Haiti and Realpolitik

There is the whiff – just a whiff at the moment – of politics in the Haiti aid mission.

Alain Joyandet, the French minister for humanitarian relief is said to have been involved in a fight with an American serviceman in the control tower of the airport at Port au Prince, whilst Médecins sans Frontières say that one of their flights carrying a mobile hospital was refused permission to land, by Americans hogging the show.

The French, of course, are scarcely in a position to whinge about Haiti, having kept the islanders in slavery for years, then blockading it after the slaves revolted, only lifting the blockade after saddling the islanders with a massive debt for reparations to the slave owners which it took them more than a century to pay off.

Normal for the times, perhaps, (we are speaking of the early 19th century). A less appropriate presence is that of Bill Clinton who failed to give President Aristide the support he needed to turn Haiti into a functioning democracy, terrified he would turn into another Castro. Haiti, you see, is America’s backyard. It is right that if they are supplying the largest amount of aid (easily) they should run the show, but....

Obama is in trouble at home and, having been highly critical of the performance George W Bush over Hurricane Katrina has to look effective. Something going on abroad, and the use of the military for humanitarian purposes, constitute a welcome distraction. But there seems to be a longer term foreign policy at work here – he has sent in thousands of troops, such that some people are talking about an occupation.

I may be wrong. Let’s hope the Haitians don’t get caught up as pawns in a game they have no business in, and that nothing gets in the way of delivering food, water and medicines to the needy.