International Affairs — Caribbean
Despite Food Riots, Endemic Poverty,
Envoy Sees Hope for Embattled Haiti
by Larry Luxner
With food riots, kidnappings and political violence dominating recent news headlines out of Haiti, it’s hard to be optimistic about the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Yet Raymond Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States, says he has reason to believe things are turning the corner in his perennially troubled homeland.
“I don’t see a rosy picture in Haiti, but based on all my years in exile, I see that Haiti is now on the road to democracy,” said Joseph. “What we need now is employment, because job creation is the major challenge to our economy.”
Joseph, who looks considerably younger than his 76 years would suggest, spoke on June 30 at an event cosponsored by the Inter-American Dialogue and the Center for Strategic and International Studies titled “Is Haiti Drifting Towards Crisis?”
Answering that question in the opening sentence of his speech, Joseph declared: “Haiti is not drifting towards crisis. Haiti is in a crisis, and has been since April 12, when Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis was given a vote of no confidence by our Senate.” That, in turn, followed widespread street riots over rising food prices that have largely been blamed on the diversion of U.S. crops for biofuels.
On June 23, just a week before the Washington event, Haitian President René Préval nominated 60-year-old Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis — a well-known civic leader — to replace Alexis as prime minister. Haiti’s Parliament had rejected two previous nominees, Inter-American Development Bank economist Ericq Pierre and political adviser Robert Manuel, on May 12 and June 12 respectively. It is unclear when or if Haitian lawmakers will bestow their blessing on Préval’s third choice for prime minister, given the country’s current political turmoil.
In the meantime, the price of food remains a top priority for Haiti’s embattled government — a topic Joseph discussed earlier on May 27 at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy’s monthly diplomatic forum. “The food problems in Haiti are real, but the rioters turned this into a political football,” Joseph said of the unrest that killed six people and wounded 200 this past April. Shortly after the riots, Préval — attempting to calm tensions in Port-au-Prince — announced that the price of a 23-kilogram bag of rice would be slashed from $51 to $43.
Préval also said the rice would be subsidized with international aid, and that he would seek assistance from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to improve Haiti’s desperate situation. “We are too poor not to accept assistance from those who want to help Haiti,” said Joseph, noting that Haiti maintains excellent relations with oil-rich Venezuela in the face of rising animosity between Chávez and the Bush administration.
Haiti also has diplomatic relations with Taiwan, despite the presence of mainland Chinese police officers who form part of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti. That has exposed the Préval government to accusations of playing Beijing and Taipei against each other in the hopes of getting more development money from the two Asian rivals.
“While I’m in Washington, I have to do a diplomatic dance between Taiwan and China,” Joseph explained as delicately as he could. “The embassy where I work used to be Taiwan’s embassy. The residence where I live in Chevy Chase used to be the residence of the Taiwanese ambassador. Taiwan has quite a few programs in Haiti, building bridges and assisting with rice production in the Artibonite Valley. So our relationship with Taiwan goes back a long time.
“But right now, there are about 125 Chinese policemen in Haiti, and the Chinese have an economic mission in Haiti — and they have a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Of course they’re pressuring us, but Haiti is able to take the pressure pretty well, and we do what we have to do for Taiwan. I think we’ll keep it that way for a while.”
Slightly smaller than Maryland, Haiti has more than 8.5 million inhabitants — half of them illiterate — crammed into its cities, towns and barren hillsides. Haiti’s per-capita gross domestic product hovers around $300 a year, making it by far the poorest nation in the Americas.
It wasn’t always that way, however. In the 18th century, Haiti, renowned for its mahogany exports, ranked among the wealthiest French colonies in the New World. That came to a screeching halt with Haiti’s 1804 declaration of independence as the world’s first black republic. The new country was forced to pay Paris a crippling 90 million gold francs as the price for winning its freedom.
“France imposed an indemnity on Haiti and by 2000, in current dollars, that would be worth $24 billion to the French government. That is partly what makes Haiti so poor today,” Joseph said, arguing, “The Haitian experience was programmed to fail, because if it had succeeded, it would have been an incentive to other enslaved people.”
These days, the vast majority of Haitians live on less than $2 a day. According to World Bank figures, 80 percent of Haiti’s population lives in abject poverty; 76 percent of children under the age of 5 are underweight or experience stunted growth; and 63 percent of Haitians are undernourished. In addition, Haiti accounts for 90 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases in the Caribbean, and because there’s only one doctor for every 10,000 people, the country’s infant mortality rate stands at 93 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American Dialogue, described the situation in Haiti as “a perfect storm of rising food and fuel prices.”
“There’s been a dangerous backsliding that has begun without increased attention from the international community,” Erikson told the 150 or so people attending the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event.
He said Haiti’s “chronic problem” stems from the fact that the country is hampered by a weak government, poverty remains endemic, and there’s been almost no progress in creating jobs for the Haitian people, who spend 75 percent of their income on food.
“The cost of rice, beans and cooking oil is far higher today than when Préval took office in 2006. This undercuts Préval’s political support,” Erikson said, noting that gasoline now costs the equivalent of $6 a gallon. “I wonder if Haiti is the canary in the coal mine — and whether this could spill over into other Caribbean countries as commodity prices continue to rise.
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