France urged to repay Haiti billions paid for its independence

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

France urged to repay Haiti billions paid for its independence
Leading activists write to Nicolas Sarzoky urging president to repay more than €17bn to help earthquake-hit country rebuild
Kim Willsher in Paris guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 15 August 2010 19.07 BST

A group of international academics and authors has written to Nicolas Sarkozy calling on France to reimburse the crushing "independence debt" it imposed on Haiti nearly 200 years ago.

The open letter to the French president says the debt, now worth more than €17bn (£14bn), would cover the rebuilding of the country after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people seven months ago.

Its signatories – including Noam Chomsky, the American linguist, Naomi Klein, the Canadian author and activist, Cornel West, the African-American author and civil rights activist, and several renowned French philosophers – say that if France repays the money it would be a solution to the shortfall in international donations promised following the earthquake.

Despite pledges at an international donors' conference in March of aid totalling £3.4bn, only five countries – Brazil, Norway, Australia, Colombia and Estonia – have sent aid amounting to about £325m.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/15/france-haiti-independence-debt

[dipsydoodle]

1. Nice thought

but a sum that large would need some serious management to rpevent misuse. Hope they get it anyway.

[Lenomsky]

13. Don't know the history but ..

I guess most of the debt is compound paying off the interest
when possible. Not sure how that works a Country pays for it's
right for independence!? Hmm let's all just keep raping the
poor so we get flat screen TV's and McDonalds.

Power to the people.

[populistdriven]

30. read this history its shocking

http://www.iacenter.org/haiti/haiti_poverty012310/

[Warpy]

2. Bad timing

Austerity measures are sending France deeper into recession, just the way we sensible people said they would. They will undoubtedly be followed by more austerity measures until the French wise up and throw their conservatives out of government.

France won't be able to toss Haiti a single sou in the short term, let alone repay what they looted in the name of compensation.

[EFerrari]

6. Can't be worse timing than enslaving someone

or than strangling a new nation. Or than forcible, violent regime change because someone raised the minimum wage.

It looks like no promise made to Haiti, no crime against Haiti really counts in this world.

[Matariki]

9. +1

what EFerrari said.

[laughingliberal]

26. +1 nt

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[mix]

4. absolument! nt

[iamthebandfanman]

5. the last sentence is heart breaking to me :(

[defendandprotect]

7. Imperialism doesn't pay? Nice new way to think about things...!!

[Ken Burch]

8. Clearly, they should.

France, unable to prevent Haiti from winning independence on the battlefield, try to strangle the new nation in its crib with reparations.

Those reparations are the main reason Haiti has never been a prosperous country.

[DavidDvorkin]

10. How far back in time will this go?

The city of Rome will be in trouble, especially if interest is added.

[EFerrari]

16. The US and Canada have been helping France blackmail Haiti to this day.

This is in no way ancient history.

[qazplm]

11. what happens if Haiti simply refuses to pay?

Not much France can do about it right? Or has Haiti already paid in full and we are talking about recoupment?

[Travis_0004]

15. Hati finished paying its debt in 1947.

The money is long gone. Even if they shouldn't have had to pay it, the last payment was made 60 years ago. At this point, its a lost cause.

[EFerrari]

17. The thing is, the same old boys are still cannibalizing Haiti.

In a way, the demand for reparations may be the best bargaining chip Haiti has to get them the hell out of there.

[McCamy Taylor]

12. Good idea!

[activa8tr]

14. French, English, Spanish, etc colonialism

We still live with our history.

SO sorry we live with all this, but we do.

I have no idea why some people refuse to consider history....but some do.

[Odin2005]

18. Will never happen, that demand is what got Aristide ousted.

the Global Elites don't like to be made to pay for their crimes.

[Matilda]

19. Aristide was ousted because he wanted to raise the basic wage.

Haiti is regarded as a benchmark for low wages - the multinationals believe that if wages go up in Haiti, they'll go up all over South America. They couldn't allow that.

[Odin2005]

20. That too, true.

[EFerrari]

21. That's what got Zelaya ousted in Honduras last summer, too.

Same verse, same as the first.

[Odin2005]

23. Yup.

[Lightning Count]

22. And that's why Obama targeted Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel.

They knew the truth.

[EFerrari]

24. You must have the president confused with Porter Goss.

[laughingliberal]

27. +1000 nt

[readmoreoften]

25. This isn't just "colonialism." Haitians were forced to pay reparations for freeing themselves.

Their poor owners (not only French, but mostly) demanded reparations for all the property loss they suffered at the hands of the freed slaves. The property loss being the freed slaves themselves.

In the mid-19th century, Haiti's reparations debt was equivalent to the GNP of France itself. And interest is still basically compounding. Haiti's debt must be forgiven.

[laughingliberal]

28. K & R nt

[Judi Lynn]

29. France's debt of dishonour to Haiti

France's debt of dishonour to Haiti
After Haiti won independence, France extorted compensation for its slave-owning colonists. Now Nicolas Sarkozy must repay it
Isabel Macdonald guardian.co.uk,
Monday 16 August 2010 10.00 BST

Nearly seven months after a devastating earthquake killed upwards of 250,000 people in Haiti, UN special envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton told the Associated Press (AP) that international donors have yet to make good on their promises of billions of dollars to rebuild the ravaged country. Haiti's rebuilding could cost $14bn, according to a recent Inter-American Development Bank study. Yet only "five countries – Brazil, Norway, Australia, Colombia and Estonia – have so far provided $506m, less than 10% of the $5.3bn pledged for Haiti at a March donors' conference," according to AP.

On Monday, dozens of leading academics, authors and activists from around the world propose a bold solution to this desperate financial shortfall. Why not reimburse Haiti for the illegitimate "independence debt" it paid France?

In an open letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy published in the French newspaper Libération, 90 leading academics, authors, journalists and human rights activists from around the world urged the French government to pay Haiti back for the 90m gold francs Haitians were forced to pay as a price for their independence. (Full the sake of full disclosure, I am no impartial observer of the proposal: I helped draft the text of the letter, and played no small role in soliciting the signatures. In fact, the scores of intellectuals I contacted needed little prodding to sign on.)

There are "powerful arguments in favour of the restitution of the French debt," Harvard medical professor Paul Farmer, who was recently appointed deputy UN special envoy to Haiti, pointed out in his testimony in the 2003 hearings in France on Haiti's independence debt. This historic payment was patently illegitimate, and, on several different scores, it was also illegal, according to a 2009 paper produced by the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.

Prior to independence, St Dominique – the country that is now Haiti – was France's most profitable colony, thanks in no small part to its particularly brutal system of slavery. In 1791, the slaves revolted, and in 1804, after defeating Napoleon's armies, founded the world's first black republic.

Following Haiti's independence, former French slave-owners submitted detailed tabulations of their losses to the French government, with line items for each of "their" slaves that had been "lost" with Haitian independence. In 1825, the French King, Charles X, demanded that Haiti pay an "independence debt" to compensate former colonists for the slaves who had won their freedom in the Haitian Revolution. With warships stationed along the Haitian coast backing up the French demand, France insisted that Haiti pay its former coloniser 150m gold francs – ten times the fledgling black nation's total annual revenues.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/16/haiti-france

http://bunnyhugs.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/bhpop0004.jpg

[Scruffy1]

31. So should wall street.

We even occupied it for a long time to make sure that JP Morgan could keep its money flowing.

[progressoid]

32. Like that's gonna happen.

The French gov't caving to a bunch of academics? Don't make me laugh. These guys happily sank the Rainbow Warrior. Doubt they care much what Chomsky thinks.

[Billy Burnett]

33. When Wyclef becomes President of Haiti, Wyclef will manage that money well.

Although, Wyclef won't reveal Wyclef's platform or policies or considered cabinet selections - they are secret, because "the opposition is listening". :eyes:

NPR All Things Considered, August 9: Wyclef Jean on Wyclef Jean
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x40070

Maybe Wyclef will hire Greenberg Carville Shrum for Wyclef's campaign.