Why is Haiti so poor?
I’m not interested in talking about Greg Clark or making comparisons to the West; if need be compare it to other black Caribbean nations, such as Jamaica or Barbados. It's much worse and in terms of social indicators it is also worse than many places in Africa. Why? Here a few hypotheses (NB: I don't endorse all of them):
1. Haiti cut its colonial ties too early, rebelling against the French in the early 19th century and achieving complete independence. Guadaloupe and Martinique are still riding the gravy train and French aid is a huge chunk of their gdps.
2. Haiti was a French colony in the first place and French colonies do less well.
I don’t think — and the writer admits this — that this goes as deep as it needs to in addressing the question. But, I found it to be a great start…
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I can’t believe 8 possibilities were listed an only one comes remotely close to the most important points.
I wouldn’t say that Haiti revolted against France “too soon,” as I’m not sure one can say when the *appropriate* time is to throw off the yoke of slavery. But I’ll allow that Haiti did it before any other dark skinned country in the New world did. That is sure to have some affect.
But you have to add to that that Haiti revolted extremely violently (even by revolutionary standards). Haitian slaves were armed … with machetes for cutting sugar cane. And in the earliest years of the revolution, it was literally dark skinned Haitian slaves hacking and gutting their white overlords. The bloodiness was disturbing
… Especially to white people in places like, the 13 colonies. Even as they had their own revolutions, we all know that Washington and Adams and Jefferson and FRANKLIN (you know, French ambassador Benjamin Franklin) were not particularly stoked about a black population gutting their white masters. Haiti was economically blackballed by the power in the Western hemisphere (us) from 1800 till … I don’t know, yesterday. The reasons changed over time, but — for whatever reason — Haiti has never received the economic support from America as say Cuba did up until Castro, or Jamaica has been able to glom on to.
To be clear, America didn’t care about Haiti until the Cuban missle crisis when Washington said: “shit, poor brown nations in the Caribbean might hook up with Russia and nuke us.”
But that alone doesn’t explain the extreme poverty. You also have to look at the fact that in the 1800s, after independence, Haiti had a pretty strong policy of expelling (or killing) white people. The thing that African nations did after WWII (gaining independence from Europe, but trying to find a balance with their now indigenous white populations), really didn’t occur to Haitians in 1810 or whatever. Instead, it made sense to them to simply kick the white people out. It’s not just that Haiti is a “black country” if you look at it demographically, you’ll find far fewer white Haitians that you will in say, South Africa.
Unfortunately, back in the 1800s, the white people happened to also be the people who new how to farm, industrialize, and, you know, do math. Remember, the actual “native” Hispanolia population was pretty much wiped out in the 1600 and 1700s by white and African immigrants with all their crazy, old world diseases. I know a lot of Haitians, but not one of them can trace their roots back to the island before white people showed up.
So, after you kill all the French, you have an island inhabited by former slaves who were disallowed from learning to read or write, and they’ve killed or exiled all the people who could teach them, and they’ve been isolated by the rest of the hemisphere because North and South America is afraid that their slaves will get crazy independence ideas from the Haitians.
And then you have to consider the topographical factors I mentioned in my post. Haiti’s simple geography lends itself to all of the insular crap Americans are just learning about as they try to understand Afghanistan for the first time.
But wait, there’s more. Haiti is French speaking in a Hemisphere that is Spanish speaking (sorry, Lou Dobbs) where the main economic power is English speaking. When you are looking for relatively well paying jobs and casino operations to outsource, you’re not looking at Haiti. Not with their French/”pigeon-French” that you don’t understand.
America claims Haiti as within it’s sphere of influence, and France is totally fine with that. France cares a lot more about Quebec that it does about Haiti.
And, lastly, Haitians for the most part are black. Dark-skinned black. Not a lot of racial mixing in Haiti (see, e.g. killing all the white people), unlike the Dominican or other Caribbean nations. If you are an American tourist – and let’s be clear, tourism is a HUGE part of the economy for most Caribbean nations — are you going to go to a place where even the average person on the street can shout you a “Hey mon, Hooray Beer!” or someplace where people can say “would you like to sleep with me, tonight” (Voulez vos coucher avec moir, ce soir) and not much else?
THAT is why Haiti is poor. So poor. Heartbreakingling poor. And I haven’t done it justice here. Only after you get through all that can you begin to talk about rampant political corruption, a series of unenlightening despots, weak central governments, enforceable laws to protect investors, cyclical poverty, and an unfortunate GPS slot in the middle of the Atlantic’s hurricane zone, on top of a fault line.
Sorry Coates, I didn’t mean to jack your comment thread. I’ve been drinking and I’m pissed and I’m a little too close to the situation/feeling bad that I haven’t done enough with my own life to help my ancestral homeleand.
– Elie