What keeps Haiti down? The chains of neo-liberal imperialism imposed by Washington and France.
Cuba brings its heroic doctors, Venezuela exports cheap fuel and builds electricity and infrastructure for Haiti. The US, France, Canada and their allies bring occupying troops, sweatshops, and IMF loan sharks.
Different visions of the world, different approaches to Haiti. Solidarity, co-operation and internationalism vs. domination and exploitation.
----------------------------------------------------------------
In 2011, Wikileaks published bombshell reports showing that the U.S. began to use all channels, diplomatic and otherwise, to stop a minimum wage
increase in Haiti. At that time, Think Progress reported on how U.S. operatives went into overdrive to prevent a movement to increase wages for people living in one of the poorest countries on the planet:
In 2009, the Haitian parliament unanimously passed a measure that would hike the Haitian minimum wage to $5 a day. Yet much as the United States government mobilized to protect Big Oil’s profits a few years earlier, American diplomats immediately protested the hike in wages.
Contractors for large American clothing firms like Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, and Levi’s began protesting the increase in the minimum wage, aggressively lobbying the parliament and the populist Haitian president, René Préval, to reverse course. They were soon joined by American diplomats who began to lobby the Haitian government as well, arguing that it would be too costly for textile manufacturers.
Now, an article published by Counterpunch goes even further, describing the attack on living wages, as well as discussing the role of some key officials played in keeping Haiti impoverished:
Link: http://www.kulturekritic.com/2013/0...ent-stopped-a-minimum-wage-increase-in-haiti/