Email
Print
SyndicateReflections on Haiti
By Robert Ringer - Wednesday, January 27, 2010
By Robert Ringer
Major earthquakes near heavily populated areas always produce destruction and mass casualties, but I’ve never seen anything quite like the carnage and suffering that Haiti has been experiencing. As I watch the aftermath of this tragedy, a number of thoughts go through my mind.
First is the question, “Why?” Why is the fallout from this earthquake so much more horrific than that seen in natural disasters in, say, the United States? How can such a cataclysm happen in the Western Hemisphere in the twenty-first century?
You can’t attribute it to the magnitude of the earthquake, which, though considerable, could have been much worse. Nor is the problem that Haiti is an island, separated from its nearest neighbors — with the exception of the Dominican Republic — by hundreds, or even thousands, of miles of ocean.
No, the real reason that the earthquake in Haiti has created such a nightmare of death and destruction is because it is such an impoverished country. And the reason it’s an impoverished country is the same reason that any country is poor: tyrannical government.
From François Duvalier (“Papa Doc”) to his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier (“Baby Doc”) to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president until 2004, to Haiti’s current president, René Préval, Haitians have been ruled in a dictatorial fashion that has made it all but impossible for the vast majority of citizens to achieve any semblance of financial success.
In simpler terms, Haiti’s rulers — euphemistically referred to as “presidents” in more recent times — have oppressed the majority of Haitian citizens (most of whom are descendants of African slaves) and lived opulently off of their labor. The result has been unimaginable poverty for the average Haitian, a government-induced poverty so overwhelming that it made it impossible for Haiti to withstand any kind of major natural disaster.
Wealth, on the other hand, is what makes it possible for people to build homes and buildings that have a good chance of surviving an earthquake. Wealth is what makes it possible for a society to have emergency food, water, earth-moving equipment, first responders, doctors, and more to keep the fallout from a natural disaster to a minimum. Wealth is what makes it possible for a society to have a power grid and other infrastructure that allows it to function, at least minimally, after a natural disaster.
In the midst of all the news stories about Haiti, I am concerned that the most important point is being lost on a compassionate public: Poverty is the real problem, and government is the real cause of poverty. It is a problem and a cause that haunts countries throughout the world that are vulnerable to devastating aftermaths from natural disasters.
A second thought that occurred to me about the earthquake in Haiti is the nightmarish question: What if the United States of America did not exist? Just imagine, no U.S. troops, no U.S. charitable donations, no U.S. reporters on the scene to tell the world what is happening. James Cameron (Avatar) could have a field day making a movie based on such an imaginary world.
In a world without America, one would have to assume that there would be millions — not hundreds of thousands — of corpses lying under the ruins of collapsed buildings in Haiti indefinitely, with millions more dying of malaria, starvation, dysentery, and other diseases. The island would be cut off from civilization, with only an occasional airplane from Venezuela, Brazil, or Cuba dropping sparse quantities of food and supplies via parachute.
Ever seen Life After People on The History Channel? How about life after America — which could very well be coming sometime during this century? Who would save the world as it faces one crisis after another? From Darfur to Sri Lanka … from Haiti to the Balkans, what would happen to a world without America? Read Mark Steyn’s America Alone and think about it.
Which brings me to my third thought about the Haitian disaster. In the coming years, as the U.S. pours billions of dollars into rebuilding a Haiti that was never built in the first place, as it provides aid and comfort to its citizens while other countries send gratuitous planeloads of food now and then, will the rest of the world continue to see the U.S. as an evil capitalist society (a society whose capitalist system is precisely what made it possible for it to save millions of Haitian lives!) or will it have a change of heart and come to view America with newfound respect and admiration?
More specifically, will future generations of Haitians themselves view the U.S. as the savior of their country or as an imperialistic devil? I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that question, but, like it or not, it will be forthcoming in the not-too-distant future.
_______________________________________
Liberty Education Interview Series
Please encourage your family, friends, and coworkers to listen to the Liberty Education Interview Series. Liberty needs all the support it can get right now.
_______________________________________
You have permission to reprint this article so long as you place the following wording at the end of the article:
Copyright © 2012 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.
To sign up for his one-of-a-kind, pro-liberty e-letter, A Voice of Sanity, Click Here.
Comment Policy: We encourage an open discussion with a wide range of viewpoints. Make your case passionately, but please keep your comments civil and to the point (150 words or less). Obscene, profane, abusive, or off-topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked.
If your comment does not appear, it is likely because it violates the above policy or contains links or language typical of spam. We reserve the right to remove comments at our discretion. Thanks for your participation.
11 Responses to “Reflections on Haiti”
Leave a Reply
1500 characters maximum.
So true.. In Norway there is a song about how we dreamt about america.. and then the “heaven” fell, and nothing falls as deep as a hero disowned..
Look at all the socialistic countries in Europe that were saved by the American soldiers, then rebuilt by American help, how they “dislike” America..
Haiti will be the same, they will resent that AMericancs have adopted their children, fed them and helped them
The world will continue to hate U.S. even if it is perfect. The power mongers hate her.
A logical person like you won’t understand.
Why would people hate Jesus and put Him on the cross?
But CIA and folks like them are everywhere in U.S. now, they are traitors.
Just a couple of items:
Haiti is so poor partly because they have historically refused any help from the “imperialist” U.S. because of their dictatorial leadership. Isn’t it interesting that so many of them have attempted over the years to float to Florida?
I find it fascinating the countries who are missing in the battle to get aid to Haiti; namely a couple of wealthy Middle East countries. It’s all part of the Muslim hatred for the West and it’s despicable.
As an observation, it seems to me the very best, most cost-effective thing we could do first for the Haitians is to build them a few roads. Hey, the heavy equipment is going to be there anyway. How many stories have we read and heard about the long, treacherous trip to an open seaport, or even to an airstrip in Dominican Republic? Get out the road graders, boys!
Thanks, Robert. Love your articles!
Interestingly enough, on the BBC news this evening, they mentioned that the income gap between rich and poor was least in Sweden – a heavily “socialist” state. The news article inferred that the populus was most contented there.
I think that when Governments are either a blatent kleptocracy, such as Haiti, or become parasitical and bureaucratic, as in most of europe and in the UK, as in most of Europe and USA, the wealth creation engines become stifled and a country’s ability to deal with natural disasters suffers because nobody will take any initiative.
Robert, you confuse “a helping hand” vs “a hand-out.” We, the USA, have given over $3 Billion to Haiti with out a single “thanks.” Well, not exactly: I’m sure Papa Doc and Baby Doc are appreciative, but the Haitians themselves don’t even know we did anything to help. This is the result of procreation without an ounce of responsibility for one’s actions. The buildings were built by the French. Where are they in this effort to “help?” We’re all sorry for the human suffering, but there IS a limit. I’m well past my limit of this crap.
Who is going to bail out and send aid to the U.S. when critical mass is reached in the national debt of easily over 12 trillion dollars? It’s much higher if real world accounting is used.
The United States is insolvent on a massive scale.
Can we continue to afford to be the self appointed saviors of the entire world and all the world’s ongoing conflicts and natural disasters?
In the long term picture, the answer is no, and the long term picture is not even that long term at this point.
As the population of the planet grows, so will the death tolls from natural disasters of this nature.
Compassion is a wonderfully humane emotion to exhibit, however it’s difficult to be compassionate when there is a never ending need for that compassion worldwide and we’ve already “compassioned” ourselves into our own pending massive man made economic disaster of epic proportions from the legislative compassion forcing millions of Americans to pay living expenses for their fellow Americans and then all the international compassion the United States has engaged in since we became the world’s “go to guy” in a crisis.
A nation has to survive itself and be truly prosperous FIRST ,in order to be generous.
Another good case for a nation building enough wealth to become self-sufficient is that, in times of crisis, it can take care of itself. I mean, which nations aided us as we reconstucted our South after the Civil War. Which nations aided us after Pearl Harbor or 9/11? Of course, as the most powerful industrial machine in the world we always finance our own reconstruction programs.
Interestingly, we bombed parts of Europe off the map, in WW2, then, apologetically, funded the reconstruction. That is insanity, and that goes for our bailing out of our French “allies,” who are better at hypocritically resenting us, than anything they exchange for our help. Why the hell do we have to reconstruct, with taxpayer dollars, the devastation our enemies brought upon themselves in their effort to devastate us? Oh well, democracy at work at home and on an international scale is a big joke on people not pulling strings (other people’s purse strings) in The Beltway.
I would like to add that according to The United Nations Children’s Fund, approximately 25,000 children under the age of five die every
day from poverty related issues. The man made global-lack of basic food, water, shelter, clothing, medical supplies, and hygienic knowledge allow the Grim Reaper to never have to worry about standing
in the unemployment line.
Frankly, the numbers in Haiti are insignificant when compared to the global death toll. Haiti has been hyped in order increase news ratings, charitable contributions, feel-goodism and to help the
government take the people’s minds off the very significant man made catastrophe that is just ahead. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the man made natural disaster called hyperinflation that’s
caused by socialism and corrupt banking…….that’s what.
Listen! I hear a warning of what is ahead from a voice of long ago: “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties
than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the
banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to
whom it properly belongs.” …….. Thomas Jefferson
The people have failed to heed the above warning. The people have followed the bleeding-heart-do-gooders in their global crusades to spread socialism. Meanwhile, back in America, the oligarchy & banks have become “more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”
Mr. Grim Reaper is going to have a field day when the cost of the basic necessities sky rocket due to hyperinflation. And I’ve news for you: America will be part of the reaping………I remember during
Jimmy Carter’s term as president how some old people were surviving on canned cat food. Do you think that’s bad? Well, that’s nothing when compared to what I expect to see when the system collapses right on top of the heads of all the ignorant baby-boomers—– whom think that they can retire at 65—-cough— and live to 95 on their life savings.
My advice, forget Haiti and let the dead bury their dead. Start worrying about the future of America. And if you think my opinion jaded, then you’re right. The facts have jaded me, and reality, not
idealism, is what I base my opinions on. Do you want to save millions of lives? Then save America first.
The people of Haiti, like many nations and peoples, have chosen to live on their knees before corrupt leadership. People reap what they sow. I say, it’s better to die on your feet, than live on your knees. I agree with George Washington. Who do you agree with?
Dear Mr. Ringer,
I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.
Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti’s independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.
The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.
The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.
In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. The founding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.
The water was poisoned in the well; the Americans went back to the battlefield a century later to resolve the fact that slavery and freedom could not comfortably co-exist in the same place.
The French, also, declared freedom, fraternity and equality as the new philosophies of their national transformation and gave the modern world a tremendous progressive boost by so doing.
They abolished slavery, but Napoleon Bonaparte could not imagine the republic without slavery and targeted the Haitians for a new, more intense regime of slavery. The British agreed, as did the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.
All were linked in communion over the 500 000 Blacks in Haiti, the most populous and prosperous Caribbean colony.
As the jewel of the Caribbean, they all wanted to get their hands on it. With a massive slave base, the English, French and Dutch salivated over owning it – and the people.
The people won a ten-year war, the bloodiest in modern history, and declared their independence. Every other country in the Americas was based on slavery.
Haiti was freedom, and proceeded to place in its 1805 Independence Constitution that any person of African descent who arrived on its shores would be declared free, and a citizen of the republic.
For the first time since slavery had commenced, Blacks were the subjects of mass freedom and citizenship in a nation.
The French refused to recognise Haiti’s independence and declared it an illegal pariah state. The Americans, whom the Haitians looked to in solidarity as their mentor in independence, refused to recognise them, and offered solidarity instead to the French. The British, who were negotiating with the French to obtain the ownership title to Haiti, also moved in solidarity, as did every other nation-state the Western world.
Haiti was isolated at birth – ostracised and denied access to world trade, finance, and institutional development. It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history.
The Cubans, at least, have had Russia, China, and Vietnam. The Haitians were alone from inception. The crumbling began.
Then came 1825; the moment of full truth. The republic is celebrating its 21st anniversary. There is national euphoria in the streets of Port-au-Prince.
The economy is bankrupt; the political leadership isolated. The cabinet took the decision that the state of affairs could not continue.
The country had to find a way to be inserted back into the world economy. The French government was invited to a summit.
Officials arrived and told the Haitian government that they were willing to recognise the country as a sovereign nation but it would have to pay compensation and reparation in exchange. The Haitians, with backs to the wall, agreed to pay the French.
The French government sent a team of accountants and actuaries into Haiti in order to place a value on all lands, all physical assets, the 500 000 citizens were who formerly enslaved, animals, and all other commercial properties and services.
The sums amounted to 150 million gold francs. Haiti was told to pay this reparation to France in return for national recognition.
The Haitian government agreed; payments began immediately. Members of the Cabinet were also valued because they had been enslaved people before independence.
Thus began the systematic destruction of the Republic of Haiti. The French government bled the nation and rendered it a failed state. It was a merciless exploitation that was designed and guaranteed to collapse the Haitian economy and society.
Haiti was forced to pay this sum until 1922 when the last instalment was made. During the long 19th century, the payment to France amounted to up to 70 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
Jamaica today pays up to 70 per cent in order to service its international and domestic debt. Haiti was crushed by this debt payment. It descended into financial and social chaos.
The republic did not stand a chance. France was enriched and it took pleasure from the fact that having been defeated by Haitians on the battlefield, it had won on the field of finance. In the years when the coffee crops failed, or the sugar yield was down, the Haitian government borrowed on the French money market at double the going interest rate in order to repay the French government.
When the Americans invaded the country in the early 20th century, one of the reasons offered was to assist the French in collecting its reparations.
The collapse of the Haitian nation resides at the feet of France and America, especially. These two nations betrayed, failed, and destroyed the dream that was Haiti; crushed to dust in an effort to destroy the flower of freedom and the seed of justice.
Haiti did not fail. It was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have a primary interest in its current condition.
The sudden quake has come in the aftermath of summers of hate. In many ways the quake has been less destructive than the hate.
Human life was snuffed out by the quake, while the hate has been a long and inhumane suffocation – a crime against humanity.
During the 2001 UN Conference on Race in Durban, South Africa, strong representation was made to the French government to repay the 150 million francs.
The value of this amount was estimated by financial actuaries as US$21 billion. This sum of capital could rebuild Haiti and place it in a position to re-engage the modern world. It was illegally extracted from the Haitian people and should be repaid.
It is stolen wealth. In so doing, France could discharge its moral obligation to the Haitian people.
For a nation that prides itself in the celebration of modern diplomacy, France, in order to exist with the moral authority of this diplomacy in this post-modern world, should do the just and legal thing.
Such an act at the outset of this century would open the door for a sophisticated interface of past and present, and set the Haitian nation free at last.
God bless America for everything she has done to help Haiti and other people in need. May she continue to have the wherewithal to do so.
How could you discuss the disaster relief in Haiti without even “mentioning” Israel!?!?!? And I thought you were the voice of Sanity??? Well just in case you have not been following the news, here is the latest.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135746
IDF Haiti Delegation Heads Home, with One More Heart to Mend
by Gil Ronen
Follow Israel news on and .
(IsraelNN.com) The IDF’s aid delegation to Haiti concluded its operations Wednesday and is heading home. The delegation, which includes 218 soldiers and 18 civilians, was scheduled to climb on board a plane and fly to Israel Wednesday night. Headed by Brig.-Gen. Shalom Ben-Aryeh, the delegation will take off from Port-au-Prince on a plane chartered by the IDF from El Al and fly directly to Israel.
The plane will land at Ben Gurion Airport at about 8:30 AM. Shortly afterward, at about 9:30, the delegation will be received in a military ceremony, with the participation of senior political and military figures.
A five year old boy from Haiti will be on board as well. The delegation decided to bring him to Israel so that he can undergo heart surgery for a congenital defect.
In order to assist in the efforts to care for survivors, the IDF left behind 30 tons of medical supplies, including bandaging materials, surgical kits, two incubators, community medicine equipment, and large quantities of food and water. In addition it is distributing 1,150 blankets, 30 large tents, 500 mattresses, 200 sleeping bags and kitchen equipment. These supplies will be transferred to the tent cities throughout the country.
The Israeli delegation received more than 1,110 patients while in Haiti. It carried out 319 operations and 16 births, three of them in Caesarean sections. In addition, rescue crews from the Home Front Command carried out rescues from the rubble of the quake.
The country of Haiti and it’s status as a 3rd world country has been virtually ignored by everyone including the U.S. despite it’s close proximity. What to do? Aid is good, tents are good but only for the short term. How does this impoverished country pick itself up from it present situation and move forward with hope and a future? The UN had a presence as an international organization is it too much to ask the UN to really help this country with long term sustainable help in establishing the basic needs of a country. With no industry of note, except for sugar cane, garments there is no income from exports to construct the basics of a city or a country. It is in 3 words “A basket case.” A revitalization plan is required to address the very basic fundamentals of building a country not even addressing, education, health systems local and central responsible governments. A trillion $$ over the next 25 years, no doubt, that equates to a lot of sugar cane, garments. But to do the right thing, that is what it will take, unless another earthquake of equal or higher magnitude occurs and the whole island dissappears. In the interim the G20 has to step up to the plate and just do it!