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Haiti, Raped by the US Since 2004, and Still Bleeding
The horrific squandering of Haitian lives and earthquake relief and aid dollars by the occupying powers over the past two years are direct consequences of previous imperial crimes. “Since 2004, Haiti has been methodically stripped of its sovereignty, made into a protectorate of the United Nations,” which is merely a front for the United States. “The earthquake of January 2010 was a natural phenomenon that happened to take place while a rape was in progress."
"In the American media," writes Ford, "Haiti is most often spoken of as a tragedy – when it is actually the scene of horrific crimes, mainly perpetrated by the United States over the span of two centuries." (Photo: BAR)
In the American media, Haiti is most often spoken of as a tragedy – when it is actually the scene of horrific crimes, mainly perpetrated by the United States over the span of two centuries. For the past two years, since the earthquake that shook the life out of hundreds of thousands of already deeply wounded people, the United States has flexed every superpower muscle to prolong Haiti’s agony.
Half a million people are still homeless, two years after the quake, despite the billions in relief and recovery aid pledged by international donors. Sixty percent of the rubble has yet to be removed from the capital and its suburbs, and 6,000 people have died from a cholera epidemic brought into the country by United Nations troops. The UN has still not seen fit to apologize for being the vector of disease, because the UN is not accountable to the people of Haiti – only to the United States. The Americans used a huge chunk of their so-called aid money to reimburse themselves for the cost of their military occupation of the country. Dead, dying, sick, starving, homeless Haitians are made to pay for their own imprisonment in their native land, while Washington gloats that it is Haiti’s last, best hope, and that the catastrophic earthquake might have been a good thing, a chance for a “new beginning” under Washington's firm guidance.
Millions were spent to choreograph crooked elections that brought to office a government with no power, even less money, and not a shred of dignity – a puppet regime held in absolute disrespect by its American puppeteers.
Meanwhile, Haiti’s most popular political party remains, for all official purposes, an outlaw, effectively banned from civic participation. The Haitian people are not allowed to speak. And this is the heart of the crime, from which all the grand and petty assaults on the Haitian nation, flow. This week’s anniversary of the killer earthquake is full of morbid statistics on physical destruction, death and disease, but the appalling numbers cannot separate these two years of horror from the crimes that came before: the isolation and armed extortion of Haiti by United States and Europe following her 1804 victory against French slavery, leaving the Black republic with a debt that was not paid off until the 1940s; the 26 separate invasions of Haiti by the United States from 1849 to 1915, followed by a nearly 20-year occupation that lasted until 1934; and the U.S. overthrow of Haiti's popularly elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, in 2004, the 200th anniversary of Haiti's independence. Since 2004, Haiti has been methodically stripped of its sovereignty, made into a protectorate of the United Nations, which is merely a front for the real rulers, the United States and its junior partners, France and Canada.
The earthquake of January 2010 was a natural phenomenon that happened to take place while a rape was in progress. The rapists in Washington take their greatest pleasure in Haiti's degradation. Haiti needs nothing from the United States, except to be left alone, as a free nation in the world, to make friends as it chooses. It is not natural disaster that holds her back, but naked U.S. aggression – because all people have the capacity to rise, unless they are held down by overwhelming force.
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12 Comments so far
Show AllJust since 2004? So the Duvalier period was... what?
Once again, thank you Glen Ford for truth. Power to the People.
and I second that.
"imperial crimes" coming to a city near you... Wake Up from complacent complicty
Listen to Democracy Now, today, Fri. 1/13/12, to learn that Haiti has been raped for 200 years, since the slaves had the nerve to revolt about being raped.
"Haiti needs nothing from the United States, except to be left alone, as a free nation in the world, to make friends as it chooses."
As a U.S. taxpayer, I couldn't agree more. Sending food, medicine, money, disaster relief never seems to do any good where it's really needed, and not just in Haiti either. However, I think that Haiti has been ruled by a string of thieves for a long time. 'Baby Doc' Duvalier took $13 billion to France when he left the country.
BTW, how come we never hear of problems in the Dominican Republic which occupies the other half of the island.
Demolition Derby: Slick way of trying to divert attention away from the facts the article relates, primarily in explaining how the U.S military used funds intended for repair to pay the troops to just sit around... or otherwise pay foreign proxies, with the result, the Cholera epidemic. The entire scenario screams 21st century, island version of "A Christmas Carol." I see you're another fan of Scrooge...
".... how come we never hear of problems in the Dominican Republic ..."
The slaves in the Dominican Republic did not overthrow their owners and take control of the country as the Haitian slaves did, so today the Dominican Republic is relatively prosperous and not as severely exploited.
Haiti has been intentionally crippled by France and the US because of its successful slave revolution. The capitalist imperialist bullies delight in holding the grudge for 200+ years and making an example of Haiti to other potentially revolutionary slaves.
I think you meant since 1804.
Beat me to it.
"In the American media, Haiti is most often spoken of as a tragedy – when it is actually the scene of horrific crimes, mainly perpetrated by the United States over the span of two centuries."
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Whether Ford or some anonymous copy editor wrote the headline, I hope the responsible party realizes that incorporating the phrase "since 2004" was a gratuitous and stupid mistake.
Ford clearly understands that the events of 2004 just marked another deplorable chapter in a long horror story. The misleading headline unnecessarily undermines and distracts from the actual message of the commentary.
Glen Ford -- BRAVO!
Despite a minor quibble about the lede to your piece and its reference to 2004, which seems too restrictive given Haiti's long and brutal history of seemingly endless battles with colonialism, extraction, exploitation, and dictatorship over the centuries to the present day, your fifth paragraph leaves no doubt about your grasp of the scale and scope of the tragedy that has befallen the brave and determined Hatian people...before the 2010 earthquake, during its immediate aftermath, and in the two subsequent years during which a natural disaster in an already hopelessly impoverished country has turned into a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.
Certainly, mention of the U.S. backed Duvalier family dictatorship (1957-1986), followed by the brutal U.S. backed National Governing Council of military generals (1986-1990), would have been welcome, as would more detail regarding the Herculean efforts by the Hatian people to elect a democratic civilian government headed by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who held office from February 1991 to September 1991; from October 1994 to February 1996; and from February 2001 to February 2004, when he was finally ousted from office and sent into exile by the Bush crime famiily. Hopefully, more work will be forthcoming from you on this important topic in future essays.
Such efforts by the Hatian people to elect a popular president of their choice have been consistently thwarted since 1991, by military coup, relentless destabilization by the C.I.A., and bold interventions by the United States under the Clinton, Bush, and Obama crime families, who claimed they were only there to help restore "stability" in the form of compliant, hand-picked, militia-backed puppets like former President René Préval and the current President Michel Martelly, a U.S. friendly right-wing stooge and former musician with a military background, who proposes to reinstate the Armed Forces of Haiti, which were disbanded by former president Aristide in 1995.
The United States, the United Nations, many of the self-serving NGOs and "orphanages" (adoption mills), and the hapless and feckless "International Community" have orchestrated a catastrophic failure to help the Hatian people in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, despite the tens of millions of dollars in donations received and the pledges of billions of dollars in aid that have yet to materialize.
Clearly, the one thing that Haiti doesn't need is another dose of neoliberal intervention (colonialization with a monetized face) imposed upon its people by the likes of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama crime families working in conjunction with the IMF and World Bank to rebuild that devastated country into one giant cheap-labor sweatshop for American multinational corporations.
Your final paragraph says it all: "Haiti needs nothing from the United States, except to be left alone, as a free nation in the world, to make friends as it chooses."
If only that inspiring vision of Hatian self-determination could become the reality.
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