Haiti

Haiti

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Haiti

Haiti is so far rated among the poorest country. For more than thirty years, it has had extreme levels of poverty due to the unstable government system, poor economic levels, and high levels of corruption. Haiti was ruled by a dictator for very many years. The group of family that ruled the country controlled everything and nobody else would take their position and power. The president of Haiti, Duvalier ruled for many years and killed anyone he suspected wanted to take his power. He later left his rule to his son who also ruled for a long period of time. After the family ended their rule, they left their power to Aristide, a priest. People were happy because they thought that change had begun but instead, the violence increased. This increased the levels of poverty because there were poor legal systems of justice, where equality was not upheld and the power was given to a few distinguished men (Lundahi, 2015). There was a big gap between the rich and the poor.

However, Haiti was known for its religious beliefs and its deep-rooted culture. The Haiti music played a great role in the lives of the Haitians as it helped them feel a sense of belonging to a community, expressed their religious beliefs and also celebrated holidays. The music made the Haitians happy as their lives were full of melodies. The Haiti celebrations used instruments such kone, the makeshift trumpet. Through the influence of the western people, some of the Haiti people adapted the catholic culture and that led to a mixture of tribal melodies which in turn steered to a whole new style of music. Though the western people influenced the Haiti music, the Haitians did not abandon their culture as they still have Vodou celebrations. In addition, the people of Haiti are well known for their black magic.

Haiti suffers from a lack of social amenities tools such as schools, hospitals, and churches. There is inequality of those social amenities since the rich people age given more priorities than the poor (Lundahi, 2015). Haiti is located in mountainous regions thus there is limited land for farming. There is also poor infrastructure such as transport systems and communication networks. The Haitians from lack of food due to floods.

In the year 2010, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude attacked Haiti and thus increased the poverty levels in the country. Many people were displaced and there was loss of lives and property. The amount of loss was calculated to be seven point eight billion dollars (Harp, Jibson & Schmitt, 2016). The few banks, hospitals, churches, schools and homes were destroyed leaving people homeless. It caused a lot of chaos in the country since there were many dead bodies lying aimlessly. People had to wear masks in order to lock odors. Many people were left desperately searching for their loved ones mourning their loss. Many people now live in tents and the children walk barefoot while others commit prostitution in order to get food. The country was left without running water thus leading to a lot of epidemics.

Due to the earthquake, many businesses collapsed and people were left without work and with nothing to feed their children. The health of the Haitians also deteriorated because of contaminated water and food. There were poor sanitation and hygienic systems, and very poor infrastructure (Harp et al, 2016). This led to cholera outbreaks which could not be prevented and cured because of the poor communication and transport systems. The conditions led to more deaths thus worsening the situation in the country. The crime rates also increased as people were hungry and needed something to eat and feed their children. Some people went to the desolated homes to steal food and find comfortable places to sleep. People were killing each other because of the little amount of food. The earthquake increased the illiteracy levels since children would not attend schools because they had been destroyed.

Many people in Haiti are now suffering from malaria since they live in tents. There is no food to eat since there are no farmers since the lands were destroyed and thus the Haitians are dying of starvations. There are no hospitals so the malaria-stricken Haitians are wailing on the grounds in pain. The condition of Haiti has become worse than it was before leaving the Haitians hopeless and helpless. Despite the help Haiti is receiving from the United States and United Nations, the country has not yet recovered. The United Nations send troops of rescue teams and relief food for the Haitians. However, very little progress can be detected despite the country receiving donated money to rebuild its nation and the education being financed by the World Bank (Sodden & Palen, 2014). Haiti still has a long way to go to overcome the challenges they are facing.

In conclusion, Haiti’s poverty levels have increased especially after the earthquake. The living conditions have worsened due to increased crime rates, starvation, prostitution and epidemics that have affected the country. The people are suffering more than they did before thus reducing their economic situation. In spite of intervention by other governments, more work should be done to redeem Haiti.

References

Harp, E. L., Jibson, R. W., & Schmitt, R. G. (2016). Map of Landslides Triggered by January 12, 2010, Haiti Earthquake (No. 3353). US Geological Survey.

Lundahi, M. (2015). Peasants and Poverty (Routledge Revivals): A Study of Haiti. Routledge.

Sodden, R., & Palen, L. (2014). From Crowdsourced Mapping to Community Mapping: ThePost-Earthquake Work of OpenStreetMap Haiti. In COOP 2014-Proceedings of The 11th International Conference On the Design of Cooperative Systems, 27-30 May 2014, Nice (France) (Pp. 311-326). Springer International Publishing.