Knopfler:
Chile is indeed a follower of the Chicago School, led by Friedman. It is also one of the wealthiest and most successful countries south of the United States. Coincidence?

“Butcher of Nicaragua”? Reagan? Maybe among Sandinistas.

The CIA ran loose in a lot of places during the Cold War. Then again so did the KGB. Tiny, backwater countries got caught up in the swirl. Care to compare body counts?

Thank you rfidler, great comment, in my mind when a people vote and elect a particular person to be their president, their country the USA has felt that that is not good enough a replaced the elected official after exiling them, ushered in a military coup. Killing hundreds While your checking that USA did this twice, killing hundreds in a few years to Haiti check out , it will piss you off but check into it, IN Central America REGAN Pres. REGAN IS CALLED THE BUTCHER OF NICARAGUA. I travel that is what all educated folks say in Central America, where CIA ran lose, find out for yourself its ugly story yet true. sorry rfidler its been fun. Look up Uncle Milton Freedman and how he influenced American policy in Chile, Big surprise coming for you, Please no one has ever or is now an Angel. We ARE ALL BAD!

Knopfler:

Just did a quick review of Haitan history and of United Fruit:

When Haiti got its independence in 1804, it proceeded to kill every remaining white person on the island (except for a few Polish soldiers). Now how cool is that?! The down side of course: You can’t blame whitey any more.

It was completely free and completely black until 1915 when Teddy pulled in under the pretense of protecting Haiti from Germany(!). The US stayed there for 20 more years. But then it left.

Then again, the US invaded almost every country in the region at one time or another, for one reason or another, in the early 20th century. Then it left. All those other countries seemed to have come out of the trauma just fine, including that shining gem of economic and social perfection, Cuba.

As for United Fruit- nothing in Haiti. Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia, and Panama big time- sometimes good, mostly bad.

Haiti owns its own history. Blaming the US for Haiti’s unique inability to get its shit together is a total cop out.

As for you riding me like a bull, I prefer all-American preppie types to greasy aging hippies with big gold chains. Nice tan though.

JD:
“To other posters. 11.5 Billion from bananas, is a lot of bananas.”

Glad I couldn’t read that! I wouldn’t know what it meant if I could.

JDmysticDJ:

Our first fight. Darn. I’ll miss your witty, well reasoned insults.

Haiti has been waiting since 1809 to be left alone but no France England and then Teddy shows up with the marines throws or kills the farmers takes the land and sells it to UNITED FRUIT, Every president has done the same, and recently exiled the elected official, twice USA removed elected official and military dictators ushered in by USA.Haiti has been abused since their Independance 1804, disaster capitalism good old uncle Milt! rfidler don`t tell me or anyone what to do, I could ride you like a mechanical bull but then again your all bull! stay on subject this is not a writing or grammar class, I+m talking OKK!

rfidler

Your shunned. Consider this a sneer with eye contact.

To other posters. 11.5 Billion from bananas, is a lot of bananas.

Knopfler:
Were you riding a mechanical bull while you typed that post? Please edit before you push the submit button.

Haiti has been an americam mess since the Americans attacked Pres. Wilso 15000 marines, Before that the French invaded Haiti. Everytime the Hatians have a public election those chosen by the people to lead are kidnapped by Bush Clinton Bush, and replaced by a military leader and the killing begins. This is the fault of USA, 700 miles from Miami 300,00 die, and All the USA did was send troops just like 1915 Pres. Wilson`s attack. Nothing HAS CHANGED HAITIANS ARE LONG TIME VICTIMS OF THE USA AND THE AMERICAN PUBLIC KNOWS NOTHING SHAME AND BLAME ON OBAMA&BUSH;

Since the US accounts for about 20% of the world economy, I would hope we’ll be in for just south of $3 billion. Anybody have an accurate, ie, non-ideological, figure for our contribution so far?

And Brazil? $55 million? With an “m”? Come on Lula! You can do better than that. Where’s the socialist, we-are-the-world LUV? Oh, that’s right, you blew the dough on Iranian uranium.

(Try saying that real fast three times- “Iranian uranium”.)

Let’s say an enterprising farmer up in the hills has some bananas, or whatever the hell they grow down there, and he wants to sell them down in P-a-P. He wants to use the money he hopes to get for the bananas, to buy some tools and cooking oil.

He pulls into the market and sees a shipment of bananas being offloaded from the SS Do-gooder and being distributed FREE to the locals. The crew of the SS Do-gooder, mostly college kids from Marin County and the Upper West Side, feel really good about “making a difference” in Haiti. Plus they’ll get a great grade in their Cultural Equivalence class.

The farmer gets no money for his bananas since the going price for bananas is zero. Dejected, he wanders over to the ship docked next to the Do-Gooder, the SS Wyclef Jean. There he is given a gallon of cooking oil and a banana machete and told to behave and come back next week if he needs more freebies.

He goes home and tells his wife he’s out of the banana business. His wife asks him what he’s going to do with the machete. He says, maybe he’ll go and kill some insufferable US college kid from Marin County.

Another dependent slave is created in Haiti, all in the name of compassion.