Esa's Notebook

Haiti’s problems continue. Armed gangs control e.g. Haiti’s capital almost entirely. There is no infrastructure and no functioning government. According to the World Food Program, millions of people are at risk of famine.

A Finnish Professor of World Politics Teivo Teivainen stated on 13.3. in Yle Aamu (Finnish Broadcasting Company) that “Haiti was the first country where slaves freed themselves. As if in retaliation for this, to show that freeing slaves does not pay, foreign powers put all sorts of reprisals on Haiti that lasted for decades. And as a result, the country is a very weak state.”

Teivainen represents left-wing intellectuals who have adopted this “mantra” for decades: foreign  – especially Western  – countries have paralyzed the progress of developing countries through their own actions: colonialism, the slave trade, the exploitation of natural resources, etc.

Magatte Wade is a Senegalese entrepreneur by birth and a well-known lecturer and influencer. He has commented on the development and state of poor countries in Africa. In his opinion, the colonialism of the 1800s and 1900s is not the reason why African countries are in a bad state today. The blame lies with the countries themselves. The main reason is Marxism-socialism, which countries resorted to when they became independent. According to him, all the leaders of African countries that became independent in the 60s were socialists or some even communists. The socialist system did not build prosperity in Africa as it has not elsewhere. In the absence of entrepreneurship, the economies of these countries are not sound.

Countries in trouble should be helped, and those who have money and food and resources to send will help. But it is the responsibility of the countries themselves to do their best to improve conditions.

Developing countries, including Haiti, are themselves responsible for their own development. Since the 60s, and since Christian missionary work in the late 1800s, the West has been trying to help developing countries get back on their feet. Money has been given, experts have been provided to build infrastructure, food assistance has been given, etc. Yet countries have not been able to get back on their feet in this more than 60-year period. Nor can they if the West blames itself all the time and pours more and more aid without any regard for the internal situation. In many African countries – and in Haiti too – those in power do have the money to arm young men into their armed gangs, often with Russian or Chinese influence, but not to guarantee the well-being of their inhabitants.

Countries themselves have a responsibility for the well-being of their own citizens, for building a state and for creating infrastructure. You cannot escape that responsibility decade after decade by accusing the West of exploitation and colonialism. Recognizing it would be the first step towards building peaceful societies in developing countries.

(Figure Pixabay)