So, if you haven’t heard the recent news about Haiti, let me shed some light your way…
First, if you’ve never heard of Haiti, it’s a country located in the Caribbean. It shares the the same landmass as the Dominican Republic. Haiti was the first Black/African led Republic in the world and the first independent Caribbean country as of 1804. Haiti had one of the few successful slave revolts noted in history when they revolted against the French in a revolutionary war (that’s for another article) and won. Since then, Haiti has been going through it. Haiti has experienced everything from destructive earthquakes to horrific hurricanes.
It’s one thing if natural disasters (natural may be an overstatement) are effecting the country physically and economically, and it’s another thing when you have people that are suppose to help a country in need affecting the country physically, mentally, spiritually, and psychologically.
The U.N [United Nations] had a peacekeeping operation called MINUSTAH [United Nations Mission in Haiti] which was established as of June 1st, 2004. Originally, the mission was to establish peace within the country especially after a Haitian rebellion broke out during the time Jean-Bertrand Aristide was President. MINUSTAH was active from June 2004 to October 2017.
Now I’m not one to criticize, but WHAT T** F*** 🤬 (don’t judge me, I’m a millennial).
Are people aware of all the allegations of rape, exploitation, the cholera epidermic, and other immoral acts the U.N has racked up within this 13 year period while in Haiti? Well if you’re one of the many that isn’t aware, here’s a couple detailed articles from Global News and the Miami Herald that can give you some insight as to what presence the U.N has established in Haiti.
Not only are all these stories and reports chilling to read, but you can’t help but to get teary eyed because the mass majority of the people victimized were kids. There’s stories of peacekeepers bribing the victims with food for sex. There’s a story of a teenage boy being sodomized by a group of peacemakers and the peacemakers were recording this horrendous act. All stories will move you, but the one that really moved me was the one about Janila Jean, who was 16 at the time and still a virgin. She was lured in by a U.N peacekeeper from Brazil with a piece of bread and peanut butter. He held her at gunpoint, raped her, impregnated her, and left her to take care of this baby she didn’t ask for. She even stated in an interview ‘‘Some days, I imagine strangling my daughter to death’’. I could only imagine the trauma she’s facing and how hurt she feels looking at her daughter, not knowing if she should love her, but also not trying to hate her because she didn’t choose to come into this world the way she did.
I know there’s so much going on in the world, but reality is this, if this were to happen in a country like America or France, this story would be broadcasted on every platform.
Haiti needs help, not more devastation and disappointment. Haiti wouldn’t be in the state they are in if it wasn’t for the French, who not only lost the war against Haiti, but the French also made Haiti pay them 90 million gold francs (equivalent to modern day $21 billion US) over a 30 year period for their freedom. Haiti paid off the debt in 1893 (sounds like how student loans operate), but have been struggling since to rebuild their economy. Not only was this a shady move by the French, but the topic of reparations was downplayed after being brought back up again in 2003 by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Shortly after Aristide was ousted in 2004 [2004 Haitian coup d’ètat] the French voted unanimously to send troops to Haiti 3 days after Aristide resigned (interesting).
After all the corruption the U.N peacekeepers have created, the operation has officially ended in 2017. Now the question is, can Haiti’s police force handle the current state of Haiti with no back up?
I believe it’s time for countries (not just Haiti) to stop depending on these more prominent countries to come in an assist them. The U.N an other operations claim they are coming to aide the people, but over 10,000 people died due to a cholera outbreak in Haiti (which the U.N admits may be linked to them) and many more are traumatized. How can we continue to put our trust into these type of operations and projects when we see things like the Red Cross making $500 million dollars in aide for Haiti, but only building 6 homes. Now the U.N is exploiting innocent people. I pray for the innocent people of Haiti and pray that they stand firm. We need to bring awareness to these big stories that get little views.