So far, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is holding his own by not giving in to pressure from Untied States President Joe Biden, to draw Canada into a military intervention in Haiti.
As a matter of fact, many Biden is asking Canada to tighten the screws on the prime minister to take the lead in what would be another invasion of the strife-torn Caribbean nation, deemed to be the poorest in the western hemisphere.
But Trudeau seems to be standing firm, avoiding any talk of military invasion, and deciding instead to throw a little money into the mix by promising to provide $100 million to the beleaguered Haitian National Police, the island’s main security force along with the coast guard.
All this talk of invasion and military action on the part of the US and the United Nations come at a time when the people of Haiti could do with some real help to extricate themselves from what for many has been a life-long crisis of unemployment, a failing health -care system, hunger, disease and out of control criminality.
The United Nations paint a gloomy picture of the socio-economic conditions in the Caribbean’s most populous nation of about 12 million people, where the estimate is that more than 50 per cent are forced to live on less than $2 US per day and deal with daily issues of food insecurity.
The abject poverty Haiti experiences today is built on widespread corruption internally by politicians and the nation’s elite and is compounded by historic exploitation, destabilization and under-development strategies by external forces.
In a country where two thirds of the population is estimated to be unemployed or under employed, the bulk of the nation’s wealth is controlled by a handful of households.
On the political front, there is constant efforts by external and internal forces to keep Haiti destabilized and ungovernable.
The present government under Prime Minister Ariel Henry in power since the murder of his predecessor, Jouvenel Moise, on July 21, 2022 is widely unpopular but has the support of countries such as the United States and Canada.
And although there are ongoing calls for elections, widespread violence, kidnappings and other gang-related incidents make expectations of a free and fair vote unrealistic.
In the nation’s capital, Port au Prince where about three million live, as well as in major cities across the country, gangsters armed and protected by politicians and tycoons, rule and make the lives of ordinary Haitians miserable every day.
So far for the first three months of the year, hundreds have been killed, injured, and kidnapped, prompting talk of Haiti becoming a “failed state.”
But so it has been throughout its tumultuous history.
What Haiti needs is help.
The problem is on every occasion that the world “helped” Haiti, the country and the people were left in worse conditions than before that “help” came.
France, United States, the United Nations and more recently to a lesser degree, Canada are all suspects in their commitment to truly assist the troubled nation get on a path of development.
If life was fair, Haiti would have emerged as a model republic for the world.
In 1804, its slave population rose up against France, then one of the world’s super-powers and defeated its armies to earn their freedom. The new republic became the first nation to outlaw slavery and entrench human rights laws.
For that, it drew the ire of Europe, the United States and all slave-prospering nations and paid dearly.
France used its military might to eventually corner the leaders of new Haitian Republic and forced them into an indemnity that saw Haiti paying what amounts to more than $30 billion today in reparations.
That inhumane act, which squeezed the coffers of Haiti dry for more than 100 years is one of the main reasons why new republic’s development has been stunted, rendering it incapable of putting in place an education or health care system or building a functional infrastructure, all of which were started by one of its first leaders Henri Christophe.
In the decades that followed, the United States and the United Nations and thousands of so-called aid agencies lined up to “help” Haiti.
In 1915, the US found reasons that were hinged on its own strategic and hegemonic aspirations to invade and occupy the island for about 20 years.
The United Nations and the army of NGO/aid agencies have also been on guard, ready to pick at the bones of the emaciated nation following the many natural disasters that have blighted Haiti.
The most recent occupation of Haiti by the UN lasted between 2004 and 2017. The reason behind was because they assessed “the situation in Haiti to be a threat to international peace and security in the region.”
It did not “help”.
In fact, it resulted in the rape and pillage of women and children by the so-called “peacekeepers” as well as a cholera outbreak that infected close to 900,00 and killed about 10,000.
In the meantime, 10,000…. yep, 10,000 non-governmental organizations and aid agencies have turned the crippled nation laughingly into The Republic of NGOs.”
In Trinidad, David Michael Rudder, a calypsonian laments: “Haiti I’m sorry…”
Canada, with all its pretenses has not been too kind to Haiti either as it gives a little something with one hand and take back with another.
Take for example in the midst of all the talk about gang violence and the routine murder of police officers, Canada has been defaulting on a contract to deliver 16 armored vehicles to the Haitian National Police, which Haiti used its hard-to-come-by resources to pay for.
So far, only about four of those vehicles have been delivered, along with a whole lot of talk and posturing.
In the meantime, the eyes of the world… read USA, are on Haiti because certain sectors have to be kept up and running, especially the garment industry upon which manufactures much of the clothes sold at retail outlets such as Walmart, JCPenney, Gap, Old Navy among others.
That might be one of the reasons why Uncle Sam is thinking of “helping” Haiti, like it has done in the past, but truly does not have the credibility to do it so President Biden is giving Canada basket (goading it) to buy the fight. The hope is PM Trudeau will see through it.
Truth is, more than any other nation in the world today, Haiti needs and deserve a chance to reach towards its potential.
It needs real help not another invasion.
Egbert Gaye
