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Essay, 3 pages (700 words)

Journal

Haiti Laurent Dubois in his article “ Haiti; The Aftershocks of History” tries to provide an explanation of some of the unfortunate occurrences in Haiti by giving reasons as to why Haiti faces problems such as poverty, crime, corruption, civil wars, illegal drug dealings, and natural calamities among others. Therefore, the major question that arises focuses on the origin of Haiti’s failures.
Dubois insists that the plights that Haitians face have resulted from their historical background. One major factor blamed for the Haitian misfortunes is colonialism and neocolonialism. The French government colonized Haiti at a time when slavery was as an aspect that would amount to great economic growth. From Dubois’ assertions, french government actually led to the increase in poverty level in Haiti through forcing Haiti government to take a loan from them that they would use to compensate slaves. The U. S is also to blame for Haiti’s poor economic growth; the U. S made Haiti be over depended on foreign support. Dubois, however, provides some different assertions offered for Haiti’s troubles. For instance, he mentions a religious leader that insisted that Haiti faces many natural calamities since they had sold themselves to the devil; practiced voodoo culture. Another claim points out that Haiti’s poverty results from the leadership it has had after it gained independence. Most of these leaders who happened to be freed slaves had greed and focused much on accumulating wealth for themselves, thereby creating corruption and dictatorship.
Certainly, from my assumption, I think Haitians, the French Government and U. S government have to take responsibility for Haiti’s misfortunes. However, the blame should be more on the Haitians. Certainly, natural calamities such as earthquakes are rather unavoidable. However, shameful factors such as neocolonialism, corruption, poverty, crime, and poor economic growth can be because of certain actions from people. The Haitians should take blame for their high level of poverty, corruption and poor economic growth. The level of poverty in Haiti results from the corrupt and unstable governments that have existed (Wilentz), and incompetent citizens. In addition, poor economic growth also results from the high level of crime and corruption done by the Haitians themselves. Therefore, Haitians should stop blaming occurrences in history for their failures.
However, the blame on the U. S government for increasing Haiti’s over dependence on foreign aid is justifiable. By doing this, the U. S government only facilitated the poor economic growth in Haiti, since the Haitians came to believe that they could not survive without foreign aid. It also intensified the incompetence rate of the Haitians thereby increasing poverty level. Moreover, the U. S occupancy in Haiti resulted to neocolonialism, a factor that further intensified over dependence, thereby facilitating myth making about Haiti (Dash). Furthermore, the U. S did not only render neo-colonialism to Haiti, but in the current times it has politicized the Haitian earthquake. For instance, after Haiti’s earthquake, instead of Obama’s administration sending humanitarian support through non-military-based institutions, it offered support through the Defense Department (Polyné). This are some of the factors that seem to increase Haiti’s over dependence on foreigners, especially the U. S.
In addition, the French government also helped in increasing poverty level by forcing the Haitian government into a debt that took away almost half of Haiti’s yearly budget (Dubois, 8). Whatever the French did is unjustifiable and selfish; putting a whole country into debt and making its citizens suffer is somehow close to violation of human rights.
Generally, History is not entirely to blame for the failures of Haiti, but also the behavior of the Haitians and the Haiti government. Haiti should consider focusing much on eradicating poverty, corruption and crime, and especially over dependence. This will ensure a quick economic growth and development. Haitian government should also stop the blame game and focus on educating its citizens on the importance of national growth and development.
Work Cited
Dash, Jean Michael. “ Haiti: Seismic Shock or Paradigm Shift.” Social Text. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. < http://socialtextjournal. org/periscope_article/haiti_seismic_shock_or_paradigm_shift/> Dubois, Laurent. Haiti: The Aftershocks of History. New York: Picador / Metropolitan Books, 2013. Print.
Polyné, Millery. “ After/Shock: a Haitian American Historian, the Politics of Aid and Pan Americanism after Haiti’s Earthquake.” Social Text. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. < http://socialtextjournal. org/periscope_article/aftershock_a_haitian_american_historian_the_politics_of_aid_and_pan_americanism_after_haitis_earthqu/> Wilentz, Amy. “ The Dechoukaj This Time.” The New York Times. 6 Feb. 2010. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. < http://www. nytimes. com/2010/02/07/opinion/07wilentz. html? pagewanted= all&_r= 0>

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