This past week, troops from Kenya were scheduled to leave for Haiti to help the Haitian police in establishing some discipline in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas that are controlled by gangs. However, it was set back once again, apparently because things are just not ready. One factor is that arrangements are not yet in order to receive and house the troops. Concerns have also been raised that the troops do not speak Haitian Creole and do not have a good plan as to how to work together with the local police. UN officers were in the country from 2004 to 2017. I don't believe they spoke the language or knew the terrain either initially. You can read more in this Responsible Statescraft article where the situation is referred to as a logistical nightmare.
I, like many proud Haitians, (I am not Haitian), didn't really want there to be any foreign intervention. I wanted the Haitian people to step up and take care of the situation. However, at this point, I do feel hopeful that troops will come and make positive change. I still feel very frustrated by the whole situation, as does everyone, I'm sure. I don't mean to sound too opinionated or to place blame on anyone in particular (except for France who kidnapped, enslaved, and tortured the original Haitians for profit, as well as some leaders they've had along the way who have also acted horrificly in selfish greed). I don't meant to sound too opinionated, but it rubs me hard the wrong way when I hear of such aid going to Haiti and the large sums of money being dedicated toward it.
I'm a quite independent person and I have been since early childhood. I don't like to ask for help, personally, and I don't like to owe money. I feel proud and relieved when I pay back something I owe. Haitians in general have a strong sense of pride. They are proud of the independence their country gained and proud of their heritage. I believe they should be. I believe the independence they fought for is more compelling and heroic than the independence the United States fought for. We went to war over taxation without representation. I'm not saying we shouldn't, but compare that to fighting for your actual freedom from brutal slavery. The persecution Haitians faced was much more severe and therefore their liberation that much more substantial.
I suppose something that pops into my mind when I think of foreign intervention are some things I observed when I was in Port-au-Prince after the 2010 earthquake. There were American troops outside and around a hospital. They did not speak Creole and were very young. I spoke with one about what they were doing and he felt that they were making sure that folks going through the hospital did not steal and sell meds for drugs. I told him I had not observed that happening with the different medical clinics we had done. I have seen American volunteers misassume that people were doing this, and I even misassumed similar things when I first came to live in the Dominican Republic, but quickly saw that I was applying my American lens in a new place and it was misguiding me. He replied to my doubt that it's more so the little things they take like pens. I agreed whole heartedly to that. But had the U.S. government sent troops to keep people from stealing pens? They obviously wanted to help, but you can't help but to ponder who is in the best position to help.
My thoughts bounced around as to why humanitarian workers and missionaries in the country were not called upon, along with their teams. They would've had the language skills and cultural skills, or at least much more than the young men in uniforms. A portion of the funds used to fly these young men, house, and feed them could've been perhaps used to pay humanitarian workers and their teams to help out.
I suppose I also feel frustrated that the good Haitian men have not been able to organize themselves yet as the bad ones have and put discipline in place. A Haitian militia would be in a much better position to fight off gangs than foreigners speaking a foreign language who are new to the country. Equipping Haitian militias would be much less expensive of an operation than sending troops from across the Atlantic Ocean. Why do these young men have to risk their lives and Haitian young men are not called upon?
We had a group home member back in 2009 and the surrounding years. I don't remember exactly how long he spent in the home but I believe he had come to the Dominican Republic from Cap Haitian with a group of street kids. However, he was originally from Port-au-Prince if I recall. He was being raised by his grandmother before he ran off. His mom had died. I did not know at the time that his father was in the U.S. At some point he returned to his grandmother's house and found that his father had been working on his residency. Later I learned that he had moved to the U.S. He recently wrote to me as another previous group home member gave him my number. We caught up. He is now in his 20s and is joining the U.S. military.
This is a very rare story. Most of our previous group home members still live in this area. Some have started families. Some are in Haiti. Sadly, some have passed away from sickness or violence. Two twins have gone abroad in their adulthood and I think have also now made their way into the U.S. But this man had the opportunity to do some of his growing up in Florida and was reunited with his father. That is a rare case. As a member of the military, he would be a perfect candidate to join such a team to be sent to Haiti.
The Haitian diaspora in the U.S. is huge. A quick Google search says, "In 2021, the U.S. Census estimated that 1,138,855 people of full or partial Haitian descent lived in the United States. The Dominican Republic also has a Haitian diaspora of over 1 million. Especially here in the Dominican Republic there is a plethora of young, healthy men looking for work. The Dominican government and people I have spoken to do not want to set up any sort of refugee camp here. President Luis Abidaner was just re-elected on Sunday and a lot of his platform has been his relentless deportations despite the crisis in Haiti. You can read more about that in this New York Times article.
However, the Dominican government does want the violence in Haiti to stop and I do think would be cooperative, under certain conditions, with a military training base for the purpose of building an army among Haitians in the DR to combat gangs and put order in Haiti. In the U.S., and I'm sure many other countries, soldiers are celebrated. There is pride and honor around defending your country. I do not see that amongst Haitians for varying reasons, but it could and should be fostered.
I recently watched a movie with my son called The Tomorrow War. It is a pretty awesome movie but the main point I want to bring up is there were alien monsters ravaging the earth. They had to act quickly and equip civilians to fight in order to save humanity. They did a quick training, got weapons in their hands, and stuck them in there to fight the good fight; the fight that wasn't going away unless they fought it and fought it hard. Ironically, when the main character, after his first big battle, ends up unconscious on a military base, waking up in the army clinic, the subtitles show that he was nowhere else other than our home and Project Esperanza's base of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic! We cheered at that part.
As I write this, there is news circulating about three people who were killed in a gang attack in Port-au-Prince aboug 35 hours ago. They were a young American missionary couple, (the man had grown up in Haiti as his parents started the mission before his birth), and the mission's local pastor and director. The young woman killed was the daughter of Ben Baker, a representative for the state of Missouri. More details can be found in this New York Times article. Therefore, this is more big, horrible news Haiti is making. We pray for their families' broken hearts and all the broken hearts that have been aching due to this nonsense.
We continue to receive students who left Haiti, not for economic reasons as most of our students have in previous years, but to flee gang violence. I met a father of our students last weekend who was a successful accountant in Port-au-Prince but gangs destroyed their vehicle and ransacked their house, leaving just the structure. They're not used to the struggle they are facing here in the Dominican Republic as they were higher class in Haiti.
Since I last wrote in March, I've been interviewed a few times as well. Here is a radio interview at BBC. Here is a TV interview with BBC:
Here is a Breakfast with Barry podcast interview from my hometown, Winchester, Virginia.
Well, those are my thoughts on the matter. I hope they are helpful in some way. Hopefully my next #FreeHaiti post will have some visible progress to reflect on!
