In 1915, the United States bombed the impoverished island to quell a popular uprising against the country's brutal new leader and invaded the Haitian territory. The invasion and occupation may have been influenced by the fear that Germany was gaining political control of Haiti which would threaten U.S. interests in the Caribbean and access to the Panama Canal. That occupation lasted over 20 years.
Meanwhile, although France's 1825 demand of 150 million francs was eventually negotiated down to 90 million, it took Haiti until 1947 to pay off its former ruler (with French banks pocketing large interest payments).
In 1994, 20,000 U.S. soldiers returned to the impoverished Republic to reinstall Haiti's overthrown President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, following a secret deal that the White House had agreed with General Raoul Cedras. The second occupation cost U.S. taxpayers one billion dollars. For Haiti, whose annual budget is $300 million, that sum could have resolved or alleviated its extreme poverty or the pressure of the nation's foreign debt.
In February 2004, Haiti erupted in violence as anti-Aristide militias sought to overthrow his government. At the time the Haiti Restitution Commission, a group of distinguished scholars assembled by the Aristide government, was about to release a report demanding that France return the money it had originally extorted -- a sum that, adjusted for interest, would approach $22 billion.
In response the French government assembled its own Committee on Reflection of Haiti. Asked about Haiti's restitution campaign, French President Jacques Chirac replied with a warning: "before bringing up claims of this nature, I cannot stress enough to the authorities of Haiti the need to be very vigilant about, how should I say, the nature of their actions and their regime."
That is a thumbnail account of the series of traumatic calamities that led to the Haitian people's current plight. This year when the price of oil send food prices skyrocketing deadly riots erupted in Haiti's capital worsening what was already a scourge of widespread disease and hunger.
By JONATHAN M. KATZ – Nov 20, 2008
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The 5-year-old teetered on broomstick legs — he weighed less than 20 pounds, even after days of drinking enriched milk. Nearby, a 4-year-old girl hung from a strap attached to a scale, her wide eyes lifeless, her emaciated arms dangling weakly.
In pockets of Haiti accessible only by donkey or foot, children are dying of malnutrition — their already meager food supply cut by a series of devastating storms that destroyed crops, wiped out livestock and sent food prices spiraling.
At least 26 severely malnourished children have died in the past four weeks in the remote region of Baie d'Orange in Haiti's southeast, aid workers said Thursday, and there are fears the toll will rise much higher if help does not come quickly to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Globalization: Starving the Poor
80% of Haiti's population live in poverty as defined by the World Bank (under $2 a day). Average life expectancy is just 52 years. Half of all Haitian adults cannot read or write.
Despite this Haiti is saddled with a $1.3 billion debt burden and has only recently qualified for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC), established in 1996. It will not receive debt relief until it has met a series of conditions, including economic policy reforms.
Haiti is paying around $1 million a week to the rich world in debt repayments. The World Bank’s funding program offers Haiti $10 million – a figure which will effectively cover its debt repayments for 10 weeks. This is clearly insufficient to deal with a crisis that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has predicted could last for 10 years.
Haiti’s plight is a clear example of the damage done to poor countries by structural adjustment policies. In 1995 the IMF forced Haiti to slash its rice tariff from 35% to 3%[2]. According to Oxfam, this resulted in an increase in imports of more than 150% between 1994 and 2003, with 95% of them coming from the US.-- Jubilee USA Network
Thirty years ago, Haiti produced nearly all the rice it consumed. But in the late 1980s, cheap imported U.S. rice inundated the country after a military junta began liberalizing the economy as demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The first batches of imported rice were escorted by armed convoys in the Artibonite valley -- Haiti's main rice-producing region. Rice farmers regarded the imported U.S. rice as a threat to their production and livelihoods.
As it turned out, their concerns were justified. In 1994, an IMF-sponsored plan cut tariffs on imported rice from 35 percent to 3 percent, the lowest in the region. In one year, the number of rice imports doubled.
While the U.S. government subsidizes its own rice farmers, its Haitian counterpart was prohibited from doing so under the terms of their agreement with the IMF. Over the last 20 years, rice production in Haiti has been cut in half, while imports now dominate the market.
Charities Try but Cannot Fill the Void.
Roseline, 18 months, feeds herself spoonfuls of enriched porridge at a World Vision mothers' club in Haiti.
Photo ©2007 Andrea Dearborn/World Vision
World Vision is preparing to provide relief to hungry children and families affected by the crisis.
A perfect storm for misery
Rising global prices for food and fuel, which have put a dent in the budgets of many Americans, have also hammered Haiti, which survives largely on imported goods. Food is unaffordable to many families in a place where the unemployment rate is high and most residents earn less than $2 per day.
To make matters worse, severe weather last fall — including Tropical Storm Noel in October — wiped out livestock and crops across the country just before harvest time and the start of the dry season. This caused severe shortages of locally produced food. Shortages are expected to continue even if there is good weather for the next planting season, scheduled to begin this month, because farmers lack seeds to produce another harvest in June.
Class divisions based on the historic competition between blacks and the mixed-race offspring of Haiti's former slaveowners continue to mitigate against progress and political stability. From the days of "Papa Doc", François Duvalier, the Haitian presidency has been held through force and corruption. During the time that Duvalier ruled he created a network of executioners known notoriously in the Haitian countryside as ton ton makouts. Over thirty thousand Haitians were killed for opposing his rule during that period.
"Baby Doc" who "inherited" the presidency in 1971 upon the death of his father was more interested in living in luxury than ruling his country. So that by the time the younger Duvalier was finally deposed in 1986 the Haitian government had devolved into a kleptocracy, a regime ruled by thieves. The corruption continues on today.
In his first month as Interim Prime Minister, Latortue withdrew Aristide's $22 billion demand for restitution from France, severed diplomatic ties with CARICOM (the Caribbean community), hailed Aristide's armed opposition as "freedom fighters," and granted a three-year tax exemption for the large importers—traditionally an elite made up of lighter-skinned people—who control the country's foreign trade. Through a top-down, rushed process called the Cadre de Coopération Intérimaire (CCI—in English, ICF),6 the interim government signed off on neoliberal plans such as privatization of state-run enterprises, lower tariffs for imported rice, and an export-oriented agricultural and industrial plan to the detriment of local production.
Universal Indifference and Crushing Poverty
Simeon Mitropolitski: "Recently a popular TV humorist said that if the Canadian government treated the wild animals the same way as the Haitian government its own people, the politicians in Ottawa would have been sent to jail ... [t]he strategy of the developed world is to do nothing"
The Grim Statistics
- Area: 27,750 sq km
- Population: 7 million
- Population growth rate: 1.42% (2002 est.)
- Net migration rate: -2.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
- Life expectancy at birth: 49.55 years
- People living with HIV/AIDS: 210,000 (1999 est.)
- GDP per capita: purchasing power parity $1,700 (2001 est.)
- Population below poverty line: 80%
- Main trading partners: US, EU.
Rescue workers from Martinica walk over debris three days after a school collapsed on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince November 9, 2008. Photo/ REUTERS (from the Daily Nation)
"Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, still recovering from four tropical storms and hurricanes that killed more than 800 people and destroyed 60 per cent of its crops in August and September, has now been hit by more tragedy. A Christian school with 700 students has collapsed. So far 92 are confirmed dead and 150 injured."
The school's owner, Reverend Fortin Augustin has been arrested for this latest tragedy but there are legions who share far greater blame for the horrors that have befallen that benighted country.
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