Spin Cycle

[bcholmes]

Talk up hope for Haiti and most people think you are naïve. The country has none of the cultural norms that conventional wisdom says are required to construct democratic institutions. Plus, it's flat broke.

All true. Yet things didn't have to get this bad. They did because when Haitians had a shot at democracy in 1990, they instead got a despot named Jean Bertrand Aristide.

— The Wall Street Journal

Reiterate the key points. Haiti can't be a democracy. Aristide was a despot. Haiti is economically ruined, but it was their own fault. Don't expect anything from aid, but don't question how we're applying aid, either. Repeat.

The question I wonder is what the recent batch of commentary on Haiti is preparing for.

Comments

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

This is slightly OT, but I was at UCLA on Thursday (long story) for a dance performance, and the reception was in a room decorated with photographs and quotations supporting Paul Farmer's work in Haiti, and also Haiti in general. It made me think of you.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Knowing the WSJ it's a "We hate Bill Clinton retrospective". Not that Clinton deserves much respect on the topic, but slamming him for supporting Aristide was the conservative line back then, and it's always recyclable

*check's article*

Yep. Unsurprisingly, checking back, the author got her start in journalism writing for conservative think tanks that traces their funding back to the Scaife family.

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

This is the WSJ (now a mouthpiece for Rupert Murdoch!), and anything that is even slightly against the US corporate rape of the Third World is generally looked at with disdain.