Haiti has been Cheated Compared with Even Jamaica and the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic outside of Santo Domingo and perhaps Santiago and a tiny number of other towns is virtually as poor as Haiti has been. The international corporations have preferred to invest (sweatshops and tourism mostly) in Santo Domingo and a few other locations in the Dominican Republic because that country has been much more politically stable than Haiti, and secondarily in some cases for racist reasons. When the US makes an already volatile Haiti worse by intervening and by overthrowing Aristide and so forth, it serves to intimidate all but the most fearless corporations and small investors from investing in Haiti.

For those who want to invest in a black Caribbean country, Jamaica has been overwhelmingly favored over Haiti, mainly because Jamaica has stubbornly resisted total dismantling of its government and total control by the US and by international corporations. Thus, when people think of going on vacation in an exotic Caribbean country, far, far more think of Jamaica (or Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic) than Haiti. To be blunt, although Haiti can draw more tourists than it has in the past, it will not be able to compete with those established tourist destinations.

So Haiti will most likely have to develop without private international investment even more so than up until now. They can only do so with a non-right wing government that is not subservient to the United States. If they maintain that government, they will remain at least as dirt poor as up until now.

See this spreadsheet for a complete country by country breakdown of foreign direct investment. This will prove to you that Haiti has been shortchanged even compared with the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, let alone in comparison with other, far richer countries.

The above was in response to this article.
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