Jonah Goldberg: Haiti Would Be Better Off If It Were Rich

• If Haiti hadn't been poor, a great many talentless people calling themselves celebrities would not have been able to gain moral cred'. Everyone loves an altruist, is that right Mr. Clooney?

• <i>Haiti has no cultural history of being productive</i> Among the things that amuses me about this line is that when people like Hurley exhort Western workers to increase productivity what they usually mean is "your working conditions should be more like a sweatshop in Haiti".

• Scenes from a cultural history of poverty, Haiti style: <i>The IMF forced Haiti to open its market to imported, highly subsidized US rice at the same time it prohibited Haiti from subsidizing its own farmers. A US corporation called Early Rice now sells nearly 50 percent of the rice consumed in Haiti...In Haiti, the government was told to eliminate a statute in their labor code that mandated increases in the minimum wage when inflation exceeded 10 percent. By the end of 1997, Haiti's minimum wage was only $2.40 a day. </i> http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/TopTenIMF.html

• I think "poverty culture" just means "they've been extremely poor for a very long time, and I don't feel like doing anything about it."

• Well, yes, he <i>is</i> vague, Joe. See, it's not enough to simply state that there is a poverty culture, he would have to point to specific elements of that culture that keep people in poverty and/or discourage them from doing anything about it. But, see, that would require actually doing the homework, and Goldberg is infamous for either fobbing it off on someone else or coming up with an excuse for not having done so. It's not incumbent on Roy to have to "explain how he is wrong" when the burden of proof is on Jonah in the first place. But you don't hold Jonah to that standard, do you? The soft bigotry of low expectations, indeed.

• Hard to be self-sufficient when you're a fucking colony.

• <I> He is very specific in his point that Haiti has no cultural history of being productive and self-sufficient.</I> Ah, that explains everything. Maybe the Haitians should write and put on plays about wealth creation. Or isn't that cultural enough? Maybe an opera then. If only they had a piano!

• Your "argument" against Goldberg's column is disingenuous. You claim that he doesn't explain what he means by the term "poverty culture". He is by no means "vague", as you put it. He is very specific in his point that Haiti has no cultural history of being productive and self-sufficient. That if Haiti did have such a cultural history (like the U.S.), then they would have weathered the earthquake with less damage and loss of life. Now, if you disagree with his opinion, say so. Explain how he is wrong, and you are right. At least that would be interesting. The most interesting thing about your article is the link to his.

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