Thanks, Will -- that article and a related article on Haitian history at The Guardian, are informatative and well-written.

I've been interested in Haiti since reading Richard Halliburton's account of the slave revolution when I was about 8 and I have friends from the Dominican Republic.

I don't think I really understood before reading the above articles the stark contrast between the two countries especially the almost complete deforestation of Haiti. And I didn't know that Haiti had to pay reparations to France from 1825 UNTIL 1947 in order to be recognized. Haiti had to borrow hugely from the US, German & French banks to do this. By 1900, Haiti was paying 80% of its national budget on loan repayments. Remember, too, that Haiti was occupied by the US for about 20 years (ending in the 1930s) because the US was afraid Haiti would default on its massive debts. Then the Great Depression destroyed Haiti's exports and more revolution and dictatorships destroyed any chance Haiti ever had of building a decent economy.

Linn