Reply #73: At the Risk of Being Offensive

[Vogon_Glory]

At the risk of being offensive, there IS something to be said for law and order, security of persons and of personal property (homes, bicycles, automobiles) and a basic minimal infrastructure. Many European colonialist regimes DID offer those features to their colonized areas.

Many of us also are aware of the other features--a capricious, often-arbitrary local and regional government often doing things for the benefit of the metropole, not the governed territory, plus the usual colonial oppression.

Some places, alas, just don't seem to be able to reach take-off. Even Saddam Hussein's vile regime and some of the former Soviet republics do (or did) offer protection against the sort of chaos present in pre-earthquake Haiti. Does anyone SERIOUSLY believe that Haiti or Somalia are roaring successes as self-government?

Personally, I think that annexation as a US territory would be the best thing for the Haitian people, followed with infrastructure rebuilding, law and order, and vigorous prosecution not only of street gangs, but the ruling cliques that turned it into the Golgotha it is today.

However, as an American taxpayer, I'm much cooler to the idea and I'm not sure that the Haitians would go for it.