[Marxism] Saint Patrick Goes to Haiti.

[Dbachmozart at aol.com]

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But a century and a half after the Great Famine, people in Haiti are still  
being killed by the same economic theories. Haiti has made headlines recently,  
for people eating cookies made of salt, butter and brown dirt to hold off  
starvation. The stories were, at first blush, a personal tragedy (a mother  
unable to feed her infant son) and a natural and economic disaster (hurricanes,  
high fuel prices). But with more context, the personal tragedy evolves into an  
outrageous international injustice. 
For decades, the World Bank and the Inter-America Development Bank (IDB)  
propped up Haitian dictators with generous loans. The notorious “Papa Doc” and  “
Baby Doc” -- Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier-- received almost half of  
Haiti’s current outstanding loans. The Duvaliers used the money to buy warm fur  
coats and fast cars, and to fund the brutal Tonton Macoute death squads.  In 
return, the international community, especially the United States, received a  
reliable vote against Fidel Castro in the United Nations and the Organization 
of  American States.  
The Haitian people received very little from these loans. Since 1980, when  
Haiti started receiving the Banks’ help in earnest, its per capita Gross  
Domestic Product (GDP) has shrunk by 38.3%. Along the way, Haiti became  the 
poorest country in the Americas, and one of the hungriest countries in the  world. 
Today, about half of school-age kids in Haiti are not in school. Over  half of 
all Haitians struggle to survive on $1 a day or less, and life  expectancy is 
in the mid-50’s. Many of those who can flee do so, including  cities like 
Boston and New York, that sheltered the refugees from Ireland’s  famine. 
full article --
 <_http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8862_ 
(http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8862) >
 



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