Haitian Divorce* – The Anna Raccoon Archives

by Thaddeus J. Wilson on January 16, 2010

The natives are restless

I was fairly astonished to read in several newspapers that the victims of the earthquakes in Haiti were “getting angry” about the failure of aid workers to provide them succour. I can’t help but feel that if I were in desperate straights I would only be pathetically grateful to anybody who risked life and limb to bring me aid. But it wasn’t just one newspaper trying to cast some sort of slant on the situation, they were all saying. So I can only assume it’s true, or they’re all getting their material from the same source. However, the quotes from the people they spoke to sounded like nervous, confused survivors of something incomprehensible. None of them sounded angry. Evidently the earthquake destroyed the prison, and now all the criminals are roaming free, causing even more havoc. Consequently, I don’t think anyone is going to be angry, I think they’re going to be terrified.

I think the people who are “angry” are not the local Haitians, who, by the sounds of it, have enough to be angry about outside of the vagaries of nature. No, the people who are “angry” are people sitting in armchairs wondering why someone hasn’t cleared the airport and delivered fuel and cleared the roads so that they can get around again. And frankly, it sounds like it’s going to take a while to put it all together again.

I’ve also read a number of comments on articles about the US Marines going in. “Unhelpful” doesn’t even begin to describe it. With a gaol full of prisoners on the lam, no infrastructure, looting and frightened people, you’d think that there would only be fulsome support for these men, helping to pick up the pieces. But no, instead we have carping about how the US is taking over Haiti (even though Haiti is one of the few places that could only be improved by a takeover by even Hugo Chavez!)

And it all led me to wonder what was going on. Here we have an immense human catastrophe, the world is being mobilised, despite the economic climate, people have already dug out their wallets and are shovelling money at the Haitians. The long-suffering USMC is on hand to provide law and order and probably do all the heavy lifting for the aid agencies, clearing roads and the airport, stocking up on fuel, guarding the deliveries of aid. Yet somewhere, someone is judgementally decreeing that not enough is being done quickly enough.

It’s almost enough to make a man think: “Well, if that’s how you feel about our help, sort it out yourself!”

I wonder who would benefit from that?

{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Left Outside January 16, 2010 at 14:13: Well there’s a couple of things we could say.

One, you shouldn’t call starving people looters. When your starving, you’re allowed to steal. Its a pretty basic moral imperative that hardly anyone except Robert Nozick would question. I wrote on that here.

And of course, the people of Haiti might be annoyed because the rich world keeps ****ing them. Overthrowing their democratically elected governments and helping prop up vile dictatorships. There’s also the money flowing out of Haiti, which is likely to dwarf what is given in aid.

Moderator’s comment: We try hard to keep things civil here.
2 JohnRS January 16, 2010 at 15:33: So, Left Behind, if we have severe weather here again next week with another few feet of global warming dropped on us and I’m cut off with no prospect of anyone getting to me soon, out of food and water, no fuel for heating or cooking, children freezing to death, no communications with the outside world and generally in a pretty desparate way then it’s OK for me to break in to your house and steal anything lying around is it? Really? Are you sure?
3 Lexander January 16, 2010 at 15:43: There is a reason for these disasters. Think about it!
4 Anna Raccoon January 16, 2010 at 15:49: Well, Good Afternoon Lexander, nice to see you back on parade again!
5 Thaddeus J. Wilson January 16, 2010 at 17:26: Lexander, there certainly is: movement of tectonic plates generate huge stresses.
6 Thaddeus J. Wilson January 16, 2010 at 17:38: Left Outside: I can’t really say I feel comfortable with what you are saying. I personally would feel hugely uncomfortable with stealing, even if I were starving. In this case, the people that they are stealing from are unlikely to have even the recourse of insurance and so they will wind up destitute and starving as well. Do two wrongs make a right?

Furthermore, it seems pretty clear to me that with an entire prison’s worth of criminals on the run that some of those looters could very well simply be looters, and not victims of starvation.

As an aside, I took a glance at your blog. I can only hope that despite being a “left of centre” blog, you do not vote Labour, especially not after writing something like this:

The continued imposition of debt taken out by undemocratic and rapacious governments is immoral.

I am curious: who would benefit the most from the cancellation of Haiti’s debt?
7 The Slogger January 16, 2010 at 17:39: There’s not much more I can say except read this: http://nbyslog.blogspot.com/2010/01/apology-sympathy-and-responsibility.html (after you scroll past the essay thing)

Left Outside, by the way, is perhaps where the delusional asterisk thing should be left before entering. Haitians were mainly asterisked by the Papa Doc T’n-T’n Machute tendency; and it was indeed a rich tapestry of savagery.
8 Matt January 17, 2010 at 02:55: You guys are so cold and cool. Its always best to take a contrarian position especially when its about large scale death of brown people, it must really piss off the ‘left’ eh? Rebels! You guys are too awesome!

Way to rationalise your racism.

This blog is a win!
9 Matt January 17, 2010 at 06:24: So where is your contrarian blog on 9/11 or, or… oh wait, white people dont die in large numbers, not since WWII. So where is your blog about how the people of London were ungrateful of outside aid, and how there was looting among the ruins. Or do Londoners react to tragedy with dignity and order?

I’d like to see you read this little blog aloud in the centre of Port-au-Prince with your grandiloquent style you are most certainly prideful of.

You make me sick.
10 Thaddeus J. Wilson January 17, 2010 at 12:00: Well, Matt, since I wasn’t blogging in 2001 or in 1939-45, you’re unlikely to find such a blog. However, I think you will also struggle to find newspaper articles from either era stating that New Yorkers and Londoners were unhappy with the levels of support being offered to them. I also don’t think that only white people were killed on 9/11, nor do I believe that only “brown” people were killed in Haiti.

If you were to actually read my article, I think you’ll find that I said that I could find no evidence that actual Haitians were angry, I said that they sounded frightened and confused. I also made the point that portraying them as angry might make people feel like they shouldn’t bother, which would not exactly be helpful to those people who were struggling to cope with the catastrophe. I then asked who might do such a thing, and more importantly, why would they do such a thing?

If I think back to any recent disaster, or indeed, any disaster that I can remember reading about, I’ve never heard the survivors described as “angry” before. It’s a curiously unflattering epithet to apply to survivors receiving such aid as it is possible to deliver under the circumstances and I wonder why someone would choose that word to describe someone who needs succour.

If you feel that wondering about that sort of thing makes me a bad person, then I suppose I am beyond redemption. On the other hand, I feel that your sneering arrogance and baseless assumptions mark you out as a churl and someone who is determined to find something to take offence about.

I do hope your sickness passes forthwith.
11 da_void January 17, 2010 at 14:19: I am aware that the people of London reacted like humans after the first air raids on the city in 1939.
They looted bombed houses with relish.
12 Matt January 17, 2010 at 17:05: Yes, my sickness did pass, mostly because you actually replied instead of deleting my post. Something most others surely would have done.

In hindsight I may have over reacted to the general feeling of your blog and the comments, including the blog that was linked to by ‘The Slogger’.

You imply in your blog that there are some out there that would suggest that the Haitian people en mass are ungrateful and maybe criminal, but you dont include where you find these impressions or who is saying them, and in the end, it seems that you are confused by their legitimacy and motive. To me it is clear that those that want to paint all Haitians with an unkind brush are racists or just simply sad hateful people and for some reason you chose to write an relatively uncritical blog highlighting their assertions.

Both of us are outside Haiti and can only reflect what coverage we read and bias we have. I dont have a blog, so I must comment on yours. Good day sir.
13 Left Outside January 17, 2010 at 17:32: No, not a Labour voter, more a supporter of a Labour than the other two parties tho – although I’m sure we’ll agree there’s not much of a choice. But as a leftist blogger I do support Keynesian deficit spending, so I’m not too happy with your analogy. A little insulting to Papa Doc’s victims too.

As with respect to being uncomfortable with stealing, its correct that two wrongs don’t make a right, but that’s not the be all and end all in moral arguments. The right to life trumps the right to property so I wouldn’t feel too bad. Especially if I had a family to feed. Its dreadful for those being looted, but they have food more through chance than anything else at the moment, the earthquake didn’t really discriminate. Its bad for them, but a necessary evil to save lives.

There is a group of criminals on the loose, but the reporting of looters hasn’t really made it clear whether these people are stealing TVs or food. If its food then I don’t think its fair to label them looters. At the moment water is currency, it seems highly unlikely people are stealing much other than essentials. Where would you store a TV when your house has collapsed?

Haitian crowds are known to knock down and kill petty thieves on the spot, so the move to looting may be more a sign of deepening desperation than anything else.

(As an aside, aid agencies are in fact going to local producers first, rather than just importing food, so it looks like they’ve learned lessons about how aid can depress domestic production)

The profit from the cancellation of Haiti’s debt is likely to accrue more to the mulatto elite than anyone else, but it’d be a start. Those ruling need to have their interests aligned with that of the population, i.e. the promotion of equitable growth. External debt isn’t doing that. We need to stop interfering in Haiti, and hope they can fix their own problems.

I apologise for the foul language. I presumed with your connection to Old Holborn it was not an issue, I evidently got that wrong. I get a bit sweary on my own blog and it can leak on to the comments of others – I appreciate it is not always welcome. Sorry.
14 Anna Raccoon January 17, 2010 at 17:46: What a very sensible post Left Outside! Much appreciated, Welcome and Thank-you.
15 Anna Raccoon January 17, 2010 at 17:50: We don’t mind critical, Matt, feel free to speak your mind. We might delete the odd swear word, we have a lo of female readers, but we welcome debate -that’s what it’s all about.
16 Thaddeus J. Wilson January 17, 2010 at 18:24: Matt, I didn’t bother linking to a source, because there was front page articles in the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian all saying much the same thing. Mea culpa. I apologise that my implied criticism of the people airing these views did not come through strongly enough. Especially since it was the point of the post!
17 Left Outside January 17, 2010 at 18:53: Thank you for your kind welcome Ms Racoon. Or may I call you Anna?
18 Anna Raccoon January 17, 2010 at 19:31: Course you can Leftie!
19 Anna Raccoon January 17, 2010 at 19:32: Thadd, did you see that two of the looters have been shot dead tonight?
20 Thaddeus J. Wilson January 17, 2010 at 19:42: I did. I also saw some rather graphic images implying that the good burghers of Port-au-Prince were not terribly enamoured of looters.