Haiti’s prime minister landed in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, clearing uncertainty around his whereabouts since a trip to Kenya, but questions on how and when he will return to Haiti still linger as gangs back home push for his ouster.
Humanitarian aid groups say they are chronically under-funded and workers have struggled to keep delivering services due to the violence.
Following an assessment of 500 testimonies, it found many families were skipping food for a day, over half of children were out of school, and a lack of money meant many felt they had no choice but to join gangs. Some 30% to 50% of gang members are estimated to be minors, the group said.
Support from abroad has been scarce. The U.N last year authorized a security mission but a deployment date has not been set. As of late February, the U.N. said five nations had formally pledged troops, with less than $11 million deposited into a fund.
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Once in a while, you think to yourself: civilization is self organizing – given enough time, it will develop institutions and such that will tend toward stability, whether that stability is autocratic or democratic or whatever. Then there is Haiti – a country that decided that The Lord of the Flies is a template for a civilization. And it seems that no amount of outside effort does anything ever. Why is that? Why Haiti in particular when pretty much all their neighbours have at least mostly figured it out? Anyone got a pet theory?
Here is a concise political history of Haiti up until 2021. It will show some of why it’s in such turmoil.
It also leaves out one of the huge factors in why Haiti is how it is. In 1825, after the revolution (and the subsequent genocide of Europeans in the country), Haiti made various proposals to the French for recognition of its independence. Eventually France rolled up to Port-au-Prince with over a dozen warships informing the Haitian government that it owed France 150 million francs over the next 5 years and in return would be recognized as independent.
Haiti obviously could not repay that sum in five years, so they obtained loans from French banks and eventually American banks, principally the bank that eventually became Citibank. Even after a reduction to 90 million francs they still didn’t finish making payments until 1947.
Okay, and after 1947?
What do you think?
Coup after coup
Because Haiti has not been left alone and America is toppling all of their governments.
And regarding The Lord of the Flies. Keep your faith.
