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France’s president says that making Haiti pay for its independence was unjust (apnews.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/world@quokk.au
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French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that historic injustice was imposed on Haiti when it was forced to pay a colossal indemnity to France in exchange for its independence 200 years ago.

Macron also announced the creation of a joint French-Haitian historical commission to ‘’examine our shared past’’ and assess relations, but did not directly address longstanding Haitian demands for reparations.

France ″subjected the people of Haiti to a heavy financial indemnity, ... This decision placed a price on the freedom of a young nation, which was thus confronted with the unjust force of history from its very inception,’' Macron said in a statement.

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[–] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Once you start looking at reparations for slavery and colonialism, you quickly realize it's a debt that the former colonizers will never be able to repay.

Why, because it would be as financially ruinous as the ones imposed on Haiti were?

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah, and since repayment is probably a leftist policy, that would likely usher in far-right imperialist governments. Doesn't mean we shouldn't do some sort of sustainable payment-each-year over a long time.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Far-right imperialist governments are ushering in right now across Europe despite the scarcity of, as you say, leftist policies... Maybe it's because it's not about horseshoe theory, opposites attract and all that, so much as: capitalists strip away the democratic facade whenever their infinite growth model hits limits and so they try to cut corners, decrease regulation - Trump's latest deregulations are a striking example of that.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    horseshoe theory

    no i agree that is nonsense. but that's not what i'm saying, and i'm not calling anything far-left to begin with. horseshoe is not just people challenging incumbency by going with the rivals.

    the scarcity of, as you say, leftist policies

    that's not true, but let's assume it is and change that to liberal. you're right that such social stuff is more liberal than leftist. and studies have shown that in the global north it's a trend in challenging the incumbents—which have been liberal for a while—under the global covid economy problems, an incidental occasion driving the trend. now who do you think they'll vote for when the ruling government knowingly bankrupts its economy, which it has propped up as the system of life for millennia to support itself?

    capitalists strip away the democratic facade whenever their infinite growth model hits limits and so they try to cut corners, decrease regulation

    it's actually the opposite: whenever we're content with boons they take everything away, and then when all get poorer during recessions the consumer is comparatively powerless. take the roaring 20s, the gilded age. (and it's not like democracy is all just more regulation either. i trust that you have met rednecks and oppose the PATRIOT mass surveillance act.)

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