From David Brooks, on why Haiti is so poor:
We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.
Forget Haiti’s long history of colonial abuse, economic exploitation, and violent U.S. intervention (see here and here) when trying to understand Haiti’s poverty – just blame it on their “culture”! (and voodoo – really, David Brooks? Are you serious???)
In a way, David Brooks is right. Capitalism is not for the faint of heart. Unfortunately, they received the short end of the stick.
No, Michael, getting suckered into paying sticker price for a car is “receiving the short end of the stick”. Generations of slavery followed by constant economic, military and political invasion from richer countries like France and the US? Hell, I don’t think an expression exists that can sum that up.
That “where the children eat mud” article is really racist, too; if you were doing a shot for every ugly stereotype you saw while reading through it, you’d be puking by the second page.