The first draft of this Post was titled “Oh Haiti! How We Have Failed You.”
The first draft was also much longer but we added the references below to document US of A actions vis a vis Haiti since 1804.
Then something happened that has the potential to reverse 206 years of calmity.
Before we get to the good news, a few facts and a bit of background:
Haiti, the second European colony to stage a ‘successful’ revolution in the Western Hemisphere has been a pitiful economic, social and physical doormat of a nation-state for over two centuries.
Now, the planet is ending 150 years of glutenous resource Mass OverConsumption. This will leave Haiti – and other neglected and overpopulated nation-states – to compete with until-recently rich and powerful Regions for increasingly scarce and expensive resources, goods and services.
The data is crystal clear:
Haiti was a basket case BEFORE the January 2010 earthquake.
History is also crystal clear:
Haiti is a basket case because of the criminal acts of its ‘leaders’ and because leaders of other nation-states turned their back on the Haitian people. These ‘leaders’ have failed over and over to do the ethical thing as opposed to what would benefit them the most in the short term. They failed to deliver on their own promises. The US of A, the biggest, richest neighbor has been one of the worst offenders – intentionally and unintentionally. See “Why does Haiti suffer so much?” Elizabeth McAlister CNN 18 Jan 2010 and “Troubled History: Haiti and US” Vanessa Buschschluter BBC News 16 Jan 2010.
In the 60s National Geographic ran a story with a title something like “Haiti – West Africa in the West Indies.” Then and now, only in Africa and on scattered islands in the South Pacific can one find the poverty, depravation and intentional neglect of obligations comparable to that with which Haitians have suffered.
And then the earthquake…
Why does EMR care? He is embarrassed by the US of A’s record in Haiti. On what does he base this? He has been there AND he has read the history.
EMR was only there once, but what but what a trip and what a lasting impression! [For a recently updated sketch of the April 1968 trip see Attachment One.] Many who have visited Haiti and most who understand Haiti’s history have the similar reactions to the US of A’s role.
In the limited number of days the party spent in Haiti, EMR did not get far outside of Port-au-Prince on the ground. But the group had a Cessna 206 and plenty of fuel so coming and going from Puerto Rico they got a good look at the Countryside.
EMR has a 35 mm record of the settlement pattern – the charming architectural gems in the Urbanside and physical abuse of the environment in the Countryside. The appalling deforestation and erosion was evident in April of 1968. For the first time, it was easy for one trained in ecosystems to visualize how the glutenous appetite of the Roman Empire for wood, fuel, food and other resources had led to the deforestation and desertification of much of North Africa and the Middle East. It was spread out like a roadmap to Collapse on half of a potentially verdant Caribbean Island.
Haiti is not just an economic and social basket case. The citizens have been forced to mine the Natural Capital (aka, the environment) to survive and there is not much left. Google Earth confirms that in spite of best efforts, the trajectory has been down since 1968.
Of all the things that the US of A has done as a nation-state outside its borders, the treatment of the citizens of Haiti is what EMR is least proud of as a citizen. From 1804 on the US of A hardly ever did the right thing. In spite of millions of hours by thousands of well-intended volunteers, and the work of many Haitians – in the US of A and in their homeland, the wrongs of Agencies, Enterprises and Institutions has not been righted.
Every time another tragedy of governance surfaces, it dredges up memories of what the US of A has done: Sending in the military and promising to make things better but then not delivering.
Photos of Port-au-Prince in ruins hit EMR hard – like the photos of New Orleans after Katrina. Unlike New Orleans and the Louisiana low country, EMR had no role in analyzing or suggesting a way to avoid disaster. Until last month, EMR was not even aware that Port-au-Prince was near a earthquake fault. However, a lot of others did and they published warning after warning.
As we noted last month in an Email to the friend who was the pilot on the 1968 Haiti trip: “The news from Haiti is disturbing on many levels. In a way, it is Katrina all over again. With Haiti, it is empathy and outrage at incompetence but without the direct connection created by the effort to solve the problem.” See “Down Memory Lane with Katrina” 5 September 2005 and “A Second Stroll with Katrina” 4 September 2007.
Now the good news:
An item on CNN.com on 3 February – the lead was that the death toll from the earth quake was now over 200,000 – reported that Bill Clinton has been given an expanded role to oversee Haiti relief and rebuilding for the UN.
As readers of The Shape of the Future know, EMR is no fan of Bill Clinton’s administration vis a vis human settlement patterns and resource consumption. His administration looks good primarily for balancing the budget and in comparison to the administration the followed Clinton / Gore.
But there is more to this story that most know. Only recently did it become general knowledge that Bill and Hillary spent their honeymoon in Haiti in 1975. From the descriptions of their trip they must have had some of the same experiences that our party had in 1968. These experiences are also similar to what others have experienced. Further, the details of what Clinton tried to do in Haiti while president – although largely thwarted by the elephant clan – are encouraging.
The bottom line is Bill Clinton has a chance to do the right thing. There is no other person on the planet who has the experience, the stature and the connections to pull off setting Haiti on a sustainable trajectory.
Perhaps best of all, Bill does not need to be home at 6 because his wife wants to go to the Country club. She has more on her plate that any Secretary of State since Cordell Hull.
So many past failures in Haiti…
We have five little words for Clinton:
Do NOT screw up Bill.
You and you alone have the ability and the position to do the people of Haiti right. You have the power to eclipse thousands of broken promises and the billions of wasted dollars.
You can move beyond your and our collective prior transgressions and stand beside George W. And Abe L. as a president who did truly great things for the US of A. In this case – and in these times – it is perhaps more important to help others than to provide aid to the citizens of the US of A. Citizens of the US of A have, by-in-large, created the economic and environmental quagmire in which they now find themselves. “We have met the enemy…”
On a flatten but very bumpy earth, UN action that establishes a sustainable trajectory for Haiti may be the most important accomplishment that we can expect anywhere from anyone.
It is an accomplishment that can set the standard for not just UN aide but for self-help by citizens of the until-recently rich Regions.
Do NOT screw up Bill, with the planets resources dwindling, this is Haiti’s last chance.
And perhaps citizen’s last chance to understand the components of a sustainable trajectory for civilization.
EMR
ATTACHMENT ONE
May 1968 / Updated through January 2010
Haiti was impacted in diverse ways by the Castro’s Cuban revolution in 1959. By the mid 60s, Haiti was in desperate need of hard currency. The dictatorship of President for Life Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) was getting more and more bad press. It was time for an image change. In the late 60s, Papa Doc acquiesced to the advice of his son-in-law who had recently returned from exile in France: He moved to lift restrictions on, and encourage expansion of, tourism.
A spruce up program was started, selected tour ships were allowed to dock, Air France started scheduled flights from Montreal, limited Pan Am service was reestablished.
In the late 60s EMR was working as a consulting planner for the Puerto Rican Planning Board and taking every opportunity available to learn about the Caribbean. Within weeks of an announcement in the San Juan Star that tourists could now visit in private airplanes he was on the way. EMR and two fellow planners, one with a commercial pilot’s licence, rented a Cessna 206 ( N4892F) and took off in April of 1968 for a few days in Port-au-Prince.
It turned out to be the most memorable and eventful of the score of similar trips the group took to islands in the Carribean. Between 1967 and 2000, EMR spent time on most of the islands between the Mona Passage and Tobago. What he learned in Haiti helped inform his travels, his work and his ownership or land in the Eastern Caribbean.
The flight from Puerto Rico to Haiti was uneventful but the appalling deforestation and erosion was evident from the time we crossed the Dominican Republic border.
The landing in Port-au-Prince WAS eventful.
Not having a map of the Region, we first approached the runway of what turned out to be a military airport east of Port-au-Prince’s commercial airport.
That brought frantic instructions from the control tower – which we had contacted upon entering Haitian airspace: “Do not try to land there, Areoport Francois Duvalier International is ahead of you several miles with the large white terminal building.” Later we recalled that expat rebels had tried to bomb the military airport with a World War II B-26 just weeks before. Good thing they did not have itchy fingers on the anti-aircraft guns.
On landing at the correct airport (now Areoport Toussaint Louverture International – in 1968, EVERYTHING was “Francois Duvalier …. something or other”) we found the Cessna’s landing wheel brakes were not working. After just barely getting off the main runway in time to avoid being run over the by-weekly DC-9 Air France flight, EMR jumped out of the plane on the taxiway and rode on the tail to keep the tail wheel on the ground so that the pilot could rev up the prop and use the rudder to steer the Cessna to a safe place to stop. More frantic instructions from the control tower. “Get back in the airplane! You are not allowed out of the airplane on the runways… Repeat …”
At the time we believed – and still do – that we were the first private plane to land in Haiti after years of prohibition against small aircraft. After an unauspicious opening act it was good that we had the telegram authorizing our entry form the Ministry of Tourism.
We were met on the tarmac by a young Haitian Air Force Lieutenant who was assigned as our guide and chaperon. He also had a copy of the telegram and after looking at our passports, waived further processing. Well spoken and polite, he quickly figured out that the five adults and two children dressed in baggy shorts and armed with cameras were not be a threat to national security.
Five adults and two children under six years old in a six passenger plane? One of Jim Bacon’s Nanny State social workers would see cause to take children out of a household if parents exposed children to such dangers. The two children turned out to be a passport to places not otherwise open to visitors.
The Lieutenant arranged for an ‘agent’ (“Cowboy”) to oversee getting the brakes fixed, filling the tanks with fuel and guarding Cessna during our visit. Cowboy was armed – as were many “officials” we encountered – with a well worn pearl handled Colt 45. The guard slept at night under the tail of the plane during our stay. When we returned to the airport the gas tanks were full and the brakes seemed to work.
Who in their right mind would get in a plane and fry over mountains and open ocean following an aircraft maintenance procedure such as that? That is another story.
Our chaperon also arranged for a driver and car. The drivers name was Francois, of course. The Lieutenant was to accompany us on our travels but the seven of us left no room in Francois’ old four door sedan so the Lieutenant, having assured himself we were not a threat took some time off.
We saw all the places tourist’s usually visited and a lot more. As we would drive from site to site we would see something of interest. Often Francois would caution against going there. We almost always ignored his advice and scored a number of interesting encounters. A dramatic but peaceful encounter with the Ton Ton Macoute in charge of the charcoal dock for example. We took long walks down streets lined with trees and delightful architecture and full of people but devoid of cars. Later we found the same person showing up in picture after picture – apparently the Lieutenant was not the only one paid to keep track of our activities.
We had read “The Ugly American” before moving to Puerto Rico and did our best to avoid the tourist stereotype. Graham Greene’s “The Comedians” was recently published and a topic of discussion in Haiti. Following our visit we read Haitian history and still do from time to time – most recently “Haiti 1959: The Year That Changed Everything” (2007)
The party stayed at the Hotel Plaza, visited Hotel Olafson and passed by Hotel Montana. Hotel Montana has been the subject of much press after the quake because so much (too much?) of the international rescue effort was focused on rescuing expats at the hotel. In 1968 the Olafson was THE place as it was when Graham Greene stayed there in 1956 while Hotel Montana was still just a curiosity – a place called “Montana” in Haiti?!
We also had a reliable source to provide accurate data on the level of poverty, depravation and corruption. This is complicated so follow carefully: The pilots wife’s sister had a college roommate who married a senior staffer at Care. Somehow we made contact and got their perspective on Haiti. The Care staffer’s name was Van Damme according to a notation on a 35 mm slide. He was, as you might guess Dutch, Americans were not trusted in Haiti even in aide jobs.
For a dirt poor urban Region, the streets were remarkably clean. There was no trash, no tin cans, no litter. Every resource was used. What was liter in San Juan as used in Port-au-Prince. If it was burnable it was fuel, if it was organic, it was fed to the pigs, if it was metal it was turned into lanterns and utensils.
What impressed us most – and what impresses almost everyone who visits Haiti – is the indomitable spirit and innate friendliness of the people. Put away the camera and they were eager to talk. They were well informed and articulate.
Also interesting was the artistic ability of many citizens. We left Haiti with all the artifacts and decor items that we could afford and that the 2006 would hold along with 7 passengers. We tried to buy directly from the artists and artisans who make the goods.
