The tragedy resulting from the earthquake in Haiti is dominating the news. It is the normal function for TPP to report on events that affect the interests of the American public. This would seem to not be such a story, except as an appeal for charity, or for our hearts and prayers to go out to the people of Haiti. However there is a more basic lesson that can be drawn, which we will examine as we conclude this report. As we stand, the wire services and correspondents on the ground are reporting rumors of thousands to tens of thousands of deaths. Many times that are being reported injured, and the devastation to the infrastructure of the island nation are all lead stories. It brings to mind the initial stories emerging from another disaster that affected another city filled with desperately poor people of color – New Orleans in the wake of Katrina

This is not to equate the City of New Orleans with the devastating abject poverty of Port-au-Prince. The worst off of the poor of New Orleans lives a royal lifestyle to even the top rung of the poor in Haiti. When the government acted after Katrina, people were given the opportunity to start anew. There is no starting anew in Haiti. What we look to examine is the culture of the society that was so horribly abused by not only a natural disaster, but by ineffective policies put in place by it’s leadership.

What causes the economic disparity on a single, resource rich piece of ground? A sense of history is relevant to the discussion. Haiti was formed as the result of a slave rebellion against the French colonists in the 1790s. The revolt, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, was bloody, but L’Ouverture was a capable leader and brought a measure of prosperity during his tenure. That tenure was cut short by the emergence of Napoleon, and the reintroduction of slavery into the French colonies. L’Ouverture was captured by the French and died as a prisoner. Filling his place was Jean-Jacques Dessalines who, through good military tactics and the French army’s weakness against tropical diseases, succeeded in defeating the French Army in 1804. Dessalines was not prone to repeat the mistakes of magnanimity that marked L’Ouverture’s rule. He was proclaimed emperor for life and proceeded to kill all of the remaining whites – man, woman and child. Since that revolt the island has been ruled by a series of dictators, installed by a series of 32 coups. These men in large part sought profit and privilege for the elite light-skinned class, at the expense of the poor, which make up 80% of the population. This culminated under the dictatorship of the Duvalier family, which was ousted by a popular revolt led in great part by the former Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Arisitide. Arisitide was elected to the presidency and was promptly overthrown by a no-confidence vote of his government. The Haitian Constitution provided for Supreme Court Justice Joseph Nerrette, with elections to follow. These elections were blocked by the international community who sought reinstatement of Aristide. Power ceded to General Raoul Cedras. There is some debate as to whether the General was actually acting in the best interest of the nation. The initial Arisitide administration was marked with brutal revenge killings. This is the revolt that introduced the concept of  “necklacing”, attaching a tire around the neck of the victim and setting it on fire. The country was on the verge of anarchy when Aristide was deposed.  He was a cause celebre during the Clinton years, which did have him reinstated after several years in exile. The current President, Rene Preval, is his protégé and successor.

The country’s government has been run as a personal fiefdom for the elite over the majority of it’s history. The government has been run as a charity to the poor since Aristide, though corruption charges never seem to go away. There is an absolute lack of a middle class, or any attempt at facilitating an entrepreneurial type system. There is no economy to speak of other than foreign aid and drug money coming in. The population has either been brutalized by most of its leaders, or enabled in their poverty by the most recent ones. The enabling from the recent ones has been facilitated by the government absorbing all available assets and then redistributing those assets among the poor – theoretical socialism at it’s best. The population has developed the skill sets required for survival, but has never learned what is necessary to prosper. Indeed, until recently it was counter-productive to prosper, as your gains would be confiscated by the government, or by criminals protected as elites. Survival lives only in the now, there is no thought to the future, just to immediate needs. The assets redistributed to the poor met immediate needs, but the cycle of poverty cannot be broken without looking to the future with hope.    

The City of New Orleans has a much better history, and as previously stated is not in the dire straits that Port-au-Prince finds itself. Still there are eerie parallels between the paths that the two cities have taken. Both were victims of French colonial slavery, both are predominantly identified with poverty and a population of color that has alternately been a victim of brutalization or made dependent, as a slave is dependent on the good will of the master. Entrenched poverty over generations made a mark on New Orleans. A sordid reputation for corruption became associated with the city and the state of Louisiana.

When Katrina hit the images that were broadcast were of the devastation of people who had little losing all of that. The 9^th  Ward became synonymous with both poverty and uncaring, misguided government. Mayor Ray Nagins and Governor Kathleen Blanco failed to implement disaster strategies and miscommunicated needs to the federal government. Evacuation plans constructed by the local governments never happened, and supplies were not in place at disaster centers. Rumors of murders and rapes, and a death toll in the tens of thousands were reported, and later found to be untrue. By the time the federal government restored some order, they were left holding the bag with the blame in it.

The most wrenching scenes were of desperate people so dependent on the government for direction that they just stood there waiting. Waiting for food, waiting for rescue, waiting for law and order to be restored, waiting for the government to do something. Once in awhile you would see some enterprising soul get hungry enough to loot some groceries (not counting the enterprising criminals who were looting electronics), but for the most part they waited. And yelled at the TV cameras. We witnessed a class of people so demoralized and dependent on the government that they could not act on in their own best interest. That is the glaring tragedy beyond the toll that the storm took.

This is where the lesson can be drawn for the path that the United States is to choose as we go forward in the debates over social policy in this country. The issues facing our nation are diverse -  healthcare, unemployment, education, the poor economy, etc. We are caught in a debate between  maintaining the status quo, which serves our brutal dictators (the bankers, oil companies, fill in your bogeyman) and caring for the poor because they can’t care for themselves (as Aristide has promoted, to his county’s continuing pain). Both points of view are untenable. The solutions to the feared corporate greed is not to confiscate whatever is deemed as too much money. That will destroy the driving force behind the American dream – that we can work hard and achieve and prosper. It is why the USA is a beacon to the poor and oppressed the world over. It serves no one for the American Dream to perform ritual suicide. Greed and unscrupulous people exist. Combating that and keeping the market honest is the function of  sensible regulation. Disincentivizing work through punitive fees and taxes will only increase poverty.

On that other hand, with Haiti as the latest and most tragic example, handing people money will not improve their situation in any but the most short term sense. We have often quoted the adage “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for his entire life.” It is an adage because it’s wisdom has been proven over time. The Obama Administration’s preoccupation with easing the suffering of the poor is laudable, but it’s approach is wrongheaded. The answer in the long term lies not in easier access to a welfare check, but in equipping the population with the tools it needs to prosper. This concept was taken from theory to fact as a result of the Welfare Reform plan passed under President Clinton. In it individuals who knew nothing but surviving on a welfare check were given the education and training that they needed to become self-sufficient. With the tools of self-sufficiency a person can move out of the survival mode locked in the “now', and have hope to move forward and to plan a better future.

Common Sense Dictates

Needless to say, our hopes and prayers at TPP go out to the people of Haiti. We hope that this disaster that they have suffered will have their leaders look to using the massive infusion of funds coming into their country to not only rebuild, but to improve conditions for their people on a long term basis. We hope for President Preval to exhibit the wisdom and courage that will be necessary to accomplish this task.

For the United States, we wish careful consideration in how we seek to ease the suffering of our own people in need. Having the government care for us as a benevolent “parent” is no more useful than the elderly couple working to support their 35 year old child. It reeks of an attitude that implies that the recipients of the care are incapable of caring for themselves. We would advise our President to not just provide the immediate help that he is so committed to, but to also bring people who have little hope the tools necessary to prosper. We need to not only provide the fish, but the knowledge of how to fish, so that those in need will be able to care for themselves, and their families. The President needs to approach this problem with the nuance that he was so famous for during his political campaign.

The average American understands that the plight of the poor is bad, but sees no solution in a lifelong welfare check. The solution is not in carrying the poor, but in enabling them to stand and walk.  It might be a good idea for President Obama to give Bill Clinton a call. The current economic cycle is bad but temporary (which is why it is called a cycle). Reshaping American society in the fundamental manner that the Administration is moving, is akin to the definition of insanity – proceeding with the same ideas and actions over and over and expecting a different result. It is easier for anyone to toss the poor some spare change rather than to train them in a marketable skill. It is easier for President Obama to write a bigger welfare check than to address the fundamental flaws in the system that keep people poor. The liberty that this country is founded on was not apparent on the faces of the Katrina victims. What was apparent was the attitude of the slave, who is so beaten down that he loses all hope, and accepts his fate. We have not abolished slavery in this country until we have abolished this painful lack of hope. Common Sense dictates moving the country in the direction of liberty for all, and liberty is found in self-sufficiency.

RLB