Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-15-Speech-4-138"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040115.8.4-138"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, the appalling situation in Haiti is partly attributable to the violence perpetrated by armed gangs on which the regime relies, but mainly to the abject poverty suffered by the majority of the population. President Aristide, its Head of State, certainly deserves no sympathy, as he has betrayed the hopes that his people placed in him. One cannot help but feel deep disgust, however, when politicians from the major powers, in particular France and the USA, who are overwhelmingly implicated in Haiti’s fate, begin to lecture and moralise.
Two centuries ago, Haiti was one of the wealthiest countries in the Caribbean, but has become one of the poorest in the world. This is because it has been constantly pillaged and because France, its former colonial ruler, has never forgiven the country for winning independence by armed struggle and a slave revolt. Over the course of the decades, newly-independent Haiti has been subject to a blockade by France, with the complicity of the US and UK, in order to force Haiti to pay compensation to the former slave-owners.
It is certainly in order to court mass popularity that Aristide is today demanding reimbursement of this colossal sum, which Haiti was obliged to pay until the twentieth century. This claim does, however, have historical legitimacy, and paying back the stolen money would enable the country to establish an infrastructure, a road network, a water supply system and a health care system, which it almost completely lacks, and that would be only the start.
On a more general level, the sum required to alleviate the poverty of this country located a short stretch of water away from the wealthy USA would be a pittance for the major powers. Instead of helping Haiti, however, these major powers continue to pillage the country, with the few French and USA companies established in the country paying scandalously low wages, and taking back to the USA all the profits made on the backs of Haitian workers, rather than investing profits productively. It is precisely by showing solidarity with the people of Haiti that we can dissociate ourselves from the cynical and hypocritical declarations of those who claim to defend their freedoms."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples