Last night I watched
this documentary about Haiti on PBS. The current conditions in that country are horrific. 80% of the 4 million citizens are unemployed. Half are illiterate. The country is 98% deforested. AIDS is rampant. Thousands die from drowning every rainy season. Corrupt government and cops, armed gangs running parts of the country, 2 ft. of garbage covering just about every bit of land in the residential and commercial areas. It's just unbelievable.
They're supposedly going to have an election in November, but with some 50 parties, 30 presidential candidates and a corrupt interim government it's hard to see how that will solve anything. In fact that candidate for Aristides party is currently in jail, and the candidate for the National Front party is the former leader of the revolutionaries that drove Aristide into exile. Then there's a group of about 10,000 who maintain that Aristide is still the rightful president, and have vowed to violently disrupt the elections.
Anyway I highly recommend the show, if you get a chance. Much of the info is on that website though.
Haiti: Unfinished Country
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