The End of Haiti?

[Modbert]

The end of Haiti? | The Economist

From the reports I have seen, my tentative conclusion is that the country as a whole is currently below the subsistence level and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, the U.N. Mission has collapsed, the government is not working (was it ever?), and hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of people are living in the streets without reliable food or water supplies. The hospitals and schools have collapsed. The airport is shut down. The port is very badly damaged. The Haitian Penitentiary has collapsed and the inmates -- tough guys most of them -- are running free for the foreseeable future. There is no viable police force or army.

In other words, it's not just a matter of offering extra food aid for two or three years.

Very rapidly, President Obama needs to come to terms with the idea that the country of Haiti, as we knew it, probably does not exist any more.

The earthquake has directly impacted about a third of the nation's population of 9 million. Perhaps 2% of the population has been killed, and a much larger share has been injured. Much, and maybe most, of the capital city has been destroyed. Millions may be without homes.

Before the disaster, Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and among the poorest nations on earth. Infrastructure was barely functional, and it was difficult for the government to govern in the best of circumstances. Rebuilding will have to take place almost entirely under the direction of outsiders, with resources provided almost entirely by outsiders. What exactly does that mean for a country?

This article does ask a VERY interesting question. Is the country that we know as Haiti done for? No real Government, criminals all across the land free, etc.

It seems difficult to imagine how they can recover even with all the aid against those odds. This is truly the worst disaster to occur to any country in recent history at the level that it has.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

I would say the collapse of their government is probably a net positive for them. Though I'm sure it will re-establish itself soon enough.

 

[goldcatt]

It is a good question. I wonder what the answer will be? And more important in my opinion, if Haiti ceases to exist as a nation who or what will move in to take its place?

 

[Modbert]

It is a good question. I wonder what the answer will be? And more important in my opinion, if Haiti ceases to exist as a nation who or what will move in to take its place?

That much is obvious I think for the moment any way, warlords.

It will literally become a No Man's Land. Those who stay for innocent civilians will probably be those who don't want to live, elderly, sick, etc. Certain groups will stay.

However, the Government it seems at this point is in name only.

 

[Queen]

The US will rebuild.

I think we do better helping people than torturing them. It looks more like the USA I know and love, every day. Once the money stop hemorraging into Iraq, we can spend it on saving lives instead of ending them.

 

[goldcatt]

It is a good question. I wonder what the answer will be? And more important in my opinion, if Haiti ceases to exist as a nation who or what will move in to take its place?

That much is obvious I think for the moment any way, warlords.

It will literally become a No Man's Land. Those who stay for innocent civilians will probably be those who don't want to live, elderly, sick, etc. Certain groups will stay.

However, the Government it seems at this point is in name only.

If there's land and a vacuum history seems to show somebody will want it. Even if it's bare of known resources such as haiti. It could be as simple as feudal warlords taking over, but I wonder who else might be interested?

 

[Modbert]

If there's land and a vacuum history seems to show somebody will want it. Even if it's bare of known resources such as haiti. It could be as simple as feudal warlords taking over, but I wonder who else might be interested?

Well not many countries could put their foot in without pissing off everyone else. Probably the usual players but it will be interesting to see.

 

[dilloduck]

It is a good question. I wonder what the answer will be? And more important in my opinion, if Haiti ceases to exist as a nation who or what will move in to take its place?

That much is obvious I think for the moment any way, warlords.

It will literally become a No Man's Land. Those who stay for innocent civilians will probably be those who don't want to live, elderly, sick, etc. Certain groups will stay.

However, the Government it seems at this point is in name only.

If there's land and a vacuum history seems to show somebody will want it. Even if it's bare of known resources such as haiti. It could be as simple as feudal warlords taking over, but I wonder who else might be interested?

I'm afraid it's populated by the unwanted.

 

[Missourian]

Haiti as a US Protectorate?

 

[William Joyce]

Haiti's main problem is that its population is almost exclusively black. Tropical island, frozen tundra, wide desert... the location doesn't matter. It's the people. And people with IQ's bordering on retarded do not create or sustain civilized, attractive societies with decent standards of living.

 

[goldcatt]

That much is obvious I think for the moment any way, warlords.

It will literally become a No Man's Land. Those who stay for innocent civilians will probably be those who don't want to live, elderly, sick, etc. Certain groups will stay.

However, the Government it seems at this point is in name only.

If there's land and a vacuum history seems to show somebody will want it. Even if it's bare of known resources such as haiti. It could be as simple as feudal warlords taking over, but I wonder who else might be interested?

I'm afraid it's populated by the unwanted.

It's sad, but you're probably right.

 

[rightwinger]

International aid will bring Haiti back from the brink. The influx of aid will bring back infrastructure and some stability. It may work out for the best for Haiti

 

[dilloduck]

If there's land and a vacuum history seems to show somebody will want it. Even if it's bare of known resources such as haiti. It could be as simple as feudal warlords taking over, but I wonder who else might be interested?

I'm afraid it's populated by the unwanted.

It's sad, but you're probably right.

It's like a modern day leper colony. Anyone "wanting" Haiti will be dealing with millions and doing it while being scrutinized by sensationalists in the media and idiots desperate to discredit all those trying to help.

 

[Samson]

International aid will bring Haiti back from the brink. The influx of aid will bring back infrastructure and some stability. It may work out for the best for Haiti

Yep, just like international aid has been the salvation of Sudan or Somalia.

Has anyone been in Southern Louisianna? I lived there a year, and even as a de facto portion of the USA, the place reeks of a Carribbean Nation.

Haiti is the definition of backwater: A poor Nation Surrounded by Poor Nations overrun with Annual Hurricanes, and Periodic Earthquakes.

It has the added handicap of having been a French Colony, and as a rule, anything the French colonized has ended up as a basketcase of government corruption. My guess is this is because they adopted structures of Napoleonic Law.

The model for Haiti is New Orleans Post Katrina. Today most refugees have left NO, finding their new homes much preferred from where they came. NO is being repopulated, slowly, but surely with a much wealthier class.

 

[xotoxi]

Haiti's main problem is that its population is almost exclusively black. Tropical island, frozen tundra, wide desert... the location doesn't matter. It's the people. And people with IQ's bordering on retarded do not create or sustain civilized, attractive societies with decent standards of living.

I couldn't agree with you less.

 

[Douger]

Now that it's flattened it would be a great place, and moment, for China to set up desalination plants and build factories.
They'd have equally cheap labor, altho not nearly as educated.
Nice and close to the Idiocracy, where all of you buy that garbage.
They could build a huge yardApult and shoot NASCAR toys snd cowboy boots directly to WalMart !!!
It'd save them a fortune in shipping.

 

[garyd]

Haiti virtually since the time the french were expelled in the early ninteenth century has been a Thugocracy where education was a privilege of the upper crust and the rest were kept in ignorance and fear to make it easier to control them. It hasn't ever had much of an economy and what little there was the Duvaliers systematically pillage at whim as has almost everyone else that has been placed in charge since then.

What to do about a place that is even further out of place and time than the Taliban's Afghanistan is a major problem. I don't much care for paternalism but I don't see any other approach that has even a chance of building something on the 200 years of ruin that is Haiti.

 

[rightwinger]

Maybe we could have CBS to run a "Survivor Haiti" and put the survivors in the middle of Port a Prince

 

[hjmick]

Haiti's main problem is that its population is almost exclusively black. Tropical island, frozen tundra, wide desert... the location doesn't matter. It's the people. And people with IQ's bordering on retarded do not create or sustain civilized, attractive societies with decent standards of living.

I couldn't agree with you less.

Then you, sir, are not trying hard enough.

 

[blu]

the usa needs to keep haiti on its list of countries to rape daily so I am sure we will send in lots of aid and then leave the miltiary and our world bank goons to run it again