The war on terror continues. But what about the war on poverty, disease and deprivation which so often contribute to the despair on which terrorists feed? What about Haiti for instance which this week could have really used some US precision-guided aid. The floods which have devastated this Caribbean country’s third largest city Gonaives have left quarter-of-a million people homeless and claimed the lives of an estimated 2,000. As the waters subside, the danger continues because, now with the sewerage system wrecked and wells polluted, disease is starting to break out.
This is a country that spends its normal life on the edge of disaster. Riven by conflict and lawlessness, its people live one of the most marginal existences in the world. Yet island states around Haiti prosper and not far away lies Florida, the major retirement playground of the world’s richest nation. The hurricanes and massive rainstorms that cause widespread devastation in the region every season are something that most Caribbean people have learned to live with. They pick themselves up, dust themselves down and start all over again. Except in Haiti. Each time storms descend on the country, the effect is devastating.
The Americans have, of course, tried to help. They intervened in 1994 to end the chaos following the overthrow of the Duvalier family. They have given aid and they have sought to help the country reform itself. But they have failed. In part this has come about because Washington prefers power to remain in the hands of the wealthy elite, largely French-speaking mulattos, a handful of whom own half the country’s wealth. The Creole-speaking blacks, whose slave ancestors led the successful overthrow of French rule in 1801, are second class citizens in their own country.
If there were the remotest hope that Haiti’s elite was prepared to see through proper reforms and give all Haitians a chance for prosperity, Washington’s policy would be defensible. Unfortunately it is not. Why the Americans are prepared to have such a political and economic basket case on their gold-plated doorstep is difficult to figure. If Iraq is any guide, there has been no joined-up thinking about how positive help can be given to Haitians. Though, doubtless State Department experts have produced incisive briefings, the Bush White House not only speaks, but also thinks in sound bites. Detailed analysis does not fit into a flip ten second statement.
Besides which the overwhelming analysis is obviously that there is no payback from becoming involved in this pitifully run-down country, that Haiti does not matter to the US. But it does. Even though there are UN peacekeepers in the country, it should not have been left to the United Nations to announce the need for international aid. America should have taken the lead. It is not enough for Washington to mobilize its greatest effort and most sophisticated technology in its war against terror. It also needs to be targeting its immense resources against tragedies like Haiti. It would win no war, but it would win respect.
