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Why exactly are the United States, Canada, and France so interested in Haiti?

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Tue, 2010-01-19 23:48

#1

WFPD

Why exactly are the United States, Canada, and France so interested in Haiti?

I know that there is a separate thread discussing the earthquake and the global response. This thread is intended to be about Haiti and it's position within the "International Community". Some interesting points have been raised in other threads, but the topic deserves it's own thread so that some important issues can be examined separately from the issue of the earthquake.

First, there is a significant increase in Canada's role in Haiti in recent years. This matter deserves closer examination.

Secondly, the United States and other members of the "International Community" seem to devote far more resources to this small and impoverished nation than it's economic or geostrategic position would warrant.

I have been enlightened by some of the comments and supporting links posted in other threads. I have been researching the facts that they lead to with some interest. One thing that has surprised me is that fact that the United States is building it's fifth largest embassy in Haiti. Why would they need such a large embassy in such an insignificant country, especially one located so close to the US mainland?

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/RAW/2_28_8/2_28_8.html

I have uncovered some links that discuss the possibility that oil deposits have been uncovered in Haiti, but have been kept undisclosed for many years for strategic reasons. There is also some talk of Haiti being used as an oil transshipment terminal. I am not sure how credible this sources are, but the US activity in Haiti seems to suggest that Haiti is more than just a source of cheap labour and cash crops.

Then there is Canada's role in all of this. Why did we agree to sign on as America's little banana republic occupier, a role which we have scrupulously avoided for so long? What benefit is there for Canada to damage it's good name in the hemisphere in this manner? How did this transformation occur and why is it not a subject of discussion in the mainstream media?

Wed, 2010-01-20 00:36

#2

Fidel

[url=http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RIE402A.html][font=Mistral][size=2...'s electrifying accusations to the U.N.[/size][/font][/url]

Quote:
Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest who had been elected nearly three years before with 70 percent of the vote in Haiti’s first free election, was speaking to a packed session of the United Nations General Assembly.

In a dramatic move, Aristide told the diplomats that the military government of Haiti had to yield the power that was to end Haiti’s role in the drug trade, a trade financed by Colombia’s Cali cartel, that had exploded in the months following the coup. Aristide told the UN that each year Haiti is the transit point for nearly 50 tons of cocaine worth more than a billion dollars, providing Haiti’s military rulers with $200 million in profits.

Aristide’s electrifying accusations opened the floodgate of even more sinister revelations. Massachusetts senator John Kerry heads a subcommittee concerned with international terrorism and drug trafficking that turned up collusion between the CIA and drug traffickers during the late 1980s’ Iran Contra hearings.

The US-CIA has been the world's biggest dope delivery service for a long time. And their friends in organized crime have also wanted to use Cuba as a conduit for running drugs to the mainland, like it was in the old days under the US-backed mafia regime in Havana.

Wed, 2010-01-20 00:41

#3

RevolutionPlease RevolutionPlease's picture

RevolutionPlease's picture

Because they have an insatiable apathy for conflict?

Wed, 2010-01-20 00:42

#4

RevolutionPlease RevolutionPlease's picture

RevolutionPlease's picture

eta: Myself included as an indoctrinated non-participant.

Thu, 2010-01-21 01:31

#5

Noah_Scape

The CIA connection to cocaine trafficing is legendary. The 1980's "Cocaine Coup", as described in a couple of books I read last summer, showed very clearly that the CIA, and possibly all the way up to the White House, helped that cocaine traffic. They do it for the intelligence and armed militias that will "beat back socialism", paid with cocaine money. This tactic goes back to Vietnam, and all the way back to the French Resistance fighters under deGaulle [and that other guy].

Haiti is a logical enough transit point for the international dope trade.

But it is also the cheap labour - WalMart and others have clothing factories that pay one dollar a day. I just heard the TV news say they were going to start creating jobs in Haiti as soon as possible ["to help them get back on their feet"], and that the pay would be $5 a day... and that paying more would "upset the economy". Yaaa, what economy? Who would be upset if they earned $20 a day?

Here is a quote that you liked that I posted in the other thread - "In one day [in 1996]...20 workers earn $66.60, and together they produce 1,000 pairs of pajamas. That is $11,970 worth of pajamas for $66.60. Less than seven cents per pair goes to pay the workers who produced it."

This is from a report written by the National Labour Commission, a US NGO funded by trade unions investigating the conditions of workers in countries like Haiti. The report goes on to say that,

"In 1994, Wal-Mart made a profit of $2.681 billion, Disney made $1.1 billion. The workers who sew the clothes for these companies are, in many cases, making less than $312 a year working full time. Basic respect for the law is not too much to ask.

"Today's minimum wage has less buying power than before Aristide's election in December 1990. Since 1980, its real value has declined some 50 percent. It is the lowest in the entire Caribbean area and provides less than 60 percent of the barest needs for a family of five. A more usual wage of $1 a day, or $6 for a standard workweek, provides about one- quarter of these minimum needs.

"For U.S. multinational corporations, Aristide's support for an increase in the minimum wage was a good enough reason for overthrowing him. Andrew Postal, president of Judy Bond, a U.S. women's apparel maker with plants in Haiti, said of Aristide, "It was not a business-friendly government.""

The report says that after Artistide's ouster "and while the Haitian military was murdering 3,000 to 5,000 people, Postal went right on producing in Haiti and exporting to the U.S. despite the OAS embargo."

Link> http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/295.html

Thu, 2010-01-21 11:28

#6

NDPP

CIDA's Key Role in Haiti's 2004 Coup d'etat: Funding Regime Change, Dictatorship and Human Rights Atrocities, One Haitian 'NGO' at a Time

http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/62/62-TOC.htm

Thu, 2010-01-21 11:36

#7

NDPP

People For Sale:

http://www.utne.com/2008-07-01/Politics/People-for-Sale.aspx

"Most people imagine that slavery died in the 19th century. Since 1810 more than a dozen international conventions banning the slave trade have been signed. Yet today there are more slaves than at any time in human history.

And if you're going to buy one in five hours, you'd better get a move on. First, hail a taxi to JFK international airport and hop on a direct flight to Port-au-Prince Haiti..."