Haiti, the Disaster

As aids pour into Haiti, there must be simultaneous efforts to prevent the 'disaster capitalism' from taking roots. This, if not prevented will be a much greater catastrophe
Shashwat Sinha Fremont /California

At around 5 pm on January 13, a massive earthquake measuring 7.0 on Richter scale hit Port au Prince, the capital city of Haiti. Within three days more than 60,000 people were reported dead with over one-third of the population rendered homeless. The city looks like an ancient ruin with everything razed to ground. Reportedly, there was no means for aid to reach from the airport. The people languished on the streets and died not only due to the occurrence of natural calamity but also due to lack of basic human necessities like food, drinking water and shelter.

The catastrophe in human terms is massive and its repercussions incalculable. The presidential palace collapsed leaving the country rudderless amidst utter chaos and tragedy. It was a rare sight to see the head of a state who usually commands supreme privileges in his country languish on the streets. The scale of devastation and loss of lives is far greater than if an earthquake of a similar intensity had hit an advanced western country.

Haiti is often dubbed as the poorest country in the western hemisphere; but why it remained so poor in this so called 'fast-developing' world?

Humans till date have no control over natural disasters like an earthquake, but they have certainly mastered and developed technologies to minimise destruction under such calamitous situations. The disaster again opens the question of rich and the poor, of the exploiter and the exploited. Unlike wealthy countries, good seismic building codes were never enforced in Haiti for strong and durable buildings with which the scale of disaster would have been far less.

Haiti is part of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean where Christopher Columbus started exploitation of native Indians. With flourishing slave trade and massacre of native population, Haiti soon became dominantly populated with black slaves; but was also the first country to witness a successful slave rebellion against the French colony. The story goes back to 1804 when enslaved Africans expelled their French masters and declared the first black independent republic. The US or any other white country refused to recognise the new republic, until Lincoln finally granted recognition in 1862. When French were forced to leave Haiti, they put a military blockade around Haiti demanding reparations for loss of profits, resources and cheap black labour.

Haiti has been a victim of colonial exploitation since centuries but its back was broken by the financial doom it suffered when the US invaded and conquered it in 1915 to keep tabs on its 'investment' (Citibank took over Haiti's debts by buying its central bank) and ruled it till 1934. During this period the US diverted nearly 40 per cent of Haiti's resources, bringing profits to its banks and financial institutions. The control of Haiti's finances was maintained until 1947.

Haiti, being extremely poor, struggled to survive. Since 1957, the US propped and supported corrupt dictators, supplying them with arms to subdue the common mass while the US corporations had a free run in exploiting and ruining the country's resources. It was only in 1986 that Haiti became free of its corrupt and brutal dictators due to a massive popular uprising. Still covert operations against Haiti remained in place. As recently as 2004 under President Bush, the popular President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (for the second time) was ousted.

The poverty and the current disaster it faces needs to be looked in this perspective. Haiti has survived under such brutal excesses of the 'advanced nations' who are now scrambling together to provide some token humanitarian help. It is an irony and insult to the people of Haiti when President Obama announced President Bush and President Clinton to head Haiti's relief programme. President Clinton had pushed his neo-liberal policies in Haiti which contributed to further impoverishment. These neo-liberal policies resulted in complete destruction of the agrarian and self-sustaining society. A vast majority of people live on less than $2 a day. It's only a small, extremely wealthy capitalist class that enjoys and controls most of the resources.

The systemic destruction of Haiti's economy and its mass of impoverished people has attracted numerous NGOs in the country. Even now, it is ridden with non-governmental and UN agencies which perform some basic public services in some parts of the country. The administrative infrastructure is virtually absent as it could never develop under the corrupt regimes and self-serving dictators.

However, after the current disaster, these agencies were busy securing the safety of their own personnel and did not get into action till very late. The food, medicines and other humanitarian aid remained at Port-au Prince's airport with no means to transport it to the suffering people. It is only after a few days that the US choppers started dropping relief material in the affected areas. However, this cannot be taken without skepticism. A very critical danger pointed out by Naomi Klein (author of 'Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism') is that the US might take it as an opportunity to make way for its corporations for rebuilding Haiti, securing contracts worth billions of dollars. So, any relief offered by the US has a potential danger of being seen as an investment by its government and corporations.

As aids pour into Haiti, there must be simultaneous efforts to prevent the 'disaster capitalism' from taking roots. This, if not prevented will be a much greater catastrophe.