WHO IS EROS?
by Captain Dan
7-24-05
Minneapolis, MN
Not everyone on the Vans Warped Tour gets to ride on a bus, eat at catering, or even receive a paycheck. In fact, the tour is over-run with people who are somehow trying to bum their way onto the tour. And just like college freshman, the first half of the tour usually weeds out all of the leeches, stowaways, and "band-aids" as they either get fired, kicked off, run out of funding, or simply lose interest. The tour is now past the halfway point. Those who remain have showed enough dedication and professionalism to prove they are following the tour with heartfelt motivation and will most definitely make it the rest of the way. Last night I had the chance find out what drives some of these people...
Eros worked as Atmosphere's merch guy during last year's Vans Warped Tour but returned this year to perform himself. Literally living off of the money he makes day to day by selling his own merchandise, the 25 year-old, 6'4" emcee has been following the 2005 Vans Warped Tour since the first day. By joining forces with the Denver-based band Dr. Neptune, he helped support the establishment of an extra stage on the tour called the E.I.Y. (Earn It Yourself) Stage. This stage hosts 3-4 bands per tour date in the parking lot of each venue in front of the ticket line (usually from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.) and sometimes again at night as the concert attendees are departing. Dr. Neptune provides the stage set-up while Eros manages the stage's merch tent. In order to experience the true lifestyle of an "earn-it-yourself" artist, I abandoned the commodities of traveling on my bus and decided to join Eros for the drive from Chicago to the next tour date of Minneapolis, MN (and the last place Eros lived before permanently moving into his van one month earlier).
During Chicago's post-show parking lot party, I walked with Eros as we passed laughter and sweet perfume. "Say goodbye to the good life," he warned, as we made the trek to the far parking lot where all the tour vans were parked. Reflecting the dull, street-light luster was Eros' large, blue Ford van complete with Selfcore Records (deejay Mr. Dibbs' record label) decals. Eros travels this tour by himself, but will sometimes give people a ride if needed and payment is provided. Tonight's stowaway (besides myself) was James, also known as "Chim Chim."
When we arrived at Eros' van, we watched the buses gradually fall into formation like a gigantic military caravan. We soon followed in line. At night, the tour buses form a magnificent sight like a long colorful snake sprinkled with lights. We slowly passed bus after bus as the van's speedometer twitched.
With cases of Monster Energy Drink on hand, Eros never manages to fall asleep at the wheel. He always drives the entire time to every tour date. So far his largest driving record is 14 hours. Due to traveling alone, Eros claims he averages around two and a half hours of sleep per day (by taking a nap between setting up his merch tent and the time doors open.) He has thus earned himself the title of "The Man Who Never Sleeps" by the Vans Warped Tour staff. "You have to be like a shark," explained Eros. "You have to keep moving to stay alive. Sometimes I wonder what my body would feel like if I got some normal sleep, but it seems the only way I know how to live is by pushing myself through fire."
We took our first break at a truck stop along with the rest of the buses. Inside at the plaza center, Chim Chim politely asked the manager of the restaurant for some free food. To my surprise, they gave the three of us free drinks and bowls of vegetable soup (which Eros politely refused, as an ethical choice). Apparently, Chim Chim occasionally pulls this off with success. Once we returned to the van, Chim Chim returned to his state of intermissive dozing; a feat made remarkable by his ability to sleep while sitting straight up.
While traveling in the van, I had the chance to witness, for the first time while on tour, the beauty of the evolving landscape. While riding in a bus at night, all of the blinds on the windows are typically closed and everyone is either sleeping or watching TV/DVDs.
While bus riders watch The Family Guy, Eros prefers to listen to books on tape. His selection includes The Complete Works of Aristotle and Atlas Shrugged (an E.I.Y. inspiring book). "Listening to books on tape makes me tired sometimes," admitted Eros. "So I usually turn up the music and start to sing along. Though my present collection is starting to wear thin, since I can't afford to buy new CDs." I attempted to stay awake as long as Eros did in order to experience everything he sustains, but around 4 a.m. I started to feel my eye lids become too heavy, as Eros yelped along to the chorus of Something Corporate's "Punk Rock Princess." I later had dreams which included The Postal Service as the soundtrack.
We soon passed the leaders of the caravan: the set-up crew trucks. Sinatra played over the speakers. I dozed off again...
Once in the city limits of Minneapolis, we stopped by the local Kinko's to create some new tags on the flyers that Eros hangs up to promote his stage and set time at every date. His new tags included:
"He may not sleep. But damn that boy can sing."
"One man. 20,000 miles. No cruise control."
"Saving the world one rhyme at a time."
With load-in only an hour away, Eros began his daily E.I.Y. artist routine (occasionally interrupted with sporadic intervention).
Before I left Eros, I asked him to tell me what drove his desire to live the lifestyle he chose. He replied with the most heartfelt monologue I have ever personally heard:
"The end of a long day is the beginning of a long drive. While most sit with a satisfied or relieved feeling after hours of hard work, I sit mixed with anticipation and a longing for rest. I know that if I close my eyes, I might not ever open them again. Yet, my will is as strong as ever. At this moment and at all others like it, nothing is more important than making this next drive. I have to keep up with the tour. I have to make it to the next city. I can, so I must.
"In classical mythology, Eros was condemned by Zeus to live a life without love. His power and purpose was to spread and inspire love in others, while never being allowed to have a love of his own. One day Eros laid eyes upon a woman who appeared as beauty incarnate, and he knew he had to have her. The woman was Psyche, and Eros began a secret romance with her so that they might live together in bliss for eternity. Eventually, the romance became known, but the power and immensity of their love for each other made Eros and Psyche inseparable as they withstood any test or force; the perfection of their union overwhelmed any who opposed it.
"As long as I keep up with this tour, there is a chance that my Psyche will recognize me. Any moment might be the one, so I must be ready at all times.
"In the meantime, for 20 minutes everyday, I get to live completely on my terms and tell what it means to do so in the 'real world.' On average, there are probably only two or three people who 'hear' what I'm saying and realize what I'm trying to do. But if those few people find something in my performance that helps them enjoy life more, I will have done what I set out to do. Eros, the god of love, would rather end his own existence than live in a world of men who hate theirs.
"I find it interesting that everyone who finds out what I'm doing immediately asks: 'How?' but never thinks to ask: 'Why?' But the 'How?' would not be possible without the 'Why?' Without reason, no action is possible to man.
"So why push myself to, and through, exhaustion, driving all night to perform and promote in the blazing sun all day? Because I believe I can do it, and everyone else thinks it's impossible. Because it's an exceptional achievement, and I'd rather be dead than mundane. Because I have no heroes, and I want one."
"So, why Warped Tour? I'll let Psyche answer that one."
As I returned to my bus exhausted, a small part of me wished I was driving that van. With such dedication and heartfelt motivation, everyone should envy and respect the man who goes by the name Eros.*
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Proclamation of Self
I am uncommon. That is my choice.
I choose liberty over security. Life is opportunity, which I exploit fully. My independence is primary, reliance on the state, or other men, can only humble and dull me – extinguish my fire.
I choose to risk – success is not a right, but no failure is ever complete.
I choose incentive and reward over a dole. I profit from challenge because I am able and self-disciplined. To exert, to earn, to fulfill and excel - these are thrills far too great to trade for guarantees.
I choose freedom over beneficence. My dignity and integrity are worth more than any handout. I refuse the unearned – in matter and in spirit. I am my only master – I do not cower, I bend to no threat.
I am man. I stand proud, erect, and fearless. My vision is power – and a challenge to the whole of existence – my mind is its source.
I think, I speak, I act – for myself. I exist at the disposal of no one, I live at the expense of no other. It is my right – and mine alone – to enjoy the benefits, and suffer the consequences, of my creations.
I choose the means, I choose the ends – I alone am responsible for my life. I am proud, I am noble, I am great.
I made this.
I choose liberty over security. Life is opportunity, which I exploit fully. My independence is primary, reliance on the state, or other men, can only humble and dull me – extinguish my fire.
I choose to risk – success is not a right, but no failure is ever complete.
I choose incentive and reward over a dole. I profit from challenge because I am able and self-disciplined. To exert, to earn, to fulfill and excel - these are thrills far too great to trade for guarantees.
I choose freedom over beneficence. My dignity and integrity are worth more than any handout. I refuse the unearned – in matter and in spirit. I am my only master – I do not cower, I bend to no threat.
I am man. I stand proud, erect, and fearless. My vision is power – and a challenge to the whole of existence – my mind is its source.
I think, I speak, I act – for myself. I exist at the disposal of no one, I live at the expense of no other. It is my right – and mine alone – to enjoy the benefits, and suffer the consequences, of my creations.
I choose the means, I choose the ends – I alone am responsible for my life. I am proud, I am noble, I am great.
I made this.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Human? Or Haitian?
by Joe Herrington
Why does the life of a Haitian matter less? Why, since the beginning of recorded history, has this always been so? Though the answer to these questions may not be obvious, their asking names the reason why most Haitians find themselves impoverished to the point of desperation. There has been a cadre of extra-national (non-Haitian) forces controlling the economic and political realities of the people of Haiti for the last 500 years, imposing various wills by force, and violating the sovereignty of individuals by all means, from slavery and expropriation, to currency manipulation – a vicious mixture of politics and economics. Economics is the study of the movement of human values, and values are a matter of subjective judgment – individual choice, while politics is the application of ideas by force to increase human activity toward some proscribed end – the elimination of individual choice. Economics is not a normative science – it will not tell a person what to value – it will merely describe the natural laws, principles and relevant processes which comprise the ways and means of achieving human values (Mises 4-8). Politics is just the opposite, it will attempt to mandate goals, values, and other ends, though it is wholly unable to tell, explain, nor identify how to accomplish these mandates. It is through the perspective of this relationship between politics and economics that a clear understanding of the situation in Haiti can be attained, and it shall become clear that the actions of those who have wielded political force in the direction of Haiti over the last 500 years have all been driven by the belief that the life of a Haitian matters less: Haitian < Human.
Haiti was once known as the "Pearl of the Antilles," the producer of most of the wealth of France. Most achievements recognized as those of 17th and 18th century France were subsidized by the slave labor found on what was then called Hispaniola, with the island surpassing all other European colonies in terms of wealth produced. Now, after 200 years, and including one of the only successful slave rebellions ever, Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere (Goodwin; “The Sad Bicentennial”). An estimated 75% of Haiti’s population of 7 million people lives in abject, miserable poverty, and the average Haitian has an income of $440 per year, if they're working – Haiti has a 70% unemployment rate (Jordan; Djankov 149). This income value, however, does not reflect the purchasing power of the amount, its "real wealth," and so does not explain much. Perhaps Dr. Farmer (co-founder of Partners In Health) can explain a bit more, since he knows that his average patient in Haiti needs medical attention, "...and a roof and a floor" (Kidder 4860). In the wake of the recent earthquake, what little some Haitians might have had has been reduced still further (for vivid examples, please see recent reports on this disaster), and even in our modern age, the sentiments and actions of many, even those who are (ostensibly) trying to help, are driven by the ugly Haitian < Human idea (Willentz).
What we know as Haiti began with the discovery of an island Columbus called Hispaniola, in 1492. It took the Spanish (and French) less than 90 years to completely destroy the indigenous Arawak population (the Taino branch) of over 1 million people, mostly through slave labor and infectious disease (Goodwin; Willentz; Aristide; Werleigh). This is the second violent and malicious example of indigenous Haitian lives meaning less to those who established dominion through the use of force. The first was the assumption of occupation of the island at all, establishing a colony by usurping the land of those already living there, what today’s governments and politicos blithely call “eminent domain." Effectively, this means that the possessor of the superior destructive weaponry is, ultimately, the possessor of everything else as well, if he should choose to claim it. A blatant violation of property rights such as this, as well as slavery (which is merely an extension of eminent domain), are only possible when the victim is viewed by the usurper as something other than the sovereign of his own life and property, and therefore something less than human. At various times, both France and Spain exerted dominion over the island and fought for control, but both imported slaves to replace the (now extinct) Arawak slave labor force.
By 1790, there were approximately 500,000 slave laborers and 30,000 plantation owners and other elites. By 1804, a slave rebellion had resulted in a successful revolution, and the (recently) indigenous people of Haiti ousted the French, declaring an independent republic (Hayti, an Arawak term for “Mountainous terrain”), the second in the western hemisphere (Werleigh; Goodwin). No nation in the world recognized Haiti's sovereignty at the time, refusing trade and alliance, with some enacting embargoes (Werleigh). In 1821, France surrounded the major ports of the island with gunboats, and held the fledgling nation for ransom. They demanded 90 million gold francs, in "exchange" for which, they would recognize the independence of the Haitian Republic, and not demolish their ports (Aristide; Goodwin). 90 million gold francs might seem like a large amount, until one considers that the purchasing power of gold has not diminished throughout most of history - 1 oz. of gold will buy today much the same that it bought in 1821 (e.g. a nice suit, shoes, and possibly a hat to match), and each gold franc was made of 290.3g (about 10 oz.) of gold - it might now seem like much more. Moreover, all currency (including gold) is representative of real human values (e.g. life, time, energy, etc.), whether past, present, or future, so an extortion of this kind robs the dead, living, and unborn, with costs totaling incalculable sums, even if the calculations are attempted in a purely mechanistic fashion.
Compared to the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution won a very short-lived victory. In most of America, residents were able to enjoy true independence until the war of secession, and some until the early 20th century. A primary reason for this is geography. Both the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution were won, not because of superior armaments and strength, but because the prospect of victory became too costly to the Imperial progenitor the revolutionaries were fighting against. After the American Revolution, the open frontier was so vast, and the difficulties of military deployment so great, that it took almost 100 years for the central government to build up an infrastructure and amass the force and resources necessary to make nationwide control a feasible goal. In other words, American people, to be free of external (i.e. governmental) controls, had somewhere to go; this is commonly referred to as “voting with your feet.” This option was not available for the Haitians, and it took only 20 years for France to amass the force and resources necessary to again subjugate the Haitian people. So with nowhere to go, and staring down the barrel of massively destructive firepower, the fledgling Haitian government agreed, under intense duress, to the demands of the French government, effectively enslaving the Haitian people to a massive debt for the next 122 years (Werleigh). As described above, this episode of imperial thuggery marked a crucial turning point in the movement of values for people of Haiti. From 1821 on, the movement of human values in Haiti would be almost entirely in directions away from the majority of the people living there, the root causes of all such movement being political, as they always had been.
The Republic of Haiti had lost their independence after 20 short years. From that point on, it was subject to the terms of foreign creditors (including governments besides France, as well as private/central banks, as the government of Haiti had to take out loans to pay the debt to the French government) , who would use military might to “protect investments” as necessary . It was in 1915 that the US government, acting under the auspices of the Monroe doctrine, took such action, with the military occupation of Haiti, which “officially” lasted until 1934 (Schmidt, ch. 7; “Chomsky”). Major General Smedley Butler was a commanding officer during the occupation, and later described his activities this way, "I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism" (Butler).
It might seem obvious that a debt would hamper any economy, especially one compounded by loans to pay it back, but to fully understand the extent of the destructive political power wielded against Haiti under these conditions, some consideration of monetary theory is necessary.
The current money (currency) of any locale is the means by which the inhabitants trade value for value. It is a symbolic representative of past, present, and future (claims to) real values (real wealth). It is also a commodity like anything else. As such, it is subject to the laws of supply and demand (pricing), which are themselves the observable manifestations of individual subjective valuations on a large scale (meaning that “demand” of a product increases because individuals decide that they value the product more than the dollars in their pocket, and more than potential expected future exchanges those particular dollars might enable. Conversely, individuals may decide to value the dollars or what they might buy in the future, more than the product). This also means that currency is subject to the laws of scarcity and marginal utility. Indeed, scarcity of money is necessary for the price (normally referred to as its purchasing power) of money to go up. As more and more individuals tend to value money for its usefulness in future exchange, “demand” for money increases, and the price of money goes up. Since currency is usually the standard of measure, this means that the observable effect is that prices for other things go down. Put another way, the more ubiquitous a given thing is, and the more easily accessible it is, the less valuable it becomes in terms of trade, despite any “objective value”. For instance, air is one of the most ubiquitous substances on the planet, and even though it is absolutely essential to human life, it has little value in terms of trade, except to the person who has little or no access to it.
The currency of the US was once based on a relatively finite amount of gold, which kept the ubiquity of the dollar somewhat constant, until 1971, when then-US-president Nixon severed the tie completely. Since then, the Federal Reserve (a private bank with no transparency) has had complete control over the amount of currency in circulation, by means (primarily, but among many) of manipulating interest rates on borrowing. When the US treasury wants to create more dollars (when the US congress wants more money to spend), it takes out a loan from the Federal Reserve. It then has to pay back the principal, plus interest. This means that every dollar in circulation, and then some, is “owed back,” and is therefore a debt. Further, this means that US currency, and all currencies linked to it, represent not real human values (as described above), but a claim that the US government, and therefore the private bankers of the Federal Reserve, et al, have against any who hold it. The validity of this claim should be clear in its absurdity, but the claim is backed by the jails and guns comprising leviathan, and it is the source of the equally absurd claims that “each US citizen” owes such-and-such portion of the “national debt”. Here again, we see the effects and error of attempting to influence the movement of human values by use of political force, instead of the science of economics.
Regardless, this is the manner in which the US Congress, charged with “balancing the federal budget” pays for all federal programs, domestic, international, imperial, etc. (Paul; Rothbard). This activity increases the ubiquity of the currency, which is where the term inflation comes from; it literally refers to “inflating” the currency by increasing the number of dollars in circulation, the real-world manifestation of which is an increase in prices generally (though not uniformly) over time. This is because of the representative nature of money – even though the number of dollars in circulation increases, the real value (real wealth) that the total amount of currency represents stays the same. Therefore, the value represented by each individual dollar (its purchasing power) lessens in direct proportion to the amount of currency (including credit) “inflation” (Mises; Bernstein; Paul).
What does all this mean to Haiti? Haiti (like the rest of the world since WWII) has used the US dollar as its “reserve” currency since the US occupation mentioned above (Dorsainvil). This means that the value of a Haitian dollar is directly tied to the value of a US dollar and decreases in value (i.e. purchasing power) as the ubiquity of the US dollar increases. This also means that Haiti makes payments on its debt with money that it owes more money (plus interest) on, according to its creditors and “benefactors.” Overall, this means that Haiti owes money to those who determine the value of the money they pay their debts with.
This reprehensible and untenable situation led to, and continues to drive, economic downturns for the average Haitian, as well as political unrest. While the rest of the world was experiencing the benefits of the industrial revolution – something Haiti, to this day, has yet to experience – the average Haitian was still, and is still, struggling in feudal conditions. In addition to the economic data offered at the outset, even a cursory review of the conditions of the shantytowns and lean-tos that used to be the ghettos of Port-Au-Prince reveals the abhorrent conditions prevailing in Haiti; conditions that most (in the “developed” world) might consider to have been eradicated by the Industrial Revolution, as they should have been. Clean water, regular and comprehensive hygiene, and nutritive food (providing nutrients enough to prevent the body’s reversion to self-consumption of lean muscle tissue), are unheard of for many Haitians, as is adequate shelter (Kidder; Djankov; Werleigh; Dorsainvil; “Haiti’s Latest”). These conditions are similar to or worse than that of peasants living under feudal and mercantilist systems prior to the Industrial Revolution. It is estimated that peasants under the aforementioned systems subsisted on the equivalent of $215/day in 1500 and $265/day in 1700 (Bernstein ch. 2).
A respect for property and boundaries incentivizes productive activity. If one knows one will be able to keep the efforts of one’s labor, the labor will invariably be more fruitful.
Haiti is no exception to this cause and effect relationship; property rights, and the protection thereof, have been almost non-existent since the founding of Hispaniola, non-existent, that is, for Haitians. Wealthy slave-owners during the colonial period had protection. Subsequently, “Sugar Island” was a wonder of riches for those who were recognized as the property owners, though not for those producing the riches. This does not implicate property-holding as an evil, however. The wrong, in this case, followed from a misapplication of the property principle, because it did not begin with self-ownership. Tragically, modern Haitians still live under conditions where the property principle is denied them (even while it is granted to the politically-connected elite), partly from a cultural inheritance of slave history, a unique and powerful mixture of religious beliefs, partly from the fact that their so-called extra-national “benefactors” do nothing to defend individual rights, namely, the property principle, often doing more to expropriate and exploit (“Haiti’s Latest”), and partly from the internal policies of the Haitian national government which, while the confluence of extra-national forces is relatively overwhelming, operates in such a fashion that Haiti has one of the most heavily regulated economies in the world (Doing Business 4; Miller 220). This creates a situation where Haitians live among an abundance of natural resources, but have not means, nor incentive, to do anything with them. Effectively, then, it would seem that the “peculiar institution” has been developed into something more sophisticated.
The level of economic freedom was exceedingly high (in relative historical terms) in the era and areas that birthed the Industrial Revolution, and a similar birthing needs to occur in Haiti. Economic growth requires economic and political freedom. For anyone genuinely concerned with the welfare of the inhabitants of Haiti, this is a relationship that deserves understanding, as most of the relevant parties (including Haitians themselves) would say that what Haiti needs most right now is the production of material values and increases in local self-sufficient industry (“Not Quite Normal”). In other words, development and production by Haitians, leading to community re-investment as the process prospers. The conditions advocated here did obtain in Great Britain, Scotland, and the American colonies (all inheritors of centuries old British common law, which was a major factor in them enjoying the greatest economic freedom of the period), and that is why the major advances, innovations, and indeed the epicenter of the Industrial Revolution were to be found in those places. France, on the other hand, seemed peculiarly bereft of major advances and innovations during that time period, by comparison (Bernstein 103; Mises 14). This is because French common law was not conducive to the freedoms discussed so far, and the conditions never existed in proportion enough to incentivize the activities of economic growth and industrialization, at least not until some time after the irresistible humanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution had been felt. Not surprisingly then, it is mostly nations that began as French colonies, and therefore inherited French common law that now languish among the worst economies of the world (Djankov 116), and continue to perpetuate these negative economic conditions, including Haiti.
As a result of the recent disaster in Haiti, the G7, which is comprised of the finance ministers from the US, the UK, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, and Germany, have agreed to nullify the debt that Haiti “owes” to them and central banks around the world, such as the IMF (Coday). Given what we know about Haiti’s history, it might seem that no amount of money could make amends for what some of these countries have done to the people of Haiti, and it should be Haiti in the position of creditor, not debtor (Klein). Moreover, given what we know about monetary theory and economics, it might seem ironic and presumptuous that the so-called “leaders” of the “free world” would deliver this decision as an offering of “charity” or “generosity,” since the G7 is, literally, the organized body which determines and executes all policy concerning how the world’s reserve currency (the US dollar) is used and manipulated at the international level, and especially since most of the current debt was amassed by the murderous, kleptocratic dictatorships of the Duvaliers, from 1957-1984 – regimes which were supported by most of the G7 nations as a bulwark against Communism (Klein). To this day, military considerations like this take precedence over the lives of Haitians (Lindsay). Ultimately, this is very telling of the ubiquity of the idea that the Haitian people “can’t govern themselves” (“Haiti’s Latest”), and that the idea of Haitian < Human still motivates the top of the political-institutional hierarchy.
To hear the Haitian people tell it (something not considered relevant by the current political force wielders) the only hope that most Haitians have had in recent years has been the elections of the massively popular Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Aristide did provide, one of the most important human values of all, however, and that was a very powerful spark of motivation and pride in most Haitians, who suddenly saw the future as a place and time in which they would be much better off, perhaps even prosper, and at least as somewhere they want to be. This is a massively significant aspect of economic growth, as no human being will work to create value if they do not feel worthy of value (pride), and see no hope or reality of enjoying those values in the future, immediate or otherwise (motivation).
Regardless, Aristide, operating under the conditions already described, had little chance to effect much change in Haiti, as the military overthrew his presidency only 6 months after his first election in 1991 (Aristide). He was not re-instated until after agreeing to implement policies outlined by the IMF and World Bank, the very policies advocated by Mark Bazin, the US-backed opponent Aristide had defeated in the election of 1991, which would only exacerbate most of the problems in Haiti (Aristide; “Haiti’s Latest”). Among these were agreements to import US-subsidized corporate agriculture products, like rice. Rice production, however, was one of the few things many Haitians had, with which to generate economic good for themselves and their communities. Having to compete with US-subsidized imports meant these limited productive enterprises were no longer tenable, and many Haitians entered a new level of poverty thereby (“Chomsky”). Subsequently, many also decided to go to Port-Au-Prince to find work. This influx of inland peasantry greatly increased the human cost of the recent earthquake. Aristide’s time in office expired shortly after his re-instatement. He was re-elected in 2001, again on a platform of better lives for the poor through redistribution, and again overwhelmingly. It was during this presidency that he demanded restitution from France, of the 90 million gold francs once stolen at gun-boat point. He was “removed” from power in 2004, when then-US-vice-president Dick Cheney decided that Aristide had, “Worn out his welcome,” (Granqvist).
The question being asked around the world now is, “How can we help Haiti?” Motivations for, and implications of the question notwithstanding, a good first step would be international recognition of all of that which is described above, plus the rest of story. Perhaps reparations and recompense could be attempt by the so-called “creditor” nations, but where would they come from, and what kind of precedent would that set? Perhaps it would set the same kind that George Washington wanted to avoid when he committed resources to help put down the Haitian slave rebellion in 1779 (Goodwin). It seems unlikely that any substantial steps toward real healing will be undertaken soon, especially when the average citizen of the world’s “super powers” do not hold the members of their governments accountable for the atrocities committed on a daily basis around the world, including Haiti and many others. Many of the causes of Haiti’s problems exist in every nation on earth. All governments use elastic currency, the property principle is often denied, and freedom is an increasingly rare state of existence; and it is all made possible by the belief that some lives matter less. The solutions are implied by the explanation of the problems, and can only occur spontaneously, as more and more individuals understand the nature of the systems at work.
Economics is the study of the movement of human values, it cannot tell us what to value, but it is telling us that values can only move toward the betterment of all humans if certain conditions obtain. That is, if freedom and independence are increased, and the property principle is respected and secure. For these reasons, political influence on economics will always be destructive, except insofar as it is absent. The point is clear in the case of Haiti, but for the real cure to occur, individuals the world over must understand these principles and defend them. All human beings are different in some ways, but all human beings are individuals, even Haitians. Recognition of this fundamental truth must form the basis for all social and economic enterprise, including solutions to current problems, that is, if the desire is economic growth, human well-being, and increased standards of living for all humans; the tragedy of Haiti has brought this to the attention of the world. Haitians are human. Human life matters.
Aristide and the Endless Revolution. Dir. Nicolas Rossier. First Run Features, 2005. DVD.
Bernstein, Andrew. The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case For Laissez-Faire. Lanham, MD: University of America, 2005. Print.
Butler, Smedley D., and Adam Parfrey. War Is a Racket: the Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti-interventionist Tracts and Photographs from 'The Horror of It' Los Angeles, Calif.: Feral House, 2003. Print.
"Chomsky on Haiti: Aid Should Go to Haitian Popular Organizations, Not to Contractors or NGOs." Interview by Keane Bhatt. Counterpunch 9 Mar. 2010. Print.
Coday, Dennis. "Forgiving Haiti's Debt." National Catholic Reporter 19 Feb. 2010: 1+. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.
Djankov, Simeon, Caralee McLiesh, and Michael Klein. Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2004. Print.
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The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world. – Dr. Paul Farmer (Kidder 4940).
Why does the life of a Haitian matter less? Why, since the beginning of recorded history, has this always been so? Though the answer to these questions may not be obvious, their asking names the reason why most Haitians find themselves impoverished to the point of desperation. There has been a cadre of extra-national (non-Haitian) forces controlling the economic and political realities of the people of Haiti for the last 500 years, imposing various wills by force, and violating the sovereignty of individuals by all means, from slavery and expropriation, to currency manipulation – a vicious mixture of politics and economics. Economics is the study of the movement of human values, and values are a matter of subjective judgment – individual choice, while politics is the application of ideas by force to increase human activity toward some proscribed end – the elimination of individual choice. Economics is not a normative science – it will not tell a person what to value – it will merely describe the natural laws, principles and relevant processes which comprise the ways and means of achieving human values (Mises 4-8). Politics is just the opposite, it will attempt to mandate goals, values, and other ends, though it is wholly unable to tell, explain, nor identify how to accomplish these mandates. It is through the perspective of this relationship between politics and economics that a clear understanding of the situation in Haiti can be attained, and it shall become clear that the actions of those who have wielded political force in the direction of Haiti over the last 500 years have all been driven by the belief that the life of a Haitian matters less: Haitian < Human.
Haiti was once known as the "Pearl of the Antilles," the producer of most of the wealth of France. Most achievements recognized as those of 17th and 18th century France were subsidized by the slave labor found on what was then called Hispaniola, with the island surpassing all other European colonies in terms of wealth produced. Now, after 200 years, and including one of the only successful slave rebellions ever, Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere (Goodwin; “The Sad Bicentennial”). An estimated 75% of Haiti’s population of 7 million people lives in abject, miserable poverty, and the average Haitian has an income of $440 per year, if they're working – Haiti has a 70% unemployment rate (Jordan; Djankov 149). This income value, however, does not reflect the purchasing power of the amount, its "real wealth," and so does not explain much. Perhaps Dr. Farmer (co-founder of Partners In Health) can explain a bit more, since he knows that his average patient in Haiti needs medical attention, "...and a roof and a floor" (Kidder 4860). In the wake of the recent earthquake, what little some Haitians might have had has been reduced still further (for vivid examples, please see recent reports on this disaster), and even in our modern age, the sentiments and actions of many, even those who are (ostensibly) trying to help, are driven by the ugly Haitian < Human idea (Willentz).
What we know as Haiti began with the discovery of an island Columbus called Hispaniola, in 1492. It took the Spanish (and French) less than 90 years to completely destroy the indigenous Arawak population (the Taino branch) of over 1 million people, mostly through slave labor and infectious disease (Goodwin; Willentz; Aristide; Werleigh). This is the second violent and malicious example of indigenous Haitian lives meaning less to those who established dominion through the use of force. The first was the assumption of occupation of the island at all, establishing a colony by usurping the land of those already living there, what today’s governments and politicos blithely call “eminent domain." Effectively, this means that the possessor of the superior destructive weaponry is, ultimately, the possessor of everything else as well, if he should choose to claim it. A blatant violation of property rights such as this, as well as slavery (which is merely an extension of eminent domain), are only possible when the victim is viewed by the usurper as something other than the sovereign of his own life and property, and therefore something less than human. At various times, both France and Spain exerted dominion over the island and fought for control, but both imported slaves to replace the (now extinct) Arawak slave labor force.
By 1790, there were approximately 500,000 slave laborers and 30,000 plantation owners and other elites. By 1804, a slave rebellion had resulted in a successful revolution, and the (recently) indigenous people of Haiti ousted the French, declaring an independent republic (Hayti, an Arawak term for “Mountainous terrain”), the second in the western hemisphere (Werleigh; Goodwin). No nation in the world recognized Haiti's sovereignty at the time, refusing trade and alliance, with some enacting embargoes (Werleigh). In 1821, France surrounded the major ports of the island with gunboats, and held the fledgling nation for ransom. They demanded 90 million gold francs, in "exchange" for which, they would recognize the independence of the Haitian Republic, and not demolish their ports (Aristide; Goodwin). 90 million gold francs might seem like a large amount, until one considers that the purchasing power of gold has not diminished throughout most of history - 1 oz. of gold will buy today much the same that it bought in 1821 (e.g. a nice suit, shoes, and possibly a hat to match), and each gold franc was made of 290.3g (about 10 oz.) of gold - it might now seem like much more. Moreover, all currency (including gold) is representative of real human values (e.g. life, time, energy, etc.), whether past, present, or future, so an extortion of this kind robs the dead, living, and unborn, with costs totaling incalculable sums, even if the calculations are attempted in a purely mechanistic fashion.
Compared to the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution won a very short-lived victory. In most of America, residents were able to enjoy true independence until the war of secession, and some until the early 20th century. A primary reason for this is geography. Both the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution were won, not because of superior armaments and strength, but because the prospect of victory became too costly to the Imperial progenitor the revolutionaries were fighting against. After the American Revolution, the open frontier was so vast, and the difficulties of military deployment so great, that it took almost 100 years for the central government to build up an infrastructure and amass the force and resources necessary to make nationwide control a feasible goal. In other words, American people, to be free of external (i.e. governmental) controls, had somewhere to go; this is commonly referred to as “voting with your feet.” This option was not available for the Haitians, and it took only 20 years for France to amass the force and resources necessary to again subjugate the Haitian people. So with nowhere to go, and staring down the barrel of massively destructive firepower, the fledgling Haitian government agreed, under intense duress, to the demands of the French government, effectively enslaving the Haitian people to a massive debt for the next 122 years (Werleigh). As described above, this episode of imperial thuggery marked a crucial turning point in the movement of values for people of Haiti. From 1821 on, the movement of human values in Haiti would be almost entirely in directions away from the majority of the people living there, the root causes of all such movement being political, as they always had been.
The Republic of Haiti had lost their independence after 20 short years. From that point on, it was subject to the terms of foreign creditors (including governments besides France, as well as private/central banks, as the government of Haiti had to take out loans to pay the debt to the French government) , who would use military might to “protect investments” as necessary . It was in 1915 that the US government, acting under the auspices of the Monroe doctrine, took such action, with the military occupation of Haiti, which “officially” lasted until 1934 (Schmidt, ch. 7; “Chomsky”). Major General Smedley Butler was a commanding officer during the occupation, and later described his activities this way, "I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism" (Butler).
It might seem obvious that a debt would hamper any economy, especially one compounded by loans to pay it back, but to fully understand the extent of the destructive political power wielded against Haiti under these conditions, some consideration of monetary theory is necessary.
The current money (currency) of any locale is the means by which the inhabitants trade value for value. It is a symbolic representative of past, present, and future (claims to) real values (real wealth). It is also a commodity like anything else. As such, it is subject to the laws of supply and demand (pricing), which are themselves the observable manifestations of individual subjective valuations on a large scale (meaning that “demand” of a product increases because individuals decide that they value the product more than the dollars in their pocket, and more than potential expected future exchanges those particular dollars might enable. Conversely, individuals may decide to value the dollars or what they might buy in the future, more than the product). This also means that currency is subject to the laws of scarcity and marginal utility. Indeed, scarcity of money is necessary for the price (normally referred to as its purchasing power) of money to go up. As more and more individuals tend to value money for its usefulness in future exchange, “demand” for money increases, and the price of money goes up. Since currency is usually the standard of measure, this means that the observable effect is that prices for other things go down. Put another way, the more ubiquitous a given thing is, and the more easily accessible it is, the less valuable it becomes in terms of trade, despite any “objective value”. For instance, air is one of the most ubiquitous substances on the planet, and even though it is absolutely essential to human life, it has little value in terms of trade, except to the person who has little or no access to it.
The currency of the US was once based on a relatively finite amount of gold, which kept the ubiquity of the dollar somewhat constant, until 1971, when then-US-president Nixon severed the tie completely. Since then, the Federal Reserve (a private bank with no transparency) has had complete control over the amount of currency in circulation, by means (primarily, but among many) of manipulating interest rates on borrowing. When the US treasury wants to create more dollars (when the US congress wants more money to spend), it takes out a loan from the Federal Reserve. It then has to pay back the principal, plus interest. This means that every dollar in circulation, and then some, is “owed back,” and is therefore a debt. Further, this means that US currency, and all currencies linked to it, represent not real human values (as described above), but a claim that the US government, and therefore the private bankers of the Federal Reserve, et al, have against any who hold it. The validity of this claim should be clear in its absurdity, but the claim is backed by the jails and guns comprising leviathan, and it is the source of the equally absurd claims that “each US citizen” owes such-and-such portion of the “national debt”. Here again, we see the effects and error of attempting to influence the movement of human values by use of political force, instead of the science of economics.
Regardless, this is the manner in which the US Congress, charged with “balancing the federal budget” pays for all federal programs, domestic, international, imperial, etc. (Paul; Rothbard). This activity increases the ubiquity of the currency, which is where the term inflation comes from; it literally refers to “inflating” the currency by increasing the number of dollars in circulation, the real-world manifestation of which is an increase in prices generally (though not uniformly) over time. This is because of the representative nature of money – even though the number of dollars in circulation increases, the real value (real wealth) that the total amount of currency represents stays the same. Therefore, the value represented by each individual dollar (its purchasing power) lessens in direct proportion to the amount of currency (including credit) “inflation” (Mises; Bernstein; Paul).
What does all this mean to Haiti? Haiti (like the rest of the world since WWII) has used the US dollar as its “reserve” currency since the US occupation mentioned above (Dorsainvil). This means that the value of a Haitian dollar is directly tied to the value of a US dollar and decreases in value (i.e. purchasing power) as the ubiquity of the US dollar increases. This also means that Haiti makes payments on its debt with money that it owes more money (plus interest) on, according to its creditors and “benefactors.” Overall, this means that Haiti owes money to those who determine the value of the money they pay their debts with.
This reprehensible and untenable situation led to, and continues to drive, economic downturns for the average Haitian, as well as political unrest. While the rest of the world was experiencing the benefits of the industrial revolution – something Haiti, to this day, has yet to experience – the average Haitian was still, and is still, struggling in feudal conditions. In addition to the economic data offered at the outset, even a cursory review of the conditions of the shantytowns and lean-tos that used to be the ghettos of Port-Au-Prince reveals the abhorrent conditions prevailing in Haiti; conditions that most (in the “developed” world) might consider to have been eradicated by the Industrial Revolution, as they should have been. Clean water, regular and comprehensive hygiene, and nutritive food (providing nutrients enough to prevent the body’s reversion to self-consumption of lean muscle tissue), are unheard of for many Haitians, as is adequate shelter (Kidder; Djankov; Werleigh; Dorsainvil; “Haiti’s Latest”). These conditions are similar to or worse than that of peasants living under feudal and mercantilist systems prior to the Industrial Revolution. It is estimated that peasants under the aforementioned systems subsisted on the equivalent of $215/day in 1500 and $265/day in 1700 (Bernstein ch. 2).
…in the 17th century, poverty was reached when daily income was less than the daily cost of minimum bread requirement – in other words, when a person could not make enough money to buy a crust of bread. A quarter to half the population of 17th century England subsisted near or below this line of destitution (Bernstein 59).The ostensible reasons for Haiti’s exclusion from the humanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution are essentially the same as those for the short-lived-ness of the period of independence discussed above. This is extremely significant, as the industrial revolution solved the problem of feeding (creating material wealth for) millions of people on limited resources (Mises, 14; Bernstein, 108). It also proved that prosperity is a function of freedom, independence, and respect for the property (i.e. boundaries) of individuals, including one’s primary property – oneself. In many ways, these are synonymous terms, but if we understand freedom to mean a state of being free from coercion, free of restraint imposed by external agency through the use of force (especially in economics, as described herein), and we understand independence to refer to one’s ability to choose and act as one sees fit, to exercise judgment and pursue values without being beholden to a creditor or dependent upon an external agency to provide basic life requirements, a very clear picture can begin to coalesce of what has been wrong in Haiti (among other places) for the last 500 years. It is also instructive to consider that as economics is the study of the movement of human values, it is necessarily then, about the movement (handling) of property, as any value can also be the property of an individual, once it is defined as being within the boundaries of the individual in question. “Boundaries”, in this case, refers to one’s “sphere of ownership,” akin to the common idea of a “sphere of influence.” Both abstract ideas, the former refers to all things one has exclusive control over, by right.
A respect for property and boundaries incentivizes productive activity. If one knows one will be able to keep the efforts of one’s labor, the labor will invariably be more fruitful.
‘Property’ is not simply some social invention, like Emily Post’s guide to etiquette, but a way of describing conditions that are essential to all living things. Every living thing must occupy space and consume energy from outside itself if it is to survive, and it must do so to the exclusion of all other living things on the planet. I didn’t dream this up. My thinking was not consulted before the life system developed. The world was operating on the property principle when I arrived and, like the rest of us, I had to work out my answers to that most fundamental, pragmatic of all social questions: who gets to make decisions about what? The essence of "ownership" is to be found in control: who gets to be the ultimate decision maker about people and "things" in the world?The recognition of the property principle is essential to economic development, whether viewed at the level of the individual, or viewed at the level of the community or society, comprised of individuals; it can be stated thusly: just as one has the right to one’s own life, that is complete and exclusive ownership of oneself, one also has the right to those extensions of self (e.g. values, property) created or acquired in acts of self-sufficiency and/or free exchange with others. This applies to all individual human beings and is a deductive truth, an extension of the fact that values are required in order to live, and can be proven to oneself by imagining what happens when one has no rights to the products and results of one’s efforts and exchanges. Unfortunately, however, no thought experiments need be conducted, as numerous examples of what happens when the property principle is defied occur throughout history, and especially in the 20th century, including (but not limited to) the former Soviet Union, whose defiance of the property principle led to the deaths of nearly 62,000,000 of its own citizens, the People’s Republic of China, under Mao Tse-tung, where 35,000,000 Chinese residents perished due to refusal to recognize the property principle, and of course, Nazi Germany, where denial of the property principle resulted in the deaths of 21,000,000 individuals (Rummel 8). Examples continue to this day, though the effects are relatively subtle by comparison.
Observe the rest of nature: trees, birds, fish, plants, other mammals, bacteria, all stake out claims to space and sources of energy in the world, and will defend such claims against intruders, particularly members of their own species. This is not because they are mean-spirited or uncooperative: quite the contrary, many of us have discovered that cooperation is a great way of increasing the availability of the energy we need to live well. We have found out that, if we will respect the property claims of one another and work together, each of us can enjoy more property in our lives than if we try to function independently of one another. Such a discovery has permitted us to create economic systems (Shaffer).
Haiti is no exception to this cause and effect relationship; property rights, and the protection thereof, have been almost non-existent since the founding of Hispaniola, non-existent, that is, for Haitians. Wealthy slave-owners during the colonial period had protection. Subsequently, “Sugar Island” was a wonder of riches for those who were recognized as the property owners, though not for those producing the riches. This does not implicate property-holding as an evil, however. The wrong, in this case, followed from a misapplication of the property principle, because it did not begin with self-ownership. Tragically, modern Haitians still live under conditions where the property principle is denied them (even while it is granted to the politically-connected elite), partly from a cultural inheritance of slave history, a unique and powerful mixture of religious beliefs, partly from the fact that their so-called extra-national “benefactors” do nothing to defend individual rights, namely, the property principle, often doing more to expropriate and exploit (“Haiti’s Latest”), and partly from the internal policies of the Haitian national government which, while the confluence of extra-national forces is relatively overwhelming, operates in such a fashion that Haiti has one of the most heavily regulated economies in the world (Doing Business 4; Miller 220). This creates a situation where Haitians live among an abundance of natural resources, but have not means, nor incentive, to do anything with them. Effectively, then, it would seem that the “peculiar institution” has been developed into something more sophisticated.
In Haiti . . . the total assets of the poor are more than one hundred fifty times greater than all the foreign investment received since Haiti’s independence from France in 1804. If the United States were to hike its foreign aid budget to the level recommended by the UnitedNations—0.7 percent of national income—it would take the richest country on earth more than 150 years to transfer to the world’s poor resources equal to those they already possess.In understanding economics as the movement of human values, and in light of all that has been discussed above, it is no surprise that the most heavily regulated (both internally and externally) economies in the world are also the worst performing, especially in terms of avg. wealth and income, and living conditions. This has been true throughout history, and continues to be true to this day, according to even the most casual observations, as well as two separate reports published by the World Bank in 2004 (Djankov) and 2010 (Doing Business), and the Index of Economic Freedom (Miller), published by the Heritage Foundation. Currently, Haiti consistently ranks in the bottom three to five nations (Djankov; Doing Business) and has historically been well below the world average in terms of economic freedom (Miller 219), with a 203 day waiting-period and start-up & capital costs exceeding 4 times the average income for opening a business (“Poverty’s Chains”; Miller 219). All of the worst performing economies of the world are also the least free, least conducive to independence, and least respecting of property (Djankov; Miller; Doing Business).
…If they could operate in an environment of secure property rights, the world’s poor would have the solution to their own plight. Indeed with their already accumulated property secured, the world’s poor would be much less so (O’Driscoll 12).
For 15 years, The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal have been measuring economic freedom in countries worldwide. Our historical evidence and volumes of supportive social science research demonstrate that economic freedom is good not only for individual economic advancement, but for the progressive values and public goods that people seek for society as a whole.These higher levels of economic freedom are synonymous with the previously mentioned principles, and incentivize production and industriousness on an individual level, which translates to massive increases in real wealth on a macroscopic scale over time. To begin with, a free monetary system, one not shackled to the inflationary practices of the US and the Federal Reserve (or any private and/or central bank, for that matter), has an immense effect on every aspect of economic life, since, as discussed, all money is representative of the real wealth and values existing, and economics is the movement of those values. When the inhabitants of a given area have recognized and begin interfacing with their state of freedom, and are assured that the property principle will be recognized as applying equally to all, real increases in material wealth, and the values required to maintain a higher standard of living in a self-sufficient manner, will follow from the choices and actions previously unavailable to the individuals under consideration. Ultimately, economic, and therefore human, development cannot occur except under certain conditions. Concerning Haiti, what is needed right now is material abundance, and the protection of Haitian individual rights to own and use that abundance, real human values to sustain and motivate a population that has been under the thumb of mercantilist, corporate-imperialism for 500 years, which has created conditions that are the exact opposite of what is needed.
It's simply better to live in a free society. Higher levels of economic freedom lead to higher living standards and healthier human development. Greater economic freedom provides more choices and improves the quality of life by opening opportunities and promoting innovation (Miller).
The level of economic freedom was exceedingly high (in relative historical terms) in the era and areas that birthed the Industrial Revolution, and a similar birthing needs to occur in Haiti. Economic growth requires economic and political freedom. For anyone genuinely concerned with the welfare of the inhabitants of Haiti, this is a relationship that deserves understanding, as most of the relevant parties (including Haitians themselves) would say that what Haiti needs most right now is the production of material values and increases in local self-sufficient industry (“Not Quite Normal”). In other words, development and production by Haitians, leading to community re-investment as the process prospers. The conditions advocated here did obtain in Great Britain, Scotland, and the American colonies (all inheritors of centuries old British common law, which was a major factor in them enjoying the greatest economic freedom of the period), and that is why the major advances, innovations, and indeed the epicenter of the Industrial Revolution were to be found in those places. France, on the other hand, seemed peculiarly bereft of major advances and innovations during that time period, by comparison (Bernstein 103; Mises 14). This is because French common law was not conducive to the freedoms discussed so far, and the conditions never existed in proportion enough to incentivize the activities of economic growth and industrialization, at least not until some time after the irresistible humanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution had been felt. Not surprisingly then, it is mostly nations that began as French colonies, and therefore inherited French common law that now languish among the worst economies of the world (Djankov 116), and continue to perpetuate these negative economic conditions, including Haiti.
As a result of the recent disaster in Haiti, the G7, which is comprised of the finance ministers from the US, the UK, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, and Germany, have agreed to nullify the debt that Haiti “owes” to them and central banks around the world, such as the IMF (Coday). Given what we know about Haiti’s history, it might seem that no amount of money could make amends for what some of these countries have done to the people of Haiti, and it should be Haiti in the position of creditor, not debtor (Klein). Moreover, given what we know about monetary theory and economics, it might seem ironic and presumptuous that the so-called “leaders” of the “free world” would deliver this decision as an offering of “charity” or “generosity,” since the G7 is, literally, the organized body which determines and executes all policy concerning how the world’s reserve currency (the US dollar) is used and manipulated at the international level, and especially since most of the current debt was amassed by the murderous, kleptocratic dictatorships of the Duvaliers, from 1957-1984 – regimes which were supported by most of the G7 nations as a bulwark against Communism (Klein). To this day, military considerations like this take precedence over the lives of Haitians (Lindsay). Ultimately, this is very telling of the ubiquity of the idea that the Haitian people “can’t govern themselves” (“Haiti’s Latest”), and that the idea of Haitian < Human still motivates the top of the political-institutional hierarchy.
To hear the Haitian people tell it (something not considered relevant by the current political force wielders) the only hope that most Haitians have had in recent years has been the elections of the massively popular Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
"Under Aristide, the times were good," says Bazile, who is in her 30s, a mother of nine, and a member of Bel-Air's women's association. "We had jobs, income and food, our children went to school and we were able to support our families. Today, we have nothing but misery, misery, misery. The children haven't been to school for two years and they eat a plate of rice a day--at the best (Granqvist).Aristide entered office as something of a radical populist. A minister by trade, his sermons often advocated the redistribution of wealth, “balancing” the economic disparity between the wealthy elite living in Haiti, and the miserable poor. “Poverty with dignity,” is an exemplary quote of his, and one he often employed in defining his political ambitions as they related to the 70% of the voting population that elected him.
We’re asking that you acknowledge that you’ve stolen, your countrymen have stolen, during colonization. If you truly want to call yourselves “developed” countries, you need to acknowledge what you’ve done to us. We have a right to recompense. – Jean Bertrand Aristide (Aristide)It is clear that Aristide understood that Haitian suffering was a product of the activities relegated to history, he also understood the connection between development and economics, to a degree at least; that a “developed” nation is one that can produce wealth, real human values, toward the end of increasing economic growth, and how could these countries truly claim to be developed when those values came at the expense of human lives, Haitian human lives? Aristide implemented many humanizing policies and reforms, such as increasing access to healthcare and education, increasing access to programs that improved adult literacy, and aiding agricultural development, but these values came at the expense of those who were in control of the wealth of the Haitian land, especially those who had been benefitting from the long exploitation of the average Haitian individual; many of whom had the means to forcefully re-reform when the expense became too high. Aristide’s policies were not a cure for the ills described here, as we have seen repeatedly that the politicization of economics always results in a return, as evidenced by subsequent events in the case of Aristide. The reason for this truth is to be found in Newton’s laws. Specifically, that for every action, there is an equal and opposing reaction. Human nature, however it may be defined, is still a natural phenomenon, and is subject to all the same natural laws as the rest of the universe. This means that for every act of political force-wielding, a similar act will be returned in response, though specific factors (e.g. time and implementation) may be unpredictable. In the case of Aristide, his policies (those acts of political force-wielding) may be seen as serving a kind of retribution to the average Haitian individual, and one might be tempted to assess this as “justice,” but that would make justice merely the redistribution of violence, instead of the redistribution of values according to desserts, which is what concerns us here. Reality, in any case, is the ultimate arbiter of cases such as these, and the end result in this instance, as well similar examples throughout history only support this proposition. Ultimately, if using political force to direct the movement of human values is wrong, then using political force to direct the movement of human values is wrong.
Aristide did provide, one of the most important human values of all, however, and that was a very powerful spark of motivation and pride in most Haitians, who suddenly saw the future as a place and time in which they would be much better off, perhaps even prosper, and at least as somewhere they want to be. This is a massively significant aspect of economic growth, as no human being will work to create value if they do not feel worthy of value (pride), and see no hope or reality of enjoying those values in the future, immediate or otherwise (motivation).
Regardless, Aristide, operating under the conditions already described, had little chance to effect much change in Haiti, as the military overthrew his presidency only 6 months after his first election in 1991 (Aristide). He was not re-instated until after agreeing to implement policies outlined by the IMF and World Bank, the very policies advocated by Mark Bazin, the US-backed opponent Aristide had defeated in the election of 1991, which would only exacerbate most of the problems in Haiti (Aristide; “Haiti’s Latest”). Among these were agreements to import US-subsidized corporate agriculture products, like rice. Rice production, however, was one of the few things many Haitians had, with which to generate economic good for themselves and their communities. Having to compete with US-subsidized imports meant these limited productive enterprises were no longer tenable, and many Haitians entered a new level of poverty thereby (“Chomsky”). Subsequently, many also decided to go to Port-Au-Prince to find work. This influx of inland peasantry greatly increased the human cost of the recent earthquake. Aristide’s time in office expired shortly after his re-instatement. He was re-elected in 2001, again on a platform of better lives for the poor through redistribution, and again overwhelmingly. It was during this presidency that he demanded restitution from France, of the 90 million gold francs once stolen at gun-boat point. He was “removed” from power in 2004, when then-US-vice-president Dick Cheney decided that Aristide had, “Worn out his welcome,” (Granqvist).
The question being asked around the world now is, “How can we help Haiti?” Motivations for, and implications of the question notwithstanding, a good first step would be international recognition of all of that which is described above, plus the rest of story. Perhaps reparations and recompense could be attempt by the so-called “creditor” nations, but where would they come from, and what kind of precedent would that set? Perhaps it would set the same kind that George Washington wanted to avoid when he committed resources to help put down the Haitian slave rebellion in 1779 (Goodwin). It seems unlikely that any substantial steps toward real healing will be undertaken soon, especially when the average citizen of the world’s “super powers” do not hold the members of their governments accountable for the atrocities committed on a daily basis around the world, including Haiti and many others. Many of the causes of Haiti’s problems exist in every nation on earth. All governments use elastic currency, the property principle is often denied, and freedom is an increasingly rare state of existence; and it is all made possible by the belief that some lives matter less. The solutions are implied by the explanation of the problems, and can only occur spontaneously, as more and more individuals understand the nature of the systems at work.
Economics is the study of the movement of human values, it cannot tell us what to value, but it is telling us that values can only move toward the betterment of all humans if certain conditions obtain. That is, if freedom and independence are increased, and the property principle is respected and secure. For these reasons, political influence on economics will always be destructive, except insofar as it is absent. The point is clear in the case of Haiti, but for the real cure to occur, individuals the world over must understand these principles and defend them. All human beings are different in some ways, but all human beings are individuals, even Haitians. Recognition of this fundamental truth must form the basis for all social and economic enterprise, including solutions to current problems, that is, if the desire is economic growth, human well-being, and increased standards of living for all humans; the tragedy of Haiti has brought this to the attention of the world. Haitians are human. Human life matters.
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