# "Come back to Africa..." Wade tells Haitians **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 17, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312 "2010-01-17T13:57:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312/41 "2010-01-18T16:04:06Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > But those people left in Haiti won’t be entirely abandoned. There are aid agencies there now, and there will continue to be, which will enable at least some of them to get an education and thereby better themselves. And they won’t be able to develop and internal economy and rehabilitate the land because they won’t be able to compete with the price of free food from aid organizations. > [@](#): > > No one should be forced to leave, and no one should be forced to stay, either. Certainly not. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312/42 "2012-04-08T14:26:08Z")
I stumbled back onto this thread and wanted to include an (2 year old) update. Senegal ended up accepting 163 Haitian students (out of +2,000 applicants) for [a special scholarship](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/14/senegal-haiti-earthquake-student-refugees) to live, work, study for free in Senegal. Nice but much less then what was originally offered by Wade. That’s it. Move on folks, move on. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312/43 "2012-04-08T14:28:32Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > I stumbled back onto this thread and wanted to include an (2 year old) update. Senegal ended up accepting 163 Haitian students (out of +2,000 applicants) for [a special scholarship](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/14/senegal-haiti-earthquake-student-refugees) to live, work, study for free in Senegal. Nice but much less then what was originally offered by Wade. > > That’s it. Move on folks, move on. Thanks for the update. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312/44 "2012-04-08T16:08:35Z")
It is not a bad idea. Haiti is overpopulated. There is no way that the degraded country can support the current population. As late as 1930, Haiti exposted substantial quantities of foods (coffee, bananas)-but this was before they had a 10 million person population. Now the land is ravaged, the bare hillsides are desert-like, and the rivers are fouled with silt. And more and more money is wasted on projects that will come to nothing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312/45 "2012-04-08T17:05:10Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > You know in reading this story I couldn’t help but think of the [Jamaican Rastas who settled in Ethiopia](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1639646.stm) in the 60’s. In the Rasta’s case they were invited by their God ([Haile Selassie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie_I_of_Ethiopia)) to settle in a southern Ethiopia town called [Shashamene](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashamene). Did they regret it? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312/46 "2012-04-08T17:06:38Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > It is not a bad idea. Haiti is overpopulated. There is no way that the degraded country can support the current population. **This** country could absorb the entire population of Haiti without belching; no country in Africa could. Maybe we should let them come here instead. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312/47 "2012-04-08T19:33:06Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Did they regret it? If you have five minutes to spare I’ve dug up [an interesting video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1fOmAJWF8M) of a young (22 year old) Rasta who is a product of that community. Apparently there are roughly 300 left from the original 2000 who went to claim land in Ethiopia. In time the community might just get absorbed (Ethiopia’s pop. is over 80 million), as the kids all seem to speak the local language and the ones who migrated seem to have taken local spouses. [One of the original four](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_World_Federation) rasta groups who migrated has [their own website](http://ethiopianworldfederation.com/). [Actually](http://ethiopianworldfederation.spruz.com/), [many](http://www.ewflocal111.com/) [websites](http://theethiopianworldfederationinc.com/). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-back-to-africa-wade-tells-haitians/525312.md?page=2)