Haiti is poor. Post quake life improved in some ways.
The main problem is land ownership, it is all owned, and people being born do not get any. It was farming, so some have a lot, and farming has been killed. Other people wanted their sugar quota, the US wanted to export rice, which sold for less than production costs, dumping.
There are no land records, sorting out who owns what is impossible.
Land owners are behind the history of Haiti, and they know what they did to the last land owners. Communists would kill them, so they support the US.
Most of the people have nothing, jobs are rare, they cannot read, only speak Haitian, and they would not change.
If you gave them houses and food they would take it, and expect a lifetime deal.
As for the capital, even if title could be cleared, housing built, it would have to be rental, and very cheap. There are no jobs, and all neighborhoods pay protection. You have to support a gang to keep what you have.
Gangs connect areas, that is politics. A government has to deal with the landless gangs, and the land owners.
What education there is in Haitian Creole, there are no books.
The government has never had any power. No Public money, and other than a few illiterate police, no social control. The police tend to just shoot people.
It is common down south, the first time is a warning, just some mistake, the second time is jail, and jail is as rough as they can make it. Most prisons down south are a wall, men with guns on the wall, and nothing inside but prisoners. Third offense the police just shoot you.
Lots of people die, all of them in time. Some get murdered, some just get sick, and with no health care, only the strong survive. People have lots of children since many will not make it out of childhood.
The philosophy of haiti is Voodoo. It does explain the situation. The Spirits are angry, give them some rum. Homebrew rum and Ganga keep the Spirits happy. The drums call them, people chant, and dance, and become hosts for the Spirits.
Tourists are hardly ever seen. Most beach resorts are walled, the few business travelers stay in the one good hotel. Outsiders do not bring income, and most have armed guards. The one good hotel pancaked.
The only other outsiders are misionaries. Rent a beach house, save some children for house servants.
I have no idea how Haiti could be fixed. Kill all the land owners? It would be worse, a few less, with more room to roam. Communists? Haitians do not work. They would starve. Genocide? I doubt anything could kill them all. Partioned into North and South and a continual war? It would bring in more money, but they would just fight for the girls and the population would rise during the war.
Haiti seems to be kept as a study of what happens in the future. Poverty, hunger, no hope.
Out of all that they do turn out good music, art, and have a sense of style. They survive where the world thinks they should die. They are in training for the future, and a year like Haiti in America, we would be dead and they could move here.
01 Feb 2011, 6:59 pm
