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Haiti, since it won independence from France in 1804, has never impressed the rest of the world with its ability to govern itself. For most of its history the country has lurched from one political crisis to the next, occasioning several military interventions by the United States, as well as severe poverty, corruption, and civil unrest. With 19 candidates now planning to contest November’s presidential election, chaos would seem to be likeliest outcome, probably accompanied by violence. And yet, at least one of the leading candidates has shown a degree of maturity and responsibility that few of our elected officials in the United States can muster.
The hip-hop star Wyclef Jean instantly became a front-runner when he announced his candidacy several weeks ago. He immediately became the favorite of Haitian youth, as well as of many of those worst affected by Haiti’s January 12 earthquake. His very celebrity, and the passion of his supporters, drew inevitable comparisons to another inexperienced presidential candidate who was also vastly popular with the poor, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who bears a large share of the responsibility for the past two decades of political chaos and violence.
In general, popular celebrities rarely make good political leaders. Think of the Philippine movie star Joseph Estrada, removed from office as President for corruption (and it would have to be pretty spectacular corruption to attract attention in the Philippines). Think of the soccer star George Weah, who caused a moment of extreme nervousness when he initially refused to accept his loss in Liberia’s 2005 presidential election. Think of the many Bollywood stars who have been elected to high office in India, only to prove themselves as bad as any career political hack. Think of Jesse Ventura.
There were plenty of reasons to be concerned about a Wyclef Jean presidency. His Yele Haiti charitable foundation was the object of several accusations (none proven) of misuse of funds and commingling of the foundation’s assets with those of Mr. Jean’s private businesses, which include a popular commercial TV station in Haiti. Mr. Jean also reportedly owes the IRS over $2 million in unpaid taxes. These are serious concerns in a country that is to receive billions of dollars in international aid over the next few years to rebuild after the earthquake. It’s not that Wyclef Jean was necessarily guilty of any deliberate malfeasance, but by allowing these things to happen, together with his complete lack of political experience, he raised many doubts about his ability to provide the leadership and governance Haiti desperately needs.
Wyclef Jean’s quest for the presidency ended August 20, when Haiti’s Electoral Council ruled him ineligible to run, mainly because he had failed to satisfy Haitian residency requirements. Mr. Jean, 9 years old when his parents emigrated to the United States, has spent most of his life in the U.S. and still lives there with his wife and daughter. In many countries, rules like this are often used as mere pretexts, and that could even be true in Wyclef Jean’s case, though since he was only one of 15 candidates disqualified for one reason or another there is no real reason to suspect foul play.
A lot of politicians would have been tempted to call their supporters into the streets to demand his reinstatement, but Mr. Jean resisted this temptation. In a statement issued shortly after the council’s ruling, he said he disagreed with the council’s ruling but respectfully accepted its decision. He further said he planned to stay involved in Haitian politics, though in “a different role than I had anticipated it to be.” There is no reason to doubt his word, and plenty of reasons to think he can be a force for good, both during and after the electoral campaign.
To find a similar example of political grace in the United States we may have to go back to our 1960 presidential election, in which Richard Nixon refused to challenge the results even in the face of strong evidence that Joseph Kennedy had conspired with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to rig the vote in Cook County, Illinois in the Democrats’ favor, handing the victory to his son, JFK.
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Chicago,
Daley,
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election,
electoral fraud,
Haiti,
Illinois,
Kennedy,
Nixon,
Wyclef Jean,
Yele
It’s amazing how quickly things can return to normal. You wouldn’t know it from watching CNN, but big segments of life in Haiti, including in the capital, Port au Prince, which suffered the greatest damage, have returned to what would have been considered normal in the days and months before the quake. There is plenty of destruction still evident, and tens or even hundreds of thousands of people living in tents or under blue plastic tarpaulins throughout the city and surrounding areas. But shops and restaurants and gas stations are open, petty street commerce has resumed, and children in clean, if faded, uniforms walk to and from school. [click to continue…]
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Clinton Foundation,
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garment,
Haiti,
IDB,
IMF,
infrastructure,
Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission,
Paul Collier,
textile,
World Bank
I present here a few paragraphs on wages and benefits, an excerpt from Human Action, a work by the famed Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, who is the intellectual godfather of F.A. von Hayek, among other notables. I find it especially relevant because I have been working in Haiti for the past couple of weeks, my firm having won a contract to conduct a pre-feasibility study for an industrial park in the northern part of the country, which will accommodate garment manufacturers. [click to continue…]
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garment,
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Hayek,
informal sector,
remuneration,
sweatshop,
textile,
von Mises,
wages
Even before Tuesday’s earthquake Haiti had experienced 200 years of some of the worst luck that can befall a nation. Once France’s richest colony, it was a slave economy built on sugar, coffee, and the misery of African slaves, who finally revolted, saw off an invasion of 30,000 of Napoleon’s troops, and declared independence in 1804. France conceded defeat, but only at the price of 150 million francs in gold in “reparations” for its lost property, a sum it took the Haitians until 1947 to pay off, sometimes at a cost of 80% of the country’s annual budget. It has suffered 18 years of occupation by the U.S. Marines, AIDS, the brutal Duvalier regime, rampant deforestation, years of political turbulence and violence, U.S. economic sanctions that all but destroyed its small industrial base, and Ethiopian levels of poverty, disease and hunger.
Even amidst all of these tribulations, Haiti and its people retained the capacity to inspire and delight with their music, art, and their sense of humor and fun and joy.
And now this. Estimates of the death toll have already surpassed 100,000, but with tens of thousands of people still missing, it is sure to rise further, potentially rivaling the December 2004 tsunami, which claimed over 200,000 lives. But that was spread out over a dozen countries with an aggregate population of over 1.5 billion, while Haiti has only 9 million people.
I visited Haiti in early April of last year and it was a hopeful time. The security situation had improved and some semblance of political stability had returned. Under generous market access preferences granted Haiti by the U.S. government garment exports were booming and investors – especially from East Asia – were clamoring for land to build new garment factories. The major donor countries held a conference later that month, hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington with strong backing from former President Bill Clinton and his foundation, from which emerged a unified and substantial commitment to assist Haiti in ways that seemed to make sense.
All that is gone now, and efforts over the next months and probably years will be focused on trying to restore Haiti to what it was at the beginning of this week, never mind transforming it into something better. So far I have heard from some people I know, who mercifully are safe, but there remain others, some of them good friends, of whom I have no news.
Many of us are tempted to get on a plane, get down there, and pitch in, but the truth is we’d only get in the way of the professionals who know what they are doing. The Red Cross tell us that they are not accepting volunteers to go to Haiti, and unless you have specialist medical or technical skills all you can do is give money. Please do. My two preferences are Mercy Corps and the Red Cross. In the U.S., you can make an instant $10 donation to the Red Cross Haiti effort by texting “Haiti” to 90999, or you can give more by clicking here. Or give to another charity or relief organization of your choosing.
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disaster relief,
donate,
earthquake,
Haiti,
poverty
In Nairobi last week African officials and businessmen met with their U.S. counterparts for the eighth annual AGOA Forum. Hillary Clinton delivered the keynote speech. AGOA – the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act – is the U.S. law, passed in 2000 and set to remain in force until 2015, which grants preferential duty-free and largely quota-free access to the U.S. market for some 1,800 products from 41 sub-Saharan African countries. To what extent has AGOA helped Africa? [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Africa Growth and Opportunity Act,
AGOA,
AGOA failure,
apparel industry,
Haiti,
Honduras,
Kenya,
Mali,
Rwanda,
Senegal,
textile industry,
transport cost in Africa,
Uganda
