Failing Haiti

Robert Buddan, POLITICS OF OUR TIME

Haiti is often called a failed state. But what if it is the international system of states that is failing Haiti and it is their failed state policies towards Haiti that are the real problem? Even if their intentions are well-founded, can they be so bungling as to make things worse in Haiti? It seems they have. Last year was regarded as the worst in Haiti's troubled history. It was the year of a devastating earthquake, rampaging cholera, Hurricane Tomas and flooding, and a farcical election that has called the competence and the conscience of the international community into serious question. As people, Caribbean people, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) people, we must be very concerned. Jamaica chairs CARICOM.

What explains this humungous bungling? The answer is simple: Those intending to help have not listened to the people of Haiti. They have not put people first. They have listened to their own foreign experts and ideologues and have put their own conditions for spending money and their own views about how reconstruction should proceed ahead of the needs of the people. The scorecard is far from impressive. What happens when you don't listen to people, and you leave people out of your plans, is that you set yourself up for great embarrassment. You also create great harm. There is no such thing as progress without people, and that is what the scorecard on Haiti shows.

Scorecard

Elections

Haitians wanted the elections of last November postponed. The conditions were impossible for holding free, fair and legitimate elections. The United States, United Nations, Organisation of American States (OAS), European Union and, most unfortunately, CARICOM did not listen. Haitians even violently demonstrated against having the elections while more than a million people remained homeless and displaced by the earthquake, a cholera epidemic was running wild, and a hurricane and flooding had made the situation more difficult. They still did not listen.

In the end, 73 per cent of the voters did not vote. When the spoiled and blank ballots were removed, only about 22 per cent of the votes were valid, according to the Centre for Economic and Policy Research. The people did not participate. Yet, those elections will stand. They were elections for elections' sake. They were followed by violent demonstrations because the results seemed fraudulent. Even the United States agreed. The OAS set up a 12-man panel to review the vote tallies. They found that the people were right again. The tallies were wrong.

Earthquake Reconstruction

Haitians wanted shelter after 1.5 million were left homeless by the earthquake, and they wanted shelter before the hurricane season started in June last year. But a year later, one million Haitians are still living in tent cities. Aid agencies have only been able to build homes for six per cent of the homeless. Most of the homeless won't have shelter when this year's hurricane season begins in June. Health conditions are very poor in the tents. Homeless women and girls are being raped. Homeless children are trafficked as exploited labour. The international community hasn't listened.

Haitians wanted jobs, but less than 10 per cent of the earthquake rubble has been cleared, leaving nine million cubic metres of rubble. The Americans admit that: "There can be no rebuilding without removal of significant amounts of rubble." Therefore, the poverty and unemployment rates remain worse than they were before 2010.

Oxfam, the British aid agency, reports that relief and recovery were at a standstill. It blames the government. But how could you really do that when 27 of the government's 28 ministries were destroyed in the very earthquake from which the government is supposed to lead recovery. There is no government to speak of. Oxfam blames the donor countries too. There, the blame is better directed. A representative from Oxfam Canada said, "The dysfunction (in Haiti) has been aided unabated by the way the international community has organised itself, where pledges have been made and they haven't followed through, where they come to the table with their own agendas and own priorities." The same representative said that the international community did not want to spend money on removing the rubble. It was not sexy.

The worst part of the whole effort is the shortfall in promised donations. Fifty-five countries and organisations pledged to provide US$5.3 billion for 2010 and 2011. But months after the pledges were made, less than 10 per cent of the amount was made available. Up to last July, only two per cent had been provided. The donors would have to contribute another US$3 billion this year to meet their commitments, and we cannot be too optimistic that they will do this. Too much of the decision about releasing promised funds seemed tied to conditions to hold elections and an interest in who wins, leading to the election farce recently witnessed.

Cholera

In mid-October, a cholera outbreak occurred. In the short time since, more than 3,300 have died and some 150,000 have been infected. Cuba, alone, has thankfully treated 30,000 cholera patients since the outbreak. Haitians have cited this epidemic as good a reason as any for postponing the elections, which were given top priority and greater international attention. Ironically, when Haitians demonstrated against holding the elections, they were chastised as interfering with the efforts to fight cholera.

Self-help

We need to rethink Western-aided nation-building in Haiti, Iraq and other places where democracy, State and peace have failed. That rethinking has started. Haiti is a real-life example of why this has to be done, and a very costly one in terms of human life. We have to rethink the good and the harm non-governmental organisatons (NGOs) and foreign governments can cause. We have to have a plan for self-help and crisis governance within CARICOM and Latin America. We cannot leave our affairs entirely to others. That plan must have a place for people in building or rebuilding their own nation.

Ezili Danto, Haitian lawyer and advocate, sums up Haiti's situation. "In effect," she said, "the UN has held power of attorney over Haiti for over five years, and the country remains a disaster - politically, socially, economically and medically. This reflects far worse on the rest of the world than it does on the Haitians."

She continued: "International aid has failed so badly that the representative, in Haiti, of the Organisation of American States, Ricardo Seitenfus, recently condemned the whole arrangement. Seitenfus, a respected Brazilian diplomat and academic, was then sacked two months before his term was up."

She added: "In a BBC interview, Seitenfus said: 'We have to think that the development of Haiti has to be carried out by Haitians. If people imagine that it can be done through MINUSTAH (United Nations peacekeeping forces) and through the NGOs, we will be deceiving the Haitians and deceiving the world's public opinion.'"

It is not the Haitian state that has failed. NGOs and external authorities largely bypass the State and Haitians. Seitenfus said, "There cannot be a permanent policy of substituting the NGOs for the State. Haiti is Haiti. It is not Haitngo [Haiti-NGO]. No country would accept what the Haitians are forced to accept." CARICOM must speak for Haitians. Otherwise, Jamaica's leadership would have failed.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and Robert.Buddan@uwimona. edu.jm.