Article: Who Owns the World: Haiti

I received a copy of Who Owns the World yesterday. It was pointed out there was a section in it pertaining to Haiti. Knowing very little about Haiti, and in light of the recent events, I decided to read the section, and write a brief article on Haiti. Hopefully you’ll learn something new. It’s been said that Haitian’s live in poverty because they’ve made a pact with the devil hundreds of years ago. I’ve not found anything to corroborate that. I did find the following facts:

The Capitol of Haiti is Port-Au-Prince with a population of 917, 112. It gained it’s independence in 1804. Haiti consists of 6,856,960 acres and a population of 8,132,000. To put this in perspective it’d be the equivalent of taking 1/4 of the state of Virginia with approximately the same population. The Gross National Income is approximately $560 per year per person. The GNI for the U.S. is $31,703 per person.

Haiti comprises 1/3 of the Island of Hispaniola. The other 2/3 is comprised of The Dominican Republic. While they recognize the right and guarantee private property, it is a pipe dream only. The fact is, only the rich can truly have any hope of property ownership. 90% of all the dwellings in Haiti occur outside of the legal system. I’ve seen people saying we constantly are providing money to the people of Haiti. However, the facts presented here seem to show that Haiti is under the thumb of the rich. While land ownership is possible, it was reported that it takes 195 days and almost $1,782 just to apply for land ownership.

Who Owns the World was provided by Hachette Book Group. Thanks Valerie.

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