It is a heritage of colonialism that its predatory economic systems outlast its victims’ independence declarations. And so today, paradoxically, slavery remains the top export of Haiti, the country that first broke its shackles. The sale of unskilled Haitian labor from sweatshops and sugarcane fields to traditional colonial powers is well documented. Less well known is the current dissipation of Haiti’s middle class toward the emerging powers in the United Nations’ so-called peacekeeping mission (MINUSTAH), especially Brazil. Any sovereign republic would regard its middle class as being an investment not to be trifled with: a wealth to which one clings until the last battle. But Haiti is no longer a sovereign nation, and there are many reasons for this. One of these is that the Haitian ruling class is so lacking in creativity that it will cheerfully squander the little that is left of the country’s middle class to increase the government’s take of foreign remittances and taxes on international phone calls. The advantage to the foreign invaders is that the population that would be most incensed by their presence becomes disenfranchised, scattered and disempowered, to be replaced by a group of settlers from non-governmental organizations (NGO).
