From adversity springs opportunity
I don’t know much about Haiti. Long ago I did an area study of Haiti for an Army unit I was in. But the details have long skipped my brain.
What I do remember is that Haiti is corrupt. Haiti is uneducated. Haitians speak Creole. Most good land in Haiti is used to grow exported food items. None are these traits seem useful for building a country.
Tyler Cowen speculates that Haiti, as a functioning country, no longer exists and that it is just a matter of time til the US or UN come in and govern it.
Should that happen it isn’t inconceivable that the Haitians of 20 years hence have much better lives and view the earthquake as the start of the new Haitian beginning.
No matter where you are, you have to start from there. So once we get past helping people survive, what is the future for Haiti?
I don’t know, but I seems that unless we nation build it, it doesn’t have one.
I’m not advocating we do so, yet anyway. It just seems that we can’t have something that bad, so close to us, and not firmly address it.
That said, I have full faith that President Obama will do whatever is right for US unions in this matter.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
What’s your definition of a “derangement syndrome”? Using any event, even a nation-destroying catastrophe, to score some political point against the target? Do you support Rush in his whatever-you-call-it syndrome?
January 15th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
I’m not sure what you are talking about. Obama does a number of things that favor unions, whilst saying he is doing something else. Why would that stop at nation building?
Unlike Bush Derangement system, I’m not deranged, I’m looking at what the man does, not what I imagine he does.
I rarely listen to Rush.
January 16th, 2010 at 9:22 am
U.S. Protectorate is a reasonable answer. Run initially as a military operation based in Peurto Rico, then by a U.S. Industry Group. No government or NGO involvement except a State Dept mission office to represent other foreign governments.