Haiti has descended to the lowest circle of hell with 150 to 200 gangs warring for control of the capital Port-au-Prince- with extreme sexual violence against women and children rampant, widespread starvation and outbreaks of cholera. Conditions have become particularly dire in recent months as the gangs have blockaded the country’s fuel terminals. Amid severe food and water shortages, the country’s economy has been paralysed and hospitals forced to close.
The government has requested UN armed forces to help – the president said “the whole country has been taken hostage” – but NGOs warn that foreign military intervention to restore order will only cause more bloodshed. UN missions in Haiti have quelled violence in the past, but it returned once they departed and is not a long term solution.
UN peacekeepers sent to respond to the 2010 earthquake left behind hundreds of fatherless children and were accused of systematic sexual abuse and exploitation of Haitian women and it introduced a cholera outbreak which killed 10,000 and took nine years to eradicate. The UN apologised for sparking the deadly outbreak but never formally accepted responsibility.
The Haiti independence chart of 1 January 1804 7.17.am Gonaives, Haiti has a tough, setback and violence-prone Sun Mars in Capricorn square Saturn; with a constantly-changing Sun Mercury square Uranus. There’s also a confident Pluto trine Jupiter in Scorpio sextile Mars Sun, so there is potential there.
The devastating 2010 earthquake which caused billions in damage and killed nearly a quarter of a million people hit the country hard. That was when transiting Pluto was conjunct the Haiti Mars and square the Haiti Saturn with tr Saturn on its Return and square Mars – catastrophic.
The present socioeconomic chaos has worsened since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021 when the Solar Arc Pluto was square the Haiti Sun.
At the moment the Solar Arc Sun is conjunct the Haiti South Node which seems fitting for a time of hitting rock bottom.
Tensions will run high through 2023/24 with tr Pluto conjunct the Venus and tr Uranus opposition the Neptune. The one glimmer of hope is tr Pluto square the Jupiter in 2024/25 which could suggest an upsurge in national confidence and a push to regenerate.
Whatever happens everyone agrees the answer must come from within Haiti and not imposed from the outside.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/18/haiti-un-talks-gangs-hunger-cholera
@Zoe, thanks for the recommendations!
@Tia, from my limited observations during short visits to Haiti in the ’70s and ’80s, there were such extremes of living conditions. Wealthy Haitians lived very well indeed, the lower echelons in deep poverty.
That was my first experience of being surrounded by kids eager for change. The poverty and extreme corruption were clear.
Poor Haiti. I still enjoy the wonderful paintings I brought home from my second visit there. In those days there was a thriving artistic community. I’d love to return if it were safe. And I’ve continued to seek out the excellent Haitian rum, Rhum Barbancourt. I hope they’re still able to export it.
I’d like to add this…
Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
They are two different worlds sharing the same island. Dominicans are roughly 50% European and 40% Sub-Saharan African and 10% Indigenous.
Haitians are predominately African.
The DR is livable, Haiti is obviously not.
Are you implying that DR is livable because it has less people of African descents? Haiti has been used and abused by forigners that is why they are in this situation…let’s not forget Clinton Foundation….
You should read The Root of Haiti’s Misery. Perhaps if you understood beyond the racial breakdown you will understand the racial genocide from largely European nations.
Interestingly, Kigali, Rawanda is one of the most stable, peaceful and “functioning” areas of sub-Saharan Africa, roughly 25 years post genocide. Seems it takes Hell on Earth to wake people up to their humanity. It’s thriving right now- though only because of Chinese & other outside investment & development.
I don’t hold out hope however, for Haitians to thrive anytime soon. The geography won’t even allow for the people to feed themselves. They have to import all of their sustenance. It was a bomb waiting to explode once they massacred the French, who had and have their sh*t together and know how to run a society.
It wasn’t always chaotic. Haiti had a thriving tourist industry, including many resorts such as Club Med and the legendary Hotel Oloffson, inspiration for the setting of Graham Greene’s “The Comedians.” I never stayed there but enjoyed visiting for a drink at the bar.
When you visited Haiti what did you notice about the living and working conditions of the local and indigenous people?
We have so many fond memories of Haiti but what is going on in Haiti now is nauseous. However, not everyone thinks Haiti is Hell and that sentiment would not just be limited to Graham Greene were he alive. Of course, Graham was one of the great writers of the 20th Century. One other ex-spook used to love Haiti until the TonTon Macoute hunted him down like a wild animal.
If you relish and yearn for Haitian spy thrillers as curiously and bizarrely compelling as Graham Greene’s Comedians, yearn for the cruel stability of the Duvaliers and have frequented Hôtel Oloffson you’re never going to put down Bill Fairclough’s fact based spy thriller Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series.
It’s a raw noir thriller but it is so real you may have nightmares of being back in Port au Prince anguishing over being a spy on the run. The trouble is, if you were a spook being chased by the TonTon Macoute in the seventies you were usually cornered and … well best leave it to your imagination or simply read Beyond Enkription. It’s considered compulsory reading for espionage aficionados.
See https://theburlingtonfiles.org and if you have any questions remember the best quote from The Burlington Files to date is “Don’t ask me, I’m British” but do read The Comedians first if you have not done so recently.
Do look up the authors or books mentioned on Amazon, Google The Burlington Files or visit https://theburlingtonfiles.org and read Beyond Enkription.
All this comment says it all. Btw, currently, France has higher overall debt than any other eurozone nation, including Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. What are the major problems in France?
Poverty and Inequality
Migrants and Asylum Seekers
Rule of Law
Law Enforcement and Police Abuse
Children’s Rights
Discrimination and Intolerance
Women’s Rights
Disability Rights
Today’s Partial Solar eclipse directly hits Haiti’s natal Scorpio Jupiter and Midheaven. Just a touch of optimism maybe.
Nepalese troops acting as UN peacekeepers introduced cholera to Haiti. Cholera is endemic in the subcontinent.
One only hopes that the UN fully compensated the individual Haitians made sick or dead, and the government of Haiti in general.
Building water treatment works and supplying piped, chlorinated water would be a just and righteous compensation.
Thanks Marjorie, it’s a sad story of the last 12 years. Let’s Hope there will be brighter times ahead for the people. Puts the UK drama in perspective.