Note: Sorry about the long delay between posts. This post is much longer and about an important topic to me. I wanted to make sure I did it justice, so I had a number of discussions with Haitians to get their opinions.
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When I think of life in Haiti, I remember playing basketball under the coconut and palm trees as the sunset. The sound of Compa music (or All of Me by John Legend, which was the only song on the radio for eight months), motorcycles, with pigs squealing and goats screaming incessantly in the background. Looking up at the stars in the true dark of night, a view you can only get in a developing country.
I remember the security guards playing dominoes and watching futbol matches on the weekends. The easiness of being present with one another, as I didn’t have a smart phone. The joys of community life: cooking for others, cleaning for others, and relying on each other for all of our needs being met.
I fondly remember joking around in class with brilliant and ambitious students, along with several class clowns. They were bright-eyed and hopeful, ready to take advantage of every opportunity. Many would come after class asking me about economics. They saw economics as the way out for a country beset by poverty.
I remember shoveling compost, digging holes, and crushing rocks as we built and maintained the school. Altogether, we would sweat while working under the hot Haitian sun. At the end of the week, our community would enjoy a bottle of Prestige or Rhum made right in the heart of the Caribbean.
But most of all, I remember how easy it was to be grateful. Grateful for the food on my plate, the community surrounding me, and the purposefulness of my work. Gratitude comes easy when you are unsure of what will come tomorrow.
Unfortunately, tomorrow has come in Haiti, and it didn’t bring what we had all hoped. Clearly, I have no shortage of words to describe the delight of living in Haiti and all of the great and kind people I met there, but it is also a country that endures unrelenting suffering.
I try to live my life as apolitically as I can. Politics often brings out the worst in people, so I have kept it out of this blog. However, as a disclaimer, this post can’t avoid politics because of the devastation it has wrecked on a country I love. Those who read this blog for its brevity, hopeless romanticism, and light comic touch may want to stop reading.
Usually, Haitian political drama doesn’t find its way into the news as it is a small and poor country. However, in the last few years, the breakdown in society has become so profound that I am sure most of the readers of this blog have seen it pop into the news.
As a brief overview, after years of intense protest against the government, President Jovenel Moise was assassinated three years ago by Colombian mercenaries. The government lacked a legitimate succession plan because elections were already overdue and delayed. The Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who had only just been appointed as Prime Minister, took power in a constitutional grey area. The US recognized him as the head of the Haitian state despite the widespread view of illegitimacy.
Haiti desperately needed elections to restore leadership and the constitution. But, elections never came as gang violence gripped the country. Many claimed peaceful elections were not possible under the constraints. First, the government needed to regain control of the gangs, and then elections could be scheduled.
The gangs only grew more powerful. They took over large portions of Port-Au-Prince and extracted tariffs. They raided the airport and gas supply lines, holding the capital hostage and creating a shortage of electricity.
Over the last few years, schools, hospitals, and businesses have intermittently been shuttered, causing a humanitarian crisis on a mass scale. Kids are starving, malnourished, and missing crucial years of schooling. Women are scared to go in the street as the threat of sexual violence looms. Inflation has skyrocketed, making it difficult for the population to afford the necessities of life.
Many Haitians have fled to the United States, either trying to cross the border with Mexico or applying for Biden’s 2-year Parole program. This, more than anything, has caused the US to notice Haiti’s descent.
In the past month, Ariel Henry was forced to resign. He traveled to Kenya in the hopes of recruiting Kenyan police to support the government against the gangs. When he tried to re-enter the country, the gangs took over the airport, and his flight was diverted.
When it became clear he could not return to Haiti safely, he resigned, though he was already seen as illegitimate, leaving the country leaderless. Also, the gangs orchestrated a mass breakout of the country’s largest prison.
That brings us to today. The debate over the future of the country has never been louder.
Many Haitians and international observers are clamoring for an international force to restore order, at least enough to hold elections. Many critics point out the abysmal historical record of international interference in Haiti.
The narrative that virtually all of Haiti’s problems can be reduced to foreign interventions is the only one you hear on the news. I don’t contest most of the claims made for this narrative, but there are many benefits provided by some foreign actors.
Non-profits educate many Haitian children in Haiti. Many scholarship programs help Haitians get an education. Despite often crowding out Haitian doctors, many Western healthcare professionals save the lives of the poor.
When I first arrived in Haiti, there was some skepticism among the populace around foreigners, but overall most Haitians were glad to have us and hopeful for collaboration.
But, most of what you see in the media focuses on the many spectacular failures of foreigners.
From its founding to about 70 years ago, Haiti was excluded from the international community for corrupt and often racist reasons.
France forced Haiti to pay reparations for the land lost during the revolution, the US occupied the country in the 1920s and 30s, and the Catholic Church withdrew from the country for an extended period at France’s behest.
During the Cold War, the US was friendly with the brutal Duvalier dictatorship to keep communism out of the country. After the Earthquake, the Clinton Foundation, International Red Cross, and UN failed the country spectacularly. Aid did not get where it was supposed to, homelessness was actively facilitated, and a cholera epidemic broke out due to these actors.
Bill Clinton decimated Haitian rice farmers when he convinced the country to drop agricultural tariffs, thus allowing subsidized American rice to flood the market at a lower price.
These are the oft-cited and just criticisms of foreign interference gone awry perpetrated by governments and non-profits, among others.
However, there is another side to the story.
The profound failures of the Haitian political class and private sector, who intentionally dismantled Haitian institutions to protect their power.
The Duvalier dictatorship, which lasted from 1955 to 1987, weakened civil society, the private sector, and centralized all business in power in Port-Au-Prince. The primary goal was to eliminate any threats to their power.
After they were overthrown, democracy was established with the help of Jean Bertrand Aristide. He subsequently won the first presidential election in 1991.
What followed was a tumultuous period where the military executed a coup d’etat and sent him into exile. Following his return from exile, he dismantled the military and started siphoning money from state sources to fund gangs that could disrupt the activities of his political opponents.
This started a vicious cycle where using political office to strike corrupt deals to fund gang activities became the norm. The gangs consisted of young male migrants from the countryside who moved into Cite Soleil and had no job prospects. These gangs were often unarmed and mainly functioned as protestors and public nuisances.
Unfortunately, These largely nonviolent gangs are the progenitors to the gangs that have taken over the country today. It has become essential in Haitian politics to use gangs to achieve your ends.
One of the key arguments against foreign intervention is that the US and French governments kidnapped Aristide and forced him into exile during his second term in the early 2000s. This fact is hotly contested by those present when Aristide went into exile.
None of this excuses the corruption, incompetence, and exclusion foreign actors have consistently exercised in Haiti. It gives more context to the key problem that has faced Haiti for a long time.
The average Haitian citizen is disempowered from participating in their lives and country on every level.
If you are a young poor Haitian and defy the odds and get an education, your opportunities are bleak.
As an entrepreneur, you have to fear stepping on the toes of the existing domestic businesses that lash out aggressively at any perceived competition.
As a doctor, you will have difficulty finding work as most healthcare in Haiti is provided by foreign doctors for free. Those foreign doctors rarely provide paid employment for the local doctors. If you happen to get a job at the national hospital, you can expect to get paid years late.
As a journalist, you’ll be constantly threatened and smeared by politicians and gangs, causing you to fear for your life.
As a politician, survival requires funding gangs to support your causes.
I could go on.
Most Haitians are disillusioned. They see the best strategy as keeping their head down, finding small opportunities to scrape a living together for food and water, and surviving until tomorrow. Even this has become increasingly difficult amidst the chaos and insecurity.
I know my voice is inconsequential in this whole conflict. I can only say that I hope the people in power can put their egos aside, end the suffering, and put the common Haitians’ interests above their own.
I still have hope for a future where normal Haitians can work with dignity, participate in civic institutions without fear, and enjoy the beautiful country they can call their own.
My heart is broken. Some suffering is beyond words.
Much of the information in this post came from the book “Haiti Will Not Perish” By Michael Deibert.
