French Leader's Haiti Visit Revives Bitter Legacy

[Judi Lynn]

Feb. 16, 2010
French Leader's Haiti Visit Revives Bitter Legacy
First Haiti Visit By French President Revives Bitter Memories Of The Cost Of Independence

AP) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Nicolas Sarkozy's visit Wednesday, the first ever by a French president, is reviving bitter memories of the crippling costs of Haiti's 1804 independence.

A third of the population was killed in an uprising against exceptionally brutal slavery, an international embargo was imposed to prevent slave revolts elsewhere and 90 million pieces of gold were demanded by Paris from the world's first black republic.

The debt hobbled Haiti, it seemed for life.

A country plagued by natural and unnatural calamities of Biblical proportions was desperately poor and mismanaged even before a magnitude-7 earthquake smashed up Port-au-Prince, killing more than 200,000 people and leaving more than a million homeless.

Haitian politicians this week diplomatically skirted the question of reparations - a demand put to Paris by ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. That suggests Sarkozy's four-hour visit could herald a new era.

More:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/16/ap/latinamerica/main6213742.shtml

[EFerrari]

1. Returning to the scene of the crime.

It seems like there is no indignity that the Haitian people will be spared.

[Vogon_Glory]

2. Few Remember Saint Domingue

I doubt that there is anyone living, or anyone even with a grandparent who was there when it happened, who remembered either the days when western Hispaniola was the French royal colony of Saint Domingue or the Napoleonic intervention.

:tinfoilhat:

[Bacchus39]

3. yeah, and the same could be said about the US and former English colonies or Spanish colonies

time to move on.

other than animosity towards Columbus in indigenous sectors, I don't hear much complaint from former Spanish colonies about Spain and how they left Latin America to its own fate. nor from Brazil regarding Portugal.

[Vogon_Glory]

4. On That Note...

On that note, I do remember that several different Spanish (parliamentary) governments were concerned about Spain's lingering bad image in parts of Spanish-speaking America, and they did implement foreign-aid programs, but this was foreign aid, not reparations. I don't agree with the OPs that the one-time colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti) is still feeling the oppression from 200 plus years ago.

While I DON'T believe that colonialism or neo-colonialism didn't have severe deleterious effects on Haiti's economic and political structures, there comes a point where that country's own indigenous elite's and past politicians' role in the ongoing Haitian tragedies should be examined and dealt with by the Haitian people.

----

Speaking of Latin America, in most of Central and South America, the Spaniards left at bayonet point at the hands of successful rebels.