the anatomy of the decline of Haiti
Jean Charles
The anatomy of the decline of Haiti into a failed nation
By Jean H Charles
From the golden age era of Haiti in1946 to the shithole country in 2026, Haiti is now the laughingstock of the world, humiliated by all, including the Bahamas whose Prime Minister said he does not receive orders from America as Haiti does. Its children are rejected by the Dominican Republic everyday sometimes with sticks and guns.
Haiti has never been in its two centuries lifespan so dejected, by most of the countries of the international community. From the cry of Victor Hugo in its address to the Haitians in 1860 where he compared Haiti to the light and the salt of the earth, it is now, not only the purgatory, but hell on earth. Its own leaders and aspiring leaders act as agents of the gangsters that harass the citizens and pledge themselves to continue remaining in power.
With the loop of history, we are going to examine why Haiti went so low that she is as the IRC described in its annual report the fifth most critical and wretched nation on earth.
I will be 80 years old in February 2026, it means I have suffered the blunt of the decline of Haiti all my life. Although I have spent the last 60 years in New York City one of the most civilized places on earth but how about the fate of the other 12 million people who remain in Haiti.
I submit Haiti decline is due to the policy of 6 personalities and 3 sectors. In the first place I accuse the most veneered president that Haiti ever have, Dumarsais Estime. During his presidency from 1946 to 1950 the Haitian peasantry was gradually becoming very wealthy. The United Fruit Company was buying directly his organic banana cultivated in small plots. Estime ordered the open market closed and concocted a program where the politicians would buy the banana and sell it to the Company. It took only six months for the corrupt politicians to cause the end of the program by delivering substandard banana. Eighty years after the ban, the embargo against exporting Haitian banana is still in force as such condemning the Haiti peasant to abject poverty.
-Bill Clinton is the second personality that caused serious harm to the Haitian peasant consequently the Haitian economy. The rice from the Artibonite region was providing all the staple that Haiti needs. He forced the Aritisde government to flood the country with the Arkansas rice displacing the local production.
Furthermore, Bill Clinton on the occasion of the return of Aristide into power in 1990 gave a mortal coup to Haiti. I personally watched in the White House, Clinton decreed that Haiti labor should be dedicated to the textile industry while Mexico would be focused on agriculture. It is still the policy today while 85% of the Haitian population are engaged in the agriculture sector.
The third factor causing the decline of the Haitian economy is the generational governance of the Duvalier’s. For thirty-three years from 1957 to 1986 Duvalier père et fils hold the governance with an iron fist in Haiti. Progress and civilization passed by, leaving the country in the Middle Ages era with no infrastructure and very weak institutions.
The fourth factor has been the regime of Jean Bertrand Aristide. We can situate there the genesis of the culture of the gangsters kidnapping the population. His grooming the young bandits gave us the adult’s bandits of today, coupling with the disbanding of the army crippling the government from finding a solution to the insecurity. We have now the perfect storm for a destabilized Haiti.
The fifth factor has been the succession of the illiberal governments following Aristide regime. From Rene Preval to Michel Martelly passing through Jovenel Moise they all have been corrupt governments that maligned the Haitian population to the core.
In addition to these personalities, the Haitian decline to a failed nation can be attributed to the policy adopted by the founding father to privilege a war economy instead of nation building where the resources of the country were dedicated to construct forts not schools or infrastructure.
Last but not least we must explore the international community transactional comportment Vis a Vis Haiti. From Toussaint Louverture, the founding father who developed friendly relations with John Adams where according to Ronaldo Angelo Johnson, the two countries, United States and Haiti were treating each other as equal for the last and only time.
We have a Haiti with a population 85% illiterate, the international community in particular the Core group treats the country as a vassal entity where the vital interests of the country are thwarted. It is true the Haitians suffered of a complex of scapegoating. The politicians and the population are quick to blame the foreigner for its vows, but no one is stepping out like Lee of Singapore or Ho Chi Ming of Vietnam to build a nation in spite of the harm done by foreign powers.
Where do we go from there?
How to build a Haitian nation proud of its glorious past? I submit the solution is the one formulated by Jean Jacques Dessalines.” I have spent entire nights to give you this nation, take good care of it for yourself and for humanity”
As a former presidential candidate, I have written a book on how to get Haiti out of its failed state. The crown of this achievement is I have found a student willing to do the work the put the book in practice. I have found and groomed a young leader.
Jude Elie is his name. He will have to apply the 5 principles of nation building set by Ernest Renan in his advice to the combatant’s coming out of the struggles to liberate their countries from the yoke of the Prussian and Ottoman Empire.
Develop the sentiment of appurtenance amongst Haitians, build solid institutions from the rural sections to the capital, and provide a helping hand to the marginalized communities, the peasants, the women and the ghetto citizens. Find and apply the divine mission of the nation and last but not least fill the youths of high education resilience and creativity to continue the brilliance of Haiti.
Those tasks must be preceded by the pacification of the country with the complete eradication of the gangsters and the culture of corruption and tolerance for the wrongdoing.
Jude Elie will have to forgo the whining of the Haitian people and lead us into the salt and the light of the earth where Victor Hugo told us Haiti should be. He will have to foresee the tractions of Napoleon Bonaparte and Thomas Jefferson of today to avoid the fate of the kidnapping of Toussaint Louverture. He will have also to become the dove and the snake of the bible to avoid the harm done by Alexandre Petion to Jean Jacques Dessalines to guide Haiti into the bliss happiness and prosperity.
Jean Hervé Charles LLB, MSW, JD was a presidential candidate in the elections of 2016, He can be reached at jeanhc...@aol.com