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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / How do you spell ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ in Creole?

How do you spell ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ in Creole?

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Further to DougJ’s discussion of how the rich are different (or at least differently motivated), comes a NYTimes story averring that “Some See a Cash Motive in Duvalier’s Return“:

Though Mr. Duvalier has long been accused of looting $300 million from Haiti before fleeing nearly 25 years ago, his lawyers and friends have said that much of his money was squandered on a lavish lifestyle of jewelry, chateaus, fancy cars and a very expensive divorce from his ex-wife…
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But about $6 million still sits frozen in an account in Switzerland, and Mr. Duvalier has publicly vowed to make every effort to get it. Haitian officials, human rights advocates and political analysts believe that Mr. Duvalier came back to the country last weekend for the sole purpose of making an end run around a new law that will make it harder for him to do that.
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“This was a gamble, plain and simple,” said an analyst, who asked not to be identified because he was close to the Haitian government and was not authorized to speak publicly. “He gambled because his money is low and his health is failing, so what did he have to lose?”
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The strategy has backfired. In a striking scene, Mr. Duvalier was taken out of his hotel by heavily armed police officers on Tuesday and formally charged with corruption and embezzlement during his nearly 15-year rule…

Further explanation at the link, in what looks to be actual journalism. You’d think $300 million would be enough to ensure a pretty good lifestyle for at least the average lifespan, but I’m told people who think like that seldom get to run the experiment.

Reader Interactions

25Comments

  3. 3.

    David Fud

    Wish I could have watched him get stupider during his lifetime of squandering $300,000,000.

    He certainly got a lot stupider lately by coming back to the scene of the crime.

  5. 5.

    Bulworth

    Though Mr. Duvalier has long been accused of looting $300 million from Haiti before fleeing nearly 25 years ago…But about $6 million still sits frozen in an account in Switzerland, and Mr. Duvalier has publicly vowed to make every effort to get it.

    And as Haiti’s former Galtian overlord, I am sure he’s fully entitled to it.

  7. 7.

    Xenocrates

    There really ought to be a law against idiot children inheriting their father’s dictatorships. You’re next, DPRK!

  8. 8.

    catclub

    OT: How long has Eschaton’s Web site said that Duncan Black is 38? It seems like he has been there for more than two years.

  9. 9.

    morzer

    @catclub:

    Shhhh.. remember:

    “That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.”

    The entity you know as Duncan Black is much much older than you suppose.

  11. 11.

    Uloborus

    I would like to note that this man made way more money than Sarah Painin’, yet now is broke because he spent it all. And he is WAY smarter than The Indoorswoman. I’m strongly hoping that my sense of justice will be gratified as she runs through every cent she’s made in short order – probably gets fleeced out of a lot of it by ‘friends’ – as soon as her gravy train ends.

  12. 12.

    morzer

    @Uloborus:

    I suspect Todd will make a snow-machine escape into the tundra with the cash, while Sister Sarah howls and rages at the heavens/God/Obama/Tina Fey/The Great Pumpkin.

  14. 14.

    Tokyokie

    Well, he did lose a lot of it in a divorce. Which goes to show you, if you steal $300 million from a third-world country, don’t flee to a jurisdiction with community-property rules.

  15. 15.

    catclub

    @Ija: I blew a fortune on liquor, fast cars, and fast women. The rest I wasted.

    I believe it is from George Best.

  16. 16.

    morzer

    I wonder how long it will be before Sally Quinn and David Brooks turn out columns about Baby Doc’s primal scent, his fine table manners, his perfect selection of china,his intellectual interests, his purchase of ponies for their children, and the consequent utter unreasonableness of allowing him to be abused like this by a notoriously corrupt country?

  18. 18.

    scarshapedstar

    Okay, can someone explain C.R.E.A.M.for me? It’s not in the lexicon and all I can think of is that Prince song.

  21. 21.

    Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)

    Watching the news about Duvalier’s return on BBC America, what struck me was that there were still people supporting him, and ready to attack the police for hauling him before a judge. Not a lot of people but sheesh. He and his girlfriend looked fat and well-fed. I hope his assets stay frozen and he spends many years in a Haitian jail, but his arrival complicates things politically, which is just what he wanted. Narcissistic asshole. And is there a more ineffectual president than Rene Preval? I miss Aristide already.

  22. 22.

    Dollared

    but I’m told people who think like that seldom get to run the experiment.

    Has anyone ever told you that you write well? That is a very economical way to describe a truth. I have a friend who twice has had a paper net worth above $20M, but twice she refused offers to cash out because in the Bay Area, that simply won’t turn heads at the country club. Result? She has spent 8 of the last 20 years rich, and the other 12 desperately fending off bankruptcy.

    The American dream…..

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    I would like to note that this man made way more money than Sarah Painin’, yet now is broke because he spent it all. And he is WAY smarter than The Indoorswoman.

    It’s too bad that the NY Times article does not link to background stories on Haiti or Baby Doc, since a reminder might be illuminating. I He of course, did not make any money, but stole it. And it is baffling to even imagine how this little bug (or petit cretin, I should say) could have amassed a fortune of $300 million from one of the poorest countries on Earth. Some background:

    Jean-Claude limited his interest in government to various fraudulent schemes and to outright misappropriations of funds. Much of the Duvaliers’ wealth, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, came from the Régie du Tabac (Tobacco Administration). Duvalier used this “nonfiscal account,” established decades earlier under Estimé, as a tobacco monopoly, but he later expanded it to include the proceeds from other government enterprises and used it as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept.

    This is a shining example of the despicable ways in which oligarchy works: Haiti is desperately poor, and yet a small sliver of connected people find a way to live well.

    And it is wild to suggest that Duvalier is smarter than La Palin. As a young man, people thought he was mentally disabled, and he still exhibits all the signs of being a pathetic dimwit. He does not return to Haiti in a last chance at returning to power, but to see if he can find a way to snatch a few more crumbs off the table, like a child who can barely take care of himself looking to see what someone left that he might be able to eat.

    And note that his return to Haiti occurs with the aftermath of the terrible earthquakes there as background and context.

    And a few words about his former wife, Michele Bennet, the former brains behind the operation. Their 1980 wedding cost over $3 million and there is a story told that Madame Duvalier once went on a one week shopping spree in Paris and spent $168,780 on clothes and $270,200 on jewelry. She had the nerve to tell Barbara Walters, “I don’t believe the money was badly spent,” according to the anecdote.

    These are truly despicable people.

    By the way, I would urge anyone interested in Haiti to check out the wonderful documentary, The Agronomist, directed by Jonathan Demme, about the life of Jean Leopold Dominique who hosted Radio Haiti-Inter, Haiti’s first independent radio station.

  25. 25.

    pandera

    “You’d think $300 million would be enough to ensure a pretty good lifestyle for at least the average lifespan, but I’m told people who think like that seldom get to run the experiment.”

    Killer. You can now die knowing that you have written the perfect sentence. I’m jealous.

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