January 2010 – Page 2

Vampyrer og Magia Posthuma Q&A

Niels K. Petersen, hvis navn vil være en del bekendt fra fan- og andre sammenhænge, bliver interviewet af Anthony Hogg på hans blog Diary of an Amateur Vampirologist.

Interviewet er i to dele og handler om Niels’ arbejde med vampyrer, ikke mindst på den engelsksprogede blog Magia Posthuma:

AH: You started your blog in 2007, but your readers probably aren’t aware that you’ve been writing about vampires for a lot longer. Could you give us a background?

NKP: Well, I edited a fanzine on vampires and horror fiction when I was pretty young, so I wrote some articles on vampires that were based on books like Anthony Masters’ The Natural History of the Vampire. Later on, I was asked to write a couple of articles on similar matters, including a history of vampire cinema for a Danish magazine on horror movies to coincide with Coppola’s movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

But for many years I wasn’t actively doing anything related to the subject apart from perhaps watching the occasional vampire movie. I had become a father and was busy with other things. And I was still pretty disillusioned with most of the books that were published at the time. I suppose I had more or less dropped the subject.

But in 2006 I decided to compile the material I had for a book in my native language, Danish. However, when I began working on it, I started looking for extra information and for some of the books I didn’t have. I also discovered papers and a few books published in recent years, mostly in German, and thanks to the internet I was able to finally get hold of some of the books that had been almost impossible to find earlier on. […]

AH: Part of the reason for your blog’s existence, was to relay your attempts at finding a copy of de Schertz’s famous Magia Posthuma, a work very few authors have read. Where did you find your copy and why do you think other writers have struggled to find a copy of this work?

NKP: If I wasn’t seriously searching for that book, I may never have started my blog, and probably would not have attempted to launch the term “magia posthuma” as a kind of brand for the topic. Magia Posthuma is famous because of Dom Calmet who wrote about it in his Dissertation, but apparently it wasn’t widely read or even known in the 18th century, and probably never has been. Because of Calmet and those who have cribbed from him it has become a well-known title, even becoming the name of a Belgian metal band for a short period.

I was finally able to read a copy thanks to the Royal Library in Copenhagen, but I had to help them by pointing in the direction of a copy. As far as I know now, there are two copies in the Czech Republic and one in France, the latter one probably the copy that Calmet himself read. […]

AH: Apart from finding a copy of de Schertz’s book, what would you say is your proudest achievement, so far, in your vampirological studies and aims?

NKP: I am happy to have inspired people in Vienna to arrange a conference on vampirism and to have participated. That certainly has been one of the highlights of my active interest in the subject. I also want to mention my delight in inspiring and helping various people in their studies and research. It seems that I have inspired a couple of students in their choice of thesis. I am frequently surprised at the kind of response I get from my blog. Some of the feedback I have received can be seen on the blog, but a lot of it is only communicated by e-mail.

Magia Posthuma er altså en blog om vampirismen og dens historie, eller for at sige det med dens egne ord:

On several occasions, particularly on the periphery of the Habsburg Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries, dead people were suspected of being revenants or vampires, and consequently dug up and destroyed. Contemporary authors named this phenomenon Magia Posthuma. This blog is dedicated to understanding what happened and why.

Med andre ord, et ofte spændende bekendtskab.
Link: Q & A with Niels K. Petersen, Part 1, Q & A with Niels K. Petersen, Part 2.

Burkaer og sygehuse – de signaler, man ikke sender

Ole Wolf har et meget præcist indlæg, hvor han konstaterer, at hvis det er så enormtvigtigt at “sende et signal” om, at det ikke er OK at gå i burka i Danmark, selv om der ganske vist ingen eller næsten ingen, der faktisk går i en sådan klædedragt, så er det i sig selv et signal om, at der er signaler, det ikke er vigtigt at sende.

Man vil gerne “sende et signal” om, at vi ikke bryder os om folk i muslimske klæder, men vi har åbenbart ikke så travlt med at forbyde folk at gå med skrårem og seler og gå i strækmarch, selv om det formentlig er mindst lige så stort et problem som de 0-3 (± undersøgelsens usikkerhed) burkabærende kvinder.

Men er åbenbart heller ikke så interesseret i at “sende signaler” om, at vi står vagt om sundhedsvæsnet og beskytter det mod fyringer, eller om at vi er modstandere af bankernes og pensionskassernes hensynsløse manipulation med og udplyndring af deres kunder. Og det er åbenbart heller ikke vigtigt at “sende et signal” om, at vi gerne vil gøre vores for at sikre mod global opvarmning og trække vores læs i begrænsningen af CO2-udslip. Alle disse og mange flere signaler er det åbenbart ikke så vigtigt at sende. Men burkaer …?

Som Ole siger:

Når man begår et valg, begår man også fravalg. Blandt mange mulige signaler har man valgt ét, der var det vigtigste. Politikernes valg af signaler fortæller hvilke signaler, de finder mindre vigtige.

Skulle regeringen have valgt beklædning, der symboliserer undertrykkelse og antidemokratiske holdninger, kunne regeringen have valgt at forbyde skrårem og seler. Ganske vist er der ingen (eller i det mindste temmelig få), der bærer denne beklædning, men da det ikke skorter på politikernes sammenligninger mellem islam og nazisme – og efterfølgende domme for racisme – så udtrykker dette fravalg, at man reelt opfatter islam som værre. I betragtning af den generelle højredrejning i dansk politik og det forhold, at Dansk Folkeparti har et glimrende forhold til nazister er nazismen ellers nærværende nok gennem dens noget tydeligere involvering i politiske spørgsmål, end muslimer tager sig tid til. Man udsender et signal om, at nazisme er mere acceptabelt end islam.

De Konservative kunne også have valgt at fremhæve f.eks. var klimaet og miljøet, den stigende fattigdom, fyringerne på sygehusene, finanskrisen eller andre, yderst nærværende problemer som deres højest prioriterede politik, men det blev alligevel burkaforbudet, der vejede tungest. Det sender det skjulte signal, at de Konservative ikke er specielt optagede af disse vigtige emner.

Regeringens partier og støtteparti overbyder hinanden med krav om højere straffe og flere forbud på grund af ganske få personer, og de indførte rockerlov, overvågning, lømmelpakke og en terrorlov, som endnu ikke har fanget en eneste terrorist. Samtidig slipper økonomiske forbrydere lige så billigt som hidtil, og rocker- og terrorlov bruges til at dømme folk (nogle gange for justitsmord), der ikke har den mindste relation til hverken bandekriminalitet eller terror, mens lømmelpakken bruges til at forhindre folk i at demonstrere mod et klimatopmøde, som de demonstrerende ønskede at gøre opmærksom på ville blive en monumental fiasko.

Men hver gang, regeringens partier fremsætter et lovforslag, udtaler sig principielt eller ønsker at sende signaler, er der en række lovforslag, de ikke fremsætter. Der er en række principper, de tier om, og der er en række signaler, de ikke sender. Tavshed kan være meget sigende, og de ord, regeringen ikke siger, når den buldrer frem med mange hårde ord, er næsten øredøvende.

Link: Skjult signalpolitik

Racisme i dækningen af jordskælvet på Haiti

På videoen ser man blandt andet, hvordan almindelige mennesker i Port-au-Prince hjalp hinanden og forsøgte at grave overlevende ud af ruinerne, mens FN og det internationale samfund pillede sig i …

Lidt inde ser man en dame, der spørger: “Jeg kan ikke se, at FN er kommet for at hjælpe os? Hvor er de?”

Nu hopper Politiken så også med på historien om de plyndrende horder, der giver “sikkerhedsproblemer”, mens landets befolkning er dybt taknemmelige over hjælpen udefra. Men det er løgn. En amerikansk læge på et haitiansk hospital understreger, at der ikke er nogen “security issues” – overhovedet:

Two days ago, we began operating. We had four operating rooms up as quick as possible and have been using them ever since. We don’t have full proper anesthesia. We’re missing many of the materials we need. But that has been working. As of last night, we have some electricity on the campus, and we’ll be able to start operating twenty-four hours a day through this night and on through tomorrow.

I think, you know, the singing and the [inaudible], I know, is clear to many, certainly anyone who has followed Haiti and cared about this special country. One thing that I think is really important for people to understand is that misinformation and rumors and, I think at the bottom of the issue, racism has slowed the recovery efforts of this hospital. Security issues over the last forty-eight hours have been our—quote “security issues” over the last forty-eight hours have been our leading concern. And there are no security issues. I’ve been with my Haitian colleagues. I’m staying at a friend’s house in Port-au-Prince. We’re working for the Ministry of Public Health for the direction of this hospital as volunteers. But I’m living and moving with friends. We’ve been circulating throughout the city until 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning every night, evacuating patients, moving materials. There’s no UN guards. There’s no US military presence. There’s no Haitian police presence. And there’s also no violence. There is no insecurity.

Men det er jo ikke helt, hvad der fremgår af de historier, vi får serveret i den danske presse. Og hvorfor? Formentlig for, at vi kan få bekræftet forestillingen eller myten om, hvor “gode” de vestlige lande er, når de “hjælper” – mens kyniske og store økonomiske interesser møver sig ind ad bagdøren for at udnytte situationen, det bedste de har lært.

Som Lenin observer på sin grav, bliver disse løgne misbrugt til at forlange en undtagelsestilstand, der reelt vil give de amerikanske styrker i Haiti diktatoriske beføjelser:

This ‘security’ mytheme has also been used to justify the imposition of martial law, at the behest of the United States, which will be enforced by the US military:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had demanded the imposition of the emergency decree during her visit to Haiti on Saturday. “The decree would give the government an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us,” Clinton declared.

Haitian police and UN troops have already been firing at crowds characterised as ‘looters’, even if they didn’t necessarily have any purloined goods on them at the time. However, the US government is profoundly aware of its PR predicament, inasmuch as many people may refuse to be dazzled by the propaganda and notice the fact that the US has actually just invaded, taken control of the aid, blocked the entry of field hospitals and aid equipment on spurious grounds, and is now in the position of using its immense military advantages to impose martial law on an occupied country. So, the military bosses are telling anyone who will listen that “we’re not in Haiti to fight”. Well, of course they’re not. They genuinely expect people to do as they’re told without the question of a fight coming into it. Commentators can fulminate about machetes in Haitian hands, but 82nd Airborne has assault rifles and, if they consider it necessary, helicopter gunships, missiles, fighter jets, and behind them the entire galactically enormous arsenal of US imperialism. They are in a country whose GDP is a mere 1% of the US military budget in a single year. They are in a country that they have already tortured with death squads and terrorised under a UN mandate. Of course they don’t expect a fight.

Er der da ingen grænser for, hvor dybt danske journalister vil synke, og hvor grove og racistiske løgne, de vil lade sig misbruge til uden at stille selv det mindste lillebitte spørgsmålstegn? Man undres (desværre ikke helt så meget længere).

Via Lenin’s Tomb.

Ytringstvang og frygt

Interessant som debatten om Tegningekrisen nu handler mere om hvordan man kan tvinge folk til at ytre noget de ikke tør eller vil. Se blot Lauritz. com der ikke vil sælge Westergaards tegninger, fordi de frygter for deres medarbejderes sikkerhed – en lidt besynderlig holdning, da øksemanden næppe går efter auktionsmedarbejdere, men fair nok, angst er ofte irationelt.

Sørme om statsministeren nu går til angreb på Lauritz.com! Sammen med et sammenrend af højrerabiate, fyrer han følgende svada af:

“Det officielle Danmark gør, hvad det kan, for at beskytte Kurt Westergaard, men hvis resten af Danmark vender ham ryggen og siger: Det bliver ikke i min boghandel, vi sælger dine bøger, ikke i mit auktionshus, vi sælger din kunst, og ikke i min avis, vi trykker din tegning, så tager vi brødet ud af munden på ham og stigmatiserer ham”

Personligt vil jeg aldrig sælge noget af en overbevist racist som Kurt Westergaard, der gladeligt lader sig hylde på DFs landsmøde, men skulle vi ikke lade danskerne selv vurdere om det ligefrem er farligt at handle med manden? Måske burde regeringen i stedet for at kritisere Lauritz.com, forklare danskerne at risikoen for at nogle islamister skulle slå tilfældige medarbejder på auktionshuset ned er decideret ikke-eksisterende.

Men det vil regeringen naturligvis ikke – for den lever af frygten og de stemmer det giver på valgdagen.

link til regeringen der forsøger at holde frygten i live

Krydstogtskib gør holdt ved privat strand i Haiti, nyder livet få kilometer fra katastrofen

Fra Boing Boing, uden yderligere kommentarer:

The Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ ship Independence of the Seas went ahead with its scheduled stop at a fenced-in private Haitian beach surrounded by armed guards, leaving its passengers to “cut loose” on the beach, just a few kilometers from one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the region’s history. The ship’s owners justified it as a humanitarian call, because the ship also delivered 40 palettes of relief supplies while its passengers frolicked on zip-lines and ate barbeque within the 12-foot-high fence’s perimeter:

The Florida cruise company leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to “cut loose” with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.

The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was “sickened”.

“I just can’t see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water,” one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

“It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving,” said another. “I can’t imagine having to choke down a burger there now.”

Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth

(Image: Frontal view, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Bernt Rostad’s photostream)

Modstandsradioen Danmarks Løver

Nyt magasin på Den 2. Radio – i forlængelse af projektet Danmarks Løver, der blev skudt i gang, kommer nu Modstandsradioen Danmarks Løver, et politisk magasin, der ikke uden humor og selvironi begynder på opgøret mod den racisme, selvtilstrækkelighed og (for nu at sige det lige ud) uanstændige xenofobi, som især Dansk Folkepartis repræsenterer i dag.

Rune Engelbreth Larsen introducerer radioen på sin blog, hvor vi bl.a. hører:

Inspirationen til Modstandsradioen stammer fra kronikken Modstandsbevægelsen mod Pia Kjærsgaards besættelsesmagt, der blev trykt i Politiken i august 2009, og givetvis er den mest kommenterede kronik i Politiken med over 1.000 online-kommentarer.

Som “referenter” stod Malene Fenger-Grøndahl, Flemming Chr. Nielsen og undertegnede, men manifestet blev offentliggjort med en række kulturelle ikoner som afsender: Holger Danske, Aladdin, Den lille havfrue, Lykke-Peer, Pigen med svovlstikkerne, Hamlet, Ditte Menneskebarn, Skjoldungerne, Pelle Erobreren, Dana og Danmarks Løver.

En støttegruppe på Facebook, Danmarks Løver – modstandsbevægelsen mod Dansk Folkepartis besættelsesmagt fik i løbet af få uger tusindvis af medlemmer og er i dag oppe på over 31.000.

Nu kommer så Modstandsradioen Danmarks Løver, der “bliver forum for alsidig journalistik med interviews, reportager, analyser, kommentarer og ikke mindst debat om de kulturelle og politiske konsekvenser af mødet mellem forskellige etniske grupper”, som det hedder i en pressemeddelelse.

Til Ritzau udtaler redaktør Birgitte Rahbek bl.a.: “Vi vil lave journalistik med bid i, og vi vil ikke være bange for at kalde en spade for en spade. Men vi behøver slet ikke at lave propaganda, for virkeligheden overstiger fantasien, for eksempel nogle af de forslag, Dansk Folkeparti stiller, siger hun til Modkraft.dk. (…) Det er vigtigt med en bevægelse mod den glidende legalisering af fremmedhadet i Danmark.” (Ritzau, 16.1.2010).

www.den2radio.dk er en kvalitetsradio med vægt på kultur- og samfundsforhold, som med magasinet RadioNorden også – via nettet – har tråde til det øvrige Norden. Radioen blev oprettet maj 2008 af en række professionelle mediefolk og har på under to år nået et lyttertal på omkring 70.000 fordelt på nettet, internetradio, ipod og podcast. Dertil kommer, at programfladen bringes på 23 regionale og lokale radioer.

Jeg sidder selv og hører det lige nu, og som radio holder det hele vejen. Godt initiativ fra Den 2. Radio, som i sig selv er et godt initiativ i disse DR-nedskæringstider.

Link: Modstandsradioen Danmarks Løver (RSS til podcast).

Jordskælv i Haiti, made in USA

Ikke selve jordskælvet, naturligvis, men de ødelæggelser, det skabte. Hvis bygningerne havde været bygget ordentligt, var det ikke gået så galt. Men det kunne jo kun lade sig gøre, hvis landet ikke var så fattigt. Men hvorfor er det mon det?

Vi giver ordet til Ted Rall:

As grim accounts of the earthquake in Haiti came in, the accounts in U.S.-controlled state media all carried the same descriptive sentence: “Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere…”

Gee, I wonder how that happened?

You’d think Haiti would be loaded. After all, it made a lot of people rich.

How did Haiti get so poor? Despite a century of American colonialism, occupation, and propping up corrupt dictators? Even though the CIA staged coups d’état against every democratically elected president they ever had?

It’s an important question. An earthquake isn’t just an earthquake. The same 7.0 tremor hitting San Francisco wouldn’t kill nearly as many people as in Port-au-Prince.

“Looking at the pictures, essentially it looks as if (the buildings are of) breezeblock or cinderblock construction, and what you need in an earthquake zone is metal bars that connect the blocks so that they stay together when they get shaken,” notes Sandy Steacey, director of the Environmental Science Research Institute at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. “In a wealthy country with good seismic building codes that are enforced, you would have some damage, but not very much.”

When a pile of cinderblocks falls on you, your odds of survival are long. Even if you miraculously survive, a poor country like Haiti doesn’t have the equipment, communications infrastructure or emergency service personnel to pull you out of the rubble in time. And if your neighbors get you out, there’s no ambulance to take you to the hospital–or doctor to treat you once you get there.

In Haiti this week, don’t blame tectonic plates. Ninety-nine percent of the death toll is attributable to poverty.

So the question is relevant. How’d Haiti become so poor?

The story begins in 1910, when a U.S. State Department-National City Bank of New York (now called Citibank) consortium bought the Banque National d’Haïti–Haiti’s only commercial bank and its national treasury–in effect transferring Haiti’s debts to the Americans. Five years later, President Woodrow Wilson ordered troops to occupy the country in order to keep tabs on “our” investment.

From 1915 to 1934, the U.S. Marines imposed harsh military occupation, murdered Haitians patriots and diverted 40 percent of Haiti’s gross domestic product to U.S. bankers. Haitians were banned from government jobs. Ambitious Haitians were shunted into the puppet military, setting the stage for a half-century of U.S.-backed military dictatorship.

The U.S. kept control of Haiti’s finances until 1947.

Still–why should Haitians complain? Sure, we stole 40 percent of Haiti’s national wealth for 32 years. But we let them keep 60 percent.

Whiners.

Men der er mere – meget mere, så hop endelig over og læs det hele. Et godt supplement til indlægget om samme emne for et par dage siden.

Link: The Haitian earthquake: Made in U.S.A.

11-årig tager elektronisk opfindelse med i skole: Terroralarm

I afdelingen for you just can’t make this up: En 11-årig dreng i San Diego forsøgte at bygge en maskine, der kunne registrere bevægelser, med diverse komponenter monteret i en halvliters Gatorade-flaske. En af skolens ledere kastede et blik på flasken, besluttede at det nok var en bombe og slog alarm, så det lokale bombehold kunne komme og undersøge den suspekte flaske med en Rulle-Marie:

When police and the Metro Arson Strike Team responded, they also found electrical components in the student’s backpack, Luque said. After talking to the student, it was decided about 1 p.m. to evacuate the school as a precaution while the item was examined. Students were escorted to a nearby playing field, and parents were called and told they could come pick up their children.

A MAST robot took pictures of the device and X-rays were evaluated. About 3 p.m., the device was determined to be harmless, Luque said…

The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.

Og det er da vitterlig morderlig pænt af dem, at de ikke vil anholde en 11-årig dreng og/eller hans forældre for at interessere sig for elektronik og tage resultatet af sine anstrengelser med i skole. Idioter …

Link: Science project prompts SD school evacuation (via Boing Boing).

Ytringsfrihed for alle?

… undtagen for dem, der har noget at sige, åbenbart.

Dette har Nastja Arcel en fremragende klumme om i dagens MetroXpress:

Hvornår mistede Danmark viljen og evnen til at kende forskel på en fredelig aktion og en voldelig terrorhandling?

De kongelige sikkerhedsfolk på den røde løber overfaldt Nora fra Greenpeace i samme sekund, hun, som den lille dreng i ‘Kejserens nye klæder’, sagde, hvad hun mente: »Politicians talk, leaders ACT,« stod der på det gule skilt, hun foldede ud. Rigets mænd handlede hurtigt – førte hende væk, og hun kiggede lidt forvirret rundt, inden hun forsvandt bag de kongelige fløjdøre.

Det var om aftenen den 7. december, og der var klima-gallamiddag på dronningens slot i riget, hvor ytringsfrihed har samme status som kronjuvelerne – dog særligt, når den nævnes i samme åndedrag som ‘flæskesteg’.

I ‘Kejserens nye klæder’ råbte drengen: »Han har jo ikke noget tøj på!« da den nøgne konge gik forbi, og folk råbte det samme i kor. Men ingen af gæsterne ved klima-middagen nåede at opdage eller støtte Nora – for hun og det gule skilt blev gemt væk, inden hun nåede at åbne munden.

Senere skete der det samme for hende, som for den unge mand med sandhedstalen i filmen ‘Festen’. Hun blev straffet. 20 dage i fængsel, med et enkelt besøg af sine to børn.

Hvordan kan vi fortælle verden om ytringsfrihed og demokrati i den ene tale og i den anden forsvare 20 dages fængsling af en fredelig aktivist?

Link: ‘Ytringsfrihed for alle’ (tak til Amila for tippet).

Haiti: Lad os ikke glemme historien

Mens man forsøger at få overblik over antallet af døde i Haitis hovedstad Port-au-Prince og verdens regeringer er ved at falde over deres egne ben for at love hjælp til den nødlidende befolkning, var det måske en idé at huske på, hvorfor Haiti er så fattigt et land, som det er, og hvordan den hjertensgodhed, som diverse regeringer pludselig har fundet frem, ellers plejer at vise sig.

Peter Hallward opsummerer i dagens Guardian:

The noble “international community” which is currently scrambling to send its “humanitarian aid” to Haiti is largely responsible for the extent of the suffering it now aims to reduce. Ever since the US invaded and occupied the country in 1915, every serious political attempt to allow Haiti’s people to move (in former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s phrase) “from absolute misery to a dignified poverty” has been violently and deliberately blocked by the US government and some of its allies.

Haiti is now a country where, according to the best available study, around 75% of the population “lives on less than $2 per day, and 56% – four and a half million people – live on less than $1 per day”. Decades of neoliberal “adjustment” and neo-imperial intervention have robbed its government of any significant capacity to invest in its people or to regulate its economy. Punitive international trade and financial arrangements ensure that such destitution and impotence will remain a structural fact of Haitian life for the foreseeable future.It is this poverty and powerlessness that account for the full scale of the horror in Port-au-Prince today. Since the late 1970s, relentless neoliberal assault on Haiti’s agrarian economy has forced tens of thousands of small farmers into overcrowded urban slums. Although there are no reliable statistics, hundreds of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents now live in desperately sub-standard informal housing, often perched precariously on the side of deforested ravines. The selection of the people living in such places and conditions is itself no more “natural” or accidental than the extent of the injuries they have suffered.

Maggie Korth-Baker går et skridt dybere i et indlæg på Boing Boing, hvor hun korrekt identificerer den egentlige synder i landets nuværende, miserable forfatning: Pengeafpresning og mellemfolkeligt gældsslaveri:

Haiti was forced to pay France for its freedom. When they couldn’t afford the ransom, France (and other countries, including the United States) helpfully offered high-interest loans. By 1900, 80% of Haiti’s annual budget went to paying off its “reparation” debt. They didn’t make the last payment until 1947. Just 10 years later, dictator François Duvalier took over the country and promptly bankrupted it, taking out more high-interest loans to pay for his corrupt lifestyle. The Duvalier family, with the blind-eye financial assistance of Western countries, killed 10s of thousands of Haitians, until the Haitian people overthrew them in 1986. Today, Haiti is still paying off the debt of an oppressive dictator no one would help them get rid of for 30 years.

The rest of the world refuses to forgive this debt.

Så næste gang du hører om den franske og amerikanske regerings gode vilje til at hjælpe, så husk baggrunden. Baggrunden for, at Haiti er så fattigt, at man overhovedet har brug for hjælp til at håndtere katastrofen, for det er naturligvis ikke nogen naturlov.

Og spørg også, hvordan den “hjælpende” Ulla Tørnæs mon presser på for at få verden til at eftergive Haitis udlandsgæld. Lidt mere end to hundrede år efter selvstændigheden er det vist på høje tid.

Link: Our role in Haiti’s plight