re: Armed gang takes over hospital in Haiti

The more surprising aspect of this story is that Haiti has a hospital.

They should’ve let us help bulld highways and decent infrastructure system like we did in the Dominican.

I’ve been to Haiti twice, to the countryside, and the main interstate is quite literally a muddy ditch for miles and miles.

There are worse places than Haiti. Aside from Cite Soleil, I found the country relatively safe during a time of political upheaval and cholera.
The food was surprisingly tasty (goat five ways, fried potatoes, rice and a superb sweet hot sauce made from scotch bonnet peppers.

Prestige lager is world class, Guinness is widely available, and Barbancourt rum is a top shelf export.

Local seafood is cheap cheap and often cooked and served beachside in some pretty idyllic locations both on the north and south side of the island.

Most of the people I encountered were pretty chill, stoic and respectful.
Plus most everyone in Haiti hates the Clintons and the UN.

I would visit again with no hesitation.

quote:

---

Haitians are the Palestinians of the West

---

This. That country cannot be saved without completely eliminating the current population, which obviously will never happen.

quote:

---

Unless you’ve been there, you cannot comprehend how poor and desolate that country is.

---

My run in with Haitians was when I was stationed at Guantanamo Bay back in the mid-90's. My 2nd day there, I was told to man the front desk of the hospital with a couple of other Corpsmen. The Haitian civil war was in full swing, and we had about 10k refugees there that the Coast Guard and Navy had picked up. Clinton was trying to decide if he wanted to send them to CONUS. Apparently, tuberculosis is common in Haiti so we had to screen them for TB with a chest x-ray.

Before the first bus load pulled up, my CMC gave us some plastic basins to put behind the counter. We had no idea why, then we were told that a lot of them will put void there bladder and bowels in the hospital lobby, and if that were to happen, we should throw a basin underneath them! Luckily, that never came to fruition, but it sure opened my young eyes to the fact that I was naïve about the nature of the world we live in.

Haitian slaves actually won their independence from France but obviously never did Jack shite with it. Could have been a tourism and agriculture hub but nah.

quote:

---

It’s what happens when a population grows too fast for the resources it has. It used to be a beautiful tropical island. Imagine if the population were only 10%, they could thrive on tourism.

---

And you’d have to plant a tree or two

So it's the Mississippi of the Caribbean?