Language

The nation that howled

Submitted February 21, 2004 - 4:43 pm by Bill Conroy

I recently had lunch with a friend and the subject of Haiti came up. This individual is originally from Mexico City but now lives in the states. He is well-traveled and says he has been to Haiti twice.

In his estimation, it is among the poorest nations in the world, to the extent that the people there are so desparate that they will jump on anything that might offer a hint of better way.

His analysis of the current situation, and the reason that Haiti in general is so prone to coups, may seem a bit simplistic, but it's worth sharing for discussion purposes.

This person offers the following analogy in terms of the uprising in Haiti. One day, a hungry dog in the neighborhood starts howling for apparently no reason. Suddenly, all the other hungry dogs in the neighborhood, likewise, join in and begin to howl, for no other reason than the fact that the first dog started howling.

In essence, he says the uprising in Haiti is yet another rage-inspired coup against the desparation of that nation's poverty. Someone just lit the spark to set it off.

I asked him, if that were true, then couldn't these dynamics be easily manipulated, and in that case, who would have the power to do so and to what end? I honestly don't know enough about Haiti to even venture an educated guess.

From what my friend told me, there is a very small upper class, literally no middle class and a sea of utter poverty. It seems to me those are dynamics for revolution, unless someone can effectively keep the lower class fighting amongst themselves, or against a common enemy such as a scapegoat government leader -- providing the illusion of power and change for the populace and a vent for the desparation of their plight from time to time.

But behind the scenes, someone would always be pulling the levers to protect and keep for themselves what little wealth, power and position Haiti affords them. That could make for some pretty strange bedfellows.

Maybe these assumptions are wrong.

In any event, Al's questions need answering. I'm staying tuned to learn something.

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