Haiti

Haiti is dirt poor, and until browngirl posted about it I did not know why. This article explains Haiti's call for $21B from France:

Why $21 billion? It's the modern equivalent of the 90 million francs Haiti agreed to pay France in 1825, in return for official recognition of Haiti's sovereignty. For two decades following Haitian independence in 1804, the former mother country, with the support of the United States, Britain and Spain, enforced a crippling embargo, accompanied by a threat to re-colonize and re-enslave Haiti if indemnity wasn't paid for lost property -- i.e., slaves. Haiti, once France's richest colony, agreed to pay the price -- more than twice the value of the entire nation at the time -- but could only afford to do so using high-interest loans from French banks.

Haitians had to buy freedom with their lives and then again with cash, and the US helped make that necessary. I sure didn't learn that in history classes...

In other news, there have been some interesting reactions to Pat Robertson's drivel about why the earthquake happened. There's Pat's conversation with God, and the devil's response, and, more recently, the Pat Robertson voodoo doll being offered on eBay (all proceeds to to earthquake relief). The creator of this last item later added a Rush Limbaugh doll, which is also doing well.