20554: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Destroyed by all-or-nothing political culture (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Mar. 18, 2004


HAITI


Destroyed by all-or-nothing political culture

BY MARIFELI PEREZ-STABLE

marifeli.perez_stable@fiu.com


Let's step back so that we may look ahead. Though important, the current
Haitian crisis is not the heart of the matter. Haiti is a ravaged nation.
History has taken a far steeper toll on Haitians than on any other people in
the Western Hemisphere -- all the more reason for conjuring the longest
memory in coming to terms with what needs to be done. Only nation-building
holds out any hope of breaking Haitians loose from the throes of their
history.

Everything about Haiti seems to be on zero-sum terms. After independence,
the new rulers sought to retain the plantation economy, which would have
forced wage labor upon the former slaves. Exporting agricultural commodities
made perfect economic sense. It did not, however, comply with the longing
for land to grow their own food that the citizens of Haiti had.

Subsistence won out over export agriculture. It is a poignant irony that an
affirmation of freedom then set Haiti on a track of immiseration. How else
but through exports could capital have been accumulated? Instead, peasant
agriculture became the main productive activity, which, nonetheless, never
modernized. By the 1930s, the soil had been irreversibly depleted, and food
production was already in decline.

The Haitian economy, therefore, never integrated an internal market supplied
by domestic production. Many food items are imported, and the value of
exports is only 25 percent that of imports. Industry is extremely limited,
while unproductive services account for more than 50 percent of GDP.

The long-standing logic of Haitian politics flows from this contorted
economy. Control of the government has been the only sure avenue of mobility
and enrichment. Access to state coffers has tendered power elites a lifeline
of comfort in a sea of wretchedness. Politics is predatory -- a politique du
ventre (of the belly) -- practiced by the grands mangeurs (big eaters).
Endless repression, desperate poverty and a cannibalized nation have been
the result.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide once embodied his people's hopes. What he might have
accomplished had he moved away from this perverse, deadly logic we will
never know. That, instead, he chose to govern in a similar vein as his
predecessors is his most unpardonable failure.

It would have been infinitely preferable for Aristide and the opposition to
have crafted a compromise, yet, unsurprisingly, it eluded them. How can you
compromise in an all-or-nothing political culture? That armed gangs
facilitated Aristide's ouster should also have been predictable.

Haiti is a failed state, but it simply cannot be fixed by its people on
their own. The international community -- the United Nations, the
Organization of American States, the United States and France, to start --
could set up a commission to supervise the flow of aid. With the help of
international experts, the Haitian business community needs to come up with
a plan to rebuild the economy, attract capital and create jobs. Humanitarian
efforts must be stepped up to feed the hungry millions. Sound institutions
are nonexistent in most areas of public life and must be created.

Haiti does have a rich resource of its own: the diaspora's human capital.
Nearly 93 percent of expatriates over 25 years old in the United States have
had some schooling; 37 percent have some higher education; 20 percent have
college or professional degrees. Would expatriates, for example, answer the
call to join a Peace Corps-like effort? Probably, for the sentiments
expressed by a Haitian American in Boston are widely shared: ``I carry Haiti
with me always.''

Such a degree of outside involvement could well raise the sensibilities of
Haitian nationals. Yet their engagement at every step of whatever the
international community and the Haitian diaspora might do is an utmost
imperative: Without it, nation-building -- which requires no less than
tracking life in Haiti on positive-sum terms -- will never happen.

More worrisome is the prospect that the external commitment will falter or,
indeed, never materialize. Haitians would then remain shackled by their
history. Failed states, however, are friendly habitat for drug dealers
(doing well in Haiti already) and terrorists (not there yet). Getting Haiti
right is, thus, no marginal matter. The time for looking ahead is now.

Marifeli Pérez-Stable teaches at Florida International University.

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