I WAS glad to see that Christian Aid Week (from May 13 to 19) was devoted to Haiti.

Poor Haiti! In the 18th century the French sugar growing colony was the

richest in the Caribbean until its black slaves, inspired by the French Revolution, rebelled massacring their masters.

Napoleon sent an army to crush the revolt but it was defeated and sent back to France. The Royal Navy protected the island from any further white intervention.

The new United States could not tolerate a free black neighbour setting an example to its slaves so has blocked any attempt to succeed economically more or less ever since.

For some 20 years in the last century the country was occupied by the US Marines to protect the Panama Canal.

When independence was restored it was at the cost of being run by the appalling voodoo-inspired Duvalier father and son - Papa Doc and Baby Doc - who ran what was left of the country into the ground. Then came the earthquake.

Subsequent neo-colonial activity by the UN and charities such as Oxfam has only further humiliated the Haitian people so I must hope that Christian Aid can give them real hope for the future.

AV Martin,

Westfield Close,

Wigginton, York