Haiti. The thought brings to mind words like Black people, poverty, dictatorship, crime, tropics, illiteracy, voodoo, boat people, don't go there. It's a country that is a ghetto dependent on hand outs. A place that starves in the midst of plenty.
The first Black Republic to declare its' independence in 1804 from the French slave owners. It's never known peace since then with one dictatorship succeeding another, including the just deposed one headed by Jean-Bertrand Aristede. Imagine an island of verdant forests, abundant rainfall, mild tropical climate, sugar cane fields. Sounds like Hawaii. That was Haiti once upon a time. About the size of Maryland in the northeast US, it houses nearly 8 million in just a few cities. The median age is about 18 years old, birth rate: 34.06/thousand. The death rate is 13.36/thousand. Life expectancy about 50 years and dropping due to AIDS/HIV, a massive epidemic because of prostitution used to support families where there are no jobs. Although the CIA World Factbook says Catholics are 80% of the population, Aristede made Voodoo the official religion by proclamation. The government is a dictatorship supported by handouts with a GDP of MINUS 0.9%, 80% live below the poverty line with their currency named after a vegetable, the "Gourde". Although subsistence farming employs 75%, the most lucrative business is the thriving international drug trade.
It occupies the western third of the Island of Hispaniola. It's only border is with the Dominican Republic. Just over the border the population is 11% black, the rest mixed, lifespan about 68 years, literacy is 85%, the economy is expanding with tourism, coffee, sugar, and tobacco. It has about the same population as Haiti but on twice the land.
These two countries are dramatically different yet share an island. What happened that one prospered and one failed? And what does that have to do with American Black culture?
The island's largest benefactor is America, period. Without US money even the dictator would starve. Racist American Black congress members have been responsible for maintaining the dictatorships with the taxes YOU pay. Read the articles that follow.
Haitian Government Spent Millions on Lobbying U.S.
U.S.'s Noriega Says Aristide Undercut Democracy, Wasted Aid
Haiti: Victom of Clinton's Old Black Magic
Haiti: Aristide Undercut Democracy, Wasted Aid
Clinton and Haiti: Questions and Answers
Haitians Aren't Amused by the Clinton-Aristide Lovefest
Clinton and Coercive Diplomacy: A Study of Haiti
Hillary Clinton's Biggest Cover-Ups