troops dismantled the Haitian government for failing to submit to American ownership of Haitian lands ... Even after the official US exit from Haiti .. Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, .. embraced by the U.S. government, .. ran up debt to pay for a lavish lifestyle and brutally terrorized the Haitian people ... When Haiti elected the populist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, he was overthrown by a military coup after only a scant seven months in office. He was returned to office by then president Clinton in 1991, who demanded that Aristide accede to neo-liberal polices ... This policy would force Haiti to import more than fifty percent of its food. How could Haiti possibly compete on the open market with the U.S and European powers when they were not allowed to subsidize any of their famers? As a 2008 Jubilee USA report notes, although the country had once been a net exporter of rice, by 2005, “three out of every four plates of rice eaten in Haiti came from the U.S.” ... Aristide was elected again by a majority vote in 2000. This greatly upset Western governments. In 2004, he was kidnapped by private security forces and the U.S. military and then flown out of the country ... On Thursday of this week, the IMF announced that a 100 million dollar loan would be issued to Haiti to help cope with the disastrous aftermath of the earthquake. Haiti is greatly in need of an influx of cash; however, the terms of the loan include the exact same neo-liberal policies which are largely responsible for the current impoverished state of the country ... Consider that before the earthquake, Haiti had a rate of 80-90 percent illiteracy and just over 70% unemployment for working adults. Eighty percent of the population lived on less than $2 a day and more than 50 percent on less than $1 a day ... http://globalcomment.com/2010/after-the-earthquake-haiti-needs-more-than-your-latte-money/

[LakeSamish706]

3. Any and all you need to read Family of Secrets by Russ Baker.... It does tell it all n/t

[HBravo]

7. Haiti "Island of Darkness"

Check it out

[LakeSamish706]

8. GWHWalker Bush was involved in the demisw of Haiti.... Many,many years ago. n/t

[HBravo]

11. Agreed but

Haiti has many problems that the Bush clan was not responsible for and involved with. It goes much deeper than the Bush's. It goes to years and years of world wide involvement. Not just the US.

[Mimosa]

18. I've read it: an excellent book. n/t

[niyad]

14. he did a pretty good job on american democracy as well

[madrchsod]

15. bullshit.....

we can`t put all the blame bush for haiti`s decline into hell...

[struggle4progress]

17. The Haitians ended decades of dictatorship by booting out Bébé Doc, but the

first democratically elected president, Aristide, was removed by US-supported coups twice during the Bush presidencies. Both coups ushered in periods of widespread violence and gross human rights abuses. That sure sounds to me like the Bush gang has been unfriendly to democracy in Haiti