Although roads now link the north coast city of Cap Haitian and the south coast city of Jacmel, roads within Port-au-Prince are a shambles, overburdened by increasing numbers of autos. The country's infrastructure is in sad shape. law allows only for political refugees, not "economic" refugees. Coast Guard stops and "repatriates" them because U.S. Others, squander their savings trying to escape by leaky sailboats to Florida the U.S. Three quarters of the people are rural they eke out a subsistence existence on farms whose average size is under two acres, and those who can't get enough to eat on the farms come to the towns and cities-principally Port-auPrince, the capital-to live in squalor that is unimaginable to most Americans. Its mountains, reaching 8,800 feet above sea level, were stripped of timber by the French. Haiti, the crown jewel of France's 18th Century Caribbean colonies, is an economic disaster today. Its six million people average only a quarter of the per capita income of the Dominican Republic, which occupies the eastern two thirds of the island of Hispaniola. In the Third World it joins a half dozen distant African nations, independent only a decade or two, as "least developed".
Napoleon's army was beaten and withdrew in 1804.īut Haiti today remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with a per capita annual income of only $320, according to the World Bank. Independence followed a 13-year revolution led by such historic figures as Toussaint L'Ouverture. In the year 2004 Haiti will have been an independent nation for two centuries. The Marines remained in Haiti for 19 years they were finally withdrawn by President Roosevelt in 1934.Īnother "poem on stone"-written in French, as all are-asks this question: "How can we celebrate our bicentenary (of independence) wearing the cap of `least developed'?" He was killed by the Marines-and some Haitian treachery in 1919, and the resistance collapsed.
Marines when they occupied this Maryland-sized Caribbean nation during and after World War I. One is dedicated to the memory of Charlemagne Peralte, who was a brilliant, young Haitian army general who led a guerrilla action against the U.S.
Haitian poet Jean-Claude Chery has carefully written his poetry in India ink on dozens of large, flat stones. PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti-The French Cultural Center on Harry Truman Boulevard in this swarming city of more than 800,000 people is holding an exhibit entitled "Poems on Stones."