The world has developed the habit of leaving Haiti to disappear from international conversations between grand, headline-grabbing events.
Recent rhetoric out of the halls of the UN, OAS, and Caricom suggests an intention to resist such an inclination. But we have been here before … numerous times.
Haiti, we all must learn, is more than a photo-op.
Understandably, this side of the insular Caricom arc simultaneously confronts intractable, recurring issues related to substandard governance, economic fragility, and the erosion of human rights as a vital socio-political pillar.
This side of the archipelago, we have long lost leadership status on matters of such wider interest – however longingly they remain at our door awaiting attention. We should have learned from the Venezuelan experience.
The temptation to forget Haiti has been vastly overwhelming. So, I return to this subject despite the current domestic lure of revenge mistaken for justice, condemnation of a generation, and coercion being considered a first option in pursuit of behaviour change.
Even as Haiti was busy beating the Dominican Republic 4-1 at the CONCACAF Nations League game last Thursday in Santo Domingo - where mass Haitian migrant expulsions have been taking place - the northern town of Gros-Morne, across the border, remained in grief from a murderous gang attack only days earlier.
The September 28 incursion left 11 people dead, many injured, and even more fleeing. This proves, with devastating clarity, that Port-au-Prince is not the only staging point for slaughter.
And, yes, World Tourism Day was commemorated only the day before in Pétion-Ville, a sub-urb just south of Port-au-Prince. Haiti is that kind of place. Journalist Phares Jerome’s compelling article in Le Nouvelliste explained.
 |
| Visiting the CARICOM troops in Cap-Haitien (1994) |
The dreaded (as we heard at the UNGA from the US) International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that the Gros-Morne attack displaced approximately 5,254 people within days.
These are the developments that remind us that we should not permit Haiti to slip off the table of Caribbean deliberations – however remote some of us consider the collateral effects.
It is not that absolutely nothing is being considered or done. As advocated by the Caricom Eminent Persons Group (EPG) and others, the United Nations Security Council has renewed the mandate of an indispensable Gang Suppression Force (GSF).
The OAS recently mounted a high-level mission and the EPG has itself visited Haiti several times and engaged numerous stakeholders.
OAS Secretary-General, Albert Ramdin, has identified security and elections as Haiti's two urgent and interconnected priorities. A recent OAS reported has also warned that international assistance must produce concrete and visible results and that Haitian institutions, where they remain viable, must reside at the centre of the response.
The EPG has found common cause on this subject. The team comprising former Saint Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, former Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding and former Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie has sounded loud and clear alarms.
December 13 elections remain tentative in the face of insecurity, kidnappings, and territories beyond state control. Voter registration is sluggish. Journalist Frantz Duval has reported that as of October 2, the list of registered electors stood at just 737,478.
Miami Herald’s Jacqueline Charles has estimated the entire voting population to be in the vicinity of 6 million.
The electoral timetable remains an important potential milestone. It was born out of high hopes. But elections are never just another date on a calendar.
An empty or under-populated ballot box means nothing. Renewing the GSF mandate does not by itself protect the Haitian population.
For Caricom, therefore, Haiti is not simply another item on a crowded regional agenda. It is a test of whether Caribbean regionalism can translate solidarity into sustained action when one of its own members is in profound distress.
Back in 1995, upon the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to office in October 1994 (and when I first visited), the late Mighty Sparrow was hopeful: “Come along with me/Life will be happy,/It will be ecstasy/If you come with me down to Haiti … Great expectancy, come in Haiti/It's democracy now in my country” he sang in ‘Democracy in Haiti (Liberté).’
That did not turn out to be the case and, even so, it would have been foolish to believe none of this was any of our business. Sparrow called Haiti “my country”!
