#BTEditorial – Haiti, unwanted and forgotten?

We can choose our friends and associates, but unfortunately, we are stuck with the family we are born into – good, bad or indifferent.

As a region, Caribbean territories are coupled by our common history of colonialism, slavery and thwarted development.

Included in that common thread is the French-speaking nation of Haiti. Sharing the island of Hispaniola with its Spanish-speaking neighbour the Dominican Republic, Haiti has become the unwanted cousin.

For the past few years, it has been caught in an unceasing vortex of instability, crime, poverty and lawlessness.

We are conscious of the history of exploitation and under-development that has plagued the country since its majority black slave population staged the most audacious rebellion in the history of Europe’s bloody slave record.

The 1791 rebellion that ended in the 1804 independence, a topic of which students in the state of Florida in the United States will likely never read about in History lessons, emboldened the enslaved in America that they too could achieve freedom from the torture of enslavement.

Haitians have paid with their blood, sweat, tears, and French francs for their freedom. Unfortunately, the contriving by colonial powers to stifle black self-rule, coupled with successive governance failures in the nation, Haiti has become a mere shadow of the greatness it could have achieved.

Frankly, there can be little argument against labelling the Western hemisphere’s poorest country as a failed state.

In the middle of the worst global pandemic in a century, Haitians, on July 7, 2021, awoke to the news that their President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in an attack at his home where his wife was also injured.

The political killing that to this day is still to be fully unravelled, has plunged the country into chaos, deeper economic instability and turmoil.

As if that were not enough, months later, the country was hit by a massive earthquake that killed over 2,000 people and left about half of million homeless or in need.

What is life like now for the majority of Haitians? Desperation, deprivation, despair, hunger, instability, poverty, crime-riddled, and ungovernable.

Marauding gangs rule the streets. The agents of law enforcement are out-gunned and out-manned. Gang-rule has meant that no one is safe unless guarded by security with high-powered arms.

Sadly, this is our neighbour. This is a fellow Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member.

As much as we are saddened and heartbroken by what is taking place in the northern Caribbean member state, what can we do?

The voice of Haiti was conspicuously absent from the recent Caribbean leaders and stakeholders symposium examining violence in the Caribbean as a public health issue.

As the most populous member of CARICOM and one that is arguably the most stricken by crime and violence, a special session should have been devoted to the Haitian situation.

In the meantime, the British government has issued a travel advisory telling its citizens not to travel to the country due to the breakdown of law and order.

Belize, though a signatory to the Treaty of Chaguaramas allowing visa-free movement of CARICOM citizens, has imposed travel restrictions on Haitians and Jamaicans.

Haitians have lost their privilege to enter Belize visa free while Jamaicans must show proof that they have paid for their lodging before they enter the country as part of new immigration rules.

The deplorable conditions in Haiti have resulted in massive outward migration and thousands have reportedly been using Guyana, Suriname, and Belize enroute to Mexico where they hope for entry at the Mexican/United States border.

The Bahamas, which has a presence in Haiti, has been unable to guarantee the safety of its diplomatic staff with rampant kidnappings and murders.

A week ago, the Deputy General Counsel of St Kitts and Nevis, Harold Marzouka Jr was among three people kidnapped by armed bandits in Haiti.

Marzouka, who is also the CEO of Haiti Plastics, was reportedly travelling through the Delmas community in Port-au-Prince with two other businessmen when their convoy was attacked.

Vehicles belonging to the businessmen were set on fire and there is no word from them.

CARICOM members individually do not have the resources to reverse the political situation or the breakdown of law and order in Haiti.

What CARICOM leaders can and must do is remain vocal in calling the world’s attention to the Haitian crisis.