What would be the pros and cons of making Haiti a United States Territory?
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M$4 Answers
Pros (from our POV) - Our French will improve, if we wish to deal with Haiti.
Cons (from our POV) - We will need to learn Creole and French, if we wish to deal with Haiti. Those are the two official languages of the country.
Pros (from their POV) - What if they fall under the same definition as Puerto Rico? "Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States...In 1947, the U.S. granted Puerto Ricans the right to elect democratically their own governor." That sounds pretty slick - they're self-governing, yet the beneficiary of being a protectorate of the US. "Puerto Ricans have Puerto Rican citizenship." They have an elected governor, but are not a state. (Too many stars on the flag already!) If Haiti cuts the same deal, seems pretty win-win to me!
Cons (from their POV) - They may have to learn English if they wish to deal with the United States. However, there is usually a workaround for this, as is evidenced in many foreign communities in the US, where English has not been spoken for generations.
Okay, about the French thing. Haiti is upper class, or poor. Two basic distinctions. The native tongue is either Creole or French, with the vast majority speaking only Creole or some French. Most wealthy, upper-class Haitians speak French, Creole and English. "What is Creole?" I hear you cry. A melting pot of languages - primarily French-based with influences from West African languages Wolof, Mandingo, and EweAfrican, plus Arabic, Spanish and Taíno. There will be a quiz.
The official language of Puerto Rico is Spanish, but that's a bit more universal than Creole. A knowledge of Spanish is a good global skill, especially in Southern California, where I dwell, and speak Spanish out of necessity. Not kidding.
I personally think it should be everyone's duty to speak a foreign language. Spanish, English, French and Italian are all intertwined as "Romance Languages" and once you learn one, the others come more easily. Creole, however, is no easy task. Might make it a bit tougher to have Haiti in our little corner of the earth. Just think of what they could be saying about us behind our backs!
:)
VR
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M$
So, that would be one major con - I doubt that the people of Haiti would WANT to lose their independent status and I doubt that the U.S. would really want to be the ones to diminish their status. And, would we really want to take a major step back towards colonialism?
Practically speaking, I would guess that it would always be a major outflow, budget-wise. And, I am not sure what benefits we would reap from such an arrangement.
I'm sure there are a lot more pros and cons, but I throw these out to get the conversation going. (Especially since that may not be the most so-called politically correct answer.)
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M$1. Haiti economy will improve
2. Haiti medical treatment will improve
3. Haiti governmwnt will be strengthen
Cons
1. Haiti will become such a financial burden on the U.S because of its limited natural resources
and this island tourism has been suffering for such a long time from political upheaval in the Haitian government.
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M$
pixelsilva, US does have issues here in those states you mentioned and because of their own financial problems here they are struggling so making Haiti a US territory will definitely be a added burden.
Oooh commme oooon!! ... @kareul ¿How is that? ¿Pros? United States has done nothing to improve its own 3rd world population in Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi... ¿Now it going to be capable of raising Haiti from the drain? ¿Really?
Two hours ago I saw Hillary Clinton in CNN giving a hypocritical speech about how they are going to help Haiti... pleaseeee!!! ¿Why she and all the communist on his party are crying like crocodiles for "poor Haiti" when that country has been in total chaos and administrative anarchy for decades?
¿Why don´t we remember when "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son "Nene Doc" were reaping Haiti to pieces sending the whole country to the cave age while their family scavenged the leftovers of something called Haiti?
During all those year that the Duvaliers were in power, the US was a happy camper blessing their doings on the island, like they did with all major dictators all across Latin America during the last 50 years.
Now the naive North America is raising the "moral" question of ¿How are we going to help Haiti? ...and going even further as to suggest (nothing personal budda) that the US should integrate Haiti administratively into their territory... ¿Say what?
First of all, poverty there is rampant beyond believe, corruption is the national sport, infrastructure is non-existent (after the quake got even worse), health service is disheartening, education... below the lowest of standards you can think off with lack of knowledge and literacy. The whole place is an absolute chaos, over populated, a nightmare of a country. That forgotten place on Earth called Haiti should not be called like that; instead, the whole world should call it by its real name: Inferno.
¿United States is going to integrate Inferno?
The most powerful nation that have ever roamed over the face of the Earth, one that sent 12 men to the moon, got 13 nuclear aircraft carriers (with 5 more under construction), that invented the light bulb, the airplane, the A-bomb, the Internet and the post it notes... which is not capable of giving a simple roof and three meals to its own homeless in all major capitals... ¿Is now going to single handedly solve all the major problem of impoverished Haiti and obtain nothing in return?
While some of the southern states have problems, they are just not of the same scale of magnitude as Haiti. If Haiti was part of the USA the excess unemployed Haitians would be able to move to where the jobs for unskilled labor are in the US, currently being taken by illegal Mexicans etc.. The rest of the country would be capable of improvement.
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M$
Awesome! This was a rockin' good time - thanks for the fun, B!!
"Okay, this simplistic and kinda goofey and in no way intended to garner BA."
In this case your policy was the best. Great job.