Haiti in Google Street View (best, life, cost, country)
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Google Street View hasn't published any of their own photos in Haiti (maybe they are working to do that now? I doubt it, but you never know.) However, images of some routes by third parties are beginning to appear.
The longest and seem to me to be the newest shown is near and on the north coast between Cap Haitian and Port-de-Paix. Keep in mind that while much of Cap Haitian looks like in the images, there is a part that is older and has that French West Indies flavor in the architecture with straight streets meeting at 90° angles, etc. Also the main plaza in Cap Haitian does look very nice. None of the nicer looking areas of Cap Haitian are shown by these routes. In my opinion, they should had started there and then move to the rest.
Anyway, the area near the north coast and part of ÃŽle de la Tortue are shown. Here are some printscreens of the other Hispaniola and what essentially is the second oldest country in the Western Hemisohereand the first black republic of the world.
The first thing they need to do is have political stability for a while and then stop the "CNN's" of the world from tarnishing the country's name. They do tarnish other countries name, but the level of intensity it's done with Haiti is quite noticeable.
The best start, at least for the sun/sand/surf variety, is for certain sections in non-populated or heavily populated sections of various parts of the coast to be developed similar to what was done in Dominican Republic in the 1980's with Playa Dorada. Set aside an area big enough to accommodate several resorts and build a golf course, a shopping center (doesn't have to be a closed mall, it could be open air with buildings in French colonial architecture as found in some Haitian towns around a plaza with a fountain in the middle and make sure it gets a nice mix of restaurants, shops, etc.) They already know how to build attractive streets as seen in various Haitian towns centers around their central plaza. All the roads eithin the complex should be of those types. Then offer to sell the plots within the complex at very comfortable rates to several international hotel chains that would build their own resorts.
That would be a jump start in mass tourism in Haiti. In reality, with Haiti this more a resurgeance as Haiti was a popular vacation spot in the middle of the 20th century, in fact the success of tourism in Puerto Rico and Haiti was used as examples of how tourism could help the economy of the DR and in the 1940's for the first time the government became active in promoting it, though it didn't took off until the 1980's with the all inclusive resorts.
Several of these types of complexes in different parts of Haiti's coast with an airport nearby even if it's small could jump start Haiti's mass tourism. Generally, Haiti's coasts are quite attractive and the conditions of many of its beaches are exactly what would compete with success with other major Caribbean destinations like Punta Cana, Varadero, Palm Beach in Aruba, even Cancun in Mexico which isn't in a Caribbean country but Cancun (and Riviera Maya) are bathed by the Caribbean Sea.
Haiti does have a successful experience with a tourism cruise port, I'm talking about Labadee. Haiti could develop 3 or 4 more in other parts of the coast.
There are seversl implications with the development of mass tourism.
1. It will create thousands of much needed jobs in a relatively short amount of time. Most, if not all, of those jobs will go to Haitians. There are several thousand Haitians already working in resorts in the Dominican Republic from gardeners to animation staff and more. The Haitians that are hired for the new Haitian resorts will need to be trained in the various workings of a resort and people that csn speak their language and with those skills already exist. The training doesn't really have to be done by foreigners teaching the Haitians, many times people that don't even know Haitian Creole and they themselves will need a crash course on the local culture, what they think is ok but to Haitians woukd be offensive, etc.
2. It will generate much needed hard currency to the Haitian government via all the taxes it collects in the various resort packages sold, the government fee for every airplane that lands in Haitian airports, proceeds from the sale of the tourist card in lieu of a tourist visa upon arrival, etc.
3. At first Haiti might have to import things such as the foodstuffs consumed in the resorts, but it can work with several farmers to see if they can grow X fruit or whatever that is sold to the resorts. That's another source of revenue for the government and for the farmers. With time there is no reason I could think of that say every slice of mango or every juice of pineapple consumed in the resorts isn't all grown in Haiti.
4. The same dould be done with Haitian products that already exist (Prestige beer, Banbarcourt rum, etc.) There is no reason most of the beer, rum, whatever consumed in Haitian resorts doesn't comes from factories/destillaries in Port-au-Prince. Basically, since most tourists will be from other countries, everything they consume/buy while in Haiti is a sort of export since they pay with money they nade in another country, that is money that was never in Haiti. New Haitian products could be created around this (a local hand sanitizer brand, a local mattress brand as each room needs st least a bed, Haitian toothpaste, Haitian mouthwash, Haitian body soap, Haitian shampoo, whatever else.) Al, of that made in Haiti (depending in production costs among other details) which would create more jobs in the factories that will make them, drivers of the product from factory to hotels, etc.) These will be jobs for people that currently don't have any.
These are same the positive effects that tourism development can have even for sectors that are not directly a touristic activity, such as farming. In order for all of that to happen, they need political stability first and foremost, then deal with the image tarnashing of Haiti being done by companies that aren't even Haitian. The alternative is to develop a an image of each destination separate from the image of Haiti. That way when the "CNN's" are doing what they do best, people will think more accurately and say "that's in the Port-au-Prince area and this other place is very safe, very stable and for from Port-au-Prince." That is only a temporary fix, but it would help go around the obstacle of the negative imsge of Haiti that has been spread by the likes of the "CNN" types.
The potential for Haiti to become a serious player in Caribbean tourism is certainly there. Look at that beach in the last image. Do you know how many places have developed tourism on beaches that aren't even close to the beauty of that one? Those places would do whatever it takes if they could swap the beach they have with the Haitian beach. Try finding a beach like that in New York. lol
There are seversl implications with the development of mass tourism.
They must be careful, because with mass tourism also comes cocaine trafickking. I know for sure because I live in the Northeast of Brazil. Cocaine traficcking here was initially driven by mass tourism. Now it "gained momentum of its own".
Thank you for your input AntonioR. You guys from Republica Dominicana certainly know a lot about your neighbours in Hispaniola island.
In reality most Dominicans don't know much about Haiti and it's basically the same in Haiti regarding the Dominican Republic. The general rule of thumb is that there are hardly Dominicans in Haiti (they number into a few tens of thousand, so numerically they are a lot but percentagewise they aren't and in daily life in Haiti you hardly if ever run into a Dominican; a good chunk of the Dominicans in Haiti are Haitian-Dominicans) and now there are many Haitians in the DR and the perception is that it's growing due to illegal immigration. Due to this, the 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince and the recent injections of some international institutions into the debate (along with the Dominican media which is very sensationalized regarding everything) has increase the awareness. The general thinking is:
- Haiti is falling apart.
- There is no real government in Haiti as what calls itself government is felt the most in like 4 blocks in Port-au-Prince where are many of the government offices.
- That traditionally the Haitian government doesn't care about most Haitians.
- That Haiti is more a conglomeration of people that are basically on their own.
- That the international community (USA for being the world's police, France as the colonizer country of Haiti is thought should have some remorse and help Haiti but it isn't, that the UN is all talk and not much else plus taking a problem and making it worse -the UN arrives to a cholera free Haiti, the UN leaves leaving Haiti under a cholera outbreak, take a wild guess how cholera got to Haiti in the first place…-, etc) doesn't really care about Haiti. The belief is if one day something like a lot of oil is found in Haiti, then you will see the "international community" reminds itself of Haiti and offer all types of help, but until then they don't really care.)
- That deep down what the "international community" wants is for a Dominican solution to Haiti's problems and some give the impression as if the DR is responsible for all the problems in Haiti.
Basically, that's the gist of it. Then all Dominicans have more or less the belief presented above break into 3 groups.
1. Those that believe an increasing presence of Haitians in the DR will slowly make the DR more like Haiti is right now. They don't want that. For them, the world end at the border.
2. Those that believe that with a greater presence of Haitians in the DR, the Haitians will Dominicanize as they adopt the way of the Dominicans. Rather than making the DR more like Haiti, they think it will strengthen the DR and maybe it will influence Haiti to get away from what it is like right now.
3. Thise that basically don't care about the DR, don't care Haiti, don't care about any place. Everything is then and their family, that's it.
There is a somewhat 4th group of Dominicans, though they are a small group, of resentful towards the DR for whatever reason. Deep down these hate the DR that as it's negative of the DR they will spew it. If they manage to move out of the DR (usually to the USA or Spain), once in those countries they support whatever they think will destroy the DR. They support things like an increasing flow of Haitians in the DR not because they actually care about the Haitians or the Dominicans, but because they think it will speed up the destruction of the DR. These are the types that hou can't even mention the DR in their presence without them making it clear they don't want to talk about that country. The DR can sink in the ocean and for the is like nothing happen, similar to watching something on TV and changing the channel.
As said before, that 4th group is very small and it doesn't makes up even most Dominicans that move out of the DR, but they exist. I have met a few like that.
What I have been told by a few Haitians through the years is that most Haitians aren't thinking of the DR or even of Dominicans. It's a small group, some in government positions, that do and from time to time things about Dominicans are written in the local newspaper, usually a combination of truth and myth. I have aldo learn that many Haitians have certsin beliefs about Dominicans (good and bad) that isn't 100% true, but that is what they believe. For example, there is a belief among some Haitians that have never been to the DR or even to the border region that Dominicans are very orderly people following every rule while Haitians are the opposite. Well, Dominicans may be slightly more oderly than Haitians in some respect, but do I have news for you. Just the driving in the DR appears crazy if you always lived in the USA where things are more oderly and then find yourself in the DR. In fact, among Dominicans the belief is that Americans are oderly and Dominicans aren't. For many Haitians Dominicans are oderly while Haitians aren't. I guess it depends from what perspective you are looking at things.
In general, the Dominicans that truly know Haiti are a few and they tend to be the intellectual types that are always researching things while others are spending their time doing other things that may seem mundane and not important. I repeat, these are very few, VERY few.
that the UN is all talk and not much else plus taking a problem and making it worse -the UN arrives to a cholera free Haiti, the UN leaves leaving Haiti under a cholera outbreak, take a wild guess how cholera got to Haiti in the first place…
wow, I didn't know that
Brazilian military led the UN "peacekeeping" mission in Haiti for years, and for that reason some thousands of Haitian immigrants decided to come to Brazil, mostly through illegal routes. They were generally well accepted by most of Brazilian society.
Brazilian military led the UN "peacekeeping" mission in Haiti for years, and for that reason some thousands of Haitian immigrants decided to come to Brazil, mostly through illegal routes. They were generally well accepted by most of Brazilian society.
Initially it was the Brazilian soldiers in Haiti that took some Haitians via the legal route to Brazil. The rest followed that example.
Something similar happened with Chile as there were some Chilean soldiers, except with Chile it got crazy. There were airplanes paid for by the Chilean government (in reality Chilean taxpayers) to fill them with Haitians and take them directly to Santiago de Chile. Many of these Haitians were given the status of tourists to enter Chile, but in reality all of them were migrants. The Chilean society hardly had any blacks, but in recent years the presence of blacks became visible in Santiago de Chile. Most are Haitians, Dominicans, Colombians and Venezuelans. Finding a black that has been Chilean for generations basically doesn't exist, yet. One of the things blacks complain about in Chile is the blatant racism many encounter there. The usual stuff such as apartments are for rent but suddenly they are not for rent for the black prospects, that people often make negative comments to them in the streets due to their color, etc. Obviusly, not all Chileans are like this with blacks, but this seems to happen enough times to be an issue because the complaint is coming from many blacks from various nationalities.
In recent years a sizable community of Haitians has form in Mexico too when not too long ago there were hardly any Haitians there. With Mexico is more a case of the country is between the USA and Central America. Initially, all the Haitians went through Central America (some even went to Colombia or Ecuador to begin their trek northward) had the goal of reaching the USA, but with tougher border controls and migrants regulations many couldn't get in the USA. So tried getting into the USA with multiple attempts while others noticed Mexico isn't so bad and stay there. Whatever they did, none of them wanted to go back to Haiti. There have been news stories of many Haitians settling down finding Mexican women. I say soon enough there is going to be a sizable amount not just of Mexicans of Haitian descent, but of mixed mestizo-black since so far all the women they have relationships with are mestizos. Racism claims in Mexico aren't popular, yet. In some Mexicsn media there are a few stories of Mexicans that lived in some communities that were clean, had no electricity issues, etc before the Haitians arrived. After they arrived they say it's common to find bottles and some litter in public places and some apartment complexes find their park area in the dark because now there is a theft of wires of the public lighting. But racism per se seems to not be an issue, yet.
Last edited by AntonioR; 01-30-2024 at 10:42 AM..
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