Haiti in Contrast

By now we are all too familiar with the images and stories of destruction coming out of Haiti. Since a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated the country on January 12th, news stories of a devastated, displaced people, have occupied the collective conscience of an international audience. Despite some uplifting stories of reunited families and survivors being pulled from wreckage after being buried for seven, even eleven days, the ultimate fate of the country and its citizens is grim and uncertain. This past weekend, the Haitian government switched its focus from search and rescue missions amidst the rubble to caring for those that managed to survive, looking towards the future, looking for recovery.

With the latest death toll in capital city Port-au-Prince alone hovering near the 150,000 mark, with many bodies still uncovered or missing across the country, the UN has acknowledged the disaster as one of the worst with which it has ever had to deal (1). Haiti is a country in with over nine million people packed into an area roughly the size of Maryland, and three million of them are expected to need international assistance (2). Haiti, which had a laundry list of social, political, and economic problems before this cataclysmic earthquake, faces a long road ahead.

Throughout their modern history, the people of Haiti have been dealt one bad hand after another. Upon Columbus’s arrival in 1492 to the land mass then known as Hispaniola, the Spanish wasted no time in engaging in mass genocide of the native Indian population. Enter hundreds years of slavery and economic exploitation, before ensuing political conflict quickly snuffed out the accomplishment of Haiti winning its independence from France and becoming the first free black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Unrest, coup d’etats, American occupation in the early 20th century, as well as American support of murderous, fear mongering dictators of the Duvalier family followed. Since the 1980s, democratic rule has surfaced briefly but remained tainted by corruption and clientilism. Since 2004, about 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers have been stationed in the country to maintain order, filling in for an ineffective government (3). Today Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and consistently ranks in the category of ‘failed state’.

Unfortunately, Haiti is no stranger to natural disasters. Its location in the Caribbean puts it into the prime path of tropical storms and hurricanes which annually destroy thousands of lives and cause millions in crop loss and property damage.

To put it lightly, this makes recovery difficult. This latest disaster has drawn some comparison to cases of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China, Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indonesian earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. All three events were catastrophic and drew an outpouring of international aid and support. But the aforementioned areas are still in recovery to this day. The Indonesian and Sichuan quakes are of particular relevence to Haiti because they too suffered unfathomable death tolls. But Haiti faces perhaps even more hurdles given its population density and relatively ineffective government.

In the case of China, the magnitude of the 2008 earthquake was greater, but the death toll significantly lower than that of Haiti. International aid to China totaled 456.9 million dollars. An amount that already pales in comparison to what has been donated to Haiti thus far, which is somewhere around 1 billion (4).But unlike Haiti, China’s recovery was never doubted as its much more successful infrastructural capacity, faster emergency response, and overall greater wealth allowed it to respond quickly and decisively. The efficient response of authorities to recover and aid survivors, especially the several million homeless was widely praised by Western governments.
The 2009 Indonesian earthquake, on the other hand surpassed the Haiti quake in both magnitude and death toll, which totalled over 200,000 after the resulting tsunami (5). The damage was spread over several countries in Southeast Asia. With the help of 13 billion dollars (6), the hardest hit countries of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand have rebuilt about 75% of the destroyed property. While many survivors are still homeless, the economic advancement and relative political stability of the affected countries has kept them on track with their original 10 year prognosis to recovery.

So far, the world’s nations have pledged some 1 billion dollars in aid to Haiti. The challenge is ensuring that this aid is not squandered. The image of the destroyed palace of president Rene Preval reflects his broken presidency, one that has been ineffective in providing for his country’s needs. Preval may volunteer to move into a tent home on the lawn of his collapsed palace in the name of solidarity with his people (thousands of whom have moved into tent camps on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince), but the Hatian people need more than symbolic acts (7). A working government is key to relief and recovery effort; unfortunately this is something Haiti lacks. There is a longstanding tradition of corruption in the Haitian government. Large sums of money tend to disappear into the pockets of officials and their retinues.

So far, foreign governments have channeled their aid through NGOs to avoid the shady Haitian administration. Currently this aid is being used to address the medical, hunger, and housing crises in the country. However, there is the question of whether such aid will continue to help in the long run. NGOs have been active in the country for decades with seemingly little effect on the overall trend of poverty, hunger, and homelessness. U.Va.’s own politics professor Robert Fatton, who was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, was quoted as saying, “Instead of pumping its resources into NGOs, the international community must shift its priorities and concentrate on helping Haitians build durable state institutions” (8). This is easier said than done, as the transition to democracy in the country has been long and rocky. Those in power in a system of corruption and clientilism usually have no interest in giving a voice to the rest of the population who could benefit from reform.

Could the solution lie in the countryside? The poverty of the agricultural regions forced many to move to the cities, but this trend is now reversed with a return of refugees away from the urban squalor and destruction. A rejuvenation of Haiti’s agricultural base could provide a needed economic boost. The country currently imports a large portion of their food, but this has not always been the case. Over time, domestic producers were driven out of business by foreign competition, an inevitable consequence of free trade capitalism. Nurturing weak Hatian industry would be a long-term solution to employment problems and the food crisis. However, this is far off; more pressing are the short-term issues of providing immediate shelter and medical care to thousands.

On Monday, Hilary Clinton and foreign ministers from more than a dozen countries as well as representatives from the IMF and World Bank met in Montreal to discuss the rebuilding of Haiti. There was a consensus that a long term solution must not rely on foreigners but come from within the country itself. In this vein, we should not stop at patronage. Partnership, with a focus on developing honest government, must emerge.