Back in the mid-nineties the democratically elected President of Haiti was giving some of the big dogs the willies. A lot of scary talk about power to the people and land-redistribution and so forth. Put a bit of a scare into the usual crooks who have been having their way with Haiti for two hundred years.
Aristide had to go. So the US and Canada invaded to save the country from democracy. The name chosen for this operation was over-ripe with irony; Operation Uphold Democracy.
What sticks in my mind to this day is a scene the television cameras captured as the US Marines were sweeping into Port-au-Prince. The Marines aren't battling a resistance or cleaning up terror nests, they're trucking away garbage from the streets of Port-au-Prince. The camera focuses on a middle aged woman, who proclaims her joy at the invasion.
"You have no idea how long we have waited for someone to clean up this garbage."
Obviously Haitians are capable of clearing their own garbage off the streets. But you'd never guess that from watching this particular newscast.
That's the image we like to present of the people we loot and plunder. So helpless they can't even take care of their garbage.
How can we ever expect them to govern themselves?
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