WITH THE Caribbean Community's preoccupation over the impending demise of its sugar industry, we can understand that this was one important aspect of Prime Minister Patterson's recent talks in London with the British Prime Minister. However, with Mr. Blair preparing then for the G8 Summit, we consider it a missed opportunity by Mr. Patterson that he did not demand that Mr. Blair's plans for Africa should be extended beyond that continent to one country in the Caribbean.
While public order and security in Haiti continue to deteriorate, that country's ability to escape its deepening quagmire is being compounded by a worsening economy. The situation has been baldly stated by the International Monetary Fund in its recent report on Haiti's economy. "Economic and social conditions in Haiti deteriorated significantly during the early 2000s," it says, in part. "The political turmoil in early 2004 and the devastating floods in May and September compounded these difficulties and led to a contraction of real GDP by 3.75 per cent in 2003/04." It adds: "This resulted in economic stagnation, high inflation, and widespread unemployment."
These economic setbacks, for a country already among the poorest in the world, will compound the political and security problems that have plagued it for years. The plans for elections later this year, despite the extensive financing by the European Union and the United States, appear at this stage unlikely to end the decades-old problems.
The daily clashes between party political factions, and the ineffectiveness of Haiti's poorly equipped and undermanned constabulary, despite support from UN peacekeepers, have increased uncertainty about the elections. Haitians, increasingly losing credibility in Gérard Latortue, the interim prime minister, may themselves consider the elections as being of little importance to their problems. Neither Mr. Latortue, nor the Americans and the French who promised salvation after the departure 17 months ago of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, have been able to deliver on the promises. The IMF's report card indicates that they are failing on all fronts.
Mr. Patterson and his CARICOM colleagues last week promised to help Haiti towards credible elections, and maintained that Haiti's ticket back into CARICOM is an elected government.
All economic indicators put Haiti in the G8's list of countries that need immediate help. It may not be too late for Haiti's neighbours to ask that the country be added to the G8 list. Whatever success may be obtained in papering over Haiti's security problems, no meaningful improvement will be achieved unless the country gets immediate and significant economic help.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
