[p2p-research] Haiti and debt

[Ryan Lanham]

On 1/14/10, Kevin Carson <free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 1/14/10, Ryan <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Should reparations be paid by France back to Haiti?
>
> Its foreign debt should also be cancelled.  The U.S. helpfully made
> high-interest loans to Haiti to enable it to pay reparations, and it
> was saddled with debt almost until the accession of the Duvalier
> family--who again borrowed enormous sums from the U.S. to support
> their corrupt lifestyle.  I think some 80% of Haiti's budget goes to
> interest on the foreign debt.
>
> As somebody at Alternet said, Haiti has indeed suffered ever since it
> made a bargain with the devil--but the devil was the United States.



I completely agree the debt should be cancelled.  The facts are not what
Alternet would have you believe.  I am not defending the U.S. which has let
Haiti languish nearby, but it is certainly not the holder of most or even
much Haitian debt.  The U.S. is guilty by omission, not commission.

In fact, I think Haiti was the very first nation put on the HIPC program of
the IMF when it started.

More importantly, the organization that loans most money in Haiti (and the
Caribbean) is the IDB...which is majority run by debt holders...and is a
model for advanced governance throughout the world (and an organization
whose function I am fairly familiar with).

Unfortunately, Haiti kept digging its own grave, but started deep in a
colonial hole started by France.  Duvalier was a classic crook, but we was
strongly enabled...not so much by the U.S. as by France and Switzerland.

This is typically compared to the Dominican Republic, where the U.S.
empowered and then threw out Trujillo and the economy there, while sickly
and corrupt, is about 10x stronger than Haiti's.  Fortunately for the DR,
they got out from under the French debt and were doing OK by the time
Trujillo came along.  The U.S. tolerated Trujillo because he was a barrier
to communism during the WW2 era.  The DR is a relatively happy place...and
really has very little colonial yoke at all.
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