23345: radtimes: Why is Haiti so prone to disaster? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Why is Haiti so prone to disaster?

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/109655418734.htm

30 Sep 2004
Source: AlertNet
By Katherine Arie

LONDON (AlertNet) - When Tropical Storm Jeanne deluged the tiny Caribbean
country of Haiti in mid-September, killing up to 2,500 people and
displacing thousands more, Haiti's vulnerability to even the weakest of
storms was laid bare for all to see.

Disaster experts were quick to draw contrasts with near-by Cuba, which
weathered the most powerful hurricane in living memory just days earlier
without a single casualty.

They pointed out that Haiti's lack of an early warning system had left
people unaware and unprepared. They also highlighted the country's
extensive deforestation, caused by the impoverished population's need for
wood to use as charcoal for cooking.

Deforestation has proved deadly time and time again. On an island stripped
of trees, heavy rainfall cannot be absorbed. Instead it sweeps down
mountains and hills, swallowing everything and everyone in its path.

But does the story end there?

When catastrophe comes knocking, it's natural to seize on those factors
seen as contributing directly to the death toll. Blame the storm itself,
blame the environment, blame the lack of evacuation plans.

But increasingly, disaster experts are widening their focus to include the
underlying causes of a country's vulnerability to natural disasters. In
Haiti's case, these include grinding poverty, an extremely volatile
political situation and powerful external forces.

Ben Wisner, hazards specialist with the Environmental Studies Programme at
Oberlin College, Ohio, and University of London's Benfield Hazard Research
Centre, makes the case for connecting the dots.

"The reason they (the root causes of vulnerability) cannot be overlooked is
that without political stability and good governance, an early warning
system and other preventive and preparative measures are unlikely," he said.

"The broad sweeps of history and political/economic change always have
specific consequences on the ground."

Wisner cites the issue of Haiti's charcoal production as a case in point.

Flash back to the 1960s, when tumbling world coffee prices prompted Haiti's
farmers to abandon coffee crops that had long been shade-grown, meaning
that trees had been preserved as a matter of course.

As Haiti's towns and cities swelled with migrants from the countryside,
urban demand for charcoal grew accordingly. This helped charcoal production
become ever more viable as a substitute for coffee income.

 From 1986, with the overthrow of the Duvalier dictatorship and the
collapse of governance in rural areas, even public forests became the
target of charcoal production. The trend worsened with a military coup
against Haiti's first elected government in 1991, which brought more
instability and less protection for woodland.

A subsequent U.S. economic embargo meant that even fruit trees such as
mangoes started being converted to charcoal because farmers could no longer
sell fruit to middlemen for export to the United States.

The result was a wholesale ravaging of forests, with devastating
consequences for disaster mitigation.

CHRONIC LACK OF GOVERNANCE

But deforestation is just a symptom of Haiti's chronic lack of governance.

Since independence in 1804, the country's history has been one of
autocratic rule and political instability. Today, Haitians live in a
culture of violence and fear.

In the aftermath of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's forced
departure from the country amid an armed revolt in February 2004, peace is
tenuous.

The U.S.-led multi-national forces that moved in when Aristide left have
been replaced by U.N. peacekeepers, charged with disarming rebels who
helped oust Aristide as well as pro-Aristide militants, but armed groups
still operate in outlying rural areas. Most of the country remains beyond
the rule of law.

The economic situation is no better. An interim government has taken shape,
but it has few resources to be effective. Corruption is rife, the country's
infrastructure is shattered. And government agencies are unable to provide
Haitians with even the most basic services.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It suffers from
massive social deprivation and a high HIV/AIDS rate, affecting 4.5 percent
of the population.

According to the World Bank, per capita income is considerably less than
one-tenth the regional average. Half the population survives on subsistence
agriculture. Life expectancy is just 52 years. Jobs are scarce.

As a result, Haitians are heavily dependent on remittances from relatives
working abroad, mostly in the United States and Europe.

Efforts to turn things around have failed.

With the goal of jumpstarting growth, in the mid-1990s Haiti adopted
neo-liberal economic policies supported by the international financial
institutions.

Haiti hoped to benefit from the fruits of economic globalisation but found
that a smooth integration into the world economy was unlikely without
economic stability and sound governance.

What's more, focusing too much on integration runs the risk of diverting
human resources away from urgent development priorities such as education
and health care. According to the U.S.-based Grassroots International,
Haiti wound up reducing much-needed government services.

No wonder, then, that disaster mitigation remains a luxury Haiti simply
cannot afford.

.