Why Trump's racist insults threaten a fragile Haiti eight years after the earthquake

[Judi Lynn]

Haiti, which depends on charity and remittances, gets the largest chunk of U.S. aid of any country in the region. But that's fallen 25% since Trump became president.
POR:
MAYE PRIMERA

16 ENE 2018 – 04:00 PM EST



Haiti receives more U.S. aid than any other country in the hemisphere. Crédito: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
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MIAMI, Florida – President Donald Trump's inflammatory and racist comments about Haiti and El Salvador, calling them “shithole” countries, may have deeper repurcissions than simply highlighting his lack of judgment or capacity to lead the nation. He may have further damaged an already devastated nation.

Haiti, which depends on charity and remittances to survive, receives more aid from the U.S. government than any other country in the hemisphere: millions of dollars per year, for many decades. But that assistance has been dropping under Trump, long before he let the world know what he really thought of Haiti. Since Trump became president, assistance to Haiti has fallen 25%, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development

From the 17th to the 19th century, Haiti produced lumber, rice, coffee and sugar, thanks to millions of African slaves. But they rebelled in 1804 and founded the first – the only – black republic in the Americas. One hundred years later, in 1915, U.S. Marines landed in Haiti and stayed for 19 years, until 1934. It was the longest U.S. occupation in Central America and the Caribbean. During that period Haiti barely produced cotton and sugar.

Then came the Duvalier dictatorship, from 1957 to 1986, when thousands of Haitians emigrated to the United States. Since the end of the dictatorship, Haiti has been under a permanent state of reconstruction, with the United States, France and Brazil leading the way.

That is how Haiti lives off its poor. Transformed into humanitarian assistance, poverty finances 60% of the country's budget. Other aid, delivered by foreign non-governmental groups and agencies, helps sustain health and education services without traveling through the hands of Haiti's government. Ninety-three percent of the U.S. assistance approved for Haiti is managed by U.S. agencies, churches and non-governmental organizations that carry out assistance programs.

More:
https://www.univision.com/univision-news/world/why-trumps-racist-insults-threaten-a-fragile-haiti-eight-years-after-the-earthquake

[appalachiablue]

1. Haiti has endured hardships for years & deserves help.

Two decades after the Haitian Revolution of 1804, France made the Caribbean nation pay funds to former slave owners, reparations. It's own history of domestic struggles, major foreign influence and natural disasters have also contributed to long standing problems.

[Judi Lynn]

2. So true! They've been punished for overthrowing their brutal "owners."

They've been exploited by corporations and countries for natural resources and starving labor pools, overtaken by sweatshops, including the Disney corporation at one time, and so many others, paying the workers only pennies per hour with no benefits.

During George W. Bush's occupation of the US Gov't, journalists discovered Haitian mothers were having to use dirt, mixed with sugar, and lard, etc. to form into cookies which would simply serve to make their childrens tummies feel full at times, since there was absolutely no food available to any of them.

It was information you can't forget.

Like you said, the natural disasters, as well as the spread of cholera, brought and spread into the water supplies by UN workers, which infected so many, who were at that time, living in tents after the earthquakes, and hurricanes...

What has happened to them is a never-ending nightmare.

[appalachiablue]

4. It is a nightmare, I feel bad for Haiti & all folks in

such dire circumstances. The Haitian women health aides who assisted my aunt in South Florida were so helpful and efficient; it was good to get to know them.

[Kind of Blue]

3. +1000!