HAITI - The Unfinished Nation, a Land of Mountains

• Haiti’s inhabitants are descendents of African slaves,
a population of less than 9 million souls.

• This nation won its independence from France in 1802,
defeating Napoleon’s army.

• Since that time, the Haitian people have valiantly tried to
build a free nation, but the global community and two brutal
dictators have “handled” the people with discrimination,
exploitation and racism, isolating them as “the pariah”
or the “least” of the nations.

• Today, the democratically elected government of Haiti
can hardly function due to extreme poverty.

Environmental Devastation

When Columbus arrived in 1592, Haiti was a green paradise covered with
mahogany and wild fruit trees. Today, it is a desert, a wasteland. Only one percent
of the original tree cover exists today. Haiti’s streams and rivers are highly polluted
from waste washed down many mountainsides. In some areas, because of severe
drought, there is no clean water. The erosion caused by the lack of tree cover has
resulted in an immense loss of topsoil, in some places as deep as 7 feet, down to
the earth’s rock base. The air pollution from charcoal fires—Haiti’s major energy
source—causes disease and sends greenhouse gases into the atmosphere of the
whole planet. Even the sea that surrounds the island of Hispaniola is polluted.
Its coral reefs have been ruined by run-off from polluted rivers. Haiti desperately
needs a complete restoration and renewal of its natural resources—trees, water,
land/soil and air—for survival.

Intense Poverty

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere; the people of Haiti try to
survive in the midst of extreme poverty. Because of the ruin of its once prosperous
agricultural base due to loss of topsoil and because of international economic
competition, Haiti cannot feed itself.

Ninety-five percent of the corn and beans planted on marginal hillsides fails to grow.
Also, the people cannot afford to buy available food since international food import
costs have risen 80 percent. Severe hunger and famine has become a daunting
reality in 2008. The infant mortality rate is extremely high, as is the incidence of
AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Driven from the land, most Haitians are
unemployed and illiterate. They flock to the cities to find a better life, only to end up
without adequate housing in city slums. Most Haitians live in what can be termed
“Fourth World” poverty, existing primarily on less than one dollar a day, and in this
hopeless state, they are trapped.

Only 1% of Haiti's Original Forests
Remain Today.

Burdened with both a devastated environment and intense poverty, Haitians have
become among the first of the planet’s environmental refugees.

There is nowhere for these refugees to go. In 1995, they were turned away—their
small fishing boats sunk— when they tried to enter the U.S. by sea. They are not
welcomed in the Dominican Republic where they unsuccessfully try to migrate
to find jobs in the sugar cane fields. Some have even tried to swim to Jamaica,
but have drowned. Their only recourse is to seek a place in their own land, a
renewal of hope in the land of their forefathers.

Thousands of Homes Flooded