{"id":5343,"date":"2010-01-21T15:23:24","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T15:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/kristof-on-haiti.html"},"modified":"2010-01-21T15:23:24","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T15:23:24","slug":"kristof-on-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/kristof-on-haiti.html","title":{"rendered":"Kristof on Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the NYTimes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Why is Haiti so poor? Is it because Haitians are dimwitted or incapable of getting their act together?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Haiti isn’t impoverished because the devil got his due; it’s impoverished partly because of debts due. France imposed a huge debt that strangled Haiti. And when foreigners weren’t looting Haiti, its own rulers were.<\/p>\n

The greatest predation was the deforestation of Haiti, so that only 2 percent of the country is forested today. Some trees have been — and continue to be — cut by local peasants<\/a>, but many were destroyed either by foreigners or to pay off debts to foreigners. Last year, I drove across the island of Hispaniola, and it was surreal: You traverse what in places is a Haitian moonscape until you reach the border<\/a> with the Dominican Republic — and jungle.<\/p>\n

Without trees, Haiti lost its topsoil through erosion, crippling agriculture.<\/p>\n

To visit Haiti is to know that its problem isn’t its people. They are its treasure — smart, industrious and hospitable — and Haitians tend to be successful in the United States (and everywhere but in Haiti).<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the NYTimes: Why is Haiti so poor? Is it because Haitians are dimwitted or incapable of getting their act together? Haiti isn’t impoverished because the devil got his due; it’s impoverished partly because of debts due. France imposed a huge debt that strangled Haiti. And when foreigners weren’t looting Haiti, its own rulers were.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nKristof on Haiti - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/kristof-on-haiti.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kristof on Haiti - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the NYTimes: Why is Haiti so poor? 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