The indifference and inequality that Haiti is going through
Introduction
Haiti is a country of which it is necessary to know its history to be able to assimilate, reflect and propose changes in migration policies. It will be, therefore, relevant, contextualize in the timeline those facts that affected and affect this country and, consequently, its inhabitants and migrant citizens who have settled throughout the American continent. Necessarily to do this review, we must talk about crisis, abandonment and poverty. This is not a purely internal problem, but a condition imposed on Haiti throughout its history, due to dominant powers such as France and the USA.UU.
Developing
To which the complicity or indifference of dozens of countries has been added to the deplorable conditions of living and working (or to the lack of work) that the masses of Haitians face daily in their lives. Haiti’s story reflects those high levels of inequality that we already know and the hegemonic powers that have been maintained and strengthened for centuries. When reading it and knowing it, we can perceive that those aspects that led him to his current instability are the same as today and for decades he has corroded his sister countries in Central and South America.
It will be then, this memory exercise, which allows us to think from otherness and reflect with an intercultural approach. The Spanish. Historical facts of the island. The island is the first to be discovered by the Spaniards, who originally sailed, bound for India. The story tells us that before his arrival there were the Arawaks and Taínos peoples, but it was in 1492 when Cristóbal Colón landed in the Saint-Nicolas mole in the northwest and baptized the island as we know it to this day: theSpanish. After a series of misfortunes for the first Spanish explorers who fell into the hands of the native peoples.
Finally they managed to settle in the east of these territories, a place that we know today as the Dominican Republic in honor of Santo Domingo and the Dominican evangelizers who inhabited there. The Spanish was completely coveted by its great wealth. Finally, the west of the island was taken by France and ceded by Spain. As in other places in the vast new continent, the conquerors and Europeans in general, brought diseases that exterminated entire peoples almost entirely and for the native peoples of the Spanish was no exception. This was the main reason for France to choose to take advantage of his island.
With the transfer of hundreds of African slaves whose work and exploitation favored sugar trade, their most precious well during that time, next to coffee, cocoa, cotton and indigo. Saint-Domingue (current Haiti) was rich around the S. XVIII. Already at that time on the island, half a million black slaves and about 500 mestizos lived. "So brutal were the conditions of exploitation, that thousands of Africans had to continually imported to replace those who died". This great population, made his desires for freedom prosper for the year of 1789. The proclamation of freedom, equality and fraternity of the French Revolution.
He had resonance in the hearts of slaves and would be precisely a former slave who would exert pressure, leading a war of revolution that lasted 12 long years since 1791. Those who led with heroism the unity of blacks and mulattos achieved their goal. The island finally became independent on January 1, 1804 and was renamed the name of Haiti. It was on that date when the Haitian flag we know was created, after a symbolic act in which the white of the French tricolor flag was torn, as a sign of the success achieved after the slaves’s rebellion. Haiti was black, independent and republican.
This, of course brought fear and rejection within those countries that depended economically on the use and marketing of slaves, not for nothing to the US. UU took time to recognize Haiti as a legitimate state. Haiti was in the eye of the hurricane and the consequences of the revolution were as contradictory as transcendent. The estates had been divided among the population, and soon almost all the Haitians had land, but very few could live in them. The plots were too small, and the new owners could hardly be agreed for joint management.
In addition, the population of Haiti was never homogeneous. According to Gliech, in a publication for FAO, ‘slaves came from more than a hundred different ethnic groups, and originally had nothing to do with each other’. France played ruthlessly, and after failed attempts to invade the island, it finally demanded the compensation of economic losses (adding land and slaves) generating a brutal debt for the new nation that prevented from the beginning its development to the couple with its similar Caribbean. Later the theme of the fragmentation of the Spanish island in the current Haiti and the Dominican Republic will be touched.
Episode that is also relevant to understand the great economic contrasts that are present between these two countries. Persecution and social crises did not cease. In 1867 the civil war generated an economic crisis and the constant siege of the US. UU to master the entire island. The strong presence of the US. Uu in internal policies, he denied Haiti to have a fixed base, thus between 1946 to 1957 political instability was constant, between coups, dictatorships, and provisional presidencies that in no way contributed to the national economy. In 1957 Francois Duvalier, also known as Pope Doc became a brutal dictator who ruled Haiti thanks to the support of the fool Macoutes.
The Army and the USA. UU. He ruled at will for more than 30 years, modifying the Constitution, making concessions to the Army, the Church and autonomous life president to subsequently give the command to his son, as if it were a monarchy. His son Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) became president of Haiti in 1971 and his mandate was just as nefarious, strengthening in the country a growing problem: drug trafficking and generating abysmal figures of murders. After several complaints of violation of DDs.H H. Elections were convened in 1984 but the level of abstentions reached 61% according to the sources.
The Duvalier regime began to cause a stir and be an annoying load for the USA. UU, finally Baby Doc flees by plane receiving the support from the USA. UU and the asylum of France, carrying the fortune kneading at the expense of the Haitians and leaving behind the tonton-macoutes that continued lynching and abusing a socially and economically broken country. In October 1986, the National Government Council summons elections to choose a Constituent Assembly, in charge of writing a new Magna Carta. However, military power and former secret police would continue to take power by force until 1991, delegitimizing attempts return to democracy.
Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president. But he was overthrown after a coup d’etat and forced to flee. The Organization of American States (OAS) immediately initiated energetic diplomatic efforts in the region and in the United Nations. In an attempt to avoid international isolation, the coup plotters recognized the sovereignty and functioning of Parliament. Aristide signs the pact that ensured the return of the president and the amnesty for the coup leaders. Already in the last five years of the S. XX talk about the possibility of stability for Haiti is almost a chimera. Soon clashes between Aristide and prevailing followers would come.
Your successor in the government mandate. Haiti would have direct intervention of the UN, new elections and new peace attempts in the midst of revolts, homicides and countless acts of violence where the police force was also involved. Once again terrorism was present while each call for new elections reflected the lack of transparency guarantees and security measures for voters. Aristide irregularly comes to fulfill its third term against an opposition that was imposed with strength and violence. Already for the year 2000 Haiti had the international aid frozen, most of its resources were in the hands of just over 10% of the population.
About 75% of Haitians lived in extreme poverty and with shortcomings of basic services. 66% of Haitians did not have daily food and 34% had only one meal a day. In 2004, Haiti fulfilled his bicentennial of independence with a mass strike. Washington and Paris asked Aristide to resign and start working again from international intervention. In the middle of the year many countries and multilateral organizations contribute with one billion dollars for the reconstruction of the country and the strengthening of social, political aspects, improving health, security and basic services.
Haiti could not meet these expectations because in 2006 the northwest was devastated by the tropical storm Jeanne and the roads and cities were submerged due to the indiscriminate deforestation that returned fragile and sterile the soils of said territory. Haiti remained in the new century, the poorest country in the region when it was whipped by an earthquake of 7.0 ° of which it has not been possible to recover, not only because of the natural consequences of the same, but for all this chain of episodessocial, political and natural whose seal has been marked deeply with blood.
‘For decades (the Haitians) lived in a regime of power legitimized by force. It is not surprising then that the bloody chaos of the nineteenth century war occur. This pattern continues until today."You have to say it. In this whole story there is a cultural factor deeply rooted in the dynamics of Haiti and its inhabitants, a relevant aspect to also analyze the social structure outside the island and in constant interaction with other people and other territories as part of the immigration experience.
However, we must never stop keeping in mind that the political insecurity and inability of Haiti’s governments to invest in the development of the country’s natural and human resources have contributed significantly to the current state of underdevelopment in the country. Dominican Republic, the Prospero neighbor. Compared to Haiti’s story, we have his pair in his Spanish. The origins of the current Dominican Republic were in the same way, dyed blood, mortal diseases and abuse of power. The conflicts that were generated in the western part also also affected the dynamics of this.
Spain had little interest in recovering these territories and concentrated on the mineral wealth found in the continental colonies of Centro and South America. Thus, little by little, former black slaves, mulattos, a few whites still lived there and some native Taínos survivors created community in these lands. It is worth mentioning that, after the revolution, the entire island was destroyed by wars. Subsequently, the town of Santo Domingo decided to rebel against Spain in November 1821 to join the South American country of Gran Colombia. But this could not be consolidated because, shortly after 1822.
Boyer who was president in the new Republic of Haiti, conquered this part of the island territory. Between 1843 and 1844 this temporary union imposed was abolished by the Dominican Creoles to finally establish the Dominican Republic in the East and the Republic of Haiti in the west of the island. It was in 1865 when the Dominican Republic finally obtained his freedom from Spain. Subsequently, it was dominated by US Marines. UU from 1916 to 1924. Like Haiti and other countries, the Dominican Republic also suffered the tyranny of a dictator who remained in power for 31 years. The Dominican Republic would live anarchy, US intervention.
Unemployment, high government corruption indices, bad basic services and the precariousness of illegal natives and migrants from Haiti. Reason why, also from this country, there would be a strong migration to the US. Uu in the s. XX. But at present the development of both countries establishes great differences from each other, considering that the Dominican Republic is not a highly developed country, but it has been able to take advantage of its privileged location in the Caribbean, and strengthen its economy thanks to tourism. Thanks to the beauty of its beaches and multiple green areas (main lack of Haiti as a result of excessive deforestation.)
conclusion
Dominican Republic is a country that does not lose validity as a family, student and luxury holiday destination. The big hotels and casinos, their gastronomy and their Afro-American cultural and artistic influences contribute to maintenance at an acceptable standard of living. This modest development generates worrying contrasts about the situation of Haiti and the negative consequences that its excessive migration generates in its neighboring island that has its economic stability with a thread. According to the United Nations, “only 50 percent of the Haitian population knows how to read and write, while in the neighboring country the percentage reaches 90 percent. The infant mortality rate in Haiti is almost three times greater than in the Dominican Republic ”.
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