Jerry Agar Reports from Haiti
I am in Pignon, a rural town in the center of the country. It is on Highway 3, which would seem to suggest an easy drive. Have you ever taken a drive along a place cut out of the land by a raging river? That is Highway 3and I am not exaggerating.
by Jerry Agar
Why do some national populations live in poverty while others are better off?
Is it due to an accident of geography that leaves some with resources that allow financial gain?
Are some people just more industrious and perhaps even a bit smarter?
Haiti is in the news right now due to the devastation of the earthquake, but the damage was done to this nation far before the earth shifted. And Haiti is in a geographic location that gives us a snapshot of how a financial gap develops.
I am in Pignon, a rural town in the center of the country. It is on Highway 3, which would seem to suggest an easy drive. Have you ever taken a drive along a place cut out of the land by a raging river? That is Highway 3and I am not exaggerating.
Haiti shares an Island with the Dominican Republic. The geography is the same.
The Dominican Republic reminded me a bit of Mexico, with third-world style shops the size of an American bedroom, some of them selling whatever it is the proprietor is cooking over the propane or charcoal fire. The roads are decent enough and the buildings seem solid, if poor.
To enter Haiti from the DR is simply a matter of crossing a political line in the sand. But in the second it takes to step across that line the world changes.
The roads and alleys run with water. Drainage is sometimes through small ditches dug right across yards and roads. Buildings are crumbling from shoddy construction materials and methods. Roofs are of tin and thatch, if there is an adequate roof at all.
If the children have a yard to play in, it is a small patch of dirt that they share with the chickens.
The people walk, drive small motorcycles and bicycles, or ride donkeys.
Yet they show an industrious nature. We had a flat tire on Highway 3 go figure and a man with all the tools he could carry in hand was there by the road, looking for just such business. People are lined up along the roads selling fruit, candy, cooked goods and clothing.
It is not the people I am sure.
It can’t be the geography.
It must be the government.
I will expand on that soon. I have to sign off.
They want to shut off the generator.