The Social Historical Context of 'Natural Disasters': Haiti

By Victor M. Rodriguez Domínguez 

Submitted to portside by the author

January 18th, 2010

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/01/the-social-historical-context-of-%E2%80%9Cnatural-disasters%E2%80%9D-haiti/

    Poor Mexico, so far away from God but so close to the
    United States.

    - Porfirio Diaz

    Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
    repeat it.

    - Santayana

Just like we have learned earlier from the Katrina disaster,
it is important, while we share our solidarity and our
support for the tragedy being endured by the courageous
people of Haiti, not to forget the historical and social
context that frames this most recent disaster in the Haitian
experience. After hearing the news and the self-
congratulatory speech of President Obama about the
'historical ties' of Haiti and the United States, I could not
but recall a different narrative of 'historical ties' than
the one the media is conveying. This counter narrative is
more congruent with a famous quote from former Mexican
Dictator Porfirio Diaz which applies to the Haitian
experience in an ominous way. Dictator Diaz in the last half
of the 19th century opened Mexico to foreign capitalists,
especially U.S. investors and created the precursor of
today's neo-liberal policies in that country. By the early
part of the twentieth century half of Mexico's wealth was in
foreign hands. Today, Haiti is under the total control of the
United States and its institutions. A country that used to
produce its own rice, now imports it from the United States.

One aspect of these 'historical ties' that are not told in
United States' high school history textbooks is that Haiti,
by being the first independent country in the Americas, led
by people of African descent, created fear in the white slave
holding elites throughout the world. Haiti was the most
prosperous European colony in the Americas and one that
brought to France a significant amount of the wealth that
catapulted it to the rank of a developed nation. But,
France's and the United States ascent to the developed world
were rooted in the sentencing of Haiti to centuries of
economic despair and political instability. This is the story
we are asked to forget.

In 1804, Haiti declared its independence from France under
the leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who succeeded the
brilliant military strategist and former slave Toussaint
L'Ouverture. In the preceding years the Haitian army defeated
the most powerful European army in Europe, Napoleon
Bonaparte's army of tens of thousands and at different times
defeated smaller attempts by the British and the Spanish to
subdue the Haitians.

Europe and the United States never forgave Haiti for becoming
a model of freedom against the infamous system of slavery and
after Haiti was in a state of political weakness because of
internal strife imposed economic blockades (like in Cuba).
Ironically, France collected 'reparations' for its loss of
'property' (slaves) during the Haitian war of liberation and
Haiti was isolated (worse than Cuba is today). The United
States waited sixty years before it granted recognition to
the nascent republic. What today we call the global north,
dominated by the United States created the conditions for
perpetual Haitian underdevelopment. The example of an African
nation which was prosperous in the Americas was too much to
swallow for the slaveholders of the United States and Europe.
In fact, President Jefferson initially supported the French
efforts against Haiti until it discovered that Napoleon
wanted to then expand the French empire beyond the Louisiana
territory. After Napoleon's defeat, it sold the Louisiana
Territory to the United States dramatically expanding the
United States' empire. So thanks to Haiti's victory, the
United States began its modern phase of territorial
expansion. We paid them with economic sanctions.

Unfortunately, Latin American nations in struggle for their
own independence from Spain, also betrayed the nascent
Haitian nation. Simon Bolivar, the liberator of the most of
Latin America, received military support and weapons from the
Haitian revolutionaries in 1816. Yet, in the end Bolivar
denied support and recognition to Haiti when they needed it.
Their own fear of a pardocracia (government of the people of
color) instilled more fear in the Bolivarian revolutionaries
than the Spanish or the United States imperialists. Brazil
did not abolish slavery until 1888, being the last country in
the world to do so.

The economic disaster created by United States and Europe
policies of isolation, let to the creation of one of the
first debtor states. Haiti, in what was latter debt peonage,
was forced to endure a period of formal colonialism when the
United States marines invaded Haiti in 1915. After 19 years,
they left the country neatly re-organized to become a neo-
colony of United States. In order to assure obedience and
discipline to the imperial requirements, the United States
military trained the Haitian National Guard (like in recent
years the formerly called 'School of the Americas' trained
Latin America's military) and left the military forces that
would lead to the eventual dictatorship of Francois Duvalier
in 1957, probably (together with another U.S. protégé in the
other side of the island, the Dominican Republic's dictator
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo) one of the most cruelest and
murderous in the Americas.

In recent decades, after the end of the Duvalier dynasty
period of bloody control, the Haitian nation has attempted to
stand on their own feet and establish a democratic and
prosperous nation. Each time their efforts have been
thwarted, this time again by the United States and the
support of Europe. Father Bertrand Aristide, who despite his
weaknesses, was by far a step in the right direction for
Haiti. He was elected democratically by the Haitian people
twice and twice removed by forces supported and directed by
the United States. The last time, in 2004, President Bertrand
Aristide, was overthrown by former military forces influenced
by the Duvalierists and other forces allied to the light-
skinned elites who have ruled Haiti for decades in alliance
with the United States. Marx said that history repeats
itself, the first as tragedy the second time as a farce. The
first tragedy was that President Bertrand Aristide was
kidnapped by United States agents, placed in a United States
military plane and whisked away to the Central African
Republic. Today he lives in exile in South Africa. Summer
2009, President Zelaya from Honduras was also overthrown and
later kidnapped and exiled in a sequel that seems more like a
farce. Today, he is still in exile.

Someone has said that 'Americans are the people with the most
access to information and the least informed.' As we watch
the coverage of the Haitian tragedy and we hear President
Obama's words, the first African American president, let's
not forget white supremacy is alive and kicking in the United
States. The main networks are in a self-congratulatory mood
about how we are the first responders and celebrating the
spirit of giving of the nation. The United States people are
a generous people and they will respond but we should not
forget the reasons why this disaster has been amplified. The
government and the infrastructure of Haiti are so inefficient
and non-existent that the coordination of efforts will be
more difficult.

Ironically, corporate media in the United States, because
they are monolingual and do not read Spanish or Creole, are
cheerleading the arrival of Canadians and U.S. planes late on
Wednesday, the fact is that the first responders came from
Venezuela, which sent its air force with medics, food and
equipment a few hours after the tragedy. Cuba, which already
had 344 medical doctors on the ground, sent more teams with
151 more specialized medical doctors (including the Reed
brigade that was offered to the Bush administration to help
in New Orleans) that arrived (Cubans already had two tent
hospitals serving 800 wounded), the Dominican Republic which
sent a 20 member Urban Rescue team, and through which Puerto
Rico attempted to coordinate and sent a team of three
helicopters, dozens of urban rescuers (who had earlier served
in New York during 9/11 attack) and 20 structural engineers.
However, Puerto Rico was unable to send them as quickly as
they wished; at least until last night (1/16/2010) teams of
technicians with water purifying systems, communications and
military police did not receive permission from the Southern
Command. As a colony of the United States, they had to wait
for approval from the U.S. Southern command. God forbid
Puerto Ricans and Latinos upstaged the U.S. rescue efforts.

[Victor M. Rodriguez Domínguez is a professor of sociology of
race and ethnicity in the Department of Chicano and Latino
Studies, California State University, Long Beach, his most
recent book is Latino Politics in the United States: Race,
Ethnicity, Class and Gender in the Mexican American and
Puerto Rican Experience (Kendall Hunt, 2005)]

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