Haiti: Election, Democracy, Economy and Natural Disasters - Article Example

 Haiti: Election, Democracy, Economy & Natural Disasters The model example of Haiti in the overthrow of colonialism in Latin America through a populist was thwarted in the immediate years of the country’s independence by unrelenting socio-economic and political problems characterized by frequent coup de tats, a destitute economy together with drug trafficking and its associative criminal behavior. Haitian history of a socially, economic and politically demonized country is rationalized on various natural and human causative factors. The natural rationality behind Haitian society problems focuses on the country’s long history of natural disaster such as earthquakes, hurricanes and persistent droughts as the main cause of the country’s socio-economically and politically hopeless situation (Annis and Ives 30). Anthropogenic postulates of Haitian endemic social, economic and political problems delve into the plight of the Haitian society under various imperialists colonial and neocolonial political influences. The most noticeable of these colonialism and neocolonialism critic postulates explores the socio-economic and political impact on Haiti society under various foreign powers interference with its politics since its independence in 1804 (Alesina, Spolaore and Wacziarg 1281). Whereas it’s true that Haiti populace has suffered more deaths from natural than human causative factors, the endemic socio-economic plight of the Haitian is purely a reflection of the United States, Canada, European Union and other foreign imperialists’ powers meddling with the politics of Haiti. The gravity of natural disasters in Haiti is thus a more aggravated by the weakness of the country’s social and economic infrastructure in terms of natural disaster than the gravity of the natural disaster. Foreign interference in the Haitian politics is the root cause of this infrastructural underdevelopment of Haiti in regard to the intertwinement between politics and the economic development of a country. Nevertheless, the essay adopts an economic, political and natural disaster rationalization approach rather than the convectional “natural resource curse” approach adopted in earlier literatures on the rationalism behind socio-economic and political stability of the Caribbean nations. Haiti was the first country in Latin America to attain independence in by the beginning of the 18th century. The country is also amongst the earliest Black African republic in the globe and to date the second only African republic nation in the Caribbean. Despite setting pace for anti-colonialism revolution in Latin America, Haiti currently lags behind the entire Latin American nations in terms of poverty based on United Nation’s economic index. Haiti is also included amongst the poorest economy in the globe with a total GDP of $11.59 billion in 2008 and a per capita GDP of $1900 in 2007. In addition, the country economy shrank by -8.6% and inflation hit a record high of 8.9%. Unemployment in Haiti is also a rampant situation in Haiti with an unemployment rate of as high as 80% estimated in recent statistics (Sokoloff and Engerman 218). Economic underdevelopment in Haiti is an endemic and historical phenomenon in the country going back to the country’s independence from Spain in 1804. Nevertheless, the pre-independence years of Haiti were marked by lucrative economic performance under French colonialism, which put the country in the first position as the richest French’s overseas colony. The rich economy of the French Caribbean protectorate was supported by the free slave labor force for the French Agrarian economy in Latin America. Nevertheless, after independence, Haiti economy began a long, sustained and accelerated downward trend, which marks the current economic standing of the country. The immediate fall of the Haiti economy after independence is attributed to what scholars’ term as the promulgation of neocolonialism and imperialism in Haiti as a covert policy of the former colonial masters France and its sympathizers such as the United States and other European nations. Neocolonialism and imperialism orchestrated strangulation of Haiti’s economy by the former colonialist allies is cited on the refusal by United States, France and other European powers to diplomatically recognize the country as a sovereign nation soon after independence. This discouraged foreign investment in the country, which depreciated Haiti’s former competitive standing in the global trade. Besides the international isolation by the neocolonialist United States and Europe, Haiti post-independence government also inherited as debt of 150 million francs from the colonial government (Hallward 52). Despite, these crippling economic burden and interference posed by the foreign imperialists, certain leaders of the Haitian republicans initiated crucial economic reforms to check the downward trend of the economy. Amongst these reformists included Henri I who assumed leadership in Northern Haiti following the assassination of Haiti’s nation father Dessalines. Henry I initiated policies such as socio-economic equity policies through education and a quasi-feudalist political system. A time of brief economic emancipation in Haiti was also experienced during the presidency of Jean Pierre Boyer, which lasted for three and a half decade until he was ousted in coup de tat in 1943. Boyer’s socio-economic and political reforms in Haiti included the reunification of the northern and southern Haiti into one unitary state. He also spearheaded the enactment of Code Rural Act, which shielded the demise of the country’s agrarian economy from the impacts of rural to urban migration. Boyer’s diplomacy with the American Colonization Society also provided cheap labor force to the French deserted plantation through encouragement of free slaves’ immigration to Haiti from the United States (Annis and Ives 28). Despite the statesman effort by a couple of Haitian leaders to revitalize the country’s economy, the imperialists’ former colonialists and their allies tried by all means to erode the image of a slave revolution inspired socio-economic and political civilized state. The foreign imperialist specifically the United States economy was anchored on the slave driven agrarian economy in southern United States. The success of the Haitian revolution thus shocked the American’s imperialists who feared the spread of the Haitian modeled slave revolution in the United States. Initial imperialists’ policies by the United States to contain the diffusion of the Haiti revolution to their country involved the decline by the United States to diplomatically recognize Haiti as an independent nation (Renda 73). The element of imperialism in United States decline to recognize Haiti as a sovereign nation is reflected by the majority of the Congressional vote for this diplomatic decision being overwhelmingly voted by the southern United States agrarian feudalists. Their unanimous vote in the senate against the diplomatic recognition of Haiti as an independent country is thus interpreted as an imperialist’s effort to protect their slave driven agrarian business in Southern United States. This is reflected by the large population of slaves in the south compared to the north and the predominantly agrarian economy of the south compared to the industrial economy of northern United States. Besides the direct extrapolation of the imperialists meddling in the impoverishment of Haitian population, the establishment of a feudalist political class by the French colonialists had a lasting inequality effect in the Haitian society, which is attributed to the historical political strife in Haiti. The French government established a feudalist’s political class comprising of the white French colonialists and the colored Haitians who were the off springs of French’s’ intermarriages with the Black African slaves. Both the colored and white French Haitian enjoyed racist privileges such as education, government positions, businesses opportunities and education, which were denied to the Black slaves from African dissents. This socio-economic and politically structured inequality created two factional groups of Haitian society, which fought endless wars amongst them. The feudalists’ class with their massive wealth at their disposal together with the imperialists backing played an upper hand in these political conflicts and established predominantly feudalists’ political systems in the better part of Haitian history. The imperialists’ quest to maintain feudalists’ and corrupt regime in Haiti is reflected by the frequent coups in Haiti to overthrow its populist leaders. These coups occurred with imperialists blessings as their quest to erode the image of the administrative brilliance of slave revolutionists in Latin America. The first coup to be orchestrated in Haiti was in 1806 and resulted in the assassination of the populist leader of the slaves revolution general Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Whereas, Jean-Jacques Dessalines had a slavery background before rising to the rank of general in the French army, the main conspirator of the coup Alexandre Sabes Petion who took the helm of Haiti leadership after the coup had a rich background as a half cast of a wealthy Black Haitian and White French parents (Renda 62). The political acrimony between Dessalines and Petion, which culminated in the first Haitian bloody coup de tat, can thus be traced back traced back to the French colonialists’ inequality political structure, which pitted the feudalists’ wealth Haitian against the slave societal class. Dessalines agrarian policy, which focused on the economic emancipation of the former slave population, was thus detested by the feudalist class due to its enfranchisement effect on the poor Haitian society at the expense of the feudalist class (Annis and Ives 23). The socio-economic and political inequality between general Dessalines and president Petion is further reflected by the education background of the later that enjoyed a foreign education and military academy training in France under the sponsorship of his wealthy family. It can thus be argued that, whereas Dessalines government socio-economic and political pillars were purely inspired by a proletariat revolution, Petion coup de tat was motivated by aristocratic conservative inherent in his French feudalist background. Petion was also allied to the rebels against Haiti’s revolutionary forces before joining Dessalines in the final battle of Haiti to oust the French from the country. The defeat of Petion and his Mulatto rebellion forces by Dessalines, which culminated in Petion long exile in France, also explains the conspiracy of a feudalist revolution in Haiti under the tutelage of the French imperialists. In addition, Petition failure to establish democracy in Haiti illustrated by his monarchist rather than democratic handing of power to General Boyer as his successor posits his democratic agenda for Haiti as purely a gimmick (Annis and Ives 29). In handing power to his preferred rather than democratically elected successor, Petion and his foreign imperialists’ godfathers ensured that the leadership of Haiti remained in the hands of the feudalists’ Haitian society. Whereas Petion and his feudalist Haitian monarchist political structure was motivated by wealth conservatism, their imperialists’ foreign godfathers establishment and maintenance of a feudalist regime in Haiti ensured that the inequality societal structure, which is precipice of political chaos remained intact in Haiti (Hallward 119). The ensuing history of Haiti is a typical replica of the enumerated imperialists’ gimmick democracy or an outright interference with Haitian democracy. Amongst these imperialists’ political evils include the United States backed ousting of president Jean-Pierre Boyer in 1843 after he failed to play the feudalist card in safeguarding the interest of the Haitian political elite class and foreign imperialist interest in Haiti. After Boyer was overthrown Haiti disintegrated into political elite splinter groups, which fought each other for control of the nations. These splinter groups enjoyed support from foreign nations in forms of both financial and military aid with the foreigners’ principal motivation behind this assistance being the quest to make Haiti ungovernable. The imperialists took this opportunity to invade Haiti under the pretence of political stabilization of the country. United States was the initial foreign power to reinvade Haiti in 1915 since the French departed from the country in a century ago (Renda 31). The United States occupation of Haiti was preoccupied with capitalism expansion in the Caribbean with little if no economic agenda whatsoever (Renda 18). This fact is reflected by the minimal infrastructural development of Haiti under the United States puppet Haiti administration. The predominantly agricultural economy of Haiti was devastated by enactment of contravention agricultural policies under a multifaceted administration regimes propped up by the United States. Frequent changes in the Haitian political administration by the United States protectorate were rationalized on the regimes royalty to the Washington’s capitalist agenda rather than on the economic performance of the leadership. Amongst these controversial agricultural policies included the introduction of sisal and cotton to supplement the sugarcane dominated plantation agriculture. Nevertheless, these policies were not followed by an effort to boost the comparatively low wages in Haiti, which resulted in lack of labor to manage these new agricultural initiatives (Annis and Ives 24). The United States propped government also monopolized on agrarian economy, which exposed Haitian economy to global economic fluctuations. This was reflected by the collapse of the Haiti economy during the great depression. The United States also directly interfered with the Haitian economic structure through its enactment of a constitution, which reestablished the feudalist foreigners’ ownership land in Haiti. This aggravated the economic inequality factional wars in Haiti between the feudalist minority Mulattos and the majority Black Haitian populace with the reintroduction of the White Feudalists class who sided with the Mulattos minority against the Black proletariats. The role of the United States as an imperialist in triggering and sustaining this socio-economic and political feud between the Haitian and Mulatto populace is reflected by their exclusive appointment of Mulatto administrators during their protectorate colonization of Haiti. The United States also lobbied and forced their Mulatto puppet government to enact laws, which further alienated them from their Black Haitian citizens. These legislations included the passage of covee system, which conscripted Black Haitian to engage in forced and almost penniless road construction labor (Renda 48). Despite, their withdrawal from Haiti in 1934, the United States maintained an imperialist foothold in Haiti through their support of Haitian regimes, which supported their capitalist global agenda and maintained the economically strangulating socio-economic and political inequality in Haiti. The United States government also went a step further to plan and execute coups in Haiti, which deposed Haiti leaders who veered off their capitalist and inequality policy course. This is reflected by their recent deposition of Haitian popularly elected leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 coup de tat (Hallward 47). The imperialist meddling in Haiti devastated its economic system resulting in poor infrastructural development, which made the country more vulnerable to natural disaster. This is reflected by the 7.5 magnitude 2010 earthquake catastrophe in Haiti, which killed more than a quarter million of the country’s population. Comparatively, a severe 9.03 earthquake catastrophe in Japan left only 15,870 deaths. The pronounced disparity in the death figures between Haiti and Japan reflects the underdeveloped nature of the later economic infrastructure to deter or respond to natural disaster catastrophe. Works Cited Alesina, Alberto, Enrico Spolaore, and Romain Wacziarg. “Economic Integration and Political Disintegration.” The National Bureau of Economic Research 90.5(2000), 1276-1796. Annis, Roger, and Kim Ives. “Haiti’s Election Debacle: A Coup Legacy.” NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS, Jan/Feb. 2011:22-40. Reprint. Hallward, Peter. Damming the flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the politics of containment. Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books, 2007. Print. Renda, Mary A. Taking Haiti: military occupation and the culture of US imperialism. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North CAarolina Press, 2001. Print. Sokoloff, Kenneth L, and Stanley Engerman . “History lessons: Institutions, factors endowments, and paths of development in the new world.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 14.3(2000), 217-232. Read More