RachelMills (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} rachelmills) wrote,@ 2005-06-06 13:41:00 |
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Haiti - Killing with Kindness
Haiti is a favorite pet subject of mine largely because I spent 3 years of my adolescence there and have somewhat of a grasp of the culture and climate. It has changed a lot.
When I was there, it was pretty safe, at least at first. Poor, but safe. My mother and I could drive and walk in most areas of Port-au-Prince without fear of being robbed or kidnapped. Haitians were poor, but they were not starving. You never heard of Haitians starving.
Then Aristide rose to power on a message of class warfare and socialism. The message was equality. Much like you hear liberals with letters behind their names spouting today. In a country that is largely illiterate, the message you heard blaring on the radio was basically this - "We are going to be a nation of equals. If your neighbor has more than you, it is your right and duty to correct the situation, so you have an equal amount, for the good of the country."
This message went over like gangbusters. With the most dangerous and angry element of the Haitian populace.
Now there are 2 major problems in Haiti - 1) There is about 70% unemployment and 2) Violence and crime is out of control.
People started to get carjacked at gunpoint. Now they are being kidnapped for ransom. Not just wealthy banktellers, anymore, but also vegetable farmers by thugs asking a ransom of $30 - probably a month's sales. Now you hear of people starving. Its not worth even bothering to farm anymore. But not just because thugs might extort your earnings. In a 70% agrarian economy, we've dumped subsidized ultra cheap American rice on them as "aid" and forced small farmers into Port-au-Prince slums out of desperation. I'm sorry, but our economy is now 2% agrarian. Which means 98% of it is other opportunities for displaced farmers. But instead of inconveniencing them, we tax America, subsidize them and send their surpluses to Haiti, where when you put a Haitian farmer out of a job - they are F*%#ED. That kind of "aid" is not really aid.
But we do it all the time so we can feel better, much like the misguided efforts of Barbara Vogel, the much lauded school teacher who guilts her students into bringing in pennies to buy back slaves in the Sudan. Barbara, I think, qualifies for bulk discounts with Slave-Traders-R-Us. You should see the educator awards and glowing articles their best customer has here in the US. She makes everyone happy doesn't she?
Yet, the campaign to stop the violence in Haiti is directed at the flash and noise - the guns - without calming down and really understanding the root of the problem. The UN group MINUSTAH (Stabilization Mission in Haiti) is now providing voter registration and "economic incentives" (I've heard on NPR that means help setting up a business) for Haitians who turn in guns. Ah. Incentives for the good guys to be turned into sitting ducks - now with business profits - and the bad guys to steal more guns. Yes, there is too much violence in Haiti. Guns are clearly the problem. Even Colin Powell said - "Without disarmament, Haiti's democracy will be at risk," Kind of reminds me of when Hitler said "History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so." -Adolph Hitler 1938
This solution to violence is like trying to solve the smell problem of Cite Soleil, the largest slum in Haiti, right next to the port. I've ridden by it many times. Its about 5 acres of solid squalor, hundreds of people packed in, living in their own excrement and garbage, literally. You hold your breath as you drive by because the smell is incredible. Send in the same UN problem solvers, and they would see all the flies and rodents as a big problem, bug bomb the place, set rat traps and wonder why it still smells so bad.
It's like the bumper sticker I used to have - "Guns cause crime like flies cause garbage."
To fix Cite Soleil, you have to basically bulldoze, build a massive sewer and water system, and come up with a trash collection mechanism... and that's just so hard.
To fix Haiti, you have to unteach what Aristide taught them about property rights, you have to convince the Haitian people that all their problems can and need to be solved from within, because any outside help is perceived, rightly, with suspicion. No wonder - the rest of the world usually only makes things worse! Because we don't understand what we're doing by trying to take their guns in exchange for business help or citizenship, or accept international food aid. We're asking them to commit suicide by proxy so we can go on NPR and FEEEEEEL helpful.
Oh, it pisses me off.
We even do this on a smaller scale. I saw it all the time with church youth groups raising money all year to take a summer mission trip to a place like Haiti so the pampered Baptists-in-training could get their hands dirty digging a well or building a school for the Lord. What does Haiti have? A virtually endless supply of able-bodied unemployed people. What do we send them? Free labor. Haiti: "Wow. Thanks."
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?I
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.a
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=2
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Re
http://hir.harvard.edu/articles/951/2/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2
http://www.haiti-info.com/article.p
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.c
Haiti is a favorite pet subject of mine largely because I spent 3 years of my adolescence there and have somewhat of a grasp of the culture and climate. It has changed a lot.
When I was there, it was pretty safe, at least at first. Poor, but safe. My mother and I could drive and walk in most areas of Port-au-Prince without fear of being robbed or kidnapped. Haitians were poor, but they were not starving. You never heard of Haitians starving.
Then Aristide rose to power on a message of class warfare and socialism. The message was equality. Much like you hear liberals with letters behind their names spouting today. In a country that is largely illiterate, the message you heard blaring on the radio was basically this - "We are going to be a nation of equals. If your neighbor has more than you, it is your right and duty to correct the situation, so you have an equal amount, for the good of the country."
This message went over like gangbusters. With the most dangerous and angry element of the Haitian populace.
Now there are 2 major problems in Haiti - 1) There is about 70% unemployment and 2) Violence and crime is out of control.
People started to get carjacked at gunpoint. Now they are being kidnapped for ransom. Not just wealthy banktellers, anymore, but also vegetable farmers by thugs asking a ransom of $30 - probably a month's sales. Now you hear of people starving. Its not worth even bothering to farm anymore. But not just because thugs might extort your earnings. In a 70% agrarian economy, we've dumped subsidized ultra cheap American rice on them as "aid" and forced small farmers into Port-au-Prince slums out of desperation. I'm sorry, but our economy is now 2% agrarian. Which means 98% of it is other opportunities for displaced farmers. But instead of inconveniencing them, we tax America, subsidize them and send their surpluses to Haiti, where when you put a Haitian farmer out of a job - they are F*%#ED. That kind of "aid" is not really aid.
But we do it all the time so we can feel better, much like the misguided efforts of Barbara Vogel, the much lauded school teacher who guilts her students into bringing in pennies to buy back slaves in the Sudan. Barbara, I think, qualifies for bulk discounts with Slave-Traders-R-Us. You should see the educator awards and glowing articles their best customer has here in the US. She makes everyone happy doesn't she?
Yet, the campaign to stop the violence in Haiti is directed at the flash and noise - the guns - without calming down and really understanding the root of the problem. The UN group MINUSTAH (Stabilization Mission in Haiti) is now providing voter registration and "economic incentives" (I've heard on NPR that means help setting up a business) for Haitians who turn in guns. Ah. Incentives for the good guys to be turned into sitting ducks - now with business profits - and the bad guys to steal more guns. Yes, there is too much violence in Haiti. Guns are clearly the problem. Even Colin Powell said - "Without disarmament, Haiti's democracy will be at risk," Kind of reminds me of when Hitler said "History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so." -Adolph Hitler 1938
This solution to violence is like trying to solve the smell problem of Cite Soleil, the largest slum in Haiti, right next to the port. I've ridden by it many times. Its about 5 acres of solid squalor, hundreds of people packed in, living in their own excrement and garbage, literally. You hold your breath as you drive by because the smell is incredible. Send in the same UN problem solvers, and they would see all the flies and rodents as a big problem, bug bomb the place, set rat traps and wonder why it still smells so bad.
It's like the bumper sticker I used to have - "Guns cause crime like flies cause garbage."
To fix Cite Soleil, you have to basically bulldoze, build a massive sewer and water system, and come up with a trash collection mechanism... and that's just so hard.
To fix Haiti, you have to unteach what Aristide taught them about property rights, you have to convince the Haitian people that all their problems can and need to be solved from within, because any outside help is perceived, rightly, with suspicion. No wonder - the rest of the world usually only makes things worse! Because we don't understand what we're doing by trying to take their guns in exchange for business help or citizenship, or accept international food aid. We're asking them to commit suicide by proxy so we can go on NPR and FEEEEEEL helpful.
Oh, it pisses me off.
We even do this on a smaller scale. I saw it all the time with church youth groups raising money all year to take a summer mission trip to a place like Haiti so the pampered Baptists-in-training could get their hands dirty digging a well or building a school for the Lord. What does Haiti have? A virtually endless supply of able-bodied unemployed people. What do we send them? Free labor. Haiti: "Wow. Thanks."
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?I
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.a
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=2
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Re
http://hir.harvard.edu/articles/951/2/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2
http://www.haiti-info.com/article.p
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.c
