IFifteen years ago, on January 12, 2010, Haiti was hit hard by a large-scale earthquake which would cause around 280,000 deaths. The world discovered or rediscovered this country through the prism of this catastrophe. The tragedy immediately sparked a surge of global solidarity. But the media and humanitarian conjunction, reproducing and reinforcing the clichés attached to a poor, black population from the South, would for a long time consecrate the image of passive and powerless victims of a cursed country that belonged to us – to us, States. Northern, rich, developed, civilized – to save.
Haiti is not a special case, but rather an extreme case of humanitarian logic: an uncoordinated surge of NGOs and international organizations, superbly ignoring the Haitian context and confusing visibility and effectiveness, constantly replacing local actors, pressed to respond to the immediate effects rather than the structural causes of the disaster. Using the weakness and corruption of the Haitian state as a pretext, international actors circumvented it, with the paradoxical effect of weakening it even further.
« Building back better »it was claimed. Fifteen years later, we must recognize that nothing lasting has been built and that Haitians are experiencing a worse situation than in January 2010. Since the major demonstrations of 2018 against the high cost of living and corruption – and in reaction to these – armed gangs developed and strengthened, to the point of controlling almost the entire capital, Port-au-Prince, and imposing a reign of terror. Today, almost half of the Haitian population – twice as many as in the aftermath of the earthquake – needs humanitarian aid.
-Debt spiral
This turning point should remind us of another. On April 17, 1825, Charles X signed an order by which France “orders” to Haiti to grant it privileged access to its trade and to “compensate the former settlers”by paying compensation of 150 million francs. Under these conditions, she “concedes” independence to its former colony, which, by defeating Napoleonic troops, had liberated itself 21 years earlier, becoming in 1804 the first nation resulting from the revolution of black slaves. Failing to change history, we rewrote it.
You have 58.91% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
