Question of the Week: Why Can’t The Haitians Help Themselves?

At one time Haiti was the richest colony in the world. The "Jewel of the Caribbean" as it was called.

Historian A.Nli writes:

"Haiti was discovered by Columbus in 1492. After the Spanish killed off all the native Americans who lived in Haiti (by 1512) they imported African slaves to work in the plantation economy. In 1697, Spain ceded what is now Haiti to France: an area of 10 748 sq. miles. By the 1770s, Haiti had eclipsed other French colonies of the Caribbean in wealth. Sugar exports were greater than those of any other territory in the world: so great that Haiti supplied France with all its needs. This gave France a huge surplus, of which it sold two-thirds to half of Europe at an enormous profit. Haiti's soils were fertile, extensive and well-irrigated, its plantations well managed.

By 1789 Haiti was the glory of the French colonies, "the jewel of the Caribbean, the single richest colony in the world," as Bernard Diederich wrote. The prosperity of the colony was such that dollar-wise its imports and exports exceeded those of the entire United States where, in the same year, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated for his first term as president. At its western extreme Cap Francois (now Cap Haitien), a city of 25 000 with fine public buildings and theatres of stone and brick, was properly known as "The Paris of the Antilles."

By 1789, the colony had been under cultivation for 92 years. Seldon Rodman writes: "The rich alluvial Plaine du Nord ... boasted a thousand plantation houses behind monumental pillared gateways. It sparkled at night with the gay illumination of elaborate balls, lighted carriages and the glaring ovens and stacks of boiling-houses refining sugar cane around the clock.'' Soon all that was to change.

In 1789, the French Revolution had overthrown the King and proclaimed the doctrine of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity." Inspired by the events in France, a slave revolt was imminent. On the eve of that rampage, there were some 40 000 Whites in Saint-Domingue, 30 000 free Blacks and mulattos, and almost 500 000 slaves. At the best of times, French military resources in the colony were inadequate. These were far from the best of times.

On May 15, 1791; France's National Revolutionary Assembly voted full equality with Whites to all male mulattos born of two free parents. Though this affected a mere 400 men, it was to inspire the first violent and fiery insurrection of Blacks. The word fury is not just figurative. A fire had been kindled among half a million Black slaves that would not be extinguished till the last of the colony's 40 000 Whites and the majority of free Blacks and mulattos had been killed or driven from the island.

In August, 1791, the lid blew off the colony. Rioting slaves became a great mob that ran amok, uprooting, torching and destroying. Before long Haiti was dominated by roving slave bands. Everywhere there was devastation. In Paris the Revolutionary Assembly had placed itself squarely on the side of the Blacks. It was hinted that the emancipation of the slaves was near at hand

The plantation owners, mulattoes and free blacks fully realised that they faced total extermination should the slaves take control. The colonists now talked of secession from France. All normal business in Haiti ceased. The people began arming themselves against the slave revolution they feared was about to engulf them. Orders came from Paris that the slaves should crush any outbreak of resistance.

That was too much for most people, who gave up and left, often with nothing but the clothes they stood up in. They were the lucky ones. Soon great fires could be seen in the countryside. The revolting slaves were burning the canefields and slaughtering everyone, the whites, mulattoes and free blacks who were unable to flee in time.

Undermanned and under-equipped militia went into the interior on reconnaissance patrols. Few returned. The stories survivors brought back were chilling. The men were at once hacked to death, but the women were gang raped by their slaves before being tortured to death, along with their children. In some cases the women were thrown on top of the bodies of their husbands, fathers or brothers, then raped.

On February 3, 1794, the French revolutionary government officially abolished slavery and declared all the Negroes in Haiti as equal citizens of the state. By 1798 the revolution had succeeded both in establishing the freedom of the slaves and, decisively, in the development of modern Haiti, in destroying the country's profitable agricultural base. By the end of 1803, France's richest colony laid destitute, a smoking wasteland.

The effects of these historical events have lasted to this day. Haiti, for 195 years, has spawned nothing but horror, poverty, disease, sporadic massacres and brutal dictatorships. Haiti received its new name on January 1, 1804, on proclamation of the half-made ex-slave, Jean Jacques Dessalines. His first act after having crowned himself Emperor in imitation of Napoleon, was to seize the tricolour flag of France and tear out the white section.

No sooner was Dessalínes firmly established on his imperial throne than the order went forth for the total massacre of the White population. On April 25, 1805, he published the proclamation that officially established Haiti as a Black state and banned Whites for ever from its shores. By 1806 the entire White population had been butchered and the bloodstained island returned to the jungle.

Under President Jean-Pierre Boyer (1820/43) Haiti irrevocably became the land of largely illiterate, Black, Creole-speaking smallholders. From 1843 to1915 there were 22 presidents. Technically - and this too should be of some importance to South Africans - Haiti has been ruled: but never governed.

Today, under all-Black rule, there are no successful commercial farms left. Haiti is a puny nation, wretchedly poor. The forests have been denuded and none replaced. Indeed, only 2% of the land is still forested. The impoverished millions scratch a subsistence from the low-yield soils of the denuded valleys, growing sorghum, rice, yams and pulses. The wealthier nurture a few pigs on tiny holdings. At the peak of its glory, Haiti carried 250 000 cattle and vast numbers of pigs.

Its cities are dilapidated and dirty slums. Though nominally Catholic, the barbaric rites of voodoo worship, a survival of the population's African heritage, still flourishes. Haiti has an extremely high birthrate: a recent poll established that 100% of the Haitian people want to migrate to the US. Tourism to the island is today greatly inhibited by Haiti's reputation as a prime source of AIDS.
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A guy in my dorm said the same thing, and it made me so mad. America is not the only country with orphans, homeless, and mentally ill. And as bad as these problems are in America, those groups of people can still get water. If America just sat back and let the Haitians die from starvation and dehydration, we couldn't call ourselves humans. Just be kind to your fellow man regardless of where he's from!

eh usually the people I see that comment from are ones I know rarely get off their butt to help anyone. You are really worried about the poor in this country then do something about it.

I agree. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of lives either lost or gravely affected.

The only thing I wonder is just how much the people reposting that are actually DOING here at home to help. I listened to an interview with a single parent making 35k a year who makes 50 lunches a weekend to bring to the streets. Not only is she spending cash she can ill afford, but her TIME on a weekend, to search out people who are hungry. I'm betting that she was also one of the first to donate to Haiti.

The reality is that we don't give nearly enough in this country privately because we expect our government to deal with the issues. We assume that because we pay taxes, we are taking care of the social ills here. There is no such assumption when it comes to other countries. So we dig deep and give.

As I noted on the last debate about whether or not posting your bra color was causing awareness about breast cancer, it matters not who we support as long as the support goes beyond a fucking status update on Facebook. I'm just saying. Maybe if we all donated the equivalent of our internet access cost each month to a food bank, a woman's shelter, etc?

And by the way...the single BEST thing an American can give in this country is the gift of time to a child. Please mentor. Coming directly from the trenches, I can tell you that some kid somewhere near you REALLY, REALLY needs you.

Thank you for the use of your soapbox.

I can't agree more, Nina. What a lot of people need to remember is that America DOESN'T ignore the problem... Billions of dollars every year go to Medicare, Medicaid, WIC, shelters, the list goes on and on. Some folks are also there in their situation because of their own personal choices and consequences, whether people choose to acknowledge that or not...

Helping Haiti is clearly the compassionate thing to do, but it's also in the United States' self-interest. Perhaps that would make the meme folks feel better. As someone pointed out, stabilizing this country will mean less aid will be necessary in the future. Also, we've learned the hard way what happens in poor countries with very little in the way of government or infrastructure. Sometimes angry people who grow up there decide to blame Americans for their woes. They get on planes with exploding pants.

Oh disgruntled Facebook memers, look at it this way: helping a starving Haitian baby is yet another way of keeping our country secure. Go, Team America!

I think it is important to help those in actual need.
I do not think it is my or my governments responsibility to set Haiti up in a life of luxury. I do think that if we have the resources to help feed them or rebuild their homes (as modest as they were)or to provide security while they are recovering from a tragedy then we can and should do it.
I am more empathetic to the situation in Haiti than I am to the homeless and hungry in this country.
While I am well aware that we have homeless and hungry in the USA we also have built a society where our weakest members have become accustomed to living off of the government and never having the desire to take care of themselves. Hand ups not hand outs. When you help someone learn to take care of themselves, when they get an education to further their own lives and their offspring we strengthen our countries future.
The Mayor of our city said on Twitter a month ago that 25% of the children in my city received food stamps. The overwhelming response to that was the new question. How many of those kids that live off of food stamps also wear Nikes, have Ipods and cell phones?
If we help in Haiti it is actually going to help them. They are not going to take the help as a way to make a profit and dig themselves further into poverty.

First off I want to say that this is a human tragedy and should be treated as so. It isn't about politics it is about a level of human decency on a tragedy that we can barely wrap our heads around. If people that Katrina was so awful (around 2k) they need to reexamine what they think about Haiti which is going to be around 200K. I think people should give and give often. I have.

However donations and reform in Haiti needed to come long before the earthquake.

I think one thing that has been brought up in the tragedy is how we approach aid to poor nations and even how we should approach aid at home. This post brought up an interesting point. While I disagree with 99% of this post and think a lot of the points he made are ignorant the one that sticks with me is, "poor people when fed, breed... and breed often." Should our foreign aid and even domestic welfare have birth control attached to it? It is easier to feed a starving area when there aren't seven kids per family to feed. Also it makes relief, reform, and rebuilding easier. I think it is an interesting issue because people on the right are going to play the religion card that we should teach abstinence (really what else are poor people going to do for entertainment?) or that government should not invade into the home. People on the left are going to play the culturally insensitive card. But is this a logical solution to aiding poorer nations and poorer communities in the US?

It's the same kind of people that wonder "Why hasn'y Angelina adopted a child from the U.S.?" Why not consider ourselves citizens of the world and help out whenever we can?

My question isn't why are we helping, especially with private donations. My question is what difference are we making? I only hope that the U.S. and its citizens are not once again 'throwing money' at a problem instead of REALLY making a true difference.

There is a wide difference between homeless and poor in the United States and the homeless, poor and now homeless in a third world country that was struck by a 7.0 earthquake. The people of Haiti have never been able to help themselves under the rule of the Haitian government and the conditions that they were left with after the French left.

Do the homeless, living on the streets due to mental illness, unemployment, etc. in this country need help?...yes..but that is an ungoing problem, not a disaster. I'm not a big fan of government support, except in the case of disasters, I feel that should be the burden of countless charities, billionaires and philanthropists in the United States. If they choose to give to the organizations that help in the cities around the country or give to a organizations that help 7,000 miles across the waters is their decision. We have the private resources to help the homeless(if they choose to be helped), poor and suffering in our own country if we choose. A lot of philanthropists don't see the suffering in our own country..they see it in Danfur, Somalia, etc.

There is suffering in those countries and they need help, but, except for disasters like Haiti we should do what I call the "neighbor policy".

I coined the "neighbor policy" several years back and it is simply that you help those in your own house first, then your neighbors and then those in another city(ie. country). When say your sister needs help..don't you help her before you help your neighbor or someone across the country in California? So shouldn't we, again except for disasters, help those in the United States first, then Mexico, Canada, Haiti, Guatemala(our neighbors) secondly and then those across the seas? Just a though. I'm big into private philanthropy..not a fan of government support, sans a few programs. I'm a social liberal thats a fiscal conservative.

If we helped the bordering countries in South America after helping our own poor they wouldn't need to leave their country to better themselves.

Anyhow just for the record I'm all for the help for Haiti as well as forgiving their debt.

Difference is plain and simple that Haiti is a shithole. It wasn't always, but after the French raped the island of all natural resources and left it with no real government in place the evils of human nature took over and corruption followed. It has never had a stable government and is devoid of the tools necessary to compete and survive in a world market. These people are the poorest of the poor and some the least educated in modern times. By helping them not only with food and water, but hopefully with some sort of agriculture and infastructure we are only helping to stabilize and potentialy allow them to obtain a self sustaining enviroment thus reducing help and aid in the future.

As for the US we do not have a 'homeless' problem like they do in other countries. Here in Chicago if we actually had homeless one day of negative temps would kill them all. They have shelters and soup kitchens, degrading by our standards, but would be a godsend to Haiti. Our 'poor' still have the new Nikes or a PS3. Billions of our tax dollars already go to subsidize people allowing the Government to control their lives. There is no comparison. If you don't want to give to Haiti don't, but if you think people have it so bad in the country a little research might open your eyes and your heart.

It's also not a fair comparison. Our aid to Haiti is meant to do a lot more than just help people survive. We're also trying to keep Haiti's government running so the country doesn't completely collapse into anarchy.

I agree that the comparison is crap. Hopefully the intent was to get people to really think about their neighbor and how they might be able to help them.

I think all the people who post that should be deported to Haiti to live. In exchange, we can house all the people without homes/food/water/basic essentials.