France to cancel Haiti's debt

[Mosiah]

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – French President Francois Hollande has announced that France will cancel all of Haiti’s debt.

In an address at the opening of the memorial and cultural centre in Guadeloupe on Sunday, Hollande said Haiti’s debt of US$81.2 million will be cancelled

The President, who is scheduled to visit Haiti on Tuesday, however rejected demands from activists to pay billions in reparations.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...l-Haiti-s-debt

[Hortical]

US$81.2 million does not appear accurate.

[Rockman]

France skirting the reparation issue,it is however an auspicious beginning.France should at the very least impress on its fellow land grabbers the practicality in welcoming a comprehensive debt forgiveness programme.The CCJ has potential of being a rectifier.

[Peter R]

France should give them back the billions, in today's currency, for the "compensation" they paid France in the 1800s after the Haitian Revolution!!

[Mosiah]

Yes! And that 81 million seem real small! A debt dat?!?

[Peter R]

I saw this; it said $65M owed to France. I don't know when it was written. The CIA factbook says Haiti's current debt totals more tan $1.6Billion.
http://www.haitiancongresspac.org/debt-forgiveness/

[Islandman]

House money dat, if you name Money Mayweather !

[Peter R]

I just read that Haiti was paying that "compensation" to France up to 1947!! and den dem own people (including Duvaliers) tief a next setta money afta dat!!

[Willi]

Now THAT is the real argument that has basis in law.

The compensation thing naah guh fly, but the hostage money that Napolean put pon dem as punishment needs to be addressed. Sad thing is that France bruk and cant pay...

[Willi]

YUP!!! Napoleon dweet, just after dem ambush Toussaint.
Napoleon himself came outta the revolution and then betrayed the black Jacobins.
Owl pirate dem.

[Rudi]

Psychologically Napolean could not handle being defeated by a black man. Toussaint mistakenly thought he was dealing with a people of honour. We still haven't learned the lesson. By the way care to hazard a guess as to whether Jamaican slave owners received 'compensation'.
Ooops it's about time to 'get something and wave'

[Gamma]

is a start .....

at one point it did not seem likely ... so too the decrim of ganja.

we MUST continue to push the reparations issue and the formalization of patois too.

[Stonigut]

Reparations is a gigantic time waste, the real solution is building real processes and products for our people, everybody looking for a a handout, well ain't no savior coming and if it came we would waste it all in no time.

Our salvation must come from deep within.

[Islandman]

Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive though Stoni. Yes we have to make some serious changes in the way we look at the world if we are to prosper in it, but there is no doubt that a debt is owed as well.

I fully agree that reparations paid to individuals would be a major disaster given where we are today. It would have to be done at a macro level to have any chance of success. Even so there would be many potential pitfalls.

My view is that we are not ready for reparations yet, but we should not let go of the position that it is owed.

[Rockman]

Beg to disagree Stonigut,reparation is attempting to make amendment for a clear wrong,a confirmation and acknowledgement that will deter future wrongs from happening,it is anything but a handout.