Sandra Neish
Jack Manhattan
Harvey Wallbanger
Morning to all! Cracking open my first cold one of the morning, I was thinking about what has been going on in the world this week. The start of the Proposition 8 trial in California, the Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin interview, the Haitian Earthquake, and finance executives getting roasted on Capitol Hill. All in all, it was a busy week for the news.
The Haitian crisis certainly takes the centre stage. The millions affected, not to mention the years, if not decades of recovery for this poor nation have galvanized the world into cooperation that it has been lacking.
This country has been a poor and struggling nation since its birth in the 18th century. It is the site of the only successful slave revolt in history. Between 1791 and 1804, when they formally declared independence, the Haitians fought off the French, British and Spanish. But in doing so, they began a cycle of dictatorship and oppression that survived the old colonial system.
Toussaint L’Ouverture, an ex-slave, fought for the French, and then took his skills back to Haiti to eliminate the competition, and impose his own version of the plantation system. Former slaves were now paid a wage, but they were forced to remain in the fields. An opportunity for this nation, which produced a lion’s share of sugar and coffee exported to Europe and America, to create a middle class was lost. The mulatto (those lighter skinned individuals who were descended from Europeans as well as Africans) oppressed the African only descended masses, much as the French had done.
Infighting and oppression prevented this once rich nation from joining fully the international community, and has handicapped them for over 200 years. As we send our support down there, let us hope that this exposure to the wider world will open their eyes to what they can achieve. And may it also open our eyes to the poorer nations of the world, who need our support in the good times to prosper, as well as these bad to recover.
