Dear President Obama,The people of Haiti were the victims of a crime that began over a century ago and that killed far more people than were lost in the devastating earthquake of January 12th 2010. Decades of intervention, sabotage and destabilization created a Haitian Holocaust. To a large extent the perpetrator of that holocaust was our own great nation.
The War in Afghanistan costs this country over $133 Million per day. The American taxpayers have given the nation of Israel over $22 Billion in the past decade alone. This country can find money for wars. The undersigned are asking you to do the right thing and find money for reparations and healing.
We are asking you to use your influence, moral authority and presidential power to secure $1 Billion in direct aid for the development of the Republic of Haiti.
Kindest Regards,
The undersigned
38 comments:
Sincerely,
StylisticMF
Good stuff. Keep it up.
Help me, Denmark. I'm slow.
If $100 million is an amount worth spitting on... why is $1 billion an amount worth demanding? What can be done with $1 billion?
"What can be done with $1 billion?" UBM
1/22nd of what Israel did with their direct aid.
^ DV, the cutesiness of your reply exposes the shallowness of your thinking.
Haiti will never be Israel, no matter how many handouts (or "reparations") Haiti receives. In your heart, Denmark, you know this.
Haiti will never be Israel because Haiti is a semi-literate society, which indicates that it lacks a deeply ingrained culture of learning.
What can a nation be without a deeply ingrained culture of learning? It can be what Haiti has been... and what you evidently wish it to remain: The Panhandler of Nations.
AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
fully exposed kneegrow skrate relentless in your clumsy attempts at cognitive infiltration.
"culture of learning"?
"Panhandler of Nations"?
rotflmbao.
octaroon please....,
What kind of ignorant, ahistorical head-full-of-mush is required to buy-in to silly-assed claptrap like that?
Do you actually believe the silly shit you wrote, or, are you making a lame-assed attempt at playing DV's World of Memecraft?
There's trouble right here in the USofA. If you were gonna spend a Bill$ to repair a disaster, Detroit would be a better place...
Nulan... ain't nobody contradicted me yet.
Muhfuggahs be steady stuttering and stammering when confronted with hard truths.
As much as it pains me to say it,
Big Don is truth!!!
{not to mention the fact that in the longterm, Detroit's proximity to that fresh water North American inland sea GUARANTEES its eventual return to prominence}
Muhfuggahs be steady stuttering and stammering when confronted with hard truths.
yet another priceless moment in unintended self-disclosure....,
What can a nation be without a deeply ingrained culture of learning? It can be what Haiti has been... and what you evidently wish it to remain: The Panhandler of Nations.
Too harsh, huh?
Let me quote from the website of Haiti Lumiere de Demain, a charity founded by Haitian émigré Louisner Elneus:
"Illiteracy and the lack of educational opportunities only add to the tolerance for widespread political corruption and maintain an increased culture of dependency that hinders development.
"The current conditions in Haiti will only guarantee the continuation of political turmoil and economic stagnation that have plagued the country over the past 200 years.
"Without direct efforts to raise the literacy levels of Haiti, Haitians will not be able to contribute to the rebuilding of their own country or the development of their region.
"In order to break this unending cycle of abject poverty in Haiti, Haitians must currently rely on the international donor community and Haitians living abroad to help their country overcome its education and literacy crisis.
"Investment in education is fundamental for economic and social development, poverty alleviation and the end of political corruption.
"Education will allow a new generation of Haitians to think for themselves and become positive contributing members within their communities.
"In all democratic societies, education remains the catalyst that drives and sustains both political reform and economic development."
There's trouble right here in the USofA. If you were gonna spend a Bill$ to repair a disaster, Detroit would be a better place...
Big Don
As much as it pains me to say it,
Big Don is truth!!!
CNu
I would be careful of that. I hear much the same from white middle-age doctors when they talk about the profession's reliance on foreign medical school graduates. But in the past when professional schools and universities expanded entries for Black Americans they were quickly attacked for doing so by the same people.
The same goes for policies designed to improve conditions of cities and urban America. Such legislation is never supported by right wing populists as a worthy goal. (See Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.) They have no interest in redirecting efforts toward the improvement of Detroit, Newark, DC, Chicago, or even New Orleans.
Do you really believe that Big Don and his type would support a relief plan directed at Detroit? I don't.
David Mills you disappoint me. The arguments you recount here are the very ones employed against the denizens you valorized in The Wire. I can resolve the disconnect only by thinking that you must negatively value the ideas that you supplied in your role as a writer but did so out of rational self-interest.
First let me say that $100 million toward relief efforts in Haiti is a serious contibution and the attention and response of the United States government and its citizens is encouraging. More money sounds nice but would have declining marginal utility and only encourage corruption on both sides the way it has in Iraq and Afghanistan.
To refer to Haiti as the "Panhandler of Nations" when the United States owes the largest sovereign debt in history reveals a severe form of hemianopsia. The debt burden of the United States has in fact fostered a politic of cultural despair which rivals and may yet exceed 1920s Germany.
In both urban and rural America we see copious examples of "semi-literate society" and "without a deeply ingrained culture of learning." Robert Johnson and Rupert Murdoch became rich by building entire networks devoted to these people and Sara Palin is their avatar.
Sub, let me make my apology in advance of speaking bluntly - because you're one of the last people in the world I would ever either intentionally or unintentionally offend.
While the situation in Haiti is indisputably tragic and understandably personal to you, I have have no connection to it whatsoever, none, zero, zip, zilch, nada.
OTOH - not only do I have friends and family in the Detroit area, what happens in the Great Lakes region has considerable short and longterm consequence for the community in which I work and reside.
Big Don in Seattle is damn near as far removed from me as a Haitian, so I'm hardly confederating my interests with his either - though - were I to be brutally candid about it - Boeing in Seattle and in Wichita KS. - give us more in common than anything happening in Haiti, as well.
To refer to Haiti as the "Panhandler of Nations" when the United States owes the largest sovereign debt in history reveals a severe form of hemianopsia.
Thank you for the word of the day, Submariner. But come on now... the difference between a "panhandler" and a bank borrower is so vast as to render your argument meaningless.
Other nations lend money to Sam because they know Sam is gonna pay it back. At interest.
Nations that give money to Haiti (and none has provided more foreign aid than the United States) know they'll get nothing in return. Not even a more functional Haiti.
No offense taken my friend. I can understand that you don't have a personal or sentimental attachment to Haiti. But it should be a concern for you if only because Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, and, sadly, David Mills use it to advance a racist narrative. Plus the American government's response sets a standard for moral and ethical behavior in the domestic setting. And it helps develop our capacities to respond effectively to the next calamity to strike within our nation's borders.
CNu,
Apologies to you first.
"While the situation in Haiti is indisputably tragic and understandably personal to you, I have have no connection to it whatsoever, none, zero, zip, zilch, nada" CNu
I think that is our problem as human beings. We don't care unless it is our "own" who are suffering. That's why with 3 million Haitians affected by this a disproportionate amount of media coverage is on Americans (excuse me...white Americans) missing, dead, or injured.
In my professional and personal life I live by this quote:
“One doesn’t ask of one who suffers: what is your country and what is your religion? One merely says you suffer, this is enough for me, you belong to me and I shall help you” Louis Pasteur-On a statue in front of the old Cook County Hospital, Chicago, IL.
I passed this statue almost everyday on the way to medical school.
Everything else is just talk.
I can resolve the disconnect only by thinking that you must negatively value the ideas that you supplied in your role as a writer but did so out of rational self-interest.
Submariner, I contributed minorly to "The Wire" a freelancer, a writer-for-hire. I was in no way an architect of its politics.
Matter of fact, you can read a 2007 conversation between "Wire" creator David Simon and myself concerning the left-wing ideology behind the show.
So... indeed, I believe the black residents of West Baltimore are as responsible for their own futures as the citizens of Haiti.
Education. Law-abidingness. Work. The formula for a better tomorrow no matter where you live on this earth.
I can resolve the disconnect only by thinking that you must negatively value the ideas that you supplied in your role as a writer but did so out of rational self-interest.
Submariner, I contributed minorly to "The Wire" as a freelancer... a writer-for-hire. I was in no way an architect of its politics, or a signatory to them.
Matter of fact, you can read a 2007 conversation between "Wire" creator David Simon and myself concerning the left-wing ideology of the show.
So... yes indeed, I believe the black residents of Baltimore are as responsible for their own futures as the citizens of Haiti.
Education. Law-abidingness. Work. The formula for a better tomorrow... no matter where you live on this earth.
Without a culture of learning, you get a culture of poverty... and thus a culture of dependancy, of psychological and political weakness. Be it Detroit or Port-au-Prince.
Wonderful Denmark Vesey. Absolutely wonderful. Brilliant.
I sign.
Denmark Vesey:
As a BLACK MAN and an American - after reading your letter let me say "Kiss My Black Ass!!!".
You project WEAKNESS as STRENGTH as it relates to Haiti.
You attempt to make the case that the balance of what ales Haiti took place in Washington and Paris instead of Cape Haitian and other places WITHIN the nation.
How about this Denmark Vesey and fellow lackeys - DELIVER $1 BILLION WORTH OF GOLD to the shores of HAITI and then form a NAVAL BLOCKADE so that no transport of goods or human beings would take place IN OR OUT!!!
Denmark Vesey - you will then see that this presence of GOLD would be of value AS IF you were carrying the same load across the Sahara Desert.
After 30 miles of egress into this desert you would quickly DROP THIS BURDENSOME LOAD OF GOLD as you struggled to find what is otherwise in abundance and FREE - CLEAN DRINKING WATER!!!!
I like you DV BUT you are at times a RADICAL FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN BEING RADICAL!!!
The WORST thing that could ever happen to Haiti is for it to be LEFT THE HELL ALONE and for the masses to figure it out on their own.
IN AS MUCH AS Haiti is a DEPENDENT - you need to not pretend that this is anything OTHERWISE.
How about building up some ORGANIC strength and balance so that the same situation in the year 2210 won't be so devastating?
Haiti will never be Israel, no matter how many handouts (or "reparations") Haiti receives. -- Fully Exposed Negro
Haiti will never be Israel—we certainly hope that is true.
Since you raised the comparison, what would Israel be without its annual welfare check from the United States? Per the Congressional Research Service, since 1949 Israel has received over $106 billion in foreign aid.
[During Fiscal Year 2009, the U.S. is providing Israel with at least $7.0 million per day in military aid.] – If Americans Knew
[Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. From 1976-2004, Israel was the largest annual recipient of U.S. foreign assistance, having been supplanted by Iraq. Since 1985, the United States has provided nearly $3 billion in grants
annually to Israel.
In August 2007, the Bush Administration announced that it would increase U.S. military
assistance to Israel by $6 billion over the next decade. The agreement calls for incremental annual increases in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to Israel, reaching $3 billion a year by FY2012.
For FY2010, the Obama Administration requested $2.775 billion in FMF to Israel.]-- CRS
What Haiti needs is a reinfusion of the spirit of Boukman Dutty, Toussaint L’Ouverture, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines and a second Haitian Revolution. There is no better time to start this process than right now. The Cuban model begs to be emulated.
What Haiti needs is a reinfusion of the spirit of Boukman Dutty, Toussaint L’Ouverture, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines and a second Haitian Revolution.
Because the first one worked out so well?
As has been pointed out elsewhere on this blog, Makheru, the "Cuban model" would be difficult to emulate without massive infusions of capital from the Soviet Union. Because the Soviet Union don't exist no more.
Some of these comments are mind blowing. Not in an educational since but a "Martin Luther King Jr. from Bizarro World" since.
But it should be a concern for you if only because Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, and, sadly, David Mills use it to advance a racist narrative.
I feel you mang.
I believe the term of art back in the day was *responsible negro*.
One wonders at how much damage has been inflicted on the Black body politic by *responsible negro* infiltration and exploitation?
I think that is our problem as human beings. We don't care unless it is our "own" who are suffering.
Doc,
The writing on the wall (collapse) is in letters 15 feet high.
Local creation of a robust trust subsystems MUST BE political/interpersonal job one.
everything else is merely conversation...,
[quote]What Haiti needs is a reinfusion of the spirit of Boukman Dutty, Toussaint L’Ouverture, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines and a second Haitian Revolution.[/quote]
MB - clearly you are yet another member of the PERMANENT OPPOSITION.
Let me ask you MB - in modern day Haiti - WHO would Boukman Dutty BE FIGHTING AGAINST that is resident upon their isle?
Might it be the EXPANDED FORCE of "resources" that have come to LIFT THE CEMENT SLABS OFF OF THEM?
The truth is that Haiti serves as a microcosm of my criticism of the "Racism Chasers" in America!!!
It is absolutely correct to be a REBEL when you are confined into a SYSTEM that is trampling upon you.
WHEN YOU TAKE CONTROL OVER THE INSTITUTIONS - the former REBEL must become the EXECUTIVE - fielding a new SYSTEM that allows him to achieve his PERMANENT INTERESTS and INCULCATING this knowledge into the progeny so that it will endure to the next generation.
Makheru, the "Cuban model" would be difficult to emulate without massive infusions of capital from the Soviet Union. – FEN or FEK
Come on dood, you don’t believe that these "inferior human beings" could accomplish anything if they had today’s values of all of the gold Mansa Musa gave away.
[quote]Come on dood, you don’t believe that these "inferior human beings" could accomplish anything if they had today’s values of all of the gold Mansa Musa gave away.[/quote]
The most OVERUSED "Hegelian Head Fake" is the one in which the MORAL OUTRAGE is placed upon the person who the HEAD FAKER is "offended by" the questions of BLACK PEOPLE'S CAPABILITIES.......instead of focusing on CONSTRUCTING THE SYSTEMS BY WHICH THIS CAN ACTUALLY BE ACCOMPLISHED!!!!
I have little doubt that if the "Massa figures" of TO-DAMNED-DAY cut off Haiti from their charity to FORCE THEM to act Organically that MB would be the FIRST one to PROTEST this policy asking the imperialist "Do you want these Black people to DIE?"
Head fake INDEED!!!
Some of you encapsulate your doubts into a FALSE FRONT of strength as shown by your genuflection.
I have little doubt that... MB would be the FIRST one to PROTEST this policy asking the imperialist "Do you want these Black people to DIE?"—Feedback
Dood, I’ll be perfectly honest. Half of what you write is damn-near incoherent. My protest is continuous.
Imperial oligarchs and plutocrats create conditions (Haiti/New Orleans) under which maximum cataclysmic death is probable; then want people to believe that they are great humanitarians when they rush in some aid.
Of course they want these Black people to die. They’ve ensured their continuous death for over 200 years. They hate like hell when catastrophe’s force them to help people they despise in order to maintain their façade of humanity.
[Haitian Prime Minister Jean Max-Berllerive said that one of the reasons for the high number of fatalities caused by the January 12 earthquake is the serious degree of poverty, which forces many families to live in precarious housing and extremely crowded conditions.] – Granma
So why are Haitian masses so poor, although the country supposedly has more millionaires per capita than any nation in the Caribbean?
[The story begins in 1910, when a U.S. State Department-National City Bank of New York (now called Citibank) consortium bought the Banque National d'Haïti--Haiti's only commercial bank and its national treasury--in effect transferring Haiti's debts to the Americans. Five years later, President Woodrow Wilson ordered troops to occupy the country in order to keep tabs on "our" investment.
From 1915 to 1934, the U.S. Marines imposed harsh military occupation, murdered Haitians patriots and diverted 40 percent of Haiti's gross domestic product to U.S. bankers. Haitians were banned from government jobs. Ambitious Haitians were shunted into the puppet military, setting the stage for a half-century of U.S.-backed military dictatorship.
The U.S. kept control of Haiti's finances until 1947.
Still--why should Haitians complain? Sure, we stole 40 percent of Haiti's national wealth for 32 years. But we let them keep 60 percent.] -- Ted Rall
[Since the late 1970s, relentless neoliberal assault on Haiti's agrarian economy has forced tens of thousands of small farmers into overcrowded urban slums.] -- Peter Hallward
Thirty years ago Haiti was a net exporter of rice. Now it imports over 80 percent of its rice. What happened?
“American rice invaded the country.” -- Charles Suffrard Haitian rice grower
“In the 1980s, imported rice poured into Haiti, below the cost of what our farmers could produce it. Farmers lost their businesses. People from the countryside started losing their jobs and moving to the cities. After a few years of cheap imported rice, local production went way down.” – Father Gerard Jean-Juste
“It became impossible for Haitian farmers to compete with what they called ‘Miami rice.’ The whole local rice market in Haiti fell apart as cheap, U.S. subsidized rice flooded the market.—Dr. Paul Farmer
The key word there is “subsidized,” a vital component of American good governance.
“Rice is a heavily subsidized business in the U.S. Rice subsidies in the U.S. totaled $11 billion from 1995 to 2006. One producer alone, Riceland Foods Inc of Stuttgart Arkansas, received over $500 million dollars in rice subsidies between 1995 and 2006.” Bill Quigley
I’m sure that there are at least two imbeciles on this blog who would expect Haitian rice farmers to be able to compete with the subsidized Riceland Foods and other subsidized rice growers in America.
[Paul Farmer saw it happen to the sugar growers as well. “Haiti, once the world’s largest exporter of sugar and other tropical produce to Europe, began importing even sugar-- from U.S. controlled sugar production in the Dominican Republic and Florida.] – Bill Quigley
Would the imperialist’s cut-off their aid and dare risk erasing the nebulae from their façade? That’s doubtful. They can’t afford to add that much fuel to anti-imperialist sentiments around the planet.
Haiti doesn't need $1 billion.
They just need 50 more IQ points per Haitian. And each a full set of capable parents.
True?
Makheru Bradley is a beast.
That post should be required reading for every muhfuggah "Tweetin' $5".
US aid for Indonesia tsunami that killed 300,000: $35 million...upped to $350 million after criticism
US aid for Haitian earthquake that's killed over 100,000: $100 million
US aid to China for earthquake in 2008 that killed 12,000: $500,000
So $100 mill is about proportional compared to other recent relief efforts. $1 bill would def be overkill. But regardless, an illegitimate nation not in crisis like Israel should not be receiving a RED CENT of US monies!
"playing DV's World of Memecraft?"
ZOMG! Tins si teh uber r0xx0r! :)
Well I agree but I contemplate the list inform should acquire more info then it has.
Post a Comment