The girl that posted about Haiti last week...

heatherlane

Some interesting info regarding our Haiti discussion last week. I know this is not what she meant by "why should we keep helping Haiti when they don't help themselves", but no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on I do think this is interesting. I personally am a big supporter of the local food movement, but had never thought of it this way...

 

 In RaleighCSA@yahoogro ups.com, Andrea L <andrearestlelay@ ...> wrote:
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I thought that as everyone is focusing on the immediate humanitarian needs of so many earthquake victims, I was curious why Haiti is in as bad a shape as it was before the Earthquake, and why isn't that covered on the news?
>
> After doing some research, Haiti is the only country to stage a successful Slave Rebellion, after horrendous conditions imposed on them by both France and Spain. Even given the difficulties of building a country from a varied population of ex-slaves they did not do too badly, until the US started to help, that is... Importing cheap rice and sugar from the US (and forcing Haiti to take it without a tariff or aid would be discontinued! !!!) this action, plus donating food from the US drives down the price paid to local farmers, running them out of business. Today virtually all Haitians now rely on money and food sent from US relatives to survive, and importing more and more food aid without helping Haitian farmers become profitable again will cause them to become more and more dependent on food imports.
>
> https://www.haitisup port.gn.apc. org/
> https://www.organicc onsumers. org/articles/ article_20013. cfm
>
> The above websites, from outside the US, explains why Port-au-prince was so over populated to begin with and why the Haitian economy was so devasted before the earthquake. I hesitate to include discussions on politics in general, but I think it's important to realize how vital local farmers are for all economys. Haiti shows that if you can't buy reasonably priced healthy, local food, democracy itself is at stake.
>
> Anyone with suggestions on how to help Haiti farmers get back on their feet please email me and we'll put out a list.
>
> https://www.nationse ncyclopedia. com/Americas/ Haiti-AGRICULTUR E.html
>
> Best Regards,
> Andrea Restle-Lay
> https://groups. yahoo.com/ group/RaleighCSA
>

kiwi443

Very interesting.  I've never heard that angle before and it makes sense to support local industry versus continually pumping in foreign aid.

Sidenote: I like your new profile pic :0).

karenmather

FYI - Halo is donating a sleepsack to the children of Haiti for the next 1,000 fans to join their Facebook page.  An easy way for us all to help.  www.facebook.com/halosleepsack

candm

Haiti is also in the shape it is b/c it never got a fair shake. After it won its independence, the US refused to acknowledge it (couldn't let our own slaves get any ideas). On top of that  Haiti had to reimburse France for winning its freedom. Can you imagine? Haiti never climbed out of that debt.

Haiti's agriculture also suffers b/c the US in the name of aid built a huge damn that flooded Haiti's most fertile farm land. Really this "aid" was nothing more than corporate hand-outs to US contractors.