nothing ever seems to get better in Haiti

[winterbadger]

AP report from Salon

Hundreds of Haitians looted TV sets, mattresses and sacks of flour from shipping containers Sunday in this port town, one of several communities seized by rebels in a bloody uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Using felled trees, flaming tires and car chassis, residents blocked streets throughout St. Marc a day after militants drove out police in gunbattles that killed two people. Many residents have formed neighborhood groups to back insurgents in their push to expel the president.

"After Aristide leaves, the country will return to normal," said Axel Philippe, 34, among dozens massed on the highway leading to St. Marc, a city of about 100,000 located some 45 miles northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

At least 18 people have been killed since armed opponents of Aristide began their assault Thursday, setting police stations on fire and driving officers from the northwestern city of Gonaives -- Haiti's fourth-largest city -- and several smaller nearby towns.

Comments

[winterbadger]

As someone whose primary fields of professional preparation (if not experience) were history and international relations, I can believe and sympathize with everything you say. Neither France (its founder) nor the Untied States (its primary 20th century mentor) has ever done Haiti many favours or done much of a job of actually creating/fostering democracy there. It isn't much of a surprise to me that a leader once hoped to be the solution to corruption has become corrupt himself, or that the people of Haiti, when frustrated, would turn to violence. What else do they know that works? Even if violence has brought repression more often than it's brought results, they don't really have any experience of peaceful protest, sit-ins, strikes, or boycotts doing much good.

Political science has come up with a charming catchphrase, "failed states," to cover situations like Haiti's, but I don't think they've come up with any good solutions. Even the issue with drugs ought to provide something of a handle; in the old days (or maybe this is wishful thinking), some administrations might have looked at teh moeny that is going into Haiti (I assume for its value as a transit point tot he US, rather than because any cultivation is being done there) and said "OK, we need to stop this, and to do that we need to provide people with an alternative that is attractive, as well as sanctions that make this one unattractive." There would (or could, or might) have been infrastructure projects that took American money and supervision and gave it to Haitian managers (hopefully encouraging some middle-class enterpreneurism) to hire Haitian laborers (who would at least get some sort of steady work) to build roads and schools and hospitals.

I know there are still a few small programs like this out there, but they get cut when all the programs for helicopters and guerilla training and more and more arms get boosted. And those dollars go to Colombia and Peru and Bolivia (and maybe Venezuela and Brazil) and most of all to Mexico, and doubltess less than drop of the bucket goes to Haiti.

But, not only for Haiti, but for Liberia, and the rest of shattered west Africa, and for Iraq (god knows) and the FSU, and lord knows where else, we need to figure out fast how to help countries build reliable, *relatively* honest, *relatively* disinterested legal and social infrastructures.

The Cold War was the easy job: we told ourselves all we needed was to learn how to corrupt and destroy our enemies. But we desperately, desperately need to learn how to help our neighbors *build* a solid house on poor foundations. And we need to learn how to do it NOW.

Because the US is the only superpower left. And if we're going to stand for all these bright things we belive in, we can't just stand for them *here*; we have to be able to stand for them *everywhere*. If we want to be about freedom and democracy and justice, we have to be willing to go out and help other countries build their own versions, even if they don't end up looking like (or liking) us (which they won't).

God, is it any wonder I'm such a West Wing addict? I want to *believe* I live in a country where the president would actually care what was going on in Haiti. Or at least knew where it was.