I mean sort of safe. "Haiti safe." Reed Lindsay reports:
Today, Haiti’s reputation is undeserved, say security analysts and
officials from the U.N. peacekeeping mission. They argue that Haiti is
no more violent than any other Latin American country. "It’s
a big myth," said Fred Blaise, spokesman for the U.N. police force in
Haiti. "Port-au-Prince is no more dangerous than any big city. You can
go to New York and get pickpocketed and held at gunpoint."
He may not be a totally objective and disinterested observer. How about this:
Reliable statistics are scarce in Haiti, but U.N. data indicate that the country could be among the safest in the region. The U.N. peacekeeping mission recorded 487 homicides in Haiti last year, or about 5.6 per 100,000 people.
A
U.N.-World Bank study last year estimated the Caribbean’s average
homicide rate at 30 per 100,000, with Jamaica registering nearly nine
times as many – 49 homicides per 100,000 people – as those recorded by
the United Nations in Haiti.
In 2006, the neighboring
Dominican Republic notched more than four times more homicides per
capita than those registered in Haiti: 23.6 per 100,000, according to
the Central American Observatory on Violence. Even the United
States would appear to have a higher homicide rate: 5.7 per 100,000 in
2006, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
I believe these numbers; at some margin even murder is a normal good. But most convincing, I think, is this:
Viva Rio, a Brazilian-based violence reduction group that came to Haiti
at the request of the U.N. mission’s disarmament program, has found
Port-au-Prince’s armed groups more receptive than those in Rio de
Janeiro’s slums.
Elsewhere in the country poor Haitians are eating cakes of dirt, and William Griffiths points me to this:
While
millions of Haitians go hungry, containers full of food are stacking up
in the nation’s ports because of government red tape – leaving tons of
beans, rice and other staples to rot under a sweltering sun or be
devoured by vermin.A government attempt to clean up a corrupt port system that has helped
make Haiti a major conduit for Colombian cocaine has added new layers
of bureaucracy – and led to backlogs so severe they are being felt 600
miles away in Miami, where cargo shipments to Haiti have ground almost
to a standstill.
Cost benefit question: If Haiti just let everything in without inspection (and perhaps a per-container tax), would the benefit (free-flow of goods) outweigh the costs (drugs going to the U.S.)? From a Haitian standpoint, it’s a no-brainer. From the U.S. standpoint, it’s all bad. Thus, Haitians are “starving” because of U.S. drug policy. Who does their government serve? (Answer: Follow the money: who pays the government?)
Haitians are starving, not “starving.” U.S. drug policy has nothing to do with it. Can you show another port city anywhere in the world with this kind of “U.S. drug policy” problem?
National, or even citywide, crime statistics such as murder miss one crucial point, namely that the most important factor is location, location, location.
For example, in Boston you are a lot less likely to get murdered in Beacon Hill than in Roxbury, but both locations get counted in murder stats.
Therefore the more relevant question is what are the crime rates in the areas you intend to visit? You are going to be a lot safer if your itinerary is made up of museum visits and the like as opposed to if your time is spent in red light districts.
Nice point about Viva Rio. Great website! Congrats!
A few quick responses from someone with some (limited) experience of Haiti:
(a) I’d happy to believe that Haiti’s murder rate is low – but I’m dubious about basing that on statistics from the UN force. What proportion of homicides would the UN actually be aware of? They certainly don’t have the trust of the Haitian people.
(b) Perhaps the bureaucracy problems at the port could act as an extra kind of import tariff. If that continues long enough to stimulate some domestic production, then I’m all for it. Yes, I’m a trained economist and should be in favour of free trade – but seeing how domestic agriculture has been wiped out by dumping of cheap American food is tragic.
(c) To “oops”: yes, there are some very nice hotels in Haiti, but I’m afraid they are not cheap. They are full of overpaid UN staff, journalists and “aid” workers. And don’t forget that Haiti is also an extremely unequal society: there is a minority who are very wealthy. The swanky restaurants in Port-au-Prince were out of my price range.
(d) John: sorry, but the spike in kidnappings at the end of 2005 happened at a time when nobody knew when or if the presidential election was going to be held. There didn’t seem to be many kidnappings during the election campaign itself (in February 2006), nor for several months afterwards.
Not that I have a better theory. After a year in Haiti, in which several of my friends and acquaintances were kidnapped, I still never really understood who was behind it, and why.
I am a Haitian who travels to Haiti 6 times a year and though grew up in America have always been in touch with the country and believe me, Haiti’s crime rate is not anywhere close to its neighboring countries…despite what is always being advertised, Haitians are not generally violent people.
See the trouble stems from our reputation for revolting which happens every few decades and then you have a spike in ugliness which the media then takes and turns into a negative campaign against the country…in Port Au Prince where 90 something percent of crime takes place, if you have 4 people killed within a month the news will come back that the city is under siege, it has been this way since the early 80s when I lived there…
Haiti is not an unsafe country to go to…when I am in Haiti I meet a lot of foreigners whom visit over 10 times a year and the will testify the country’s reputation stems from more myth and prejudice then reality.
Unfortunately, Reed Lindsay has disappointed us all and turned into an apologist for UN operations in Haiti. It is perhaps because he now has a vested interest by virtue of a NGO largely funded by his mother in Haiti. NGOs by definition have a vested interest in stability and presenting a rosy picture while the reality is otherwise.
http://haitiaction.net/News/HIP/4_13_8/4_13_8.html
The dire situation of Haiti’s poor went largely ignored by Alexis’ government and the United Nations. International press reports in the months leading to the open rebellion against hunger in the streets led casual observers to believe the situation was normalizing. The international press actually helped to obscure the reality of hunger and misery in Haiti. On March 8. 2008, Reed Lindsay reported in the Washington Times, “U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti say they are battling an image of fear that is keeping the Caribbean nation mired in hunger and disease, with little hope of attracting foreign visitors and investment.’ Lindsay’s fundamental point being that the only thing standing between Haiti and prosperity was merely the perception of ‘hunger and disease.’
“I am a Haitian who travels to Haiti 6 times a year and though grew up in America have always been in touch with the country and believe me, Haiti’s crime rate is not anywhere close to its neighboring countries…despite what is always being advertised, Haitians are not generally violent people.”
“Haiti is not an unsafe country to go to…when I am in Haiti I meet a lot of foreigners whom visit over 10 times a year and the will testify the country’s reputation stems from more myth and prejudice then reality.”
That may be J, but you could also be biased. It’s quite clear that Haiti doesn’t even have a proper murder rate and secondly, it IS the most dangerous place in the Caribbean anyway.
Comments on this entry are closed.