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Senegal offers land to Haitians

news.bbc.co.uk

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Re: Senegal offers land to Haitians

#2
A great gesture by Senegal, In the age where countries are killing innocents over Land, there is a country in this world which is voluntarily donating land. I personally think Israel should learn a thing or two from Senegal and put an end to Mid-eastern crises.

Re: Senegal offers land to Haitians

#3
That sounds very admirable, and if there is a mass move of Haitians to Senegal, I hope it works out. I don't know much about Senegal but a quick look through the Wikipedia article on it shows that it's a progressing country, albeit with much problems to solve, it seems to be heading in the right direction.

Re: Senegal offers land to Haitians

#4
It certainly seems like a good gesture, but I have to wonder where this land (possibly an entire region) would come from. That is, is there really that much un-owned fertile land in Senegal? Would the government buy the land from existing land-owners, and would the land-owners have a right to refuse? I have no idea how it works when a modern country decides to offer land to people (as opposed to back in the old days of the US, when you could take whatever land you wanted provided the only occupants were American Indians). I kind of wish this article would answer those questions for me.

Re: Senegal offers land to Haitians

#6
post #2

A great gesture by Senegal, In the age where countries are killing innocents over Land, there is a country in this world which is voluntarily donating land. I personally think Israel should learn a thing or two from Senegal and put an end to Mid-eastern crises.

[deleted]

Re: Senegal offers land to Haitians

#7
post #6
post #2

A great gesture by Senegal, In the age where countries are killing innocents over Land, there is a country in this world which is voluntarily donating land. I personally think Israel should learn a thing or two from Senegal and put an end to Mid-eastern crises.

[deleted]

For other examples of incendiary politics, see:

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28615688/

Re: Senegal offers land to Haitians

#8
post #4

It certainly seems like a good gesture, but I have to wonder where this land (possibly an entire region) would come from. That is, is there really that much un-owned fertile land in Senegal? Would the government buy the land from existing land-owners, and would the land-owners have a right to refuse? I have no idea how it works when a modern country decides to offer land to people (as opposed to back in the old days…

I have to wonder where this land (possibly an entire region) would come from

Being a cynical bastard, my guess would be Casamance. There's a separatist movement down there with close ties to Gambia, so the Senegalese government's probably trying to dilute their influence by diluting their demographics --- bringing in Francophone immigrants who are completely clueless about local society (and thus dependent on the central government at first).

Ironically this is the same strategy that Rafael Trujillo used to strengthen the Dominican Republic's border with Haiti back in his day. [1]

[1] E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_settlement_in_the_Domi...

Re: Senegal offers land to Haitians

#9
post #4

It certainly seems like a good gesture, but I have to wonder where this land (possibly an entire region) would come from. That is, is there really that much un-owned fertile land in Senegal? Would the government buy the land from existing land-owners, and would the land-owners have a right to refuse? I have no idea how it works when a modern country decides to offer land to people (as opposed to back in the old days…

The government would not need to buy the land. There is a lot of land to given away. The only problem is that it will have to be about 25 minutes outside the capital (where houses cost between 160k-200k USD). I do not see them giving land anywhere within the capital, but if you are willing to make a 30-45 minute commute than you will end up with a nice piece of land, near the ocean.

Re: Senegal offers land to Haitians

#10
...just in case Haitians wanted to move to an even poorer country. (They rank 149th and 166th, respectively.)

Also, flagged. This story itself seems to be the political equivalent of link-baiting.

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