Interesting read, I never understood why Haiti has had so many financial issues over the years.
I think France and the US should pay off all its debts as restitution to what was done over the years.
Well for one, it's a nation, which is a legal fiction. Haiti and Haitians are not the same thing. That is to say all the previous action of said nation, including the accrual of debts, hadn't ought to be a real liability to the Haitian people. It's precisely inheriting your parent's debt on a magnitude that is baffling. Moreover if one examines the rate of interest it's quite probable that the sum total of principal has been paid. Finally, they had ought to be allowed to default. Risk is one of the reasons given to justify interest, if the lender isn't actually accepting risk, the interest should be close to nothing. If anything such debts had ought to be forgiven simply as a product of the moral imperative of noblesse oblige.
What it really is, is a smokescreen for imperialism to keep the capital gradient in check and forward the Western agenda.
By redistribution of wealth that was gained from theft and exploitation.
I'm an immigrant too, and I am definitely benefitting. Not as much as some, but it would be closing my eyes to ignore how I benefit from past and present imperialism.
Patriotism is pledging allegiance to a country and meaning it, taking the bad together with the good. Why would you give a vote to someone who wasn't serious about improving the country?
Because then someone has to decide who's "serious about improving the country" and who's not, and that "someone" then effectively gets to singlehandedly decide the election results.
Revoking my vote is the very opposite of the spirit of American democracy. The biggest problem America faces is the rise of collectivism (and also Fascism from the right). California leading the pack. I didn't come to America to be part of a socialist nation which wants equality of outcome. The strength of USA, and I would say uniquely, is in individualism, freedom, rights and its core founding principles.
This is probably the most offensive thing you can say to anyone. It is so strange to see young generation of this place veering towards Autoritarian socialist nation. We've seen how that turns out (North vs South Korea, Cambodia, USSR, Cuba). Universities in the US is the hotbed for this non-sense.
Regarding reparations, Russia paying reparations after the war to Ukraine? Probably OK. Woke Russians 600 years later telling the new generation to feel guilty about what Putin did 6 centuries ago? NOT OK.
Patriotism involves sharing the burdens of your country and working for its betterment. Among these burdens are moral burdens. If your country does something wrong the patriotic thing to do is to contribute to making it right. Calling this "collectivism" is bizarre. It is simply what it means to be patriotically committed to your country: you wish your country to thrive, not merely yourself.
This is a facade of morality is extremely condescending. Just because I don't support socialism != not serving the nation and being patriotic, looking out for the interest of the country.
If you want to serve the country: build good communities, hold government accountable, make it efficient, engage in philantropy, join your local soup kitchen, be thankful for people that serve in the military and public services, serve if you can, run for public office and build good products/services that improve lives of people.
I'd argue that not supporting individualism is doing a disservice to the country. It is the reason why we have transistors and MRI machines, medicines and vaccines, iPhones and semiconductors, agriculture and roads (paid by taxes, 40% from large corporations). The impact of which is on an unprecedented scale compared to virtue signaling reparations.
You have missed my point. You can be conservative and patriotic. You can be liberal and patriotic. But if you are patriotically committed to your country, it means you agree to help carry your country's burdens. If your country has done something wrong and shameful, it is not patriotic to ignore this, much less to insist everyone else ignore it, or to hope they don't ignore it but that no one asks you to chip in. This is selfishness and dishonors the country you claim to love and support. The patriotic thing to do is to help right the wrong, make amends. This glorifies your country.
This isn't to say this is any more than an ideal, but it is a mark worth aiming for, and when a country grants you citizenship it expects that you buy into this notion at least as an ideal. Yes, you can in effect buy citizenship in many places, but this is generally regarded as a shame and an embarrassment.
May be we are talking past each other. "Collectivism" has a formal meaning and that's what I am referring to. Mao's collectivism. The sacrifice of the individual (killing of millions) for the good of the society.
I am sure you would agree, given the definition, it is Un-American.
> when a country grants you citizenship it expects that you buy into this notion at least as an ideal
I hope this is not an accussation inclined towards my loathing of what's going on in this nation. If it is not, well said, if it is, then it is extremely condescending because any immigrant knows this better than anyone else. It is obvious and I live by it every single day. It makes me uneasy to hear this from someone, almost offensive and alienating.
> I am sure you would agree, given the definition, it is Un-American.
Why are you sure? What definition of "American" are you referring to? Do you claim authority to state what are America's values?
It sounds like you insist that we obey the founding fathers' wishes about what constitutes the nation of the USA, grounded in some nebulous-if-real sense of "national identity and culture". Do you actually know what their positions are on matters of resource distribution, immigration, or healthy democracy?
I agree. I am all for helping struggling nations move forward but when I hear reparations, I just change the channel. Come back and talk to me when you remove that from your vocabulary. Reparations just beget more reparations and don't fix the rot at the core of the Haitian government or any other. Just like removing all college debt would just be a bandaid and the problem would still be there. It requires fundamental chance to fix things, throwing cash at it and changing nothing won't
