21770: Justin: Felux: More comments on Herbert Gold

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Justin <justins@alacrityisp.net>

I haven't read anything Gold has written other than this article, but he
seems
to be just another right-winger a la Robert Novak who is nostalgic about
years
of military dictatorship in Haiti.  Corbett's review of his book doesn't
make
him out to be a very nice guy (Gold "longs for the good old days when the
masses knew their place").  Novak still misses the Cedras/Francois days,
because "private property was respected" and things were "calm" and
"potholes
were being filled."

Gold uses a tactic that inevitably gets used when one wants to discredit
the
goal of a political rally.  Folks in the antiwar movement know it well.
In an
attempt to make the rally and everyone participating in it look stupid,
you
find the one person with green hair who is too stoned to talk
intelligently
about why he is at the protest, and then present his example as a
microcosm of
the whole group.  This is what he's doing with the girl who can't explain
why
she's shouting.


I haven't heard many people on the left say the reason the U.S. and
company
undermined Aristide was because they wanted cheap labor and resources.
While
Mr. Donoviel is right in that there are some U.S. companies doing business
there, I don't think that's the reason.  The economic benefits are just
too
small.  I think the reason is, as many folks have stated, that Haiti had
the
potential to be a bad example for other poor countries.  If Aristide
resisted
neoliberal economic reforms and was somehow able to raise the standard of
living in Haiti by an appreciable level, other countries would follow that
model.

It's like with Castro.  Cuba was not exactly the crown jewel of the
American
empire.  What they feared was "the spread of the Castro idea of taking
matters
into one's own hands," to quote Arthur Schlesinger.  This is why slaves
were
often severely punished for minor discipline infractions.  You have to
nip unruly behavior at the bud, lest it become a habit.  It's the only way
to
keep subjects in their place.  This really isn't as controversial as it
sounds.  Remember the "domino theory"?  This is basically the domino
theory
presented in language that makes the domino theorist sound like the bad
guy.