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Haiti Wants 22 Billion From France.

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  • Haiti Wants 22 Billion From France.

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    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - It's hard to listen to Haitian radio or watch Haitian television these days without hearing the uplifting government public service announcement song that goes: "We demand reparations, restitution. France, pay me my money, $21,685,135,571.48."

    The television images show people in African clothing dancing and working in fields, the Eiffel Tower, infrastructure such as a dam and buildings and stacks of dollar bills.

    Haiti is making serious efforts to get France to pay restitution of nearly $22 billion, according to Haitian Foreign Minister Joseph Antonio.

    France colonized the Caribbean nation in the 17th century and imported African slaves to work the sugar cane and coffee plantations. The slaves rebelled, killing or driving out their French rulers, and Haiti declared independence in 1804.

    France demanded 150 million francs, worth about $28.3 million today, as compensation for the loss of its colony and the Haitian government paid 90 million of that, enough to plunge the country deeply into debt for decades.

    "It was not enough to have taken up arms in the struggle for independence," wrote Haitian novelist Jean Metellus in a historical essay. "It had to be paid for, too, and it's cost was high."

    In April, President Jean-Bertrand demanded that France pay restitution, specifying the above sum, which takes into account inflation and interest.

    After first refusing to discuss the matter, French President Jacques Chirac finally appointed Regis Debray, a left-wing intellectual, to head a commission to investigate the possibility of restitution.

    With an invitation from the French Institute of Haiti, Debray held a conference in Port-au-Prince last month in which he made no promises about restitution but convinced attendants that France is seriously considering the matter.

    ALL BUT THE 48 CENTS

    Aristide held a three-day international colloquium in October to discuss the matter. It overlapped with the anniversary of Aristide's 1994 return to Haiti under U.S. military protection, which came three years after a coup drove him out.

    "If on October 15, 1994, the impossible became possible, when it comes to restitution, the impossible will be possible," Aristide said.

    The colloquium featured artistic entertainment, including a Haitian rapper chanting in Creole slang, "Lafrans kale m lamama m," or "France, give me my money."

    Some critics believe the money, if paid, would go to waste in a government they view as corrupt. The running joke is that France agreed to pay the entire sum except for the 48 cents, to which Aristide replied, "But then what will be left for the people?"

    Others say the government's approach will fail to persuade France, or that the discussion itself will hurt relations between the two countries.

    But many are hopeful about the prospective cash flow, while recognizing the process could take years and the sum could be altered.

    "I'm optimistic because it's a just fight," said Joseph Antonio. "When the fight is just, you always end up winning ... When is another question."

    'MEAN OLD COLONIST'

    Evans Paul, head of the opposition Convention for Democratic Unity party, agreed it is a just cause but doesn't think it can be won. He called the president's public and confrontational approach to the issue "political propaganda."

    Paul said Aristide "gives the impression that France is a mean old colonist," something he doesn't expect France to respond well to. Paul advocates working with France to find the right moment and conditions for restitution.

    "Mr. Paul is not the only one to think that way," said government spokesman Mario Dupuy. "There are some people who think (the president) should do this in private, above the population, which is to say behind the back of the population. But the president has adopted a transparent and public path with the population because ... demanding restitution is for the population."

    But some feel that the entire process is a mistake. When Lionel Etienne, a Haitian who heads the French-Haitian Chamber of Commerce heard about the government's plans to demand restitution, he said, "It was like finding a hair in my soup."

    Etienne believes that further developing diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries is far more productive than demanding money.

    "France is our port of entry into Europe, and I think it's a shame to put in question our relationship with France" by reducing it to a demand for restitution, he said. "It's a combative undertaking."

    Indeed, as the country prepares for the January bicentennial of its victory over France in the battle for independence, the political language, especially in reference to restitution, is full of bellicose terms -- "combat," "fight," "struggle" and "battle."

    The demand for restitution may turn out to be the ultimate revolutionary war re-enactment in Haiti.
    What do you think? Is it a good idea to give money to them if they can't get their corruption under control. Or does it even matter..
    Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, Chief. We are evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. I'm surprised you didn't know that. --Saul Tigh

  • #2
    well they'll stay corrupt and out of control until they get some money so we got a bit of a catch 22 going on.

    but france should pay make what they forced the haitians to pay back in the day after the revolution. it's said that if france didn't demand those indemnities then haiti would be a far better place to live today.
    "Flutie was better than Kelly, Elway, Esiason and Cunningham." - Ben Kenobi
    "I have nothing against Wilson, but he's nowhere near the same calibre of QB as Flutie. Flutie threw for 5k+ yards in the CFL." -Ben Kenobi

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    • #3
      or it could have ended up like cuba.
      B♭3

      Comment


      • #4
        or it could have ended up like cuba.


        Cuba is the greatest place to live on Earth, isn't it? Our loveable Poly leftists couldn't be full of ****, could they?
        KH FOR OWNER!
        ASHER FOR CEO!!
        GUYNEMER FOR OT MOD!!!

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        • #5
          who knows how haiti would have ended up if france hadn't done what it did?

          sure, we could have a great caribbean country, or we could have had one that was much worse.

          flip a coin, and there's your ANSWAARRRSSS
          B♭3

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          • #6
            Won't happen. If they did every other French former colony would make their pitch and France would go broke.
            I'm consitently stupid- Japher
            I think that opinion in the United States is decidedly different from the rest of the world because we have a free press -- by free, I mean a virgorously presented right wing point of view on the air and available to all.- Ned

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            • #7
              I don't think other French colonies were forced to pay or their independence. I don't know why Haiti didn't tell France to stuff it. It's not like Nappy didn't have his hands full at the time.
              Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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              • #8
                Why did Haiti pay? That's kinda silly. We kicked you out, now we have to pay for kicking you out? Wha?
                “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
                - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

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                • #9
                  I guess you don't want to piss off the most powerful country in the world, even if the British Navy stands between you and them.
                  Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    So what? Other countries didn't pay. UNLESS, it was part of a peace agreement, it was bunk and they shouldn't have done it. The US didn't pay for Britain's 'loss of colony' aside from any costs in the peace treaty, and they were the most powerful country in the world at that time.
                    “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
                    - John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Somehow I supsect they would be in better shape if Haiti were to rejoin France.
                      "I'm moving to the Left" - Lancer

                      "I imagine the neighbors on your right are estatic." - Slowwhand

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                      • #12
                        let's just agree they had a lousy negotiator on the haitian side.
                        B♭3

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                        • #13
                          Why did Haiti pay? That's kinda silly. We kicked you out, now we have to pay for kicking you out? Wha?
                          There was a growing country to its North that didn't look all that favorably at a state run by freed slaves. It was an extra measure of guarantee. After all, Jefferson even invited Nappy to retake Haiti.
                          "Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. "
                          -Bokonon

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                          • #14
                            if i were france i'd tell them to put it in their pipes and smoke it.
                            "Mal nommer les choses, c'est accroître le malheur du monde" - Camus (thanks Davout)

                            "I thought you must be dead ..." he said simply. "So did I for a while," said Ford, "and then I decided I was a lemon for a couple of weeks. A kept myself amused all that time jumping in and out of a gin and tonic."

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by chegitz guevara
                              I guess you don't want to piss off the most powerful country in the world, even if the British Navy stands between you and them.
                              I think perhaps that the brutal slaughtering of all the French on the island had pissed them off anyway.

                              But they obviously paid to avoid pissing them off further, to establish somewhat normal relations with France and what Ramo said.
                              CSPA

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