Marijuana could Rebuild Haiti!

[Payaso]

The topic was ..... Cannabis Can Save Haiti, remember???

At the very least the government should be handing out seeds and growbooks...

 

[mriko]

Are you serious!? Haiti has been marginalized by the economic powers that be for hundreds of years for fear of being a good example. Were the revolutions of the French and Americans not bloody? There country was stripped by International companies and corrupt puppet governments. When the people democratically elected a leader with a plan to create equality and was not subservient to outside interests a coup was orchestrated by foreign powers. When the puppet government was formed all that were publically outspoken against it or belonged to the former poplular political party were imprisoned without trial.

Indeed. France, USA & the UN have a direct responsibility in Haiti's political & economic situation.
After they gained their independence, Haiti was forced to pay huges yearly taxes to France (during more than 80 years !), as a garantee it wouldn't be invaded again and as compensation for those who had lost land in the revolution. Total amounts is around 21 billions US$ (today's ones). Aristide actually asked for France to give back this extorted money (which certainly helped him to get ousted...).
After it became independent, Haiti was completely let down by the contemporary international community which was mostly made of the racsit & fascist imperialist & colonnialist powers, who couldn't accept that a nation of backward slaves had crushed the Napoleonian armies and gained independence. The newly born nation had to be forgotten, they had to pay for what they dared to do.

US & UN military interventions during the late 20th century have brought no improvement to the country, only helping to maintain corrupt individuals in power and common people in abject poverty.

Irie !

 

[delta9nxs]

there has never been a geologists report about liquid oil underground in hispanola. i spent twenty years in the caribbean and never saw an oil well anywhere outside of cuba, barbados, and trinidad/tobago. cuba and barbados still have to import most of their oil.

the cia factbook says there is no oil there.

if oil were there in retrievable quantities someone would already be pumping it.

in haiti there are torrential tropical rains that have long ago washed the soil away. it is vegetation that retains soil. the soil is gone. the vegetation is gone. if you attempt to put topsoil back it will just wash away. it is mostly mountainous terrain with just the rock exposed and in between flash flood washed ravines that transport everything into the sea. btw, the people use the ravines as roads. mostly on foot with burros carrying shit. you are talking about terraforming 27,000 sq miles

haiti has long been used as a transshipping point by smugglers. i'm sure someone is making money from it but it is not the regular people.

there is no middle class. there is only crushing poverty or extreme wealth. the wealthy got that way and stay that way by being corrupt.

you want to help them send plane tickets and luggage because the only way they are going to get relief is to get the f**k out of there.

 

[SpasticGramps]

It's a bad situation. The country has limited resources, zero ability to extract and sell those resources because their government is completely corrupt and the only place they to look to for answers is the Heavens. Their answer to exploitation is more exploitation, but they know no different.

It was recipe for disaster before and now that they have zero infrastructure left the situation will only get worse.

The island is destroyed for all intent and purposes. Good luck working with the government and bringing about any kind of substantive change.

It's a horribly tragic situation. I'm a very optimistic person, but this is a very bad situation.

No food, no shelter, no water. I imagine weed is the last thing on their mind.

 

[hazy]

They definitely need to relocated, but not here as will be the reactions of many. Didn't mean to make you guys mad, but as someone said above, the division between the DR and H is visible from 30,000 feet. Why did nature see fit to only make one side of the island uninhabitable?

Whatever, I would have erased that comment above, cause I was thinking I didn't want to offend you guys, but you guys have immortalized it.
oh well. btw, I don't remember reading about the patriots slaughtering all of the leftover English nor their colonial Tory counterparts.


Back to the OP's topic.

Weed growing saving Haiti. Are you suggesting that Haiti be made into a giant pot plantation? To sell weed to the world in a fantasy legalized marijuana dream? Since it's illegal, do you mean they should grow it illegally and smuggle it to the US, thereby making a fortune and then all Haitians getting an equal share for their part in the supply chain?
I hope they get bomb genetics.

 

[SoloGro57]

I imagine weed would be the last thing on their minds at the moment. At some point in the future, after the bodies have been buried and the homes and small businesses are rebuilt, but long before the crying is over, they should be thinking of some way to build an economy.

Hemp and cannabis could help them.

By the way, I'm not saying the US government should do the land reclamation that would be required. I think that they'd be able to find partners who could help them develop a thriving hemp/cannabis economy. NORML comes to mind immediately, but there are plenty of other private groups who might have an interest in seeing something like a hemp-energized economy blossom in Haiti

Finally, since Haiti is a sovereign nation they could legalize and regulate use of cannabis on their side of island. It would be a place people visit to enjoy cannabis. Just like Amsterdam, with the main difference being that cannabis is only tolerated in Amsterdam. Haiti would be able to make it legal if they chose to.

 

[mriko]

Finally, since Haiti is a sovereign nation they could legalize and regulate use of cannabis on their side of island. It would be a place people went to enjoy cannabis. Just like Amsterdam, with the main difference being that cannabis is only tolerated in Amsterdam. Haiti would be able to make it legal if they chose to.

Sovereign... Is that sure ? I strongly doubt Western governments & UN would tolerate that Haiti legalize cannabis. Or there should be created some kind of Organization of Ganja Producing Caribbeans Countries, whose members would legalize all together and face all together the opposition from West & UN.
Then it would work and bring in good things to the islands populations. One single nation doing it alone, in this coke-laden area, would quickly be perceived as a narco-state & crime-haven.
L'union fait la force !

Irie !

 

[SoloGro57]

Caribbean Union?

Caribbean Union?

Sovereign... Is that sure ? I strongly doubt Western governments & UN would tolerate that Haiti legalize cannabis. Or there should be created some kind of Organization of Ganja Producing Caribbeans Countries, whose members would legalize all together and face all together the opposition from West & UN.
Then it would work and bring in good things to the islands populations. One single nation doing it alone, in this coke-laden area, would quickly be perceived as a narco-state & crime-haven.
L'union fait la force !

Irie !

Actually the Idea of a Caribbean Union has occured to me too. The Europeans have done it, and it seems to be working. There has been talk about an American union to include Canada the US and Mexico. This may be more far fetched than the idea of airlifting compost, but it makes perfect sense to me!

 

[headband 707]

I agree with that lol there would be lots of things down there that wouldn't be here and you would have to learn a whole new set of rules as it's very wet there once you have your bud. But yeah I think thats a great idea it could help the ppl to teach them to help themselves. Just get them started and let them run the show. peace out Headband707

 

[mriko]

there has never been a geologists report about liquid oil underground in hispanola. i spent twenty years in the caribbean and never saw an oil well anywhere outside of cuba, barbados, and trinidad/tobago. cuba and barbados still have to import most of their oil.

the cia factbook says there is no oil there.

if oil were there in retrievable quantities someone would already be pumping it.

CIA factbook says no oil is extracted. It doesn't say there is no oil. And well... CIA factbook is not word of gospel

Haiti Earthquake May Have Exposed Gas, Aiding Economy (Update1)
January 26, 2010, 04:54 PM EST

By Jim Polson

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The earthquake that killed more than 150,000 people in Haiti this month may have left clues to petroleum reservoirs that could aid economic recovery in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, a geologist said.

The Jan. 12 earthquake was on a fault line that passes near potential gas reserves, said Stephen Pierce, a geologist who worked in the region for 30 years for companies including the former Mobil Corp. The quake may have cracked rock formations along the fault, allowing gas or oil to temporarily seep toward the surface, he said yesterday in a telephone interview.

“A geologist, callous as it may seem, tracing that fault zone from Port-au-Prince to the border looking for gas and oil seeps, may find a structure that hasn’t been drilled,” said Pierce, exploration manager at Zion Oil & Gas Inc., a Dallas- based company that’s drilling in Israel. “A discovery could significantly improve the country’s economy and stimulate further exploration.”

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive met yesterday in Montreal with diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to discuss redevelopment initiatives. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said wind power may play a role in rebuilding the Caribbean nation, where forests have been denuded for lack of fuel, the Canadian Press reported.

“Haiti, from the standpoint of oil and gas exploration, is a lot less developed than the Dominican Republic,” Pierce said. “One could do a lot more work there.”

Abraham Lincoln’s Consul

The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. It may have 3 million barrels of oil in a shallow offshore formation that’s probably also shared by Haiti, Pierce said.

“One of the main reasons for the dearth of information on reserves in Haiti is that the Dominican Republic has numerous surface-hydrocarbon seeps while Haiti had very, very few,” he said.

Abraham Lincoln’s consul to the Dominican Republic reported oil seeps there in 1862. Neither nation produces oil or gas. As much as 1 trillion cubic feet of gas may be trapped in a border formation near the earthquake fault, Pierce said.

Pierce hasn’t worked in Hispaniola since joining Zion in February 2005. He said he’s unaware of any petroleum geologists conducting fieldwork in Haiti. There has been exploration of Ocoa Bay, the largest potential oil deposit in the Dominican Republic, he said.

600,000 Without Shelter

“All basins cross the border,” said Paul Mann, co-author of a 1991 paper in the Journal of Petroleum Geology on Hispaniola’s petroleum potential. The paper concluded that “existing seismic data indentify undrilled prospects.”

More than 600,000 people are without shelter in the Port- au-Prince area, the United Nations said Jan. 22. The 7.0- magnitude quake destroyed about one-third of the buildings in Port-au-Prince. It also knocked out the capital’s seaport and water and sewage systems.

“Relief and recovery for the survivors is the priority now,” Mark Fried, a spokesman for British charity Oxfam, said in a statement. “Hundreds of thousands who lost everything but their lives” need water, shelter and toilets to stop the spread of disease, he said.

‘Colossal’ Reconstruction

Haiti will need “massive support” for a “colossal” reconstruction from the earthquake, Bellerive said at the meeting yesterday in Montreal.

The Greater Antilles, which includes Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and their offshore waters, probably hold at least 142 million barrels of oil and 159 billion cubic feet of gas, according to a 2000 report by the U.S. Geological Survey. Undiscovered amounts may be as high as 941 million barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the report.

Among nations in the northern Caribbean, Cuba and Jamaica have awarded offshore leases for oil and gas development. Trinidad and Tobago, South American islands off the coast of Venezuela, account for most Caribbean oil production, according to the U.S. Energy Department.


--With assistance from Alexandre Deslongchamps in Ottawa and Peter S. Green in New York. Editors: Tony Cox, Charles Siler.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Polson in New York at +1-212-617-5293 or [email protected].

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tony Cox at +1-713-651-4610 or [email protected].

From http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-26/haiti-earthquake-may-have-exposed-gas-deposits-aiding-recovery.html

Irie !