#1741: 1672 : Hudicourt replies to Simidor

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: gilles hudicourt <hudic@videotron.ca>

Daniel Simidor,

The several hundred thousand aboriginals that populated our island during
the 15th century and that were slaughtered by the Spaniards left no
infrastructures that we could have inherited but still left us their
knowledge of growing manioc that still feeds Haitians today.  The Spaniards
and the pirates that followed didn't leave much infrastructures in their
wake but the French that came behind invested heavily in Haiti, and left us
roads, bridges, dams, irrigation canals, factories, water powered mills,
plantations, towns, warehouses, forts, ports, maps, records, titles, laws,
and functional government structures.  Granted, all of this was based on
slavery but it made Haiti the richest colony in this part of the world.  The
French were slaughtered, almost to the last, and all these fell in the hands
of the Haitians.  Many plantations, houses, factories, were taken over by
Haitians who attempted to run these for their own profit. The white man was
gone, Haitians were independent, American imperialism did not yet exist.
Show me one, just one colonial home today. They are all gone, to the last
one.  Their ruins dot the whole country, like some nuclear bomb had wasted
Haiti 200 years ago.  Yet by reading Haitian history, we learn that many
still existed in 1810, 1820, 1830.  Where are they today ? All the
infrastructures also vanished.
How is it, that valuable money making property, taken ready-built from
French and taken over by Haitians end up in ruins just a few years later ?
Just four days ago, I visited some friends in near Quebec City, in Canada.
They live in a small wooden house built in 1830, just like most of the
houses in their neighborhood.  Their village was founded in 1828.  If you
want to see inclement climate, I invite you to see the climate this house
has survived in 170 years.  In comparison, Haiti's climate is paradise on
Earth.  Last summer, I went to a small town near London called Bishop's
Storford.  I went into a pub built around 1550.  Christopher Columbus son's
house in Santo Domingo still stands today.  The, or one of the oldest in
America.  In Haiti we have nothing to show but some ruins.  Why ?
Countries cannot be built in one or two generations.  We must inherit what
our fathers leave us, maintain it, improve it and build more to leave in
turn for our children.  We inherited the manioc.  Where is all the rest  ?

Somehow, that concept is lost on Haitians.