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HAPPY BASTILLE DAY: France-Repaying Haiti's Debt-Calls For International Debt Forgiveness

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kpete Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-14-10 03:29 PM
Original message
HAPPY BASTILLE DAY: France-Repaying Haiti's Debt-Calls For International Debt Forgiveness
Edited on Wed Jul-14-10 03:30 PM by kpete
STATEMENT OF THE SPOKESPERSON OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AND EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

(PARIS, JULY 14, 2010)

France Unveils Bastille Day Framework Initiative for Haiti’s Reconstruction

Ever since Haiti was ravaged by the devastating earthquake of January 12, France has called for international debt forgiveness for Haiti.

For too long, Haiti has been saddled with the burden of foreign debt. Her development crippled by foreign debt service payments, she has for too long staggered from catastrophe to catastrophe. The disaster that has befallen the Haitian people is clearly not merely the result of January’s eathquake. It is in part the result of long-term economic and social policies.

If a clean break from this disastrous cycle is to be made in the current reconstruction efforts, it will require bold action not just from Haitians but also from creditor nations and international financial institutions.

Today, I am pleased to announce our boldest initiative yet to free up the funds that will be so essential for Haitians to rebuild their country after the devastation of the earthquake.

The French Republic and Haiti share deep ties of history, language and culture. Bastille Day is a perfect occasion to celebrate the cherished values of our rebublic--values that were also a beacon to the Haitian people when they cast off the shackles of slavery, and founded the second republic of the Americas.

In the context of our national holiday, we are thus announcing the dawn of a new era of cooperation between France and Haiti—a partnership based firmly in these shared values. Whereas our nations' relations were, historically, at times tumultuous, today we start with a clean slate united by compassion and cooperation.

Under the Framework Initiative for Haiti’s Reconstruction, unveiled today by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, France is repaying the historic debt of 90 million gold francs Haiti paid to France following the former’s independence at the dawn of the 19th century.

http://diplomatiegov.fr/bulletin.gb-14-07-2010.html
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/14/884315/-BREAKING-OMG-France-Repaying-Haiti!-May-or-May-not-be-true!!
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-14-10 03:30 PM
Response to Original message
1. Now, follow where this money actually goes. n/t
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dipsydoodle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-14-10 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. It's in the form of annual repayments
according to the first link and so cannot be abused all in one go. If they repay them with roquefort cheese it should be reasonably fraud proof. Whatever - if the French have got any sense it would be in form of money.

Aid from the the UK's Disaster Emergency Committee aid goes mainly in the form of goods. See here :

The largest share of the money spent to date in Haiti has gone on water and sanitation (28%), emergency shelter (22%), support for livelihoods (16%) and household items including soap, mosquito nets and water containers (14%). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10571665
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-14-10 04:27 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. I later regretted piping up so soon in the thread and apologize.
Edited on Wed Jul-14-10 04:29 PM by EFerrari
Amy did another report today on Haiti. It seems to be firmly in the hands of international banksters who are paying off the oligarchy to do their will. The government is barely visible.

It wasn't good news but maybe, expected news. The biggest struggle at the moment seems to be over land. The big landowners are holding on to their prime real estate and paying themselves well for undesirable properties that they lease out to tent cities. Armed militia, police, who knows who, are showing up to kick refugees off out of encampments, developers backed by money are showing up with faked papers to claim land parcels.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/14/land_ownership_at_the_crux_of

That Bill Clinton is still fronting this new crime is unfortunate. I hope he spends more time with his daughter's wedding so he won't be so visibly associated with the latest drubbing of the Haitian people. :(
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dipsydoodle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-14-10 05:42 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. And I missed out an all important word
Should've said NOT in the form of money.

Yes - the big issue is land ownership.

:hi:
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ljm2002 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-14-10 03:32 PM
Response to Original message
2. Very cool!
Thanks for posting!!

The world needs a Jubilee year to reset more of the debt burden that kills 3rd world countries.

K&R
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-14-10 03:37 PM
Response to Original message
3. France is so full of shit
Edited on Wed Jul-14-10 03:45 PM by Catherina
They haven't paid up even a dime of the millions they pledged for the earthquake. Neither has the US. Neither has Canada.

The real forgiveness needs to be from Haiti to France, not the other way around. France should repay Haiti what that money is worth today, in gold too. This is what Haitian President Aristide was pursuing in international court when France, the US and Canada went and kidnapped him out of the country, destroying Haiti even further.

90 million is peanut shells compared to what France stole from Haiti and what the United States helped it steal with a US blockade before going there itself for Citibank and stealing the gold from the National Bank of Haiti.

Smedley Butler can tell you all about it. It was his marines who marched into the bank and took the gold.



In the 18th century, Haiti was France’s imperial jewel, the Pearl of the Caribbean, the largest sugar exporter in the world. Even by colonial standards, the treatment of slaves working the Haitian plantations was truly vile. They died so fast that, at times, France was importing 50,000 slaves a year to keep up the numbers and the profits.

Inspired by the principles of the French Revolution, in 1791 the slaves rebelled under the leadership of the self-educated slave Toussaint L’Ouverture. After a vicious war, Napoleon’s forces were defeated. Haiti declared independence in 1804.

...

France did not forgive the impertinence and loss of earnings: 800 destroyed sugar plantations, 3,000 lost coffee estates. A brutal trade blockade was imposed. Former plantation owners demanded that Haiti be invaded, its population enslaved once more. Instead, the French State opted to bleed the new black republic white.

In 1825, in return for recognising Haitian independence, France demanded indemnity on a staggering scale: 150 million gold francs, five times the country’s annual export revenue. The Royal Ordinance was backed up by 12 French warships with 150 cannon.

The terms were non-negotiable. The fledgeling nation acceded, since it had little choice. Haiti must pay for its freedom, and pay it did, through the nose, for the next 122 years.

Historical accountancy is an inexact business, but the scale of French usury was astonishing. Even when the total indemnity was reduced to 90 million francs, Haiti remained crippled by debt. The country took out loans from US, German and French banks at extortionate rates. To put the cost into perspective, in 1803 France agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory, an area 74 times the size of Haiti, to the US, for 60 million francs.

Weighed down by this financial burden, Haiti was born almost bankrupt. In 1900 some 80 per cent of the national budget was still being swallowed up by debt repayments. Money that might have been spent on building a stable economy went to foreign bankers. To keep workers on the land and extract maximum crop yields to pay the indemnity, Haiti brought in the Rural Code, instituting a division between town and country, between a light-skinned elite and the dark-skinned majority, that still persists.

The debt was not finally paid off until 1947. By then, Haiti’s economy was hopelessly distorted, its land deforested, mired in poverty, politically and economically unstable, prey equally to the caprice of nature and the depredations of autocrats. Seven year ago, the Haitian Government demanded restitution from Paris to the tune of nearly $22 billion (including interest) for the gunboat diplomacy that had helped to make it the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article6995750.ece
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-14-10 04:28 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Thank you. n/t
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