About Haiti

Background thoughts from Stephen Hawboldt

Haiti is owed so much
h(' events lhat have unfolded in Haiti over
the past couple of weeks are numbing.

While the actual shaking of the earth was a
natural 1~"'(!nL, mo: l of the death and de struc-
tion is the ro ult of human acuviues.
Haiti is the poorest country in
the western hemisphere. Poverty
has forced il!< residents to cut the
forests tor cwood, build homes
t.hal could not 'withstand even a
minor earthquake and to do many
other things that. have severely
undermined their country's eco-
logical integrily. The country has
no reliable governmental institu- Environmental
lions. edu ation or health care. G I•
~lusl of the pr blerns lhal rem In
~aitjans are facing ,today arc a Stephen Hawboldt I
direct rc ult of actions by the
French, British and American governments
o rer the past 20() years. Their Imperialir Lie
gre~d et the stage for the hw dteds of thou-
ands of. hattercd lives we iin~ seeing daily n
the evening news.
First th Spanish and later ance e ploited
the wealth of Haiti. By the late 1700s, Haili
produced 10 per cent of the 'ugar and 60 per
cent of the coffee consumed in Europe. This
was more than all of the British 'Wes Indies
combined.
To run tile plantations, France imported
millions of African slaves, At one time, Haiti
received a third of the annual Atlantic trade in
•lave .. J3 'the 17908, upwards ()f f hree quarters
of a million slave ere Isuporviscdt by 3:!.OUO
whites.
On January I, 1804, followin a. slave upris-
ing. Haiti bccam thr worlcJ's first black
republic and the second-oldest republlc ill tile
\Vestcrn Hemisphere. after the United Sf ale ..
The American. Rriti"Ch and French slave trad-
ing countries imposed a brutal blockade

which was lifted only after Haiti compensated
France for the lost of its lost Isla, property .•
The new repuhli governed y former
slave was forced to borrow the monev from
American bankers. The ~90 million loan wa
not paid off until 19'17. 125 years
later! Maybe the, 1t!f1Ue1'8 were
Mafia IOQn sharks dressed in
banker's ~cuit8.
Little seems to have changed in
the past 200 years. 'faking a page
frum tile French colonial masters
in Haitj, toda r the US cont inues to
demand payment for lost iproper-
t}'l Iollowing the Cuban revolution.
Imperialism is alive and well.
1nstJy because former slaves
created Haiti, relations with t.he
es and other w . tern powers w r
not warm. F.a.rl.y ill the :lOth c ntury. the US
actually occupied Haiti for about thirty year
Ioll wed by a few more decades of direct and
indirect • upport tor some of the IDO t corrupt
and brutal dictatorships in the ' •... orld.
After more tJ 200 years ()f independence.
western intcrven Lion have dcstroved the
ucial, econorni and ('culogical structure of
Haiti. The earthquakes have served to under-
line the extend of this rape.
'1 he western world owes a great deal to
Haiti and l.he Haitian people. There are glim-
mers that a number of western countrie rnav
be interested in putting together a masstve aid
package LO rebuilt the 'udal, e onomic and
ecological structures in Haiti.
Ma be Can II da's Governor Gene' I,
Micl.aIUe Jean who has rnol: in Haiti. c 1 e
the considerable prestige of her office to ielp
facilitate thrs. Haiti is owed great deal.
Comments am always ~ •• relcome and c be
address ed to stephcnhawboldtgpannape r-
er.ca