Haiti: Seismic Shock or Paradigm Shift - Essay Example

From Dubois’ assertions, the French government actually led to the increase in poverty level in Haiti by forcing the Haitian government to take a loan from them that they would use to compensate slaves. The U.S is also to blame for Haiti’s poor economic growth; the U.S made Haiti be over depended on foreign support. Dubois, however, provides some different assertions offered for Haiti’s troubles. For instance, he mentions a religious leader that insisted that Haiti faces many natural calamities since they had sold themselves to the devil; practiced voodoo culture. Another claim points out that Haiti’s poverty results from the leadership it has had after it gained independence. Most of these leaders who happened to be freed slaves had greed and focused much on accumulating wealth for themselves, thereby creating corruption and dictatorship.

            Certainly, from my assumption, I think Haitians, the French Government, and the U.S government have to take responsibility for Haiti’s misfortunes. However, the blame should be more on the Haitians. Certainly, natural calamities such as earthquakes are rather unavoidable. However, shameful factors such as neocolonialism, corruption, poverty, crime, and poor economic growth can be because of certain actions from people. The Haitians should take the blame for their high level of poverty, corruption, and poor economic growth. The level of poverty in Haiti results from the corrupt and unstable governments that have existed (Wilentz) and incompetent citizens. In addition, poor economic growth also results from the high level of crime and corruption done by the Haitians themselves. Therefore, Haitians should stop blaming occurrences in history for their failures.

            However, the blame on the U.S government for increasing Haiti’s over-dependence on foreign aid is justifiable. By doing this, the U.S government only facilitated the poor economic growth in Haiti, since the Haitians came to believe that they could not survive without foreign aid. It also intensified the incompetence rate of the Haitians thereby increasing the poverty level. Moreover, the U.S occupancy in Haiti resulted in neocolonialism, a factor that further intensified over-dependence, thereby facilitating myth-making about Haiti (Dash). Furthermore, the U.S did not only render neo-colonialism to Haiti, but in the current times, it has politicized the Haitian earthquake. For instance, after Haiti’s earthquake, instead of Obama’s administration sending humanitarian support through non-military-based institutions, it offered support through the Defense Department (Polyné). These are some of the factors that seem to increase Haiti’s over-dependence on foreigners, especially the U.S.

            In addition, the French government also helped in increasing the poverty level by forcing the Haitian government into a debt that took away almost half of Haiti’s yearly budget (Dubois, 8). Whatever the French did is unjustifiable and selfish; putting a whole country into debt and making its citizens suffer is somehow close to a violation of human rights.

            Generally, History is not entirely to blame for the failures of Haiti, but also the behavior of the Haitians and the Haitian government. Haiti should consider focusing much on eradicating poverty, corruption and crime, and especially over-dependence. This will ensure quick economic growth and development. Haitian government should also stop the blame game and focus on educating its citizens on the importance of national growth and development.