On Friday, January 12th, US President Donald Trump sat in on an important meeting on immigration with a handful of US senators. When immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and a couple of African countries were discussed, Trump, to the surprise of few and the disgust of every sensible person, blurted out: “Why do we want all these people from ‘sh*thole countries’ coming here?”
The night that the news of Trump’s comments hit the major American news outlets I was watching CNN, which had pictures and videos of Trump “gracing” my screen once again. I took a good long look at the man, and something in his eyes put such a revelation in my mind that I immediately ran to my computer and did some research from which I concluded that, in its own way, America has turned into a pretty awful country as well!
I took Haiti, one of the nations Trump labeled with that oh so flattering name, compared it to the US, and eventually compiled this list of ways in which America is more of a sh*thole country than Haiti. Enjoy!
1. Origin Story
That’s right. While Americans had their revolution happen first, the Haitians were the ones whose struggle was more extreme and inspiring. Up until its first independence day in 1804, Haiti was known as a French colony named “Saint Domingue.” It was a colony used primarily for slave labor and cash crop production. In 1791 the slaves and free people of color started demanding more civil rights and freedom from slavery after becoming inspired by the French Revolution. In August of that year a major slave rebellion was initiated, to be led eventually by former slave Toussaint Louverture. The rebellion led to negotiations and in due time to granted abolition by the French in 1793.
But that wasn’t enough for the people of Saint Domingue. They continued to revolt against the French while simultaneously preventing Spanish and British troops from invading the chaotic colony. In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte led a final struggle to try to take back Saint Domingue. Louverture was captured in this conflict by the French and died in prison in 1803, having never seen Saint Domingue gain its independence.
The final victory came in 1803, when Jean-Jacques Dessaline defeated the French at the Battle of Vertières in 1803, which concluded the first ever successful slave army rebellion. The Haitians declared independence on January 1st, 1804. Haiti led a 12-year struggle to end slavery and its colonization for good, while America led a 5-year struggle for independence and were not even treated as something other than humans by the British. While slavery ended in Haiti simultaneously with the arrival of its independence, America still took nearly a century after their independence to abolish it, and even now that slavery has ended in America, its effects are still very much present in American society. Haiti’s origin is therefore not only more inspiring, but also more progressive.
#2: Massacres
Haiti’s last major massacre occurred in 1994 when military forces attacked demonstrators who stood up for Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically-elected president, who was deposed in a military coup in 1991 and exiled. This massacre is known as the Robateau Massacre. The Haitian soldiers killed somewhere between 8 and 15 people. Meanwhile, just in the year 2015, there were 372 reported mass shootings in the United States, which averages more than one mass shooting per day in 2015 alone. These shootings collectively killed 475 people and wounded another 1870. And almost four months ago the worst mass shooting in US history took place, with 58 dead and 546 injured. Haiti is clearly a safer country when it comes to the threat of guns.
#3: Mass Incarceration
In Haiti there are about 96 people per 100,000 in prison, bringing the total number of prisoners to 10,500 people (as of December 31st, 2016). Even though the number of prisoners in Haiti has been increasing, the rate at which it’s increasing has been decreasing steadily since 2012, which means the crime rate is going down. In the United States, on the other hand, there are around 666 people per 100,000 in prison, bringing the total number of prisoners to 2,145,100 (as of December 31st, 2015). And not only is there a bigger fraction of the US population in prison, but there are also many imprisonments in the US that occur due to systemic racism. Inner city crime caused by social and economic isolation has led African-Americans to be incarcerated at 5 times the rate of white people. Furthermore, both white and black people use drugs at the same rate, but there are six times as many black people in jail for drug charges as white people incarcerated for similar charges. America seems pretty sh*tty to me in that sense.
#4: Voting System
Haiti has fully democratic elections in which the majority vote wins. But more importantly, the Haitian government also runs referendums so the people have more of a voice when it comes to the making of important decisions. Meanwhile America is still desperately clinging on to the electoral college, an institution created to uphold slavery, as the best way of electing its president. America could definitely learn something from Haiti in this area.
#5: Environmental Policy
Haiti has promised to reduce any harmful emissions by 30% by 2030, maintain coastal ecosystems, and have its people move to areas that are less vulnerable to sea levels rising. Its president, Jovenel Moïse, is committed to fighting climate change, and, most importantly, Haiti is included in the monumental Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, the US is one of the only countries in the world that is not committed to the Paris Agreement, and the base of supporters of Donald Trump do not believe in climate change. Forward thinking does not seem to be as evident in America as in Haiti.
#6: Response to Disaster
Just over eight years ago a fatal 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck just 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, and it claimed the lives of anywhere between 100,000 and 316,000 Haitians. It also resulted in 250,000 homes and 30,000 commercial buildings being completely destroyed or severely damaged, which means that over 1.5 million people lost their homes. The way the Haitian people responded, though, was nothing short of heroic. The people of Haiti dug through the rubble with their bare hands in order to save anyone that was still trapped underneath it until outside aid was provided. Other than that, the Haitians have endured more at the hands of nature than anyone in America ever has, and for them to still be that quick to help others, even if they were complete strangers, after yet another disaster had struck, is the very counterevidence of a people living in a sh*thole country.
#7: Leadership
Jovenel Moïse, the current President of Haiti, took office on February 7th, 2017. He is anti-racism and in support of bio-ecological agriculture, universal education and healthcare, and energy reform. Before he was president, Moïse was an entrepreneur who started a project to provide clean water to rural areas in 2001. Seven years later he founded the Haitian Energy Company SA, which wants to bring more solar and wind power to ten communes in the Nord-Ouest area of the country. And in 2012 Moïse founded Agritrans SA and helped to create Haiti’s first agricultural free trade zone, which led to almost 13,000 new jobs from a dozen different agricultural projects. Meanwhile, President Trump in the United States failed to disavow David Duke of the KKK after being endorsed by him, failed to support climate change, failed to condemn the protests of white supremacists in Charlottesville last summer, and, as of late, failed to realize that wishing for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and several African countries to come to the United States is racist and ignorant.
