Avoiding a Long American Occupation of Haiti: Lessons Learned

In December 1908, the President of Haiti, Nord Alexis, attempted one last, desperate, act before leaving office; spiriting his family away to the safety of Jamaica, then New Orleans, to escape the rising tumult in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. I give thanks that he was successful, for Nord Alexis was my ancestor. His foresight, in getting his family out of Haiti and into the U.S., made my life, with the freedom, opportunity, and prosperity that only America can offer, possible. My story is just one of many strange incidents connecting Haiti and the United States over the past hundred years. With the devastation wreaked by the recent earthquake, it is clear that a new chapter in Haitian-U.S. relations is about to be written.

Americans should be proud of our quick response to the devastating earthquake that has wiped out virtually all services, businesses, schools, and institutions in Port-au-Prince. Our President, Barack Obama, has moved government resources and emergency management experts to the area without hesitation, debate or delay.

Within hours, the US Air Force had reestablished air control and the long line of aid and assistance began to flow. The Army’s 82, All-American Division, is already on the ground helping to reassert law and order, as well as assist in the difficult job of distribution of relief aid. Each day more planes arrive in Haiti, with even more assistance.

More impressively, American citizens and private companies have already raised millions in relief with more on the way. Dozens of organizations such as the American Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, and Salvation Army, have already mobilized their resources and are on the ground providing relief efforts in a hundred different ways.

Other countries are stepping up and making noble efforts as well, but the vast majority of the aid flowing into Haiti comes from the generosity of the United States. While the citizens in the U.S. are often blinded by contentious political issues (and there are many) that divide us and often lead to bitter and rancorous debate, Americans can, and do, unite during periods of great and urgent need. At these times, the full weight of American resources and capabilities within government, private industry, religious groups, civic and other institutions is an impressive sight that no other country can come close to matching.

Over the next few weeks, appropriately, the relief efforts in Haiti will focus on saving lives and reestablishing basic services to provide victims of the quake with food, clean water, emergency medical assistance and basic necessities. Restoring basic services will be a monumental job, given the near total destruction of the country. But after that, experience has shown, it gets even tougher.

My ancestor, Nord Alexis, sparked a civic building boom in Haiti, while serving as President from 1902-1908. He had some success, and laid the foundations for many of the streets, most revered civic buildings, and the cathedral in Port-au-Prince, that have so recently been destroyed. He sent representatives from Haiti to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis in an attempt to develop industry contacts and trade for Haiti. But, his other efforts, to help lead Haiti toward self-sufficiency and turn away from self-defeating policies (for example, he tried to eliminate the wide spread practice of Voodoo) were largely unsuccessful.

Nor were subsequent Haitian Presidents any more successful. When Nord Alexis left office, Haiti endured a period of turmoil, with a rapid succession of seven different leaders within the next seven years, all of them run from office, until some stability was reestablished in Haiti during an American military occupation from 1915 to 1934. Despite extensive American efforts, most of Haiti’s troubles remained unresolved.

So here we are again. As a result of the devastating earthquake, America is at risk of becoming the de facto occupying authority in Haiti. Haitian government control, tenuous at best, has now collapsed, and it’s hard to imagine another outcome.

Virtually every Haitian institution, education, medical and basic civic services is gone. These institution had great problems delivering services prior to the earthquake, but now, they are not capable of functioning at all. At present, there seem to be few alternatives to a huge American effort at nation building in Haiti, as we work with the survivors to bring the most basic human services back into operation. Few in America want this, and frankly, past American efforts at nation-building have not been stunning achievements. But, one way or another, whether humanitarian, political or security focused, America is likely to be involved in Haiti for a long period of time.

Emergency aid is important. But, Americans can make the task of recovery in Haiti easier and faster if we consider long-term requirements and start planning now how to help Haitians rebuild their own country. After the first wave of emergency relief passes, we will need to wean the country from hand-outs and, instead, find innovative ways to engage Haitians in the restoration effort. We need to reach out to local Haitian businesses and entrepreneurs (and there are some local businesses already trying to help) to take an active and, ultimately, leadership role in recovery efforts that will likely last a decade.

The similarities between recent events in Haiti and the painful lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina in my own home town of New Orleans, are easily recognizable. Our goal should be to make sure Haiti doesn’t become another Katrina. One of the main reasons why the cost of rebuilding after Katrina is tens of billions of dollars and still growing, is a direct result of the government’s reliance on external sources, rather than including local businesses, in the initial efforts.

During Katrina recovery, reliance on external support led to economic downturn, migration out of the area and a tardiness in restoration of services. Whether in New Orleans or in Haiti, people need to get back to work as quickly as possible. It’s not easy to reboot an economy. Especially in Haiti. The earlier we reach out to the country’s entrepreneurs and small business people, the sooner the economic reboot can happen.

Small businesses in New Orleans, initially, were shut out of contracting and weren’t given the opportunity to use the city’s restoration and clean up as a way to get back on their feet as quickly as possible, mainly because the bureaucracy in Washington were more concerned with simple expediency.

Instead, the government, too often, awarded contracts for food services, clean water, refuse removal to large companies located in other states. But, that expediency came at great cost, and the decision to bypass local firms to aid in the recovery of New Orleans was a mistake that undermined the long term recovery of New Orleans and haunts the region still.

The problems and demands on American relief efforts in Haiti are going to be even more rigorous. The tendency will be to ignore the local, small Haitian businesses in favor of large, sophisticated global entities. Turning over recovery operations to local Haitian firms quickly, will be even harder, but it must be done to encourage autonomy and to avoid an extended American occupation.

The sooner we engage Haitian firms in their own recovery efforts, the faster Haiti can heal and stand independently without requiring outside aid. Almost a hundred years ago, my ancestor tried, and failed, to build a thriving, free enterprise system in Haiti. That task remains undone, but never has the need for support of free enterprise in Haiti been more urgent than now.