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arieso226

3 years ago

What happened to Haiti?

I wrote an earlier piece on Haiti, mostly on the revolution and its leading founders Toussaint L’Overture. But the missing parts, like what happened after the revolution, who became president after L’Overture’s capture, and why Haiti still looks and is, impoverished must be answered.

So, independence day for Haiti from French rule is January 1st, 1804, when General Jean-Jacques Dessalines led his forces against Napoleon’s colonial army. Upon achieving liberation, Haiti became the first independent black republic and the first leading state to abolish slavery altogether. Except, in 1825, France’s government, alongside the U.S and other Western powers placed an embargo on Haiti unless they paid the French government $36 billion dollars as reparations to end slavery and keep their independence, and ever since, Haiti has been exploited for its natural resources and has fallen victim to international trade crimes by European and American ‘world powers’, putting the country in extreme economic decline.

‘‘Haiti has had a long volatile relationship with the United States and other foreign countries. For the past century or more, reforms have been imposed largely by outsiders, leaving the country with little ownership of the development of economic and political systems. Haitians were left with a ‘prickly nationalism’ distrust of foreigners, and an economy largely dependent on foreign assistance.’’

Haiti, last weekend, has had another major earthquake, this one’s magnitude at least 7.2, which destroyed ‘more than 7,000 homes and damaged 5,000 leaving about 30,000 families homeless, not to mention the death toll was up to 1,200, and over 6000 plus injured. Hospitals, schools, offices, and churches were decimated and badly damaged.’ The tropical storm that came before battered the southwestern side of the country and the earthquake made it worse. The country sits on a fault line between two tectonic plates, the North American and the Caribbean plates, which slide past each other over time. There are two other major faults along the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and the southern one is known as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system., which the U.S Geological Survey says caused this one and the January 2010 earthquake.’’

Because the country has been in economic decline, and with the recent political unrest (the recent assassination of their former president, Jovenel Moise) its people have been unable to bounce back from the damages of previous earthquakes and are currently living through extreme humanitarian crises. There are thousands of people who are now homeless, in desperate need of aid, food, fresh drinking water, clothes, and socks. It is our responsibility to help, as the privileged who benefit from the exploitation of Haiti, to help and give back what we can.

P.S. Do not donate to the Red Cross. Instead, find and donate to trusted organizations whom you know your money is going directly to the Haitian citizens who will hopefully get basic needs and funding. If you cannot donate, then volunteer at organizations that are sourcing those basic needs. Read and research and spread the word to help.

1) https://batischool.org

2) About Us - Sow A Seed (sowaseedonline.org)

3) Responding to the Major Earthquake in Southern Haiti - Hope for Haiti