12238: Re: 12216: Re: 12215: United States largess per AmbassadorLino Gutierrez ... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LAKAT47@aol.com

In a message dated 6/1/02 1:04:47 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Matt Ray
<mraymus@yahoo.com writes:

<< So, it seems to me that you're saying that we "owe" more money to Haiti
  or any other country?    I'm sorry, but I don't understand the logic.
  Why do we owe anybody anything unless we've borrowed from them?   >>
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
If you subscribe to the notion that the United States is a benign observer of
international affairs then you may be correct in your assumption that this
government owes no country anything unless we are speaking of paying back
loans owed to said country.  However, it would be only the most naive person
who believes that the United States is a benign observer of almost anything!
If you alert yourself to what is happening out there, and specifically to
Haiti, you will have to come to the conclusion that Haitian affairs have been
shamefully meddled with, manipulated for US profit (some would say, so what?
isn't that what we are supposed to do....look out for US interests?  What is
wrong with making money or ensuring that big business can make money?  What
is wrong with running factories that produce cheap clothing for Americans to
buy, even if it means that poor Haitian workers are getting paid less than a
human needs to subsist on and in conditions you might go to jail for if you
impose them on an animal?  I know.....you want to say, yes, but it's good
enough for them, without the factory, they would have nothing.  I admire your
compassion and sense of decency.  I believe Kathie Lee Gifford (let them eat
cake) said the same thing about the Nicaraguan (?) children working on her
signature line of clothing.  I know I'm rambling but the inhumanity and
immorality of this way of thinking makes me crazy!

This country has contributed to, if not caused the economic disaster we see
today in Haiti and is happy to let Aristide take the fall.  This country
continues to hold off loans which should be made to the government of Haiti
to help democracy take hold.  It is not even loans made from the US but the
World Bank which continues to hold Haiti hostage until a president is elected
that satisfies the international community.  So it's no sweat off our nose to
let it happen.  FRANCE OWES Haiti money it has taken in the past to
compensate for the loss of a viable colony.  That money should be paid back
to the government of Haiti to be used to rebuild or build an infrastructure
that will enable Haiti to move to phase two of a development plan.  The US
OWES Haiti money to at least return the country back to before the embargo of
the early 90s.  When we destroy a thing, we should build it back up.  No
matter who is president.  And we should stay out of deciding who the Haitian
people should have at the head of their government.  Not to acknowledge our
part in Haiti's sad state is immoral and more than disgusting.

Kathy Dorce