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I have a Haitian friend. He told me to Google map the country, click on satellite, and then zoom into the border with its neighbour. It has to be one of the most shocking differences between two countires sharing a border. What has Haiti got wrong that the Dominican Republic has got right?
Between 1957 to 1986, Haiti was ruled by dictators and had much corruption. But even after that there was a political mess with possible/likely corruption.
That is true. Haiti, was ruled by a brutal dictatorship in those years. So was DR, but in Haiti, it last longer and left a power vaccum to this very day. Haiti is also one of the poorest nations on Earth, too.
As for that Haiti has done "wrong" and what DR has done "right" is up for debate.
Haiti, has been an independant nation since the early 1800's. Where as DR, was under Spanish rule untill 1821, Haitian rule untill 1844, and Spainish rule again, untill 1865. All that time, slavery was still legal; in Haiti, it has been abolish since the Revolution. One reason why Haiti is so poor, is because it was forced to pay 150 million francs to France as a way of payment that France lost because of the abolition of slavery. This, among other things, is the factor for the level of poverty in Haiti.
Also I seem to recall like Haitian dictators were a tad more into embezzlement and corruption than Dominican ones. Trujillo had one of the most obsessive personality cults in history, but I didn't think he embezzled quite as much as the Duvalliers. (Looking him up I'm less certain of this.)
That is true. Haiti, was ruled by a brutal dictatorship in those years. So was DR, but in Haiti, it last longer and left a power vaccum to this very day. Haiti is also one of the poorest nations on Earth, too.
As for that Haiti has done "wrong" and what DR has done "right" is up for debate.
Haiti, has been an independant nation since the early 1800's. Where as DR, was under Spanish rule untill 1821, Haitian rule untill 1844, and Spainish rule again, untill 1865. All that time, slavery was still legal; in Haiti, it has been abolish since the Revolution. One reason why Haiti is so poor, is because it was forced to pay 150 million francs to France as a way of payment that France lost because of the abolition of slavery. This, among other things, is the factor for the level of poverty in Haiti.
First of all, the Dominican Republic abolished slavery in 1822 and gained its first independence from Spain in 1821 and its second independence from Haiti in 1844.
Furthermore, the difference in development between the two countries started once the Dominican Republic was ruled by the Trujillo dictatorship, starting in 1930. Until that year, the Dominican Republic was a chaotic country with constant revolutions and military coups that prevented any significant development. The Trujillo dictatorship brought peace to the country for the first time in its history and started an industrialization program until the end of the dictatorship which was in 1961 with his assassination.
Development really took off in the Dominican Republic once democracy was reestablished after 1961, with the government putting strong emphasis on tourism, mining, agriculture and manufacturing sectors; as well as vigorously expanding the infrastructure to support the new economic model. In the 1970s the Dominican Republic experienced the fastest economic growth rate in all of Latin American, leading many economist to call it the Dominican Miracle. In that decade for the first time in its history a sizable middle class emerged.
Then the country had another boom in the 1990s with one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world. By this time the country's middle class had balloon to become the largest in the Caribbean and Central American region. The current decade has been very interesting with a crisis in the first half and very fast recuperation in the second half. As of right now, the Dominican Republic has the largest economy and largest middle class in the Central American/Caribbean region, and a secure and stable democracy.
In the environmental sphere, the many terms president Joaquin Balaguer had from the late 1960s to 1996 made the Dominican Republic an example of environmental preservation. In his terms the Dominican Republic became the country with the most land (as a percentage) in the Western Hemisphere being protected in national parks and scientific reserves, his industrialization policies also encouraged rural-urban migration which reduced the population pressures on the environment in rural areas, and his subsidy programs targeted products such as cooking gas which made it cheaper than charcoal or wood for cooking, and with that considerably slowed down deforestation. The government placed much attention to public health, which has resulted in a slower and manageable birth rate, high life expectancy, a continuously declining infant mortality rate, etc. Attention was also given to expanding public education with today most kids attending school, technological development has been so intense that the Dominican Republic enjoys a near first world telecommunication sector. This has actually lead to some interesting contrasts, because even the most remote villages where life is very traditional, wifi internet and cellular phone technology is readily available.
In Haiti the Duvalier dictatorships never implemented a development strategy, no industrialization, no environmental protection, no subsidies to discourage the use of charcoal as cooking fuel, no urbanization. With an exploding population and no prospects for development, Haiti simply remained severely underdeveloped.
In 1930 the Dominican Republic and Haiti were identical in development. Same GDP per capita, very similar social indicators, etc. Today, the Dominican Republic is years ahead of Haiti in almost every field, to such a degree that the Dominican Republic now suffers an illegal immigration problem from Haiti similar to what the United States is going through with Mexico and Central America. While much of Haiti has been ravaged by deforestation, much of the Dominican Republic remains lush and green. Haiti is one of the least visited countries in the world, the Dominican Republic is the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean receiving more tourists than larger countries like Brazil, Argentina or Peru.
Things seem to finally be going the right way in Haiti. As of late, Haiti has been showing a consistent economic growth rate of over 3% per year, which is better than what existed before which was either 0% or negative growth. The government is much more stable albeit with very weak institutions. I think Rene Preval has been doing a much better job than many of his predecessors in Haiti.
An interesting insight into explaining the differences between the Dominican Republic and Haiti would be Jared Diamond's book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed", he devotes an entire chapter on those two countries.
This interesting photo is of the Dominican-Haitian border. On the right is the Dominican Republic and on the left is Haiti. Guess where the border lies...
It certainly does. I will put that book on my Amazon wishlist. Incidentally, my friend met Aristide before he came to power, and was not over-impressed.
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