Switzerland to Return “Duvalier Funds” to Haiti
July 6th, 2008 by SocProf and tagged Corruption, Duvalier, Global Governance, Globalization, Haiti, Mass Violence, Politics, Poverty
Via Le Nouvel Observateur, this is a welcome, albeit belated, development. Switzerland will return approximately $12 million, which is only a fraction of all the money that Jean-Claude Duvalier and his family embezzled from their country, Haiti. Duvalier has been enjoying a nice retirement on the French Riviera since he went into exile in 1986 (life must be hard there, compared to the chaos he left behind).
The funds that Switzerland will return to Haiti were placed in Swiss banks before Duvalier and his entourage left the country. They have the remaining three months to contest the restitution. Haitian authorities estimate that Duvalier embezzled more than $100 million, mostly through stealing profits from state enterprises that were supposed to go to funding social programs. Instead, the money would find its way to Swiss bank accounts.
Duvalier no longer has access to the money deposited in Switzerland since 2002. Haiti started procedures to get the money back in 1986, but the request was only completed last May.
The best source on the history of violence in Haiti is the Encyclopdia of Mass Violence. Of course, the Duvalier regime (1957-1986), in particular under Jean-Claude Duvalier – "Baby Doc" – was a brutal and murderous dictatorship, following in his father’s – Francois Duvalier, "Papa Doc" – footsteps. Papa Doc is the one who created the infamous Tontons Macoutes.
Political and economic stability have not yet been established in Haiti and it would be nice if the returned funds were used for the collective good of a population that badly needs it.
Posted in Corruption, Development, Economy, Global Governance, Globalization, Mass Violence, Politics, Poverty | 2 Comments »
July 13th, 2008 at 7:23 am
Kinda off-topic,
I am building my first sociology blog and can’t seem to figure out how to put images into the posts themeselves. From what i can tell there are two ways: Insert media and insert image from the working bar. The gallery function is lso screwed up.Everytime i try to upload a image it takes me back to sign in and password option, after putting in my password again it has a error signal. not sure if you skilled in this ….
thanks mike
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July 13th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Mike,
are you using the Edublogs software? I have never had a problem with these functions.
If I want to insert an image from another website, I go there, right-click on the image and select “copy image location”. Then come back to my site and click on the “image icon” and paste the link into the “image URL” box.
If I want to insert a video from YT or other site, I just copy the embed code and paste directly into the html code of my post.
It works for me. I hope it helps.
What is the URL of your blog?
[Reply]