Another reparations scam
Carol J Williams in the LA Times has all the details in Haiti bills France for slavery debt: $21.7 billion:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — France owes this country exactly $21,685,135,571.48, the government figures — not counting interest, penalties or consideration of the suffering and indignity inflicted by slavery and colonization.
...
In one of the most colorful campaigns to galvanize Haitians in years, the country is awash in banners, bumper stickers, television ads and radio broadcasts demanding payback.
...
France recognized Haiti's statehood 35 years later, after the country began paying 90 million francs in gold to compensate French landowners driven out by the revolution.

The reparations demand, Haitians say, is today's value for the 90 million gold francs Paris strong-armed from Haiti in the 19th century. Reparations for moral crimes have yet to be calculated, says the government spokesman.

And anyone reading newspapers aligned with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government, or listening to state-sponsored broadcasts, would think a check for the staggering sum was all but in the mail.

I suppose it beats voodoo and you never know, the Frenchies might fall for it since clues seem to be in short supply over there.

Over the past week, an illusion of momentum has emerged following the Group of Eight industrialized nations' summit in Evian, France. On the fringes of the forum, French President Jacques Chirac replied to the repeated restitution demands by contending this country's dire economic straits were more the consequence of corrupt government than thwarted development inflicted by payoffs to France in exchange for recognition of Haitian independence.

Guess not, but you never know.

Haiti's state secretary for communications, Mario Dupuy, describes Chirac's allusion to corruption as "verbal violence" but smiles tolerantly in laying out what he sees as the colonial masters' long-term outlook. "This is the kind of attack that precedes negotiations," insists Dupuy.

Others inside Aristide's circle say the campaign will continue.

"It's serious and it's going to intensify," says Michelle Karshan, a media liaison for Aristide. "It's not something Haiti came up with by itself. It came up in the context of the summit on race in South Africa. The French leadership itself has acknowledged that slavery was a crime against humanity."
...
Haiti is the only country to make a formal appeal for compensation from a colonizing and enslaving power, said Haitian Foreign Minister Joseph Philippe Antonio.
...
Antonio insisted the French government eventually will see its way to do the right thing.

"France will pay restitution for the monies that it owes Haiti," he said. "Restitution means to reimburse what you took that did not belong to you, with interest."

Everyone needs a hobby.

Originally posted at 9:11 AM. Reposted to get around Blogger.