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Canceling Haiti’s debt a step out of
poverty
By Chi Chun-chieh 紀駿傑
Thursday, Feb 04, 2010, Page 8
Over the past few decades, Haiti has been battered by numerous natural
disasters, almost every one of which resulted in heavy human casualties and
destruction of property.
People familiar with Haiti’s history have pointed out that while hurricanes that
swept across the country in 2008 killed more than 1,000 people, storms of
similar intensity that hit Cuba claimed just four victims.
The reason is that the two countries differ in their resilience in the face of
unpredictable natural disasters because of their economic, social and physical
conditions.
Haiti has never managed to establish such social resilience, or, rather, the
foreign powers that dominate it have not allowed it to do so.
Haiti is often labeled “the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.” Among
its population of 9 million, 75 percent live on less than US$2 a day.
A majority of Haitians depend for their day-to-day survival on remittances from
friends and relatives who live abroad. Statistics show that remittances from
Haitians living overseas — estimated at between 1 million and 2 million —
account for approximately 30 percent of the country’s gross national product,
more than double the amount generated by total export revenue.
Without doubt, poverty is one of the main reasons for the high death toll
following the recent earthquake.
The earthquake killed an estimated 150,000 people in the capital,
Port-au-Prince, alone.
Most of the crowded city’s 2 million residents have over the past decades been
forced by economic policies dictated by powerful countries, especially the US,
to leave their home villages and go to the capital in search of work.
Some commentators even assert that transnational capital intentionally
concentrated this population in Port-au-Prince in order to maintain a pool of
cheap labor.
These poor people generally live in the most dilapidated and unsafe houses, and
they often live on high-risk slopes. When disasters strike, they are very
vulnerable.
Ever since the US invaded Haiti in 1915, Haiti’s economic policies have been
controlled by Washington — more recently by means of the World Bank.
Only foreign capital and a small number of domestic capitalists reap the
benefits, while the great majority of Haitians still subsist on less than US$2 a
day and live in dangerous and dilapidated houses that cannot withstand the
forces of nature.
It is true that the international community has provided Haiti with economic
support and financial aid over the decades, but it gives less than it takes.
In 2003, for example, Haiti received US$39 million in educational, medical and
social assistance from abroad, but in the same year it had to spend one and a
half times that amount — US$57 million — to repay foreign loans and interest.
Haiti’s tragedy is not just one of natural disasters. It is also one of poverty
and lack of social resilience.
The best way for the international community to show its humanitarian concern
for Haiti would be to help its people escape from absolute poverty and establish
a resilient society.
The first step that the international community — including Taiwan — should take
is to cancel Haiti’s debt.
Chi Chun-chieh is a professor at the Institute of Ethnic
Relations at National Dong Hwa University.
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