Haiti: Continuing to Rise to the Occasion

Haiti: Continuing to Rise to the Occasion

The CIA World Fact book notes how: “Haiti remains the least-developed country in the Western Hemisphere, largely due to political instability and repeated episodes of violence. Comparative social and economic indicators show Haiti falling behind other low-income developing countries (particularly in the hemisphere) since the 1980s. Haiti now ranks 154th of 177 countries in the UN’s Human Development Index (2006). About 80% of the population was estimated to be living in poverty in 2003. Haiti is the only country in the Americas on the UN list of Least Developed Countries. Economic growth was negative in 2001 and 2002, and flat in 2003. Since the seating of President Preval in 2006, Haiti's economy has been growing. About 66% of all Haitians work in the agricultural sector, which consists mainly of small-scale subsistence farming, but this activity makes up only 30% of the GDP. The country has experienced little formal job creation over the past decade, although the informal economy is growing. It has consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world on the Corruption Perceptions Index.

Foreign aid makes up approximately 30%-40% of the national government's budget. The largest donor is the United States, and European nations also contribute. Venezuela and Cuba also make various contributions to Haiti's economy, especially after alliances were renewed in 2006-7.

U.S. aid to the Haitian government was completely cut off in 2001-2004 after the 2000 election was disputed and President Aristide was accused of various misdeeds. After Aristide's departure in 2004, aid was restored, and the Brazilian army led the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti peacekeeping operation.” When Examining the Injustice of, the Struggling Economy and the effects of the Aristide regime, economic and social conditions, Unstable Relations with the Government of the United States, International Banking Institutions, and current attempts by the Haitian government to up build and increase the overall wellbeing of it’s population. A thorough examination of all of the issues just mentioned will be addressed in the following paragraphs.

The unrest in Haiti has caused great poverty, sickness, the deaths of many people, and, most recently, the exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Haiti’s economy has been destroyed due to years of fighting and turmoil. Many people have tried to find solutions that address the causes of the crisis that has occurred in Haiti, but the country’s problems have continued to increase. Haiti has been under the rule of over thirty different presidents and, throughout the years, the country has evolved but remains deeply entangled in economic and social problems. After a long period of servitude, Haiti gained it’s independence in 1803 through a twelve-year slave uprising. Haiti has now been an independent country for about two-hundred years. Haiti was and is world’s first black-led republic and the first Caribbean state to achieve its independence, but Haiti has continuously dissolved into chaos, under colonial rule, Haiti produced forty percent of the world’s sugar and fifty percent of the world’s coffee. A civil war broke out in Haiti in 1799 between the blacks and mulattos. Napoleon Bonaparte sent the French Army to retake the colony of Haiti, which later resulted in the struggles for freedom. Amidst the chaos in Haiti, Spanish and British invaders tried to capture the land of the country, Toussaint