I guess it's a "Cultural" thing !!!

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by VRM

We have sent money and support to Haiti in the past because it was in our own interests to do so - even though the results backfired (something that usually happens).
I wonder if we are capable as a people of sending money and support because it is the humanitarian thing to do.

I think a lot of our past support has been as much for humanitarian reasons as for self-serving ones. It can be difficult to distinguish between the two and it's easy (especially in this era) to find cynical interpretations of financial and other contributions to such a lost cause... but yes, I think that the US has good intentions, separated as much as they can be from national self-interest.

If Haiti had ANY real value to us, we'd have gone in with military force and stayed there until the situation was stable. Haiti, unfortunately, has no value to anyone including most of its own population, so we avoid the complications of full engagement and try to make money do something for us instead.

[Buzz]

Originally Posted by CobraEd

What I posted is 100% correct and is substantiated by the post by Razor where more words and details are used but say the exact same thing!

Bull phucking $hit.

What you posted is NOT 100% correct. It is a chronicle of events misrepresented into a context contrived to support a distorted agenda. Outside of the kind, appreciated and genuine humanitarian aid from the US and around the world at times when Haiti was struck by hurricanes and this recent earthquake, every red bloody cent chronicled on your list of money spent on the poor starving people of Haiti was spent to serve the US's interests in the region.

You see what you want to see in Razor's post and filter out the rest, but if you really care to know the truth, you'll learn that after collaborating with the European colonial powers to grind the Haitian economy into the dirt, the prospect of first the Germans and later the Soviet communists coming to their rescue and securing a strategic base near the all important Panama canal, motivated the US to consolidate its influence through occupation, infrastructural development and support of despotic regimes.

Cuba would have suffered the same fate under the embargo, were it not for the Soviet support (they had their own self-serving agenda too) and the the patriotic will of the Cuban people to persevere no matter what. F-ck you and your elitist judgementalism. Clearly you don't care to expand your knowledge beyond the orchestrated pablum you choose to accept as historical fact.

If it weren't for the reality that they need it so badly regardless of the spirit in which it is given, I'd even go as far as to tell you to take your claimed charitable donation to Haiti, roll it up and stuff it up your arse; because people like you give only to serve your own sense of benevolence and self righteousness. The obvious disdain in which you hold the brutal, murderous and ungrateful people of Haiti gives your "gift of kindness" a bitter taste and in reality is given only to buy yourself the opportunity to crow down at them from a position of self percieved moral and "cultural" superiority.

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by Buzz

Cuba would have suffered the same fate under the embargo, were it not for the Soviet support...

Cuba has a million advantages over Haiti, beginning with a substantial amount of natural resources. Between native fishing and agriculture, they can at least feed themselves. They also had a much stronger infrastructure, as well as a highly educated populace.

Haiti has dirt, sand, rot, a stick for every person and voudon. Not much else. To be able to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, you need boots. Cuba at least had boots.

[Buzz]

Haiti had every bit as much as Cuba in terms of natural resources, if not more. The desolate Haiti you see today is as a result of 200 years of strangulation and decline. What Cuba had over Haiti in the face of similar obstacles was an influx of money and support from the Soviet benefactor and a market for their agricultural produce. As for the educated population - that is a direct product of the socialist revolution that made universal education a number one priority. It was not that way at all under the propped up Batista dictatorship.

[Jamo]

Honestly, Buzz ol buddy, you're probably right, but I don't care what causes/excuses Haiti has for assplaining itself. It barely surpasses Somalia as having any logical rationale for existing. Both of them can only take solace in the fact that they are not France {FTF}.

[Buzz]

It is assolutely your perogative to decide whether you care or not big buddy, as it is Ed's perogative to believe whatever makes him feel all warm and fuzzy. I don't give a rat's arse really, what people think or believe about Caribbean history and culture. When someone expresses a misconception as fact, however, it sometimes chaffes just a little bit. Much like say, when some pee-on spouts off to you about labour law and the agriculture industry. Occasionally I go against my better judgement and respond. Most times I don't.

[Jamo]

Yup...I assolutely agree. Every now and then...gotta pull the trigger.