#2937: Kraus replies to Antoine on Chirac

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Paul Krause <krause@interchange.ubc.ca>

In response to M. Antoine, the meaning of M. Chirac's words is indisputable:
"Haïti n'a pas été, a proprement parlé, une colonie française...." means
that "Haiti WAS NOT (EVER), strictly speaking, a French colony...." The verb
tense here, the passe compose, represents a "perfect past tense" -- as
opposed to the imperfect tense (etait) -- indicating a completed action in
the past, (i.e., a "fact," in non-grammatical terms), as opposed to a
progressive action into the present.