Easter in Haiti

 Today is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, the greatest day in the Christian calendar. I have been thinking about what this all means for a while, trying to extract some greater meaning, but I was coming up dry. I knew it was important in some way but I couldn’t get beyond what I had been told as a kid. It felt just like another Sunday. I have had a pretty relaxing weekend so far, and today and yesterday I enjoyed the wonderful Van Cleve tradition of listening to the Handel Messiah. Every Easter my family listens to the Handel Messiah after we come home for church. We used to listen to it only at Christmas until we realized that it was more about Easter than Christmas. I was listening to the Hallelujah Chorus, and as the chorus kept repeating “and he shall reign forever and ever”, I suddenly became a little choked up. I was so happy knowing deep within that “he shall reign forever and ever”.

The prophecies about Jesus indicated that a king would come to rule the Jewish people. The Jewish scholars who read the prophecies and the leaders who preached about the coming king all believed that a great military ruler would come and enact a great political regime. The world would be ruled by a great sovereign power that would restore order to all the ends of the earth. As the prophecies foretold, a great king did come, but he was the exact opposite of what the people expected. Jesus was not a powerful general with a great militia at his disposal; he was a rabbi and teacher. Jesus preached to thousands of people and began one of the most powerful movements in human history, but he never picked up a sword, he never enacted some brilliant political regime, he merely healed the sick, fed the hungry, and formed relationships with anyone who would listen to him. Jesus took those who had fallen from grace within society or been cast out, and loved them. By these actions he revealed his kingdom to be one not of temporal power or military might but a great kingdom of love and redemption open to all of humanity.

I know there are many debates over whether Jesus really rose, if we was really God, and so on, but if Jesus is to rule forever, this is the greatest news we could ever know. Regardless of the smaller details, the message of the crucifixion and the resurrection is that grace and love will rule forever. That which rules the world is not some magic formula we are to adhere to, it is not some political structure, the world is ruled through love. At the end of the day we are ruled not by force but by true, unadulterated love. Jesus’s rule will not be a strict rule that dictates our every action, nor will it be regime that limits freedom and person choice. If Jesus is to be king, his kingdom will be one built on service to others, a kingdom where we can find redemption no matter how far we fall from grace, a kingdom of love in its greatest of forms. When God came as a servant, he was trying to convey a message. He was telling us that he does not want us to conform to some strict rule, but to enter into a relationship with him. He came to earth to be close to us and to loves us.

The Christian story is one that seems distant and unbelievable to many people today. God came to earth? A kingdom built on love and humility? This all sounds like either some hippie pipe dream or something only found in fairy tales that we have out grown. Even as I write this I am struggle with the details a little bit as well. But from what I have seen over the past year, the beauty that can come from service and humility, the message of the Easter cannot be a more important and joyful message. The Christian mission as it is seen in La Croix is one of love in one of its greatest forms. The mission is built of people serving each other, people from all over the community sacrificing their own egos and pride in order to improve someone else’s life. All of this work, all of the service to others is done in service to the greater good, in service to God. This work is not done to glorify a human or appease some personal desire. This work is done because God calls us to do more than just survive, God calls us to love.

I know the story of the resurrection may seem implausible, but the message is timeless. Our true strength lies not in strict laws or forceful power, our true strength lies in our humility and love for others. Jesus gave all of himself for all of us. There is no exception to that love. As we follow in those foot sets, as we give of ourselves, the more fulfilled we will become.

Good Friday Post

So I had written a post yesterday about Good Friday. I wrote it and then let it sit, hoping to return to it to edit it with a fresh mind. Before I could return to it the power died. So here is a Good Friday post on Saturday, sorry its late, but its something to think about this weekend. Here goes...

Our Own Poverty

Since my second week here there has been an almost constant stream of volunteers coming down. I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet so many people. There have been some really great people that have come down here, people who I have connected with and hope to keep in touch with when I am home this summer. Some of the people I met were absolutely fascinating and some were just all around good people to have around. Some people I met had been to Haiti over twenty times while others had never come before. One of the only consistencies among the groups who came down was that every person, regardless of age or expertise, seemed to be moved by their time in Haiti. Some were moved by the Haitian’s spiritual fervency, some were moved by their joyful nature, some were just indescribably moved. This is a very empowering feeling, and it can shift a person’s entire outlook on the world. It was certainly a feeling I left with when I returned home last January, it was the impetus that drove me to return.

This feeling is different for everyone who visits La Croix. For some who come down they feel like they can conquer anything; they began the trip as a student and returned home as a master. They might have worked on a project or been apart of a team that did something seemingly monumental, something that really changed another person’s life. Now they feel almost invincible, “If I could do so much for Haiti in just one week, imagine how much I can do back home?!”. When the empowered volunteers return to Haiti for their second, third, or fifteenth trip, this spark is relit. I can almost see it when some people get down here. They come off the van and they light up, almost blasting off into their project. They’ve overcome the learning curve and they’re ready to lead Haiti forward.

However powerful this feeling, it can also be deceitful, it can lead to some very problematic outcomes. No matter how well planned any project is, the chaos of Haiti always manages to throw in something unexpected. This happened to me last September and I’ve seen the unfortunate process replicate with so many volunteers who have come down over the past three months. I was fortunate because my errors were caught early on and have been corrected, but that’s not always the case. Not every volunteer looks for mistakes or has someone looking over them like I did. Whatever plan they are executing, everything seems to be going along just fine, working out just as planned, and then all of a sudden they’re stuck. The switch is turned on but nothing happens. The seemingly perfect plan missed some innocuous detail that went unaddressed and has now stalled the project. Even worse, sometimes the plan is executed flawlessly, but the intended benefits of the project are lost on the intended population. Many times these projects end up doing more damage than good.

Though the setting is quite different, this is very similar to the Last Super. When Jesus said that his disciples would betray him and they were stunned, they felt like they were on top of the world, and now their leader was telling them that he was leaving and they would betray him? Peter, one of Jesus’s closest companions and the leader of the first church, was told that he would deny Jesus three times. He was to be the leader of the first church, how could he ever betray his lord like that? My friend Cassandra said that she is always glad to go to Good Friday and Maundy Thursday services because it reminds her that we are all active participants in the service. We have all fallen, just like Peter. Whether we are betraying Jesus or thinking we have the perfect plan, we are committing the same sin, pride. We put ourselves on the pedestal of perfection, blind to our own broken nature. We move forward assuming our own piety will guide us to glory until we are face to face with our deleterious results.

This story, however difficult it is to face, is not over. Jesus died on Good Friday but he rose again on Easter Sunday. No matter how far we fall, how hard we fail, when we recognize our own inner poverty, when we embrace our flawed nature, we can find the humility to rise again, we can always rise again. Finding redemption is hard, it means repentance for our failures and embracing that inner poverty. But that action, that humility we gain, empowers us to really make true difference. Many of the volunteers who have come down with plans that seem just perfect inevitably fail. Yet once they fail and their mistakes are right before them, they embrace their own weaknesses, fix their mistakes, and rebuild to make something truly great. As human beings, no matter what our situation, we are too proud well too often, and it pride blinds us from our own inner poverty. Fortunately there is redemption from that inner poverty, we just need to understand the human part of humility.

Handouts

Handouts

I realize my last post might have been confusing, so I thought I would clarify a few points on giving out food and handouts in general.

Some of the development literature out there takes a fervent stance against giving anything out for free, believing that will do nothing but develop a culture of dependency. There is some truth to this, but I think many of the distain for handouts is taken a little too far. In one book I read the author made an impassioned argument that handouts on enable destructive behaviors, and then talked about his work at a soup kitchen. Feeding the homeless a “handout”, shelters are handing out food for free to the homeless population. To really understand the implication of giving a “handout” and whether or not it is a good thing to do, the term handout must first be defined. 

The traditional definition of a handout is a something that is freely given to another person. This is a definition used in some of the development literature I have read and it is problematic because it is very broad. By this definition we give out hundreds of handouts in America, and most people would agree these handouts are good things. Probably one of the most popular handouts in American culture is public education. Any child can go to school for thirteen at no cost. Yes, parents have to pay taxes, but you’re taxes are in no way connected to your child’s schooling. Every household has to pay taxes regardless of whether or not they have children in the school system. If a child receives additional services from the school, the family pays no additional taxes. We give lots of handouts on the college level. I went to college on a scholarship and most of my friends in college either had scholarships or grants funding part of their college education. SCHIP, children’s health insurance, is also another hand out given to poor children who can’t afford healthcare. I don’t think anyone would say that scholarships, public education, or state funded child health care are inherently destructive. These aren’t the type of handouts those in development circles are complaining about, but they fall under the broad definition. This causes real confusion for anyone trying to implement a development projects.

There are many different types of handouts given in the La Croix community that really benefit the community. There are over a thousand kids who are sponsored and have their tuition paid for by American families. Some of these kids, when they complete school, continue to be sponsored in their university studies. Dr. Abel, one of the best doctors at the clinic, was a product of the La Croix school system and the mission sponsored his medical training in Port Au Prince. There is no charge for anyone to stay in the Community of Hope, the mission’s residential assistance community. The families there have to follow certain rules, but they don’t have to pay for anything. This is a really great program and helps many families from going homeless.

“Handouts” or giving people things free becomes problematic when it won’t help them open up new opportunities for themselves. At the heart of it, poverty in Haiti is a lack of opportunities. People are poor because they most money they can make is just enough to avoid starvation. People work as hard as they can, but because they are uneducated, because they are apart of a stagnant economy, because of so many reasons, the only job way they can put food on the table is by farming, it’s the best remunerative opportunity they have. 

A handout that affects their scope of opportunity, a handout that creates new opportunities, will be beneficial for the individual and the community. Education is the best example of something that can open up opportunities. Any child able to graduate high school has hundreds more opportunities than the average Haitian. Even if a child can only do basic arithmetic, he or she can be more productive dealing with money at the market and help his or her parents avoid errors in calculating their earnings. Education however is not the only handout that is beneficial. Paul and Sandy Conley, two members of Westminster Presbyterian Church and two of people helping me with my work here, gave a girl that they sponsor a sewing machine. This is huge for her. She has a baby so she can’t really go to school, and she doesn’t really have any way to accumulate enough money to buy a sewing machine. Having a sewing machine will help her start a small seamstress business out of her house, enabling her to take make a greater income than if she was left to her own devices.

Of course, not all handouts affect the opportunities open to a person, and these are the types of handouts that can be harmful. The best example I can give of this is food distribution. If we give out too much food rice, we might feed some people, but we will also drag the price of rice down. This affects everyone selling rice. We might temporarily satisfy one group’s hunger, but at the expense of another group’s ability to feed themselves.

An easy way to evaluate a handout’s effectiveness is consider how you are changing the incentives of the people with whom you are interacting and what would have happened had the handout not been given. Take the example of food distribution. If we give out food indiscriminately, then we give people incentive to not go to the market. This will cause the price of rice to drop, negatively affecting those selling food at the market. Does this mean we should never give away food? No, we just have to organize the food distribution without creating an incentive to avoid the market. The mission has done this in the past, by giving away rice to families who have been negatively affected by some natural disaster or have lost their crops from some unfortunate circumstance. These people are in a position where they can’t afford to go to the market; they can’t really afford to do anything. If we give them rice, then they are going to be able to eat. If we don’t give them rice then they’ll be stuck not eating. These people’s incentive to go to the market isn’t affected because it’s not an option

There are enough NGOs in Haiti (over 10,000) that people have begun to expect free stuff from the “blans”. Some of the NGOs help people open new opportunities, but too many times aid organizations just pass out stuff for free without any discretion. Indiscriminately giving out free things is nice, but it doesn’t give Haitians any incentive to buy Haitian made things, it creates an incentive to withdrawal from the local Haitian economy, it gives people a reason stop buying stuff made by Haitians. This has been going on for so long that Haitians have begun to expect free stuff from any aid organization. People feel that maybe, if they just ask enough Americans, they can get something for free.

So why shouldn’t you give candy to Haitian kids? Because it enforces the notion that we are here to just give stuff away. It reinforces the expectation that if a boy or girl just ask enough American aid workers, they’ll get something for free. We don’t want kids to just get free stuff, it doesn’t open up any new opportunities, and it doesn’t affect their ability to get out of poverty. Empowering people with new opportunities, truly ending poverty, starts with things like education, not candy.

Why You Shouldn’t give Haitian Kids Candy

This morning I went out to shock a few wells and I ended up walking around for about four hours in the rural back country. It was really beautiful and I was happy because I got to see one of the irrigation canals working. I, being a tall white guy from the US, stuck out. There was a bunch of people who crowded around me every time I got to the well. This used to be intimidating but I know enough people here, I know enough Creole, and I have been here long enough to feel comfortable around big groups of Haitians.

Every time I have gone out into the countryside or into the cities, no matter where in Haiti, I’ve always had people come up to me and say “mwen grangou, ban mwen manje*” which translates to “I’m hungry, give me food”. Whenever I go out to where the kids are, sooner or later one of them will come up to me and say, “give me candy”. Not all of the kids know how to speak English, but one phrase most are pretty familiar with is “give me candy”. I may have adjusted to the language, to the hot weather, and even the masses of Haitians around me when I shock a well, but I will never adjust to this. This will always pull my heart in a way I can’t describe.

Now some of these people aren’t hungry but they know that Americans have money and food. Americans associated with the mission have handed out food for long enough that the people from La Croix know I have food or access to food, and if they ask and they’re lucky, they might get some. That said, many of these people are genuinely hungry. Many of them haven’t eaten for a few days. They may have had a poor harvest that day or they may have forgone their food to feed their children. Many of these people aren’t just looking for a handout, they are genuinely hungry. I really want to help these people. Going hungry, no matter who you are, is a travesty. In a perfect world I would love for every Haitian, and every human for that matter, to have the same access to the food I have in the US. Unfortunately that impulse can be very harmful. If I begin handing out food to anyone who asks for it, to everyone who says they’re hungry, I’m not doing them any favors, and I could be doing harm in the long run.

In the moment when I am in the communities and someone comes up to me and asks for food and I were to give it to them, I would immediately have four or five more people coming up to me expecting food. If I give them all food, then I will have even more people coming up asking for food, and pretty soon there mob scene and a small riot could break out. This has happened at some of the mobile clinics where we give out medicine for free, and this has happened before with some of the kids when to volunteers pass out candy. One day we were playing whiffle ball with some of the kids and a few volunteers started handing out candy at the end. Within five minutes they were surrounded by dozens of kids. Kids were fighting with each other to get at the candy. When I am at the wells I will sometimes get seven or eight people around me asking for the empty bottle that I used to shock the wells. This is just an empty bucket, I can’t imagine the crowd that would mass around us if we were giving out food.

The issue of the mob however, is a minor problem. The much bigger problem lies with the culture of dependency. The reason these people are poor is not because their lazy or unintelligent. The Haitians I’ve met are some of the hardest working people I know and they’re every bit as smart and capable as the average American. The reason these people are poor because they lack opportunities. Many of them lack any formal education, and even if they did have some sort of education, there are a limited number of professional jobs available in all of Haiti. No one chooses to be a subsistence farmer, they farm because they have no other options. Hunger, though it appears as a tragic problem, is a symptom of a much larger problem, poverty. In order to help these people feed themselves we need to give them the opportunities to make a more consistent income, to make enough money that they don’t have to worry about where the next meal will come from.  

If we were to just give out food we address the symptom without solving the problem; we actually make the problem worse. We give people an incentive to not farm. Since most of the food they produce is eaten in the home, they can either feed themselves by working or feed themselves with our handouts. They would obviously rather feed themselves with our handouts because our handouts don’t require any back breaking labor. This feeds people, it staves off hunger for another day, but it doesn’t give them any more opportunities, it doesn’t help them come out of poverty. If we gave everyone enough food to feed themselves, then no one would go to the market. Why would they go to the market to pay for food when they are getting food for free? Everyone is fed, but no one has a opportunity to make any money.

The only way to help people is to help them access more opportunities, enable them to take care of themselves. Education is one of the best ways to do this, but there are other ways this can happen. Many times people borrow money to pay for the medical procedure or an emergency expense. With no access to formal credit, people have to turn to loan sharks to cover these large expenses. These loans sharks will typically charge 200%-300% interest, and many people go hungry trying to pay off these loans. Giving a person a goat or a cow, thus giving them access to something they can sell in order to cover a large expense, allows them to cover these expenses without going into debt. These initiatives, though successful, are very difficult. They are difficult to implement and they require a commitment by the participant. They don’t pay off immediately and they have no guaranteed payout once the process is finished. If I give someone a goat, though it could be really useful, it could also get stolen or get sick and not help them. Even if the goat survives, the owners still have to commit to caring for the it. If I give someone an education, they have work at it for years before it will pay off.

This is one of the biggest issues I face in the communities. There are so many times when I try to work with the kids and as soon as they find out I don’t have candy, they don’t want anything to do with me. There are so many times when I am walking along the side of the road or in one of the communities and someone comes up to me saying “give me some money, give me some food”. So many before me have just passed out candy that there is an expectation that I am only there to give candy. This expectation takes away people incentive to go to school. If we can meet their short term needs, if we give them food every time they ask for it, they won’t have as much reason to go to school. Some will still go to school, but some will drop out. If we give away food, we give people fewer reasons to improve their situation. We may treat the symptom, but if we do this enough may cause some people to become dependent on our aid. This is makes the poverty that much worse, closing off opportunities and increasing their poverty.

Helping people is a difficult task, and making a real change is even harder. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, but we have to understand the full implications of our actions. When I go out I want to feed everyone I meet, I want to give them food, but I have to keep reminding myself that it won’t help. It will make the jobs of those who follow me more difficult, and it won’t help the Haitians in the long run. There are some instances where distributing food is beneficial, specifically during emergency situations like droughts or floods, but passing food out to every hungry person makes will only feed them today, it won’t open up the opportunities of tomorrow. 

How to Make Fried Plantains

Fri Bannann (Fried Plantains) are a Haitian specialty. They are eaten all over the country, by every different class of Haitians. They are not uniquely Haitian, but they are enjoyed by most every Haitian. I was recently taught how to make them by one of the cooks who works at the mission.

How to make "Fri Bannann" or Fried Plantains

Ingredients: 
Plantains, oil, salt mixed in with water.

1. Peel the plantains, clean them off, and make sure there are no flakes or strings hanging off of them.

2. Pour enough oil into the pan so it is about 1/4 to a half inch deep and bring it to a boil.

3. Cut the plantains into chucks, about four or five pieces per banana (you can make it bigger of smaller depending on how big you want the fried plantains to be).

4. Drop the chucks into the oil and let them brown.

5. When the plantain chunks are a light brown color take them out (use tongs, they're really hot).

6. Put the chunks on a cutting board and smash them. You can smash them however you want, but I would recommend smashing them with another cutting board or large flat piece of wood. You don't want chunks of plantain to go everywhere.

7. Dip the plantain pieces into the salt water for a few seconds and then put them back into the frying pan.

8. Let them fry until they are a nice golden brown, remove and let them cool for a few minutes. if you like really crunchy ones then let them fry for a long time, if you just want a light crispy plantain, put it in for less time.

9. Enjoy!

I usually try to write something spiritual for Sundays but I couldn't muster anything today. I hope you all had a lovely Palm Sunday!

The Setting Moon

Last night I couldn’t sleep. I am not sure what time it was, but I was sitting on my bed feeling pretty bored, and since I wasn’t going t fall asleep anytime soon I went to entertain myself up to the roof. I put on a sweater, grabbed my water bottle, and headed up there. Though Haiti is a tropical island, nights can be quite chilly, and I hoped that maybe some fresh air could get me to go to sleep. I got up there and immediately my eyes were drawn to the west where to moon was setting. I’ve seen the moon set before at home but there was something different about this. Nothing specific was new, and yet the scenery was a spectacular that I had never experienced. 

Usually the moon is bright white, almost like an LED light suspended in the sky, but it had a deep yellow glow to it as it sat low in the western sky. Though the tint was darker, the moon was more luminous than I had ever seen. Everything around me was as visible as if the sun were setting; the only difference being that the sky was a dark navy instead of purple and red. The moon was about three quarters full, giving off light but looking incomplete as it set. It almost looked like a block of newly formed cheese shining in the night sky. I know that metaphor is over used, but I’ve never seen anything that looked more like cheese than last night’s moon. (To note, this might also reflect my level of hunger at the time)

Aside from a few trucks driving by, the night was almost perfectly undisturbed. The natural surroundings sang loudly, with the roosters belting out a consistent melody, and the goats and cows humming different notes in perfect harmony. As a backdrop to mammalian instrumentals, there were the thousands of crickets chirping in unison, and combined with the wind rustling through the trees, perfectly wrapped up each part into one beautiful song. The wind kept the air nice and cool, making for a particular comfortable environment to enjoy this.

Opposite the moon setting in the west were the mountains in the east. The mountains almost looked like something from a Wan Gogh painting. All I could make out was their deep amethyst contour against the navy blue night sky, but they had a presence about them that seemed to frame the entire scene beautifully. The clouds met them in some places and looked almost as if they were using the mountains as a runway to take off into the sky. With the wind blowing through the trees and clouds whipping up the mountains, the earth and sky almost blended together as one beautiful backdrop to the night. As the moon set deeper into the west, a deep navy ring began to grow in at the bottom of the sky in the east. At first it looked like a large cloud, but it grew larger and larger as the moon continued to set. I started to see stars shine brightly though, and then I turned to see that the moon was half hidden by the hill in the west. The navy blue sky that was emerging was no cloud, but the shadow of the hill the moon was setting behind. As the moon said its final good byes for the night, the night magically lit up with stars. Thousands of stars began to twinkle that had kept hidden behind the moon’s yellow glow. Though the moon was gone, the stars started to shine just as brightly, keeping the night sky perfectly lit.

I can write illustrative descriptions all night long and only convey a glimpse of the magic that I saw and felt last night. I’ve never been more captivated by a night sky; I was absolutely mesmerized by everything around me. From the animals singing in the night to the dramatic moon finding its resting place in the west, to the wind turning Haiti’s hot days into a perfectly temperate nights, everything seemed to fit together perfectly in nature’s tapestry. As amazed as I felt, I felt even more humbled. Here I was, just one lowly human being, able to enjoy this great spectacle taking place around me. I didn’t do anything to create this, I just happened to get up when nature was performing one of the most dramatic scenes from its daily play. Maybe it was chance, maybe it was destiny, but nature’s play conveyed beauty words can only wish to describe.

The Cover Photo Problem

One phrase that I continually see advertised by NGOs and non-profits working in the developing world is, “we send every dollar you donate to work overseas”. Charity:Water, an NGO that drills wells and gives people in the developing world access to clean water, has a “100% model”, advertising that 100% of the money you donate goes to cover their initiatives abroad. When the initial relief aid was sent to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, there were lots of complaints that only a small percentage of the money designated for Haiti was spent directly helping people, and that too much money was spent under the elusive guise of “administrative costs”. People don’t donate money to “administrative costs”; they donate money to make a difference, to make something happen. On the surface this seems like an admirable goal, but it can create more problems for a community’s long term development.

In order for any aid project to be successful, there must be an element of community development incorporated into the project. On Tuesday night I went to a well meeting at a new community well Pastor Pierre recently installed in the town of Perrisse. When Pastor Pierre installs a well, he doesn’t just dig a deep hole and call it a day, he develops a system within the community to care for the well. He requires every household that benefits from the well to pay 25 GDS (about 60 cents) every month for the maintenance of the well. Pastor Pierre also appoints a member of the community who locks the well up during certain hours of the day, avoiding over usage. We had a meeting with the community to go over all of these procedures and make sure everyone in the community was one the same page. This work on the part of Pastor Pierre creates a new expectation between Pastor Pierre, the donor, and the community, the recipient. The community, instead of seeing the well as a gift, assumes ownership of the well. The well isn’t just a nice thing they can take advantage of; it’s a resource they are charged with caring for and maintaining. As long as they pay for it, the well is there’s to use. The well transforms from a temporary advantage into a renewable community resource. I’ve spent days walking around the rural communities looking for working wells, and for every working well there is another well that has been neglected and no longer works. These wells fail because there is no one to take care for them. There is no one to “own” the well, so people just use it until it breaks and then go back to another water source they previously used. This is what a lot of NGOs do. They dig a hole, put in a well, and leave. There is no one who engages the community in on the project, so there is no oversight, and people just use the well until it breaks and then go back to gathering water from the rivers.

These problems, this lack of community engagement is more common than I would like it to be. Too many organizations pass things out but don’t work them into the community as a whole. At best these efforts provide a temporary solution to a much bigger problem. Many times however, these initiatives will actually hamper community development and harm a community in the long run. Only one person can only use a well at a time, and if there is no ownership over a certain well, then people from all around will come and fight over the well, decreasing its value. Part of the problem keeping organizations from not engaging in the community is that no one wants to donate to community development, they would rather donate to building a well.

When we think about development, we see pictures of people in pain, children going hungry and families struggling to drink clean water. We want to do something that will directly improve these people’s lives; we want to end the suffering. When we donate money we don’t want it pay someone at a desk, we want it to pay for a child’s clean water. Sometimes though, the best way to give those children clean water is to pay that guy at the desk to organize the community around the new well. Administrative costs, though they cover expenses that are pretty dull, they are necessary for any initiative to be successful. There is a lot of overhead involved in digging a well. If we just pay for wells, we’ll never give the Haitians the clean water they so desperately need, we’ll only give them a bunch of broken wells.

I call this problem the “cover photo problem”. A picture of a child getting water from a well makes for a great cover photo any NGO or non-profit’s a brochure, a picture of a guy sitting at a desk talking with the well manager makes for a really lame cover photo. Unfortunately, not every good development effort makes for a good photo op. In order for wells to really serve the community we have to pay for some administrative costs as well as installment costs. These costs may not feel great for the donor giving money, but it means the recipients will feel much better for a long time to come. 

About the Haiti Animal Project

I am currently updating the animal donation program. Here is a description of the program. I have yet to set the exact prices because I have to clear a few things with Pastor Pierre. Any input you may have would be well appreciated! 

Thanks!

The Haiti Animal Project is an initiative where American families to donate goats and cows to Haitian families. These Haitian families don't have access to a formal credit so they cannot save or borrow money easily. Giving them a way to "save" money and make large purchases. These donations will enable the Haitian families with a life line and the ability to afford a year of school, a large medical expense, and major home repair, or another large expense.

What does your money cover?

The majority of the donated money goes to pay for the actual cow or goat. The prices of each animal can fluctuate greatly, the minimum price of a cow is about $250 and the minimum price of a goat is about $50. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that this price will be the price the mission pays for the goat. The price is the minimum price each animals is sold at, but depending on the number of goats and cows at the market that day, the price can go over $60 and the price of each cow can go over $280. There is no set price for goats, so every time the mission wants to purchase a goat or cow they have to bargain with the seller. Sometimes we can get a good deal, but good deals are becoming more rare, and the price we settle will more likely be closer to $60 or $70 for each goat and $275 or $300 for each cow rather than the minimum. Haggling over an animal is a very long and drawn out process, and there is no way to know the exactly of how much each goat or cow will cost before we go to the market. If we can get a good deal we will take it, but those deals aren’t guaranteed, and have recently been more a rarity rather than a norm.  Depending on the health of the goat or cow, the price can go up. Since we are giving these goats away to families, we want to ensure that each goat and cow we give away is healthy, so we would rather pay more for a healthy goat or cow rather than pay less for a sickly animal. We also do everything we can to purchase a female animal. Having a female gives the families a continual supply of animals, affording them more opportunities both in the future, but at times the females can be more expensive.

Purchasing a goat or cow involves other expenses beyond the cost of the animal. The additional money that is not spent on the animals covers the people’s time purchasing the animals and the transportation of the animal back to the mission. We have to take a special truck to the market, the large Mitsubishi diesel truck (better known as the bird cage) to carry all of the animals from the market back to the mission. Purchasing anything at the market is a timely ordeal. We have to go to the market around 5:00 AM and we don’t return until about 12:00 PM. Most of this time is spent haggling over the price of each animal. We have to take three or four employees from the mission every time we go in order to properly wrangle each animal up onto and off of the truck.  

Given the large expense involved in getting each animal from the market to the mission, the many people involved in the transaction, and the fluctuation of the price, each goat costs ___ and each cow costs ___. Any additional money collected from the purchase of goats and cows will go to purchase more cows and goats.

How are the families selected?

The families are generally found through the child sponsorship rolls. The families who’s children are sponsored are families that are in need but have demonstrated a desire to improve their current situation and show a commitment to their and their children’s future well being. They are involved in the La Croix community and are working to give their children a better life than they themselves had. Despite their efforts they are many times still unable to make ends meet. The goat or will give them not only a small potential income stream but will provide a safety net in the event of a future unpredictable disaster.

Why do we give baby animals?

There are three reasons we give juvenile animals as opposed to adult animals. The first is that baby animals are cheaper. The second reason is that giving a baby animal requires the family commit to raising the animal. Development projects that do not require a family’s commitment to the project are not as successful as those that do. If we give an adult animal, then the family might sell it the next week for the full price. Though we select families that will most likely not do this, we want to give them as much incentive as possible to raise the goat and sell in the future when a disaster strikes or necessity demands it. The third reason is that, in the event that this program expands, we don’t want an influx of goats or cows to burden the market in L’estere. If we give away 100 juvenile goats or cows, they will be sold at different times with in the next two plus years. If we give away 100 adult goats or cows, there is a chance that all of them could be sold at the next market day, depressing the value of the animals and hurting others in the market. Giving juvenile animals ensures this will not happen.

Does the family commit anything to this process?

The family does not need to provide the mission with any monetary reimbursement for the animal. However, in order to ensure that the family commitment to caring for the goat or cow, we ask that they give the mission one of the animal’s offspring within a year of receiving the animal. This encourages the family to treat the animal as an asset to be used in a time of need rather a temporary hand out. This will also continue the program. Every baby animal the mission receives it will give to another family in need.

Why are we not donating pigs or chickens?

We used to donate pigs, but right now there is a disease going around that is killing off all of the pigs. The last thing we want is to give away a pig that dies three days later.

Chickens are not large enough animals to provide a safety net for the family or afford the family with a new opportunity. Families are more likely to cook a chicken rather than save it to pay for a major home repair or school tuition. Our goal is to give people a pathway out of poverty in the event of a disaster or the ability to make a step forward, and the chickens will not provide this service

American Military Occupation, Then and Now

Today marks the 10^th anniversary of the American military invasion into Iraq. The war is over but Iraq’s long march to democracy has just begun. There is no question the US will continue to stay involved in Iraqi affairs for some time, supporting the Iraqi government’s policing and antiterrorism efforts as well as developing other Iraqi civil services. Whether Iraq will be able to break the cycle of poverty despotism and become a democracy of the 21^st century cannot be determined now, but America’s history of military occupations and invasions could lend insight into the challenges Iraq will face in the future. One of the longest military occupations in US history was the occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934. Though Haiti and Iraq are different places and the occupations were almost a century apart, they share certain parallels that reveal the difficulty of reshaping a nation.

The US occupation of Haiti was more similar to The War in Iraq than one might think. The reasons given for the occupation of Haiti in 1915, like the initial justification for the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and 2003, had a more complicated reality to it that was not fully conveyed to the public. Woodrow Wilson’s justification for the occupation was to secure American assets interests in Haiti. Between 1911 and 1915 Haiti’s head of state had changed six times, and there had been no real consistent centralized governance for the past two or three decades. This threatened the American business interests, specifically the fruit companies that had set up operation in Haiti. This was the initial justification, but Wilson saw another threat Haiti posed. There was a German expatriate population living in Haiti that wielded significant influence over the Haiti’s affairs, and Wilson felt they posed a distinct security threat. Many of the Germans living in Haiti had married into the Mulatto elite and were able to purchase huge swaths of land. There were laws barring foreigners from purchasing Haitian land, but since the German expats had married Haitian citizens, they were able to purchase the land. The German government was very aggressive towards the Haitian government, demanding large payments from the Haitian government when German diplomats would get thrown in jail. This was during World War I, and Wilson was weary of any German influence in the Western Hemisphere. Wilson feared that, given Haiti’s inability to govern itself, its incredibly powerful German population, the overly aggressive nature of Germany’s diplomatic relationship with Haiti, and its proximity to the United States, Haiti was a prime target for a German invasion. Germany was looking to invade the US from Latin America, and given Haiti’s instability and its proximity to the US, it would have been a perfect place to mount an invasion. Two years after the US invaded Haiti, the Zimmerman telegram was intercepted, describing Germany’s plans to invade the US through Mexico. Whether Germany really would have invaded Haiti is lost to history, but in 1915 Woodrow Wilson didn’t want to take the chance.

The Marines stayed in Haiti far after the 1919 treaty of Versailles was signed, with the hopes of establishing a legitimate government and putting Haiti on the road to prosperity. Like in Iraq, if the Marines were to have automatically pulled out from Haiti after World War One, Haiti would have continued its cycle of political upheaval*. The Marines who invaded Haiti in 1915 and the US armed forces who invaded Iraq in 2003 faced similar social and political climates when trying to implement a legitimate government. Both countries were ruled largely by small elites that had perpetrated human rights violations against the general population. Both countries were overall very poor but had certain industries (the fruit industry in Haiti and the oil industry in Iraq) that did exceedingly well and were tied to American interests. Both forces invaded and faced little formal military opposition, but there were insurgent non-uniformed groups that rose up and fought hard against each invasion and continued to fight throughout the occupation. In Iraq the Islamic fundamentalist groups presented much difficulty in securing the country, and continue to pose a threat today. In Haiti, the Cacos, armed bands of peasants, fought back against the Marines. The Cacos both suffered and inflicted many casualties in their opposition to the Marine.   

When the Marines left Haiti in 1934, there were positive indicators that Haiti was in a place where it could begin to develop. Though the Marine command had been a difficult that saw much bloodshed, the Marines left having built 1700 km of roads, built many public facilities such as schools, hospitals, bridges, and government buildings, and modernized Haiti’s technological capabilities, making Port Au Prince the first Latin American City to have a phone service with automatic dialing available. Haiti did begin to develop after the Marines left in 1934. The Marines however, did not develop Haiti’s political institutions. Haiti’s greatest need, the need for an effective central government, was not there, and this gave rise to more political chaos and instability. Some hope arose in 1946 with the inauguration of Dumarsais Estime, the first black president of Haiti since the occupation. Dumarsais Estime came to power with hopes to liberalize much of Haiti’s economy. Estime sought to put more black Haitians into civil service positions and fought to break up the Mulatto elite that had run Haiti for so long. Estime’s intentions were good, but his tenure was cut short. Rafael Trujillo, then president of the Dominican Republic, supported a military over throw of Estime. Soon after Estime was exiled, Francios Duvalier became president and seized Haiti with an iron grip and continued the vicious cycle of destruction.

Iraq today is at a critical juncture, they could begin to embrace pluralistic institutions that usher in prosperity, or they could revert back to the same destructive dictatorship that reigned prior to the US invasion. Today Iraq’s future is unknown, but if there is anything we can learn from Haiti the US’s occupation, its that the future of a nation is nothing that there is no magical formula. Certain details must be present to prevent a disaster. There must be a strong central government ruled by the majority of people rather than a narrow elite group. Property rights must be upheld for all members of the society and contracts and agreements must be upheld in a court of law. These are just a few of the necessary requirement needed to avert a disaster, but yet these in and of themselves do not guarantee prosperity. Though Haiti did not have to strongest institutions in 1934, there was hope with the rise of Dumarsais Estime. Estime challenged the Mulatto elite and could have potentially empowered the rural poor. Estime sought to liberalize the Haitian economy with the hopes of developing Haiti. Even though Estime was posed to enact major reforms, his work was undone by the Dominican Republic. There was no way to predict this and there was nothing Haiti could have done to prevent Trujillo’s tyranny from spreading across the boarder. Iraq’s shares its largest boarder with Iran, a dictatorship more similar than not to the Trujillo regime.

I certainly hope that Iraq doesn’t follow in Haiti’s same footsteps. Though prosperity has no specific formula, this does not mean it’s impossible. Japan, Great Britain, Brazil, The United States, and France are just a few nations that broke the cycle keeping many of their citizens in poverty. All of these countries managed to develop into prosperous nations, and Iraq could be next. Iraq does have certain strengths going for it; unlike Haiti Iraq has more than one neighbor. Iraq shares a boarder with Turkey, one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East. Turkey could help Iraq develop and could possibly help mitigate a threat from east. Iraq is also going through this reformation during the Arab Spring. Whether the hopes of the Arab Spring will be realized is yet to be seen. For better or for worse, the future in places like Syria will certainly influence how Iraq develops. Iraq also has history to learn from. There are many really smart people, both in America and Iraq, who have studied Haiti and studied how nations can transform from tyrannical dictatorships into peaceful democracies. I am certainly not the first person to point out the parallel between Haiti and Iraq, and I am sure many of the efforts in Iraq are aiming to prevent history from repeating itself.

*This is the history that I have read, but there are many different histories on the US occupation of Haiti. Some histories tell a different story, but from what I can tell there is some agreement that the Marines stayed in order to improve Haitian society in some way.  

Jovana

When I started to write this post, yesterday afternoon, I was sitting next to Jovana. Jovana is eight years old and in second grade at the La Croix School. I tried to be a good influence on her, but I don’t know how well I succeeded. I taught her to play Fruit Ninja on my iPod, and she’s took to it like a pro. I wanted to go and play soccer with her but she was still in her church clothes and she didn’t really want to go to play anyway. She is related to Pastor Pierre through his extended family who lives in the north of Haiti, but they ceased to be able to care for her so she has been taken under Pastor Pierre’s care. Pastor Pierre can’t give her his full attention because he is already so busy with running the mission, but he sees that Jovana is cared for. The women who work at the mission make sure she always has enough to eat, that her clothes are clean, and that she has always has a bed to sleep on and a roof over her head. She has people looking after her but she doesn’t she doesn’t have a parent playing with her, making sure she does her homework, or raising her the way most kids do.

Every week a mission team has been here, at least one volunteer has commented that the kids in Haiti are living as kids should live. Sure their health care is lacking and they might not have a comfortable bed to sleep on, the poverty these kids live in allows the to play with all of the other kids in the community, to run around with out a care in the world. These kids aren’t stuck inside playing video games or being forced to learn mandarin at age five the way kids in the US are, kids in Haiti are experiencing the deep joy that comes from being apart of a community, a deep joy that most America kids miss out on because of all of our material distractions. Haitian kids are experiencing the “real things” every kid should enjoy. The ideal world people envision for Haiti isn’t one similar to the US, but a world similar to the way Haiti is now, just without the cholera or the political upheaval. There is this sense that, because of their poverty, these kids have an enriched life and are closer to an “ideal” life because they don’t have all of the stuff we have, and they’re not weighed down by material possessions the way Americans are. They might not have the healthcare or education opportunities we have, but their poverty allows them to live simple lives that have a greater authentic joy to them than our lives full of material possessions have. This notion extends beyond the children and to their families and all life in the rural communities. There have been many days where I’ve walked through a Lakou with American families and they’ve said how jealous they are by the simplicity in the Lakous. The people all live together with a “real” sense of community we that don’t have in the US. Life is simpler in the communities, and even though there is less stuff, the simplicity is worth it. In the Lakou people always see their neighbors and they don’t stay cooped up in their homes the way we do in the US. This is not a sentiment I seen only with Americans in Haiti, rather it was something I came across with other Americans in Ecuador and South Africa. I remember some of my college friends looking at the rural life in the Galapagos and thinking how great it would be to have such a nice and simple life not burdened by material possessions or the need for success we have in America. The Galapagos have some spectacular beach property, and that combined a small house and none of the material burdens we have in America would make for the ideal life. There is this sense among so many who visit Haiti, Ecuador, and the developing world that, despite people’s poverty, those in the developing have more enriched lives than Americans have. America has sacrificed relationships and community for material wealth, we’ve won the rat race by cutting out the human part within us. The developing world, with its few possessions, is still “human”.

On the surface, this makes sense. Going through a Lakou in Haiti or playing soccer in Langa or Soweto in South Africa, there is this intangible sense of community that is rarely felt in America. You feel special just for being there, you feel needed by these kids, and loved just for your presence. This is a feeling’s potency makes it difficult to describe, there is nothing in the US that is really like it. I’ve felt it whenever I hang out with old friends from college or whenever I am apart of a group that wins something big, but it’s a rare feeling that isn’t easily found in the US. Every time I’m with a kid like Jovana, every time I feel this sense of community, I can’t help blame my American life style. Would I be happier living a life of poverty than as a traditional American?

What we see when we interact with rural Haitians, what we see going through the Lakous or playing soccer with kids in the townships is all real. These people have a unique sense of community that has a certain beauty to it, but their lives are much more complicated than just that. Jovana, even though she seems like a really sweet kid when the missionaries are there, she has another life once the missionaries leave isn’t very happy. Jovana doesn’t really have any parents guiding her. Her biological parents are currently living in the North but aren’t well enough to care for her. Pastor Pierre was kind enough to take her in, and people watch after her here at the mission, but she doesn’t get the love from her mother or father. She doesn’t have anyone to raise her. And Jovana is lucky. We see her smiling and playing with us despite her parents’ absence, but we don’t see all the kids with absent parents and no pastor Pierre to care for them.

The Lakous are very close knit, but this sense of community isn’t always a happy thing. In the Lakous, as in many of the other communities in the developing world, are very poor, and keeping cash around is very difficult. Everyone knows when someone has extra money, causing high instances of theft. One of the reasons having a goat is such a good form of savings is because its a lot more difficult for your neighbor to steal. Your neighbor can steal the five dollars you saved much more easily. This is another reason why Grameen Bank, the bank that has championed microfinance, has been so popular in the developing world, it gives people a safe place to keep their money.

Poverty is a complicated phenomenon, it has some qualities that are good, but the full story of those in poverty is much darker than what might appear on the surface. The apparent beauty of poverty is deceiving. When we walk through a Lakou at first, we might see some very happy children and joyful parents, but that is not the full story. I will be writing more on this topic with the hopes that I can present not only the side of poverty that we see, but the side that we don’t see.

When Humility is Necessary

One of the greatest opportunities afforded to me during this journey has been an opportunity to examine American Christianity from the outside. I have experienced Christianity in many different forms in the US. In high school church was very big and followed the traditional evangelical formula for church, and in college I had the opposite experience, a small intimate church environment with a very inclusive approach to Christianity that focused on Christianity as an academic discipline as well as a practiced religion. Westminster today is kind of a hybrid of the two in a suburban setting. In Haiti there isn’t really anything in America that compares, so I have gotten a very fresh perspective on American church. The services are much longer, and they are more direct and less theoretical than in the US, but the church services themselves are a much smaller part of the entire church experience because the mission is so central to the community. Throughout all of these experiences, there have been some lessons I have been taught that have stuck with me, and others that made a strong initial impression but have not lasted through my spiritual development. One lesson I’ve gleamed from much of my personal study is humility. One of my favorite verses, Matthew 18:4 tells us that “whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”. Humility is a central theme throughout the Bible. In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis writes that pride is the chief vice of all humanity, and that the opposite of pride, the principal virtue, is humility. 

Humility has been a common theme in certain church environments I have experienced and has been totally remiss in others. It wasn’t until I was in college that I even realized the central importance of humility, and at Westminster today the topic has become much more common than it ever was before. Unfortunately though, when I look out at American Christianity as a whole, I don’t see humility as much as I would like. There is a lot of discussion over homosexuality for instance, and though this is an important topic, homosexuality is mentioned only once in the New Testament while humility is a pretty consistent theme throughout. Yet more times than not homosexuality is discussed while humility is left behind. Since Rob Bell’s book Love Wins came out in 2011, the topic of universalism and heaven and hell has been very popular, yet many of those discussions leave out humility.

In Haiti however, humility is seen in almost every church activity. It is a topic preached from the pulpit, but it is seen every where throughout the mission. Most meetings begin with a prayer asking God to take control of the meeting and drive it the way he wants it to be driven, and any success of the mission is attributed to God. Pastor Pierre has spoken a lot about how God knows what is best for him and the community, and his job is to just follow along. He is very confident that there are only two forces that move the mission forward: God and his wife Erimette, not himself. Humility is also a huge piece of what the mission is all about. The pastors on staff have devoted their lives to the mission and work tirelessly not for themselves but for the work of the mission. The pastors on staff could work anywhere, but they chose to work here, putting in many more hours than they would at another church, because they really believe in the higher purpose of the mission’s work. Many of the teachers are products of the mission and have returned because they believe in the work of the mission. The mission pays well, but most of the people who work here are here because they see their work as being apart of something greater than themselves.

Doing this type of development work, serving the poorest of the poor in a place like Haiti, is extremely difficult. Figuring out how to help people without them becoming dependent on your work or without making things worse feels impossible at times. And once you do figure out a course of action, the work is extremely daunting. No matter how well planned any project is, unpredictable challenges will arise making the project more even more complicated. There is not always a clear path overcoming these obstacles, and many the only thing to be done is to modify the project’s outcomes. When I first came down I had what I thought would be an awesome plan for a vocational school that would be able to serve over 100 students by the end of the year. It seemed like a great plan when I wrote it, but as I integrated myself into the culture here I learned that most of my ideas needed to be adjusted, modified, or completely thrown out. In some cases I had to re-evaluate my goals. There is no way I would be able to create a school that could have served 100 students by the time I left. I tried and tried to figure out a way, but in the end I had to admit that I set a goal that was too high, and I had to readjust it. I could have pushed my plan forward and done what I wanted, I could have demanded that we hire more teachers, but then my project would have been a disaster. Not only would the school not have sustained itself in the long run, but it would have put the mission back financially by sinking so many resources into a bad plan. In order to be effective, in order to put together a school that would really serve the community, I had to take each step with great caution. I had to redesign my plans at certain stages, and at other stages I had to lower my goals and admit that I had been too ambitious. I always had to evaluate whether the project in its current form and its projected form was serving the community adequately. In this business, any time you think “I have planned the perfect project that does not need to be adjusted in anyway”, you’re about to fail. Humility is not just a quality we espouse to, but a virtue necessary for success.  

Humility isn’t easy, it is probably the most difficult virtue to uphold. Humility means admitting your own failures, fessing up to what we have done wrong, and taking ownership of it all. Humility doesn’t feel good, it usually feels pretty lousy, but fortunately humility isn’t the end of the story. After humility comes redemption. Only when we understand our own shortcomings, only when we acknowledge our own inabilities, can we begin resolve them. Only when we acknowledge that our plan for a vocational school might be misguided or poorly planned out, can we begin to correct it and create something that is truly great.

Why Nations Fail Part II: Why Haiti is Still So Poor

Yesterday I explained how a nation’s political system determines the economic future of that country. Every sovereign government can take one of two paths with regard to its economic future; a nation can provide an open playing field, allowing competition and the competitive process to take place, or a nation can design an economy that will function to benefit a particular market or industry. In order for a nation to provide an open economic and social playing field, it must create an equitable and fair legal system, allow for competition rather than favoritism, protect property right, sponsor infrastructure and public goods, and prevent monopolies and cartels from having too much market influence. This is usually called pluralism, and the types of institutions that embrace pluralism are described in the book Why Nations Fail as inclusive institutions. If a nation does not take the path of pluralism and sponsors one particular industry, it may have a short period of growth, but will not achieve any real economic growth in the long term. These governments are described in Why Nations Fail as extractive because they extract wealth from one group and distribute it to another group. Usually (but not always) the nation’s rulers are also those at the forefront of the economy, and design the economy to benefit them. This not only causes great poverty, but in many cases can denies people fundamental rights to land, liberty, and property. 

Considering how governments can shape their economies, and many times shape their economies to keep a small elite group in power at the expense of the rest of the society, Haiti’s political history begins to explain its current state of dismal poverty. As a Spanish and French colony, Haiti was a prime example of an extractive institution. The society was designed to benefit the elite class of white plantation owners at the expense of the African slaves brought to Haiti. Before the Haitian revolution, less than 10% of the Haitian population was white. At first the Haitian economy grew thanks to the large French investment into the plantation system, but that growth soon began to dwindle once all of the farm land was occupied by plantations. Even though new technology could have benefitted the entire economy as a whole, it would have meant that a new group of people would have risen and displaced those currently occupying power, the White plantation owners. The French plantation owners did not want any threats to their power, so they resisted implementing any new technology in order to keep their firm grip on the economy.

When the French were overthrown in 1804, most either left the island or were killed. This created a power vacuum. The leaders of the revolution who filled this vacuum were apart of a relatively small class of educated Haitians. Many of these Haitians were of mixed race, the children of French men and their slave mistresses, and they were put in charge of the day-to-day operations of the plantations. The new elite class of Haitians, lead by Jean Jacques Dessalines, wanted to overthrow the French and end slavery, but they did not have any intention of ending the plantation system. At this time, goods produced in tropical climates, namely sugar, was extremely profitable, and the new rulers of Haiti wanted to be at the forefront of this trade, hoping it would propel Haiti into as a world super power. They were also, with the French plantation owners gone, in charge of many of the large plantations and greatly benefitted from keeping the plantation system intact. This system came to be known as the fermage system, and did help Haiti attain some wealth, but most of which was unfortunately enjoyed by a small elite at the expense of the majority of Haitians. This system did not promote the development of property rights of any pluralistic institutions that would have created an even playing field.

In 1825, the France sent a team of diplomats in to negotiate with then President of Haiti Jean Pierre Boyer. The negotiation focused on an indemnity that France felt entitled to by Haiti. Though France had lost the Haitian Revolution, they asked Haiti to repay the French for the profits lost from the slave trade. Their argument was not very solid, but the French battleships parked outside of Port Au Prince were, so Haiti ended up signing the treaty. This is the only time in history when the victors of a war pay an indemnity to the vanquished, but the French managed to negotiate a loan of 150 million Francs from Haiti. This loan was a quite onerous on Haiti and was paid by Haiti for the next seventy years, many times consuming over 50% of Haiti’s public expenditures.

Throughout the 19^th century, Haiti had two extractive forces working against its development: the semi feudal land arrangement that aimed at boosting farm production at the expense of the rural Haitian peasant, and the debt to France. Needless to say this created an unstable environment that saw one government topple after another. Governments rose as quickly as they fell, and there was no effective rule of law or enforcement of property rights. In one twenty year period in the middle of the century, the governments was toppled over twelve times. In order for a society to prosper, the government has to provide certain services (for starters they need to provide a reliable police force and a fair judicial system) that would benefit the whole society. Some extractive governments don’t implement these services because it would cause a threat to your rule (it’s a lot easier to rule when no one can sue you in court). In Haiti’s case the government didn’t resist these policies as much as they never really had a chance to implement them due to the continuous political upheaval. This political upheaval continued until 1915, when the US Marines began their occupation of Haiti that would last until 1934. Though this did end the continuous intimidation from different European powers as well as the continuous political upheaval, it did not promote the development of the Haitian legal system, forcing those Haitian peasants to be without property rights or any of the other legal utilities that foster a growing economy.

Once the Marines left, there was hope for Haiti. There was hope that finally, after over two hundred years of instability, Haiti could develop a government that would promote the general interests of the Haitian people, and allow for Haiti to begin on the path to creative destruction and increased prosperity. The hope came in the form of Dumarsais Estimé, who was president of Haiti from 1946 to 1950. Estimé looked toward economic liberation, and attempted to remove the American corporations that held too much political sway in Haitian government. Estimé’s policies, however noble, were overturned. President Rafael Trujillo, the then president and brutal dictator of Dominican Republic worked with Haitian military to unseat Estimé, who was eventually exiled to Paris in 1950.

This chaos prevented the attempts at economic liberalization and hampered any attempt to implement a fair and equitable legal system that could foster economic development. The chaotic state of Haitian politics made room a dictator to come forth, someone to rise from the ashes and grip Haiti with an iron fist. That leader came in 1957 in the form of François Duvalier, better known as "Papa Doc". Duvalier had served under Estimé as a Physician, but was also very involved in public discourse and was known for his influential editorials. Duvalier came to the presidency with high hopes but ended up being on of Haiti’s most brutal dictators. Duvalier saw himself as the embodiment of all things Haitian, and created a personality cult around him to whom he delegated state power. Duvalier set high taxes on the general population in order to fund his massive police force, the TonTon Macoutes. The TonTon Macoutes terrorized all of Haiti and prevented any force from rising that would have challenged Duvalier’s rule. All those who opposed Duvalier were imprisoned or tortured by the TonTon Macoutes. The only power in the state was that held by Duvalier. In 1971, Duvalier died in office, and his then nineteen-year-old son Jean-Claude Duvalier became president. Jean Claude, called “Baby Doc”, ruled with the same iron grip as his father, working only to keep himself in power, and intimidating the rest of Haiti with the TonTon Macoutes. Pope John Paul came to Haiti in 1983 and actively spoke out against Baby Doc. In 1986, Baby Doc was thrown into exile.

In a state of flux, Haiti saw the rise of the charismatic priest named Jean Bertrand Aristide. Aristide came out of the tradition of liberation theology and, in February of 1991, became Haiti’s first democratically elected president. This was a short lived presidency however because Aristide was overthrown in a coup d’etat in September of 1991. Aristide resumed his presidency from 1994-1996, and was then elected again in 2001. In 2004 Aristide was thrown out of power during another coup d’etat and exiled to Africa. The history surrounding Aristide is a mixed history, some claim that he was the savior of Haiti unfairly ousted from power, while others feel that he was equally as corrupt as previous heads of state. Regardless of what historical perspective you examine Aristide’s presidency from, there was little development of any pluralistic institutions during Aristide’s presidency, and today Haiti remains still quite poor.

So where is Haiti headed now? Is the President of Haiti, Michelle Martelly, a reformer who will set Haiti on a course towards pluralism and prosperity, or is he another dictator looking to just maintain his own hold on power? Martelly was elected in 2011 so time will tell if he can help Haiti develop the needed political institutions to sponsor growth, but I can’t help but be a little positive about his prospects. Martelly has been a champion of education, a resource necessary for any type of national development. Martelly has specifically focused on vocational education, something I am also quite invested in as well. Martelly has proposed a tax on all remittances that will go directly to sponsor education. Martelly has also worked very hard to develop Haiti’s infrastructure. The road outside of the mission has been greatly improved since I’ve been here, and there is now a paved road that leads to the mountain community of Paul that wasn’t here when I was first in Haiti last January. Once of the principal contractors for all of this work has been Estrella, a Dominican construction company. Though this means that some of the government expenses on the road construction will leave the country, it also means that Martelly is contracting the work out to the best firm available rather than his good friends firm. A few months ago there was a kidnapping ring that was broken up and some of those involved were members of an extremely wealthy Haitian family. Though the family was one of Haiti’s ruling elite, they were still brought to justice.

Now to be fair, all of these signs point in one direction, but Haiti still has many hurdles to clear before it is set on a path to prosperity. For starters, Haiti has to figure out a way to issue property rights to the rural communities. Haiti also has to establish a legitmate police force, something that takes years to do. Even if Martelly is honest and really wants to implement a pluralistic and inclusive form of government, he has to remain in power long enough to implement these changes. President Dumarsais Estimé fought a similar fight that Martelly is fighting, but his presidency was cut short when the Dominican Republic overthrew him. One cultural force America has benefitting it is the incredible high regard we have for the US constitution. Senator Rand Paul willing to filibuster for thirteen hours on the suspicion that the constitution was being violated. Haiti’s history of dictatorship toppling dictatorships does not have this cultural value. Haiti’s future is uncertain. They certainly appear to be pointed in the right direction, and since they have nowhere to go but up, I can’t help but be optimistic.