Haiti Is Collapsing: Here's Why

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Published 2024-04-19
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Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital of 2.8 million people where over 300 gangs battle relentlessly for control of the city.

The Haitian President is dead. The acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry is stuck in Puerto Rico. Gangs now control 80% of the capital. Each with their own expanding territories backed up by young men wielding American military grade weapons. The police are outgunned and outnumbered.

Haiti is on the edge of collapse, grappling with crippling overlapping catastrophes.

These catastrophes are not random. They are the bitter fruits of centuries of exploitation, foreign interventions, an apocalyptic 2010 earthquake, decades of dodgy elections and coups, a vicious 29 year father son dictatorship, theft by foreign NGOs, rampant corruption, and a 122 year long debt forced on the country by their former slave-masters.

Haiti is collapsing, gangs might seize control of a sovereign nation, and this is the centuries long story of why.

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SOURCES:

Notion Site with Sources: amethyst-math-c9c.notion.site/Haiti-Sources-91334e…


Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/creator

Video/Images provided by Getty Images and Archive.org

Maps provided by maptiler/Geolayers

All Comments (21)
  • @lamina11
    This is more like a horrror film than a documentary
  • Small correction. The 150 million Francs equaled 3000% of Haiti's yearly revenue at that time, not just 300%
  • @jayschaffer7520
    I appreciate how, because of the seriousness of this topic, Cogito did not use the animations that he is famous for. Thank you for treating this topic with the seriousness this deserves.
  • @cea90
    I was a medic in the Army while I was in Haiti for the 2010 Earthquake. I'd like to add a insight to the NGO situation in 2010 in Haiti. I met a lot of great first responder NGOs who put their lives on hold to immediately respond to Haiti out of care. I also met a lot of NGOs that had been in the country for multiple years that are nothing more than leaches to the Haitian people. I was attached to the command group of my unit a few weeks in, and with this position I visited a vast majority of Port-Au-Prince and the surrounding area for meetings and area assessments. One meeting always stood out to me. We went to the outskirts of haiti to visit some Religious NGO that to see about using their facilities to allow soldiers to R&R. I remember walking into the guarded compound and inside there were beautiful buildings, green grass, well maintained landscaping, swimming pools, movie theaters, you name it. If I saw 50 people in the compound, maybe 3 were Haitian. I remember thinking to myself, these people aren't helping Haitians, this is a god damn vacation for them.
  • @jeminigemi
    Correction: Haiti Collapsed. Past tense.
  • @jesstheyogacat
    Small note about the Creole Pigs: they were eradicated after it was known that they were not a threat, but to inspire locals to purchase foreign pigs. The Creole Pig was indispensable to waste disposal because they ate all manner of refuse including human, and after their extinction, the garbage and sewage problems in Haiti worsened exponentially
  • @fugu_3467
    A good reminder of no matter how bad we think we got it, it can always get worse, sooo much worse
  • @Aydin-Adam
    I live in Florida but still have a house and family in Haiti. I get my news about Haiti direct from Haiti, but have been watching a lot of the YouTube videos about the situation since the beginning of March, and this is by far the best, most comprehensive explanation I've seen. However, there are a few things I'd like to add. An important part of the problem that always gets overlooked, and quite frankly, until it gets acknowledged, nothing will ever improve. What I'm talking about is internal political strife. The nation's problems didn't start in 1825 when France demanded payment. The country wasn't a peaceful, hippy paradise between 1804 and 1825. Haitian revolutionary leader and national hero Toussaint Louverture was betrayed to the French by fellow national hero, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines lead the country (brutally, using forced labor) for only 2 years until he was assassinated in 1806. And that's just the beginning. That's pretty much been the story since even before independence. And until we're honest with ourselves and confront this head-on, it will only continue to be more of the same. Haiti is essentially a zero trust society. Nobody trusts anybody. Just during these past few years there have been people who have kidnapped their own family members for ransom. Everyone was demanding Ariel's resignation (another point that was overlooked is the fact that he was never confirmed as PM as per the Constitution). He finally announced that he would resign as soon as a presidential council and new government were formed. That was over a month ago and this is FINALLY happening. All due to those involved being unable to agree. Too many people put themselves above the interest of the nation. And it's everywhere. There's a culture of corruption deeply embedded in the society as a whole. Until this mentality changes and we have a generation of people who seek to defend the interests of the country as a whole, there will just continue to be more people fighting for power. A house divided cannot stand. So, yeah, Haiti has been given a bad hand by foreign interference and natural catastrophes. But the nation has also suffered due to things that CAN be controlled. And until we hear a political class and business sector acknowledge these things and commit to turn away from the division to work united for the sake of all (l'union fait la force), nothing will improve.
  • @velocityxm
    “Chaired by famous Haitian: Bill Clinton! 😂
  • @evamaynard3021
    This is utterly infuriating. How do we collectively pay into governments that perpetrate these atrocities? Everywhere!
  • @grapeape780
    The French demanding reparations from their former slaves is baffling.
  • This video just tore down every illusion I had ever held about karma, justice, and righteousness. Strength is the only thing that matters in this world.
  • @SgtRocko
    OUTSTANDING, Cogito! I am not Haitian, but I've lived there several times, am fluent in Kreyol Ayisyen, and have LOTS of friends and in-laws in Haiti. THANK YOU for putting this up. Haiti was pretty much doomed from the get-go. The LOVELY French - who laughed off their war debt to the United States, yet throttled Haiti for 120 YEARS... The enforced isolation, a population that was basically just off the slave boat founding a society after suffering some of the most hideous atrocities of any slave society... Somehow she has managed to rise up, and always been slapped down. I am VERY impressed that you didn't back off from mentioning how monstrous the Clintons have been to Haiti - from the destruction of the rice industry (which Bill & Hillary made a FORTUNE from by ensuring their Arkansas farmer buddies - who paid the Clintons WELL - got the bulk of the benefits) to the destruction of the pork farmers, and then the ghastly, utterly ghoulish looting of 99% of the Earthquake aid... let's just say the flag of Haiti should be vampire Bill & Hillary feeding on the neck of a Haitian child. Cogito - this angers me, yet I am SO happy to see you telling it how it really is.
  • @donvientofresco
    As an argentinian and fellow latin-american , i feel ashamed of all our american countries for leaving Haiti alone to rot. It's and was the true and original beacon of liberty and democracy.
  • @divoltious
    Never have I seen a video raising my body temperature so badly. It's so infuriating to hear all the terrible stuff done to my ancestor's country. I've been looking for more information and now I'm learning there's even MORE. I hate it so bad
  • @sapphicwriter
    I’m Haitian American and I am very grateful my parents came to USA in the 1990s. They struggled heavily in their youth and sad at what the nation is now.
  • The fact that anyone's still alive in Haiti is a testament to the human spirit. I really hope they get to experience prosperity someday. I also hope the US can be a force for good rather than exploitation in Haiti.
  • @PakBallandSami
    "With no education, you have neocolonialism instead of colonialism, like you've got in Africa now and like you've got in Haiti. So what we're talking about is there has to be an educational program. That's very important." --Fred Hampton this is just true