Scavenger Hunt & Worksheets
Directions: Read through
History of Haiti and answer the questions on the
worksheet.
(Worksheet for Scavenger Hunt: Part I)
Information on the web is not always accurate. Anyone can post a web site. It is up to you, the researcher, to verify the information you find on one website with the information on at least one other web site.
Directions: Use the web sites below find
corroboration for your answers on the first part of your worksheet. Write the title of the website on the line
below each answer, where it says, Verification
of web site.
Directions: Please read the following article and answer the questions at the end. It may be helpful to preview your questions before you read.
Chaos in Haiti : Interim Government Presides Over Failed State
15 octobre 2004
Summary
Nearly eight months after President Jean Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile by a handful of rebels, Haiti has deteriorated significantly. The interim government is inept, the Brazilian-led international peacekeepers are unable to impose law and order, the economy is in ruins, hundreds of thousands of Haitians have been left homeless in recent hurricanes and dozens of Haitians have been murdered since the end of September in an escalating wave of political violence inflicted by Aristide’s supporters. Conditions likely will grow much worse.
Analysis
Conditions in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, have deteriorated dramatically since President Jean Bertrand Aristide fled into forced exile in February aboard an aircraft supplied by the U.S. government. Moreover, the situation likely will grow much worse in the coming months, putting more pressure on many Haitians either to resort to violence or to flee the country.
However, Haitians have limited options in terms of escape. Massive departures by sea aboard rickety wooden rafts and boats are not likely, since Haiti is almost completely deforested. This means many Haitians may try to cross the mountainous border into the Dominican Republic, which will do everything in its power to block a massive Haitian exodus that could have socially and politically destabilizing consequences for Santo Domingo.
The U.S.-backed interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has been remarkably inept and so far has failed to win much popular support. The international peacekeeping force that took control of the country’s security in June 2004 has deployed slightly more than 2,000 troops to date, although the U.N. mandate calls for a force of 6,700 troops. International aid is barely trickling into the country. Hurricanes have left nearly 300,000 Haitians homeless and gunmen loyal to Aristide are murdering civilians at will in an effort to destabilize Haiti ahead of new elections planned for 2005.
Since Sept. 30, pro-Aristide gunmen have killed nearly 50 people, including 17 on Oct. 11 alone. At least nine Haitian police officials have been executed and two peacekeepers — a Brazilian and an Argentine — have been wounded in gunfights with armed rebels that Latortue praised as heroes when they ousted Aristide. Many of those rebels have since turned against Latortue as their leaders seek to advance personal political ambitions and reconstitute the army, which was disbanded in 1995.
U.S. government officials, such as State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, blame the political violence on supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas Family party. This week Boucher urged Aristide, who lives in exile in South Africa, to call on his followers to surrender their weapons and stop killing civilians. Aristide has not replied to the demands and likely will do nothing to stop the violence. Instead, Aristide continues to insist the U.S. government illegally forced him to leave Haiti.
As the violence and chaos continue to escalate, the governments of the United States and other nations engaged in the international aid and peacekeeping effort in Haiti are unwilling to concede the obvious : Haiti is, de facto, a failed state and is ungovernable without massive aid and a permanent security presence imposed from outside the country.
This reluctance to acknowledge Haiti’s collapse as a viable nation-state derives from the fact that admitting the obvious would raise a troubling question no foreign government wants to address. If Haiti cannot govern itself and its economy is wrecked beyond repair, then who will foot the bill for indefinitely feeding, clothing and housing millions of Haitians who cannot fend for themselves ?
It is clear that the U.S. government does not want to shoulder that responsibility. Over the past decade Haiti has cost U.S. taxpayers close to $2 billion, including the cost of sending more than 20,000 troops to Port-au-Prince in 1994 to restore Aristide to power. Given the huge economic costs of trying to bring order and democracy to Iraq, the Bush administration is unwilling to assume the political burden of persuading U.S. legislators to spend more money in Haiti when the historical record shows the results will be negligible.
Moreover, Strat for doubts that whoever wins the U.S. elections in November will turn Haiti into a major foreign policy priority. Iraq and al Qaeda will continue to outweigh every other foreign policy issue in Washington, D.C.
Brazil and Argentina agreed to send peacekeeping contingents to Haiti in June because Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva believed the effort would strengthen his goal of giving both South American countries a louder voice in regional geopolitical affairs long dominated by the United States.
Though da Silva likely will not seek to withdraw his troops from Haiti as violence grows in the coming months, he does not have the financial resources to undertake a long-term effort to subsidize Haiti’s economy. The organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C., likely won’t intervene either ; the OAS is basically a venue for political posturing and has no resources of its own to economically support failed states.
The European Union will not step into the breach, nor will the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank, because the historical record in Haiti demonstrates that loans and grants seldom reach the poor and likely will never be repaid. The United Nations might be an option, provided its member states agree to fund U.N. efforts to help Haiti. However, U.N. efforts to aid Haiti over the past decade also have been a failure in terms of improving social and economic conditions.
Aristide understands that the international community is unwilling to face the domestic political resistance many foreign governments would confront at home if they try to pour hundreds of millions of dollars in annual aid into Haiti. This reality strengthens Aristide’s hand in Haiti, particularly since Latortue and other opposition leaders are showing themselves to be as incompetent and corrupt as Aristide.
This means Aristide has no incentive to negotiate or cooperate with the United States and other foreign governments that want to install a new, stable government in Port-au-Prince. It also means that violence will continue to escalate gradually in Haiti as Aristide paves the way for his eventual return to power — unless the U.S. government can prove beyond a doubt that Aristide owes much of his apparent wealth to associations with international drug traffickers that perceive Haiti as an important hub in their global criminal enterprises.
Worksheet for Scavenger Hunt : Part II
Directions: Click on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” with a report by Amelia Shaw on a Haitian youth music group. Listen to the report and answer the questions.
(Worksheet for Scavenger Hunt: Part III)