Walter Suza: Americans and others have the means to help Haiti heal its colonial wounds

Injury from colonialism started with Christopher Columbus “discovering” a large island in the Caribbean Sea in 1492 and naming it Hispaniola. Then Spain ceded Hispaniola to France in 1697, and the western side became known as Saint-Domingue.  

The majority of Haitians are descendants of enslaved Africans shipped to Saint-Domingue to cultivate indigo, sugar cane and coffee. By the late 1700s, Saint-Domingue was meeting 60% of all the coffee and 40% of all the sugar needs of Europe. The French slave owners also had trade relations with America. 

After the French revolution, political factions emerged in Saint-Domingue, culminating in the 1791 slave revolution. The United States rushed in to support the French slave owners for fear of the slave insurgence spreading to America. Still, the French slave owners were defeated, and Saint-Domingue declared its independence in 1804 to become Haiti. 

Things remained precarious.

The United States cut assistance and refused to recognize Haiti until 1862. France refused to accept defeat and returned heavily armed to force the Haitians to sign a decree to pay reparations for its freedom. By 1825 Haiti had paid France an estimated $21 billion.   

Natural disasters have added salt to the wound.

Haiti has frequently been pummeled by hurricanes. Hurricane Ivan and Jeanne came in 2004. Fey, Gustav, Hanna and Ike came in 2008. Then in 2016 came Matthew, which is thought to be the strongest storm to strike the island since 1964. The damage to infrastructure was in the billions of dollars. The loss of life was in the thousands. 

Earthquakes also add to the calamity. A 2010 earthquake left more than 200,000 people dead and 300,000 injured. Another earthquake happened just last month, resulting in more than 2,000 deaths, followed by heavy rains from a tropical storm making search and rescue more difficult.

COVID-19 and political instability also add to the suffering. 

“Poverty has risen in Haiti during the pandemic, and now roughly 60 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day,” according to an NPR report. On July 7, the Haitian president was assassinated in his home by a group of armed men.    

Can the international community help?

After the 2010 earthquake, the United States dedicated about $5 billion for post-disaster relief, and is now providing COVID-19 vaccines. 

The World Bank also assisted with a credit package of close to $100 million. Yet the nation's national debt is projected to reach $4 billion in 2026. With the accruing debt, Haiti is likely to remain the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. 

Haiti needs to eliminate its debt so more resources can be dedicated to physical and social infrastructures. But where to obtain the funds? Creditors could simply cancel Haiti’s debt. But if that doesn’t work, there are three other avenues.

First, France must repay the funds siphoned from Haiti. 

Yet Haiti’s attempts to recover the funds have failed: “In 2004, a lawsuit launched by Haiti to recover the money was abandoned when France backed the overthrow of the government,” wrote Kim Willsher of the Guardian. The United States must pressure France to amend the injustice. 

Second, more help from some of the wealthiest. 

Would Jeff Bezos, for instance, be willing to help Haiti? Yes, the company he founded, Amazon, reports on its website that it has donated 35,000 emergency items to Haiti after the earthquake. Yet that’s a mere drop in the ocean, especially after Bezos spent almost $4 billion to shuttlecock into space for a mere four minutes. Richard Branson is another billionaire who has spent close to a billion dollars to travel to space. 

There is also Elon Musk, who wants to travel to space and has spent hundreds of millions to compete in the race with Bezos and Branson. Even though Tesla, the company he founded, has helped Haiti with equipment to supply power to hospitals, that’s just another drop in the ocean. So Bezos, Branson and Musk might reconsider outcompeting each other to view Earth from above and join hands to raise Haiti out of poverty. 

Third, an additional $100 billion aid package from the United States. Although this sounds like a lot of money, there are ways to come up with funds, for example, by eliminating fraud and abuse in health care. 

When a provider claims for unnecessary services, that’s fraud, and when a provider charges excessively for services, that’s abuse. A report titled “Waste in the U.S. Health Care System'' in the Journal of the American Medical Association states that up to $83 billion is wasted in health care fraud and abuse. That's a significant amount we could use to help Haiti.  

We have the means to alleviate suffering in Haiti. The question is: Are we willing to give more?

Walter Suza of Ames, Iowa, writes frequently on the intersections of spirituality, anti-racism and social justice. He can be contacted at wsuza2020@gmail.com.