Not going to leave you stranded -- HOPE FOR HAITI NOW!!!

If you have anything to give -- $1 to $1000 - Hopeforhaitinow.org is taking donations.  The funds go to very reputable groups including UNICEF and Yele (an organization run by Haitian-American R&B artist Wyclef Jean).  Please give what you can, when you can!

About Haiti:

Its the FIRST independent black independent country in the Western Hemisphere.  In 1804, slaves in Haiti freed THEMSELVES.  Their fight for freedom led to the withdraw of France from North America and the sell of the Louisiana Purchase.  The Louisiana Purchase constitutes the whole middle half of the United States.

In retribution for freeing themselves, France forced Haiti to pay for the loss of slaves.  The amount was 150 million in gold francs - the equivalent of $21 billion now.

The United States because of this insurrection refused to recognize Haiti for sixty years.

The supposed debt that Haiti owed was not repaid until 1947.  In between that time the United States occupied the country for twenty years to protect American investment.  From 1915 to 1935, Haiti had additional monies taken from its people.

Ten years after Haiti was forced to pay France, the United States and France backed and supported Papa Doc Duvalier....a dictator who they believed would keep the country from becoming communist like its other Caribbean neighbor - Cuba.  While the U.S. and France watched and protected Duvalier - he killed over 30,000 people to ensure fear and politcal repression would stop him from being overthrown.  It did.

His son, known as Baby Doc Duvalier, took over in the 1970s and ruled until 1986.  Afterwhich, he escaped with the help of the U.S. and France out of Haiti after the people overthrew his regime.  He took with him hundreds of millions of dollars - some say between 500 to 800 million U.S. dollars.  He is STILL alive and he lives in FRANCE.  RIGHT NOW!!!!

Haiti was beginning to get on its feet with the election of Aristide.  However, somehow he too was overthrown.....particularly when he started to make waves pushing for reparations from France and the United States for the money it stole from the Haitian people and the continued harboring of a criminal who committed crimes against humanity. 

Haiti is poor for a reason -- because it is a mighty nation --- a mighty nation never forgiven for the slaves who freed themselves and for a people who dared to raise their voices of independence.