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Posted on 01/09/2012 7:05:07 AM PST by C19fan
HAITI wasn’t always the “poorest nation in the Western hemisphere,” though it’s almost impossible to read about the country today without coming across that phrase. In the two years since the earthquake that devastated it, Haiti has experienced political conflict and its first ever cholera epidemic; hundreds of thousands of the displaced are still living in makeshift tents strewn like dusty flags by the sides of highways. It is easy to forget that, for most of the 19th century, Haiti was a site of agricultural innovation, productivity and economic success.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You're doing OK so far.
With a population of 10,000,000 this works out to 29.6 sq. ft for every man, woman and child. Yes, every person on the island has less than 30 sq. ft.
No it doesn't. Do your math again.
You are correct ... ~30,000 sq ft per person.
Plenty of room for growth. So, they have the land, they have the resources - and looks like they have chronic laziness.
But your premise is flawed, so the question is flawed.
If your figures (population / land area) are correct (i didn't check them), then I figure there are 29,665 sq. feet, or about 2/3 of an acre for each man woman and child. Subtract uninhabitable land and that's maybe half an acre each.
Not a great luxury, but not the 5x6 foot plot you imagine.
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“- and looks like they have chronic laziness.”
No.
The devil has the people by the throat.
The chief thing they lack is belief in themselves.
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Well, no. You dropped a few decimal points somewhere. Three, I think.
296,654,054,400 sq. feet / 10,000,000 = 29,654 sq. ft. not 29.6 sq. ft.
Which is about 0.68 acre. Enough in theory to grow food to support a person.
Of course much of Haiti is extremely mountainous, and much of the rest has been eroded and its productive capacity largely destroyed.
The article makes IMO unjustified claims that Haiti through most of the 19th century was a tropical self-supporting Eden, until the evil USA came in and forced the people into cities.
At best Haiti during this period was a subsistence farming economy. While such is often idealized, you will note that damn few of the idealizers ever volunteer to actually live this life.
Laurent DuBois is smoking some potent Rastafarian dope if he thinks Haiti can be rich with its current population.
It is a failed state and a permanent, international welfare dependency.
To make it rich, the current residents would have to be shipped off to another part of the world and a new people, intelligent, enterprising, and self-reliant, imported.
At that point, it could indeed become not only rich but self-sustaining.
Peculiar people: they don’t mind embracing satan (voodooism), but they just can’t stand we white folks for something the French and British did eons ago.
But they haven't hesitated to embrace the billions of US taxpayer dollars a succession of misguided US presidents have thrown away on Haitian aid of every sort imaginable.
Haiti has no chance.
It will fall to African levels of poverty and stay there. African levels of disease, African levels of intelligence and African levels of violence.
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You nailed it.
There is hope for any country that turns from false gods to God Almighty.
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and change their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive them and heal their land.
God will transform and prosper any nation that turns to Him.
It you compare Haiti to the African country where most of the Haiti’s ancestors came from in chains they have almost identical level of GDP per capita, and other developmental indicators.
But there are about 40 other countries with a greater population density than Haiti.
For starters here are a few: Bermuda, Malta, Taiwan, Mauritius, Barbados, South Korea, Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, Japan, El Salvador, Guam, India.
Some of these countries have a density more than twice that of Haiti. Taiwan is just slightly larger in land mass but has a population density approaching 2,000 people per square mile.
Haiti's primary problem isn't its land mass, it is the Haitians and their culture.
| Country | Population Density | GDP Per Capita |
| USA | 87.4/sq mi | $48,147 |
| Japan | 873.1/sq mi | $45,774 |
| Haiti | 907.22/sq mi | $673 |
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Doesn’t help that they have deforested the land (mostly to make charcoal) and caused massive erosion. A plot of land isn’t worth much unless it has decent topsoil.
“How did a land mass that is utterly incapable of supporting this population, become so densely populated?”
Lots and lots of sex.
Haiti was known as the “Pearl of the Antilles” when it was a colony. After independence it became what it is now, and it won’t change absent a complete worldview transformation. I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.
Haiti is just a big welfare camp. We can see what that sort of society produces.
And lots and lots of foreign aid.
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