Manifest Destiny

Some of the protests can be more dangerous. These are the ones the media love to focus on. All planned and calculated with distributed announcements throughout the country via WhatsApp and Facebook, opposing powers will rally the young and angry together. They will pay young men to create roadblocks to disrupt commerce and life in the community.

To build a roadblock in Haiti, one must be creative. They can be constructed of large chunks of broken concrete, broken down vehicles from parts to entire 18-wheelers, large and small branches and old tires that make billowing fires; really anything nearby to make a road impassable for most vehicles. Motorbikes can usually scoot through on a sidewalk or a slim opening in the roadblock, like a football receiver making his way through the defenders.

What Anger?

That for more than 15 years, the entire population has been left to deal with life without infrastructure, order, or a foreseeable future. Some of the protesters have never had a reliable way of life.

A major factor in the current state of Haiti is the result of the PetroCaribe program. The government was supposed to use the almost $4 billion dollars raised to fund infrastructure and healthcare projects. They claimed to have funded 400 such projects. However, the sun-washed sign outside the landfill that boasts of a park to be built on that land by Aug of 2017, says otherwise.

The missing funds and blatant corruption didn’t spark these protests until after summer 2018, when inflation was up, the goude (their currency) was down and the government tried to sneak exorbitant fuel taxes during a Brazil football match (Haiti’s favorite football club who happen to lose that game). Gilbert Mirambeau, a Haitian videographer living in Canada, Tweeted his frustration at the economic situation with a photo of himself, blindfolded, asking “Where is the PetroCaribe money?”

President Moïse has denied any wrongdoing and stated that he will not step down, despite the ongoing protests. He is still currently serving in office.

Why Hope?

The belief or wish that there might be different vision for this magical, lush tropical green land, that now is destitute, deforested, and continually beaten down by human and climatic systems.

Meanwhile, families have already paid their school fees this year, but because of the protests and the lack of gas, they haven’t been able to send their kids to school. The children are threatened by the bandits. For some schools that have opened, the children go without their school uniforms on (as not to draw attention to themselves). Education is a privilege that few can afford, or afford to miss.

In a world without fuel and without jobs, there’s nothing to do. Except protest. Each week, the protests continue.