Posted on 01/20/2010 11:05:41 AM PST by Kaslin
The images from Haiti are, if anything, only getting worse. What was left of an already fragile society is starting to break down, as violence and chaos take over. Despite the heroic efforts of aid workers and the battered Haitian government, it looks as if Haiti's problems will persist well into the 21st century, long after the debris is cleared and the houses are rebuilt.
While the scope of the tragedy in Haiti is nearly impossible to exaggerate, it's important to remember that last week's earthquake was so deadly because Haiti is Haiti.
If a similarly powerful earthquake were to hit much more densely populated San Francisco or Los Angeles, the death toll would be much lower. That's an amazing thing when you consider that American cities are crammed with skyscrapers while Port-au-Prince's skyline was, for the most part, one story high. Indeed, as others have noted, when a 7.1 earthquake hit the Bay Area two decades ago, 67 people were killed. Meanwhile, the Haitian death toll is almost unknowable, but almost certainly over 100,000 and climbing.
It's hardly news that poverty makes people vulnerable to the full arsenal of Mother Nature's fury. The closer you are to living in a state of nature, the crueler nature will be -- which is one reason why people who romanticize tribal or pre-capitalist life (that would be you, James Cameron) tend to do so from a safe, air-conditioned distance and with easy access to flushing toilets, antibiotics, dentistry and Chinese takeout.
The sad truth about Haiti isn't simply that it is poor, but that it has a poverty culture. Yes, it has had awful luck. Absolutely, it has been exploited, abused and betrayed ever since its days as a slave colony. So, if it alleviates Western guilt to say that Haiti's poverty stems entirely from a legacy of racism and colonialism, fine. But Haiti has been independent and the poorest country in the hemisphere for a long time.
Even if blame lies everywhere except among the victims themselves, it doesn't change the fact that Haiti will never get out of grinding poverty until it abandons much of its culture.
When Haitians leave Haiti for the U.S. they get richer almost overnight. This isn't simply because wages are higher here or welfare payments more generous. Coming to America is a cultural leap of faith, physically and psychologically. Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz note in their phenomenal new book, "From Poverty to Prosperity," that low-skilled Mexican laborers become 10 to 20 times more productive simply by crossing the border into the United States. William Lewis, former director of the McKinsey Global Institute, found that illiterate, non-English-speaking Mexican agricultural laborers in the U.S. were four times more productive than the same sorts of laborers in Brazil.
Why? Because American culture not only expects hard work, but teaches the unskilled how to work hard.
It's true that Haiti has few natural resources, but neither do Japan or Switzerland. What those countries do have are what Kling and Schulz call valuable "intangible assets" -- the skills, rules, laws, education, knowledge, customs, expectation, etc. -- that drives a prosperous society to generate prosperity. That is where the real wealth of nations is to be found -- not in factories, oil deposits and gold mines, but in our heads and in the habits of our hearts. Indeed, a recent World Bank study found that 82 percent of America's wealth could be found in our intangible assets.
Haiti's poverty stems from its lack of intangible capital. It shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, and yet the Dominicans have six times the GDP (and are far better stewards of their environment).
Collectively, Haiti depends on the kindness of strangers much more than on itself. Before the earthquake, Haiti had 10,000 nongovernmental organizations working there, the highest rate per capita in the world. In 2007, notes Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal, they had 10 times as much foreign aid as investment. If people are determined to blame Haiti's problems on someone other than the Haitians, perhaps they could start by looking at the damage done by the foreign-aid industry.
I admit that I have a soft spot for Haiti, in part because the country is such an incredible underdog, and I've always admired the Haitian-Americans I've known. I also have Haitians in my family -- my brother is married to a Haitian immigrant.
So I say this with the best of intentions. Once the dead are buried, the wounded and sick healed and the rubble cleared, it's time for some tough love. Otherwise, Americans will just be back to clear the debris after the next disaster.
If Haiti had been colonized by the British instead of the French they would be a prosperous nation today.
Jamaica isn’t exactly prosperous or peaceful, but it’s doing a whole lot better than Haiti.
Jonah implies we know how to go about healing or curing the Haitian culture.
I content we don't.
I think fixing Haiti would require an island-sized time machine set to sometime around 1790.
If a nation was ever FUBAR in every dimension, it’s Haiti.
Let’s face an unpleasant fact: Haiti is the most dysfunctional country in the Western Hemisphere. They have zero ability to recover from this disaster. Maartial law needs to be declared with looters and rioters shot. Only after things calm down will it be safe for relief workers. It is not America’s fault that this took place, nor is it our reesponsibility to fix it, but this country will lead the relief effort. This country deserves little more than a benevolent dictatorship...but we will try to impose democracy there, with concomitantly disastrous results. Afghanistan is better suited for nation-building than Haiti.
I think an experienced Chicago community organizer could probably fix it in 20 or 30 years. If we looked long and hard enough we could probably find one we’d be willing to loan them for that long.
How is Haiti any different from (certain parts of) New Orleans, Los Angeles, Detroit, Washington, New York, Chicago?
From the article: “Why? Because American culture not only expects hard work, but teaches the unskilled how to work hard.”
I do not agree with this. The American culture is increasingly becoming one in which the unskilled are taught how to collect welfare and all the freebies that the government can possibly cook up for them, and protest for more equal treatment, more benefits, etc. With the current political mood, it appears to be going more in the direction of encouraging dependence on the government and less toward encouraging hard work and independence.
Was it BOR that said if we are gonna dump untold millions of dollars into Haiti, then send unemployed Americans down there to work and get some of that money back. I think its a great idea
Haiti is far, far poorer than the worst parts of our worst cities...that's how.
Mostly shanty towns without adequate shelter, food (mass-malnutrition), clothing, along with zero education, and the all-pervading superstitions of Voodoo. American slums are royal compared to Haiti.
Haiti compares more closely to the worst parts of Africa than anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
Things actually began to change after Baby Doc left and US industry began to gain a foothold. Fully 90% of Haitian households were supported by a labor force based in light manufacturing under US business enterprise. When Aristide was elected under the same rubric as Obama, he saw the danger in industry providing jobs and a rise out of poverty through free enterprise. This would lead inexorably to increased democracy, education and an end to the squalor that had been rampant in Haiti for its entire history.
After his ouster by the people of Haiti for trying to install Marxism, Aristide prevailed upon Hillary to insist that Bill return him to power.
One of the critical components of Aristide’s return was the annihilation of the light industry sector in Haiti. This was accomplished overnight by Clinton who imposed an embargo that had the singular effect of ending the ability of commerce to continue. Fully 90% of Haitians lost their financial support literally overnight. There remains today a deep seated hatred of the Clintons among the middle and lower classes of Haiti.
It is worth mentioning that Clinton handed Aristide a check from the US government for 90 million dollars to rebuild the power grid in Haiti. Every dollar of that money went toward the purchase and maintenance of the largest personal estate in the Caribbean owned, of course, by the little Marxist priest, Aristide. In exile in South Africa, Aristide is today once again conspiring with the Clinton's for his triumphant return.
Changing this culture will require the return of American industry linked to a Marshall plan that ends official corruption. None of this will be put in place by our current administration.
Amen to that. Dittos and so on!
Political corruption, socialism, culture of dependency ...
Jamaica has a bob sled team:)
After their revolution, due to their hatred and mistrust of whites, they drove out and/or killed whites. They’ve been ruled by corrupt dictators who pocket the money we taxpayers send to help them- and yet when a disaster like this strikes, they whine for American help.
When it doesn’t get there fast enough they’re getting into a rage.
Just what gives them the idea that they are our responsibility?
How much have the oil-rich Muslim countries sent to Haiti?
After their revolution, due to their hatred and mistrust of whites, they drove out and/or killed whites. They’ve been ruled by corrupt dictators who pocket the money we taxpayers send to help them- and yet when a disaster like this strikes, they whine for American help.
When it doesn’t get there fast enough they’re getting into a rage.
Just what gives them the idea that they are our responsibility?
How much have the oil-rich Muslim countries sent to Haiti?
Compared to those places, Haitians “missed” being acculturated next to Western, advanced capitalist society from 1805 until the 20th Century. They “lost” the 19th century, stuck in an African voodoo culture. They have never caught up, they are still trapped in African primitivism.
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