Nine months after the catastrophic earthquake that destroyed the capital city of Port-au-Prince, the majority of Haiti’s people continue to suffer. Haitian elites and international investors have been delaying cleanup and reconstruction as they argue and decide amongst themselves how best to rebuild the country to serve their own interests. One major issue they’ve been slow to resolve is how to most profitably remove the vast amount of remaining rubble and debris.
 Debris in Haiti |
Their solution has been to tender contracts to disaster recovery firms, which have been waiting, vulture-like, since immediately after the earthquake to capitalize on the tragedy. A senior official of the Haitian planning ministry, speaking to the lack of urgency on the part of the U.S. and other governments, and negligence of those in charge, commented: “What is happening now could have happened in March if there had not been a laxity on the part of the international community. As you know, we ourselves do not have the means.”
As a result of imperialist domination, the long impoverished and exploited country tragically does not have the capacity or resources to perform the work of recovery on its own. Quick to take advantage of this situation, the vulture capitalists are hiring Haitians to work at a fraction of the wages that outside workers are being paid.
Owing to the destruction and slow pace of rebuilding, the Haitian people suffer from an extreme shortage of permanent housing. Dominique Tombeau, a Haitian schoolteacher with a wife and four-year-old son describes the situation faced by many: “The type of house most people rented before was not built well. Those houses were destroyed, and the ones that are left are too expensive. When they find a decent camp to live in, they decide they’d rather stay.”
Without access to even low-paying jobs, many Haitians have been forced to live in poorly supplied, overcrowded camps set up throughout the country. The well-constructed homes of wealthy elites or landlords that did survive the quake are now being rented, often to U.N. and NGO aid groups, at exorbitant and unaffordable rates for the majority poor of the country.
The capitalist elites would have us believe that these problems are solely the result of the earthquake. They are wrong. Under capitalism, the welfare of the people of Haiti, like oppressed peoples everywhere, will always be incidental to maximizing profit. Socialism offers a solution. A workable alternative where a rational, people-centered plan can minimize the effects of disasters such as that of Port-au-Prince.
Homes, jobs, health care and justice now for the people of Haiti!
