Haiti: 200 years of toil and pillaging
As our attention turns to Haiti with it's 100,000 - 500,000 dead, dying and injured, it's important to remember that Haiti has been the whipping boy of the Western world for some time. I have to think that Europeans have to shell to make up for some very tangible guilt we should be experiencing. Haiti is the poorest economy in the Americas. Its GDP is $790 USD per capita is; or $2 per person per day. In its history, Haiti has seen 32 coups. Political chaos is a constant. On more than one occasion US, French, German and British forces claimed large sums of money from the National Bank of Haiti. In 1915, Woodrow Wilson, sent in the marines to ensure that German and French forces wouldn't threaten nearby Panama Canal. The election in the Senate was overseen by US Marines, armed with fixed bayonets. Then the U.S. forced a treaty on Haiti's leader, Dartiguenave that would establish American control of customs houses. This allowed them to load up good and float them away. In...