payback

You may have heard that the Better Business Bureau is concerned that Wyclef Jean’s organization, Yele, has no experience with disaster relief.  I haven’t heard anyone say the donations have been misspent, but if you gave money to them you might want to look into it.  In the meantime, I wish equal attention was being paid to the way FRANCE handles its money—or, I should say, HAITI’s money.  Did you know that France extorted a fortune from Haiti soon after they fought for and won their independence?  Many thanks to Colleen for sharing this article—take a look if you want to know what’s at the root of Haiti’s extreme poverty…

Haiti’s chronic impoverishment began at its birth in 1804, when, having overthrown its French rulers in a bloody, 12-year slave revolt, the newborn nation was subjected to crippling blockades and embargoes. This economic strangulation continued until 1825, when France offered to lift embargoes and recognize the Haitian Republic if the latter would pay restitution to France—for loss of property in Haiti, including slaves—of 150 million gold francs. The sum, about five times Haiti’s export revenue for 1825, was brutal, but Haiti had no choice: Pay up or perish over many more years of economic embargo, not to mention face French threats of invasion and reconquest. To pay, Haiti borrowed money at usurious rates from France, and did not finish paying off its debt until 1947, by which time its fate as the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country had been well and truly sealed.