January 17 marked the overthrowing in 1893 of Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii by a group of businessmen and sugar planters -- all of them male and very, very white and foreign to Hawaii:
Queen Liliuokalani has been deposed from power, the monarchy abrogated, Government buildings seized, and the new provisional Ministry, composed of four members, is sustained by bayonets of volunteers.
Queen Liliuokalani attempted on Saturday, Jan. 14, to promulgate a new Constitution, depriving foreigners of the right of franchise and abrogating the existing House of Nobles, at the same time giving her the power of appointing a new House. This was resisted by the foreign element of the community, which at once appointed a committee of safety of thirteen members, which called a mass meeting of their classes, at which 1,200 or 1,500 were present. That meeting unanimously adopted resolutions condemning the action of the Queen and authorizing the committee to take into consideration whatever was necessary for the public safety.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The relatively easy disposal of Liliuokalani of Hawaii by foreign corporate interests brings to mind the earlier, by centuries, removal of another queen, Anacaona of Jaragua which later became a part of Haiti, by various corporate interests of the foreign nation of Spain. Anacaona was executed in front of her people by hanging in 1504, or possibly 1503:
Anacaona became queen of Jaragua after her brother's death. Her husband Caonabo, suspected of having organised the attack on La Navidad (Spanish settlement on northern Haiti), was captured by Alonso de Ojeda and shipped to Spain, dying in a shipwreck during the journey. The Taínos, being ill-treated by the conquerors, revolted, and made a long war against them. During a feast organized by eight regional chieftains to honor Anacaona, who was friendly to the Spaniards, Spanish Governor Nicolás de Ovando ordered the meeting house set on fire. He arrested Anacaona and her Taíno noblemen, all of whom, being accused of conspiracy, were executed. While others were shot, Anacaona was executed by hanging at the age of 39.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
In the case of Hawaii, as in the case of Haiti, Capitalism and Christianity marched hand in hand:
In 1887, during the reign of Lili`uokalani' s brother, King Kalakaua, a group of planters and businessmen, seeking to control the kingdom politically as well as economically, formed a secret organization, the Hawaiian League. Membership (probably never over 400, compared to the 40,000 Native Hawaiians in the kingdom) was predominantly American, including several missionary descendants. Organizer and fire brand of the league was Lorrin A. Thurston, a lawyer and missionary grandson, who would later be a leader in the overthrow of the monarchy, with many of the same men.
http://www.hawaii-nation.org/...
The venality of the corrupt combination of Christianity and Capitalism in pre-colonial Haiti is exhibited in this historical note in Common Dreams:
If you fly over the country of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, the island on which Columbus landed, it looks like somebody took a blowtorch and burned away anything green. Even the ocean around the port capital of Port au Prince is choked for miles with the brown of human sewage and eroded topsoil. From the air, it looks like a lava flow spilling out into the sea.
.... When Columbus first landed on Hispaniola in 1492, virtually the entire island was covered by lush forest. The Taino "Indians" who lived there had an apparently idyllic life prior to Columbus, from the reports left to us by literate members of Columbus's crew such as Miguel Cuneo.
When Columbus and his crew arrived on their second visit to Hispaniola, however, they took captive about two thousand local villagers who had come out to greet them. Cuneo wrote: "When our caravels were to leave for Spain, we gathered one thousand six hundred male and female persons of those Indians, and these we embarked in our caravels on February 17, 1495. For those who remained, we let it be known (to the Spaniards who manned the island's fort) in the vicinity that anyone who wanted to take some of them could do so, to the amount desired, which was done."
Cuneo further notes that he himself took a beautiful teenage Carib girl as his personal slave, a gift from Columbus himself, but that when he attempted to have sex with her, she "resisted with all her strength." So, in his own words, he "thrashed her mercilessly and raped her."
http://www.commondreams.org/...
The rape of both a land and a people.
And the hope of Free Market Corporate Capitalism for the continued rape of Haiti:
I just want to pause for a second and read you something, which is pretty extraordinary. I just put this up on my website. The headline is "Haiti: Stop Them Before They Shock Again." This went up a few hours ago, three hours ago, I believe, on the Heritage Foundation website.
"Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S. In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the image of the United States in the region."
Naomi Klein at:
http://crooksandliars.com/...
Ah, the good old Shock Doctrine! As well as the never-ending and constant rape of nations such as Haiti by so-called "advanced nations":
The full scale of the destruction resulting from this earthquake may not become clear for several weeks. Even minimal repairs will take years to complete, and the long-term impact is incalculable.
What is already all too clear, however, is the fact that this impact will be the result of an even longer-term history of deliberate impoverishment and disempowerment. Haiti is routinely described as the "poorest country in the western hemisphere". This poverty is the direct legacy of perhaps the most brutal system of colonial exploitation in world history, compounded by decades of systematic postcolonial oppression.
The noble "international community" which is currently scrambling to send its "humanitarian aid" to Haiti is largely responsible for the extent of the suffering it now aims to reduce. Ever since the US invaded and occupied the country in 1915, every serious political attempt to allow Haiti's people to move (in former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's phrase) "from absolute misery to a dignified poverty" has been violently and deliberately blocked by the US government and some of its allies.
Aristide's own government (elected by some 75% of the electorate) was the latest victim of such interference, when it was overthrown by an internationally sponsored coup in 2004 that killed several thousand people and left much of the population smouldering in resentment. The UN has subsequently maintained a large and enormously expensive stabilisation and pacification force in the country.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...