Time for UN to Pull Out of Haiti

Haitians are wrongly blaming UN peacekeepers for a cholera outbreak and demanding they leave the country. And that's exactly what the UN should do.

Having endured a devastating earthquake that exacerbated its endemic poverty and corruption, Haiti is now in the throes of a cholera epidemic – hitherto largely unknown in that country.

A UN appeal for an extra $164 million has so far been answered with a paltry $5 million. It’s not that the world doesn’t care, it’s that the world is fed up with Haiti.

Haiti itself is gearing for a presidential election on Nov. 28, and is advancing the view that it is UN peacekeeping soldiers – largely from Nepal – who caused the cholera.

That’s nonsense, of course. If 1,100 Nepalese soldiers have cholera, it’s likely from the drinking water they consumed in Haiti. Tell that to the rioters, storming around blaming others and demanding that the UN get out of Haiti.

Which is exactly what the UN should do. From accounts, it’s mostly Medecins sans Frontieres that’s doing what it can to stem cholera -- a disease that kills quickly (especially the young) but is relatively easy to treat.

Contaminated drinking water and an unhygienic environment contribute to diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration that kills. Treatment is clean drinking water, rehydration and antibiotics – all in short supply in Haiti.

(As an aside, one wonders if the Canadian military’s Disaster Assistance Response Team – DART – that can produce 200,000 liters of purified water a day, wouldn’t be of enormous benefit to Haiti).

The horror of Haiti is that it’s a continuing example of the futility of throwing money at a problem and expecting a cure when, in fact, it encourages dependency and corruption.

Within two weeks of the earthquake last January that killed some 230,000, some $500 million had been donated for relief. By September, that amount was over $1 billion.

Where has the money gone? Haiti is still devastated: Tent cities for refugees, abysmal hygiene, vanishing aid money.

Even before the earthquake, Haiti was the largest recipient of aid in the Western Hemisphere. The sorry reality is that Haiti will never look after itself until it no longer depends on foreign aid to function. Every country eventually has to be responsible for its own future, abandoning the role of perpetual welfare recipient.

We have a living example of the folly of perpetual welfare in Canada’s own native Indian reserves. As policy, governments have thrown money at Indians to better their lot. Too often the money goes to hefty salaries for chiefs and god knows what happens to the rest.

Basically, Canada pays Indians to stay on reserves, where they get looked after and don’t have to compete. They don’t pay taxes and have none of the obligations or responsibilities of citizenship. Small wonder theirs is a status of deprivation.

Good intentions notwithstanding, successive Canadian governments have done no favors to Indians. There’s a parallel in Haiti.

There’s no inherent reasons why Haitians should be at the bottom. They share an island with the Dominican Republic which, while poor, functions. Compared to Haiti, the Dominican Republic is paradise. It has responsible leadership and produces responsible people.

Part of Haiti’s curse is that Haitians with ambition leave the country to compete in a more rewarding environment. Some even become governor-general.

Until Haiti is no longer dependent on the largesse of the rest of the world, it will remain a cesspool of corruption and abuse. Hard on the people, who are innocent, but that’s the fate of no developing resources to cope with the world.