Haiti's latest impending and catastrophic misfortune is being attributed to one of two causes. American evangelist Pat Robertson said Haiti was "cursed" because it made a deal with the devil to guarantee a successful Revolution.

This theory only makes sense if you've read J.A. Wylie's The Pope is the Antichrist (which Robertson likely has) and the Constitution Haiti sent Napoleon in 1801 (which he likely hasn't) designating Roman Catholicism the official faith. Sadly the second, more widely accepted explanationis considered realistic, but is no less crazy: just send your cash. And leave it tous.
That this call for cash comes from a man who failed utterly to ensure the proper distribution of similar donations to his own citizens affected by the attacks of September 11 or Hurricane Katrina is ominous enough.But the solution being bandied about for Haiti is a redoubled effort to apply the very policies which created frail infrastructure, an impoverished population, hillsides denuded of trees and export-driven agriculture in the first place.

One journalist in the region even went so far as to claim "the environmental lobby" has been "diverting aid dollars away" from more practical relief efforts in Third World nations, as if it's environmentalism forcing the people of Port-au-Prince to eat mud pies for dinner.

Like every member of the UN, Haiti is beholden to history. And for history's only successful slave revolution the admission price has been correspondingly steep, just as Rome predicted it would be.

Before leading a rebel army of his fellows into their final battle against Roman legions, Spartacus the gladiator (a specialized fighting slave) executed a Roman citizen. After the Roman victory, six thousand crucified (non-fighting) slaves were "staked out the road from Capua to Rome" in restitution. In 1804, a victorious Haiti had to deal with Britain (30 years away from abolishing slavery), the US (60 years away) and France (with revolutionary troubles of her own, briefly abolished slavery in 1794 under the Jacobins).

An international embargo was called but in 1838 France (with a restored Bourbon monarchy) recognized Haiti's government. And all she asked in return was an indemnity of 150 million francs for the dispossessed slave owners of 1804. Fast-forward to 1922: indemnity paid off, finally. To 1915: US occupation begins (1804 Constitution repealed, foreigners now entitled to own property...though not the slave kind). 1934: US occupation ends, dependence on US aid remains. 1957: François "Papa Doc" Duvalier elected president. (By) 1964: Papa Doc declared president for life. 1971: Jean- Claude "Baby Doc" inherits. 1986: Baby Doc flown to Parisian exile on US army plane; 5-man military junta, the Conseil National de Gouvernement (CNG), assumes control of the country. Now, let's rejoin our 2010 story.

Baby Doc attempted to "Taiwanize" the economy. From 1980 to 1988 Haiti's per capita GDP went from US$253 to $209. Tourism fell from 190,000 visitors (1980) to 40,000 (1983). One percent of the population held 46 percent of the wealth, 60 percent were unemployed, and 80 percent earned less than $100 a year. But he kept his money.

With the CNG in charge "the US Agency for International Development envisaged a dynamic, export-led agribusiness, a continuation of international aid policy toward Haiti."

Most people were kicked off the land to make room for industrial farms, which exported the food they produced. The CNG abolished state monopolies on most commodities. Local agriculture and textile manufacturers couldn't compete with the cheaper imports and shut down. Sugar refineries and state-run vegetable oil factories also closed. So modernize, Haitians were told.

Again according to the US government, in 1997 the factories providing garmentstitching for companies like K-Mart, Wal- Mart and Disney "were not expanding, can only employ about 2% of the work force" and often would not even pay the minimum wage. (As recently as 2009 this could mean
18 cents a day.)

Since 2003, the legal minimum wage has been 70 gourdes a day (less than $2). Last October a freelance Canadian journalist put the question to President René Préval, only to be told "that when the Dominican Republic raised its minimum wage for garment workers to $5 a day, it lost 110,000 jobs." So why are people like Oxford economics professor Paul Collier calling on Haiti to open "free trade zones"? To take better advantage of "its poverty, relatively unregulated labour market and labour costs that are fully competitive with China, the global benchmark." Naturally.

Earthquake relief is fine, but there will be no talk of replanting trees or setting Haiti's multitudes up with small farms on what little fertile land remains, and which currently benefits only foreign multi-nationals. They've survived 'til now, haven't they?