Social Justice About Haiti

Religious Studies 2.3 - AS 90822

Task one:

Even before the earthquake, Haiti was in dire need of international aid. It was, and continues to be, among the poorest countries in the world described by numerous sources as "its own threat". Haiti is the only country in the Americas on the United Nations list of "Least Developed Countries". Research shows that Haiti has been falling behind other low-income developing countries socially and economically since the 1980s and still continues to do so.

In 2006, Haiti ranked 145th of 182 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index. About 80% of the population were estimated to be living under the poverty line in 2003. People living under the poverty line were earning only $2 per day, whereas 54% of the population were living in extreme poverty, earning around only $1 per day. Economic growth was negative in 2001 and 2002, and flat in 2003.

More than 60% of the work force is engaged in agriculture, but farming accounts for just 28% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The agricultural sector was a key factor in sustaining what was left of Haiti's economy as 2/3 of the Haitian population as the crop grown was used for either selling or feeding the people themselves.

Foreign aid made up approximately 30-40% of the national government's budget. There were various donors, the largest being the United States followed by Canada, and the European Union. Venezuela and Cuba also made numerous donations to Haiti's economy, especially after alliances were renewed in 2006 and 2007. Haiti was consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world on the Corruption Perceptions Index. Aid from the U.S. to the Haitian government was completely cut off in 2001-2004 after an election in 2000 was undecided and President Aristide was accused of many offenses. After Aristide's disappearance in 2004, foreign aid was restored, and the Brazilian army led the United Nations Stabilization Mission in a Haiti peacekeeping operation.

Haiti has had a very troubled history, during the colonial period; the French imposed a three-tiered social structure. At the top of the social and political ladder was the wealthy white population and at the bottom of the social structure were the black slaves. These slaves had been transported in from Africa. In between these two groups, a third group formed, the freedmen, most were descended from slave owners and slaves. People from the freedmen social group inherited land, became quite wealthy and owned slaves. Despite that, racial beliefs kept the freedmen inferior to even the poorest of whites. Of a population of 519,000 in 1791, 80% were slaves, 8% were whites and 5% were freedmen.

After the Haitian revolution in 1791, the country's social structure changed. The colonial ruling class and most of the white population were eliminated. The Haitian Revolution broke up plantations and distributed land among the former slaves resulting in the plantation system being largely destroyed. Throughout this whole process, the Haitian upper class lost control over agricultural land and labour, although this had been the basis of their colonial control on the economy. In order to maintain their higher economic and social position, the new Haitian upper class turned away from using agriculture as their economic basis and was more in favour of more urbanised actions, especially government.

The urban elite consisted of two groups, the urban elite and the military leadership. The urban elite were a closed group of well-educated, relatively wealthy, and French-speaking mulattoes (child born from a black and a white parent).Birth determined an individual's social position and shared values and intermarriage reinforced class unity. The military, however, was a means of development for the disadvantaged black Haitians. In an often uneasy alliance with the military, the urban elite ruled the country and kept the lower class isolated from national affairs. The urban elite promoted French standards as a way of separating themselves from the lower class. Hence the French language and manners, orthodox Roman Catholicism, and light skin were important conditions of high social position. The elite looked down on manual labour, industry, and commerce. They were more in favour of the "proper" professions, such as law and medicine. For the most part, the lower class were excluded from national affairs. Although by the 1980s, this isolation had decreased significantly. Still, economic hardship in rural areas caused many farmers to move to the cities in search of a higher standard of living, in so doing, they increased the size of the urban lower class.

Task Two:

The country of Haiti needed all the help it could get, which is where "Caritas" stepped in.

"Caritas" which can be translated as "love in action", is the Catholic agency for justice, peace and development. They work to make a real difference in the lives of people living with poverty or injustice. Gospel values and Catholic social teaching provide the foundation and framework for their work.

Before the earthquake, at least 300 staff members from Caritas were in Haiti working with the poor.

One of the reasons Caritas was there in Haiti was to help strengthen the local agriculture. The role of agriculture in the economy had reduced severely since the 1950s. Many factors over the years contributed to this decline, some of the major ones included:

* major deforestation

* low levels of agricultural technology

* people actually moving out of rural areas in search for a higher standard of living

* a lack of capital investment

* high commodity taxes

* animal and plant diseases

Although as Haiti entered the 1990s, however, the main challenge to agriculture was not economic, but ecological. Extreme deforestation, soil erosion, droughts, flooding, and the after-effects of other natural disasters all led to this agriculture problem.

Another way Caritas gave assistance to the Haitian people was by providing education for the uneducated and especially the children. Statistics for school enrolment showed that only 67% of children in Haiti would get in to primary and only 20% of them got in to secondary. Although there may have been various reasons children were not in school, the key reason would have been because of lack of capital and educational resources.

Health and nutrition was something that lacked

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