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After Haiti’s earthquake, what will change? |
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Issues Explained
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Sunday, 17 January 2010 |
 Images from the aftermath of last Wednesday’s magnitude seven earthquake in Haiti vividly highlight the huge human tragedy and desperation of the survivors.
Such events remind us all of human frailty and weakness while Allah (swt) remains the All Powerful. Disasters like these should remind us all of yawn al-qiyama (the day of judgement) and should make us more obedient to Allah (swt).
إِذَا زُلْزِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ زِلْزَالَهَا
When the earth is shaken with its (final) earthquake. [TMQ Az-Zalzalah 99:1]
Islam also teaches us that these disasters are a test for us to see whether we rush to help the survivors of such tragedies.
وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَا أَحْيَا النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا
And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind. [TMQ Al-Maidah 5:32]
Will the Muslim governments in the Gulf and elsewhere be at the forefront of delivering aid to the suffering Haitians? Or are they too busy wasting the ummah’s wealth building the tallest skyscrapers, shopping malls and indoor ski resorts in the middle of the desert? The fact that they have failed in their Islamic duty and hardly rendered help to the starving millions in Somalia and Afghanistan does not fill one with confidence that they will now mobilise for Haiti.
All around the world, Muslims are watching what is happening and feel a humanitarian concern for the suffering people. Other than donating money, there is very little practical help people can give. As with so many other issues where the ummah wants to express its help for mankind, the absence of the Islamic Khilafah state (caliphate) means there is no authority that represents the ummah and mobilises and delivers huge resources and aid to the disaster areas.
Why Haiti’s lack of basic infrastructure even before this tragedy?
For many people, the tragedy of this earthquake is mixed with anger at the total incapacity of Haiti’s state structures to respond to the disaster because little infrastructure and apparatus of a functioning modern state existed in the first place.
Even before Wednesday’s tragic events, Haiti was the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Nearly 80% of its population live on less than US$2 a day. Only 62% of its adult population are literate and 25% are in any form of employment and 30% have sanitation in their homes.
Debt to France
When Haiti gained independence from France after its revolution, in exchange for diplomatic recognition from France, the new republic was forced to pay enormous reparations: some 150m francs, in gold. It was an immense sum, and even reduced by more than half in 1830, far more than Haiti could afford.
"The long and the short of it is that Haiti was paying reparations to France from 1825 until 1947," says Alex Von Tunzelmann, a historian and writer. "To come up with the money, it took out huge loans from American, German and French banks, at exorbitant rates of interest. By 1900, Haiti was spending about 80% of its national budget on loan repayments. It ¬completely wrecked their economy. By the time the original reparations and interest were paid off, the place was basically destitute and trapped in a ¬spiral of debt." It is ironic that in the last few days France’s President Sarkozy started talking about wanting to rid Haiti of poverty once and for all when he said "From this catastrophe, which follows so many others, we should make sure that it is a chance to get Haiti once and for all out of the curse it seems to have been stuck with for such a long time,". He conveniently failed to mention Frances role in perpetrating Haiti’s tragedy.
US interference
Over the last two centuries, the US has also repeatedly interfered in Haiti and even invaded and occupied it in 1915 terrified that Haiti was about to default on its massive debts. A 1922 loan of millions of dollars owed to the US resulted in a financial system that siphoned the country's wealth to offshore creditors instead of reinvesting it in the country's economy. France and the United States have repeatedly intervened in Haitian politics since the country's founding, sometimes at the request of one party or another. The last time the US officially invaded the country was as recently as 1994 after which it then formally withdrew to be replaced by a UN force.
Local leaders as looters
Added to all this is the that fact that a succession of Haitian leaders more or less gave up on trying to resolve Haiti's problems, and started looting it instead. During the 28 years in power of Papa Doc Duvalier and his playboy son and heir, Jean-Claude Duvalier, or Baby Doc, they made themselves very rich indeed reportedly embezzling up to 80% of Haiti's international aid, while the debts they signed up to ¬account for 45% of what the country owes today. And when Baby Doc ¬finally fled, estimates of what he took with him run as high as $900m.
Corrupt Western backed leaders and direct interference by western powers have contributed to the tragic state that became Haiti despite its human and natural resources. As the masses of the world empathise with the people of Haiti, many struggle to imagine how its next chapter will be different to its previous ones.
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