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AMST140: Borderlands in a Global Context

OUTLINE
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Reflective(?) essay

Revisions


 * Lead Section
 * reorganize article with US contributions first
 * US Economic and Development Assistance

Lead Section: 4 paragraphs, should identify the topic, establish context, explain why the topic is notable, and summarize the most important points, including any prominent controversies.
Haiti—an island country about the size of Maryland just 600 miles off the coast of Florida—shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Both countries have a population of around 10 million, but that's about where the similarities end. The average Haitian is nearly 10 times poorer than the average Dominican, and much more likely to be unemployed. And that poverty manifests in drastic disparities in health: the infant mortality rate in Haiti is more than twice the rate in the DR, and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is almost double. This disparity begs the question about how one island produced two totally different worlds?

Haiti is an extreme case: it has received billions in foreign assistance, yet persists as one of the poorest and worst governed countries. Natural disaster after natural disaster, Haiti became a place ripe with poverty, disease and lack of basic infrastructure and human services. The list of catastrophes is mind-numbing: [INSERT STATISITIC] There have been 15 disasters since 2001 including tropical storms, flooding, earthquakes and hurricanes. While the causes of individual disasters are natural, more than anything what makes Haiti a constant site of catastrophe is its heart-tugging socials ills. Starting with constant poverty, issues with deforestation, unstable governments, poor building standards, low literacy rates.

Breaking down the root causes of Haiti's misery starts with identifying the two major non-natural perpetrators: the international community and Haiti's rulers. Together they have both continuously assured the destruction of Haiti—once called the Jewel of the Antilles—and its colonial wealth. How could Haiti have once been the source of such wealth and today be the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere? How could this land that was once so productive be semi-barren? How did the island nation become known as the Caribbean's hell-hole?

US-HAITI CONTEXT: A Guide to the US History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations from Columbus to US Occupation

Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola in 1492, giving way to the invasion of the French and Spanish to the Caribbean island. The island was inhabited by the native Taino but were virtually annihilated by European settlers within 25 years. In the early 17th century, the French established a presence on Hispaniola and in 1697, Spain ceded to the French the western third of the island, which later became Haiti. The French colony initially thrived because of the profitable forestry and sugar-related industries but was reliant on the heavy importation of African slaves. In the 1750s Haiti provided as much as 50% of the Gross National Product of France. Incredible fortunes were made off the sugar, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, indigo dye and other exotic products from this tiny island on the island of Hispaniola. The system gave rise to a secondary class of slaves called the mulattos—the children of white masters and slave women. While not welcomed in either community, many mulattos received partial freedom and could receive education, operate businesses, own property and slaves and in general imitate the French.

Haiti's nearly half a million slaves revolted under the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture and after a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first post-colonial black-led nation in the world, declaring independence from France on January 1st, 1804—becoming the second oldest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere. The US didn't recognize Haitian independence and together with the rest of the international community decided that Haiti's model of a nation of freed slaves was a dangerous precedent. They instilled an international boycott of Haitian goods—plunging the Haitian economy into chaos. Anxious to be officially recognized by France and the Europeans, in 1838, Haiti's President Boyer accepted a 150 million franc, plus interest, debt to pay indemnities for lands of former slave owners taken over during the revolution. This debt plagued the economy of Haiti for over 80 years and was only finally paid in 1922.

The United States only officially recognized Haitian independence in 1862 when President Lincoln commissioned Benjamin F. Whidden to act as the US diplomatic representative. The island country experienced numerous periods of intense political and economic disorder, prompting US military intervention in 1915. The US marines took control over the collection of revenues, the banks, and forced through a new Haitian constitution which repealed the 1804 provision that foreigners couldn't own land in Haiti. Following a 19 year occupation, US military forces were finally withdrawn in 1934, and Haiti regained sovereign rule. However, the US presence in both the economy and internal government affairs was well established. Ever since the occupation and increasingly since 1946, the US, through the power of its aid packages, has played a central role in Haitian politics. '''The U.S. has contributed to the misery of Haiti since it has given oppressive governments comfortable aid packages which kept these rulers in power. The United States was not interested in furthering Haitian misery itself, rather this is the price the U.S. has had to pay to keep friendly governments in power so that American military, propaganda and economic interests could be served. The result may well have served the interests of U.S. control in the region, but the issue here is the cause of Haitian misery. U.S. backed governments have certainly been a major factor in this suffering.'''

US CONTRIBUTIONS: Economic and Development Assistance
Past

The US Agency for International development has sent money and help to Haiit.

Today/Trump-Era

In his first State of the Union address, Mr. Trump iterated a theme of “America First,” proclaiming his dislike of programs like democracy promotion and generic humanitarian aid aimed largely at countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. On January 4, 2018, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Thursday that the U.S. would cease transfers of security funding to Pakistan and halt any deliveries of military equipment to the country. The exact dollar amounts of the cuts were still being hammered out, Nauert said, though she noted they would be significant. President Trump’s insistence that Congress pass laws to ensure that “American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to "America’s friends." However, only about one percent of the United States federal budget goes to foreign aid — and about 40 percent of that is considered security assistance, rather than economic or humanitarian aid.

CRITIQUE OF FOREIGN AID

effectiveness, corruption, rhetoric vs policy, interventionist stance

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Additional Sources:

http://libguides.usc.edu/latinamerica

https://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1982.htm

https://history.state.gov/countries/haiti

https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1982.htm

https://www.vox.com/2015/11/8/9684494/foreign-aid-map

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/business/a-surprising-case-against-foreign-aid.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/opinion/the-truth-about-foreign-aid.html

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/12/16883224/trump-shithole-foreign-policy-haiti

https://voxeu.org/article/development-and-foreign-aid-historical-perspective

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_non-interventionism

Ramachandran, Vijaya, and Julie Walz. "Haiti: Where Has All the Money Gone?" Journal of Haitian Studies 21, no. 1 (2015): 26-65. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy2.usc.edu/stable/24573148.

Erikson, Daniel. "The Haiti Dilemma." The Brown Journal of World Affairs 10, no. 2 (2004): 285-97. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy2.usc.edu/stable/24590538.

Annotated Bibliography:

Beaubien, Jason. What Happened to The Aid Meant to Rebuild Haiti? National Public Radio, 2013.

Jason Beaubien is NPR’s global health and development correspondent and has covered the famines and wars of Africa, chronicled the economic, social and political changes U.S./Mexico border and filed stories on everything from the FMLN victory in El Salvador to Mexico’s drug war. His piece provides comprehensive background information on the ground situation in Haiti—a country that was pledged $9 billion from 2010 to 2012 to help get back on its feet. Beaubien interviews various experts in the field (Jonathan Katz, Dr. Tom Kirsh) to breaks down the situation. Beaubien concludes that only about $2.5 billion of the money goes to humanitarian relief and that money is typically spent on short-term relief solutions and that the government is too unstable to use those resources effectively.

Chavez, Nicole. You can’t tell the story of the US without telling the story of Haiti. CNN, 2018.

Nicole Chavez is a writing correspondent for CNN that lived in Mexico for two decades. In response to President Trump’s xenophobic comments he made about Haiti and its immigrants during a bipartisan meeting for immigration reform, Chavez detailed how the US government’s long active role in Haitian politics. Starting to how the US provided aid to French colonists attempting to stop the 18th century slave rebellion to when the US took 58 years to recognize Haiti as an independent country, subjecting the country to an economic embargo in the intervening years. Her article is very thorough and includes various graphs and charts explaining the country profile and aid situation. We’re going to use this secondary article for comprehensive background information.

U.S. Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Fact Sheet: U.S. Relations With Haiti. U.S. Department of State, 2017.

Taken directly from the U.S. Department of State website, this bilateral relations fact sheet last updated March 23, 2017 provides a very thorough context piece for the state of U.S./Haitian relations. It details the U.S. priorities in Haiti’s recovery from having a strong democracy, a commitment to rule of law that ensures human rights and fundamental freedoms, and stability and predictability for sustained economic growth and foreign investment. The piece is incredibly detailed containing important facts about the various disasters that hit the island nation. It also includes key paragraphs on U.S. trade preferences for Haiti, bilateral representation and specificis on U.S. assistance for long-term recovery, reconstruction and development programs regarding: infrastructure, energy, food, economic security, health, governance and rule of law. This is yet another tertiary U.S. background source for our article.

Adelman, Carol. Haiti: Testing the Limits of Government Aid and Philanthropy. The Brown Journal of World Affairs, 2011.

Carol Adelman is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Global Prosperity at the Hudson Institute. Her journal article was available on JSTOR. Adelman argues that Haiti (“The Republic of NGOs”) is the center for whether successful innovations in philanthropy and public-private partnerships stand a chance at helping the long-devastated island. She concludes that while developed countries are providing far more to the developing world through private actors rather than government aid, Haiti was already the poorest country in the Americas. The problem sare well known: little economic development, no modern infrastructure, a corrupt and inefficient government, and a population overwhelmed by lawlessness and preoccupied with surviving day-to-day. Excessive dependency on foreign aid led to a hampering of the development of its own economy and funneling of large amounts of aid through NGOs perpetuated the problem of instability by limiting government and civil capacity building in the country.

Carey, Henry. U.S. Policy in Haiti: The Failure to Help Despite the Rhetoric to Please, 2002.

Henry Carey is a Columbia-educated Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgia State university, focused on international law, human rights and comparative democratization. In the Journal of Haitian: A special Issue on Politics and Grassroots Organizing, Carey discusses the hypocrisy of Bush-era U.S. policy from sending millions in aid but also having zero tolerance for Haitian refugees with its intense deportation policy. The focus of Carey’s article has to do with Haitian Prime Minister Latortue and the instability of Haiti’s government.

Deaton, Angus. Health in an Age of Globalization. Project MUSE, 2004.

Princeton University Professor Angus Deaton argues that foreign aid can't solve the big problem that's keeping poor countries poor: weak governments that make it impossible to grow. The Nobel Prize winner voices his skepticism on aid, mentioning that a vast majority is politically motivated. He cites examples like the international efforts to eliminate smallpox, river blindness, and polio, programs that spread vaccinations and HIV antiretroviral therapy, and the provision of antimalarial bed-nets and oral rehydration therapy.

Edwards, Sebastian. Economic Development and the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid. Vox, 2014.

Edwards highlights specific changes in aid policy since the first foreign assistance law in 1948, and incorporates the use of econometric methods to analyze whether aid is effective in the sense of generating higher growth and better economic outcomes. The author depicts official foreign aid as creating economic dependency, fostering corruption, and encouraging currency overvaluation, providing valuable insight on the topic of economic development as a result of foreign aid, which we aim to cover in our article.

Ferrarello, Molli. What “America First” Means For US Foreign Aid. Brookings Trade Forum, 2017.

Ferrarello discusses some of the potential repercussions resulting from President Trump’s “America First” foreign aid budget cut proposal. She addresses the consequences of a 37% reduction in federal contributions, and presents relevant information for understanding and contributing to the “Current Relations/Foreign policy” headline of our Wiki article.

Sachs, Jeffrey. The Case for Aid. Foreign Policy, 2014.

Jeffrey Sachs’ article focuses largely on public health breakthroughs of the 21st century as a result of foreign aid and discusses the importance of delivering high-quality aid to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Sachs highlights the significance of the malaria control policies, which is topically significant to our project because one of the current goals of foreign aid in Haiti is to fully eliminate malaria by the year 2020.

Kao, Cynthia. Haiti's Multi-Billion Dollar Humanitarian Aid Problem. Huffington Post, 2015.

Kao’s article offers valuable insight regarding some of the flaws within U.S. foreign aid since 2010. $3 billion has been dispensed by the United States Agency for International Development towards humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts, however, due to a lack of partnering with local businesses and accountability issues, only one percent of U.S. aid has been given directly to local groups. This article provides a culmination of useful statistics and information that would provide a great foundation for our article.