Introduction
Developing countries are faced with various problems, the main one being poverty. Recent researches show that in most of these countries, the rich continue to be rich each day while the poor becomes poorer. Unlike in the developed countries like United Kingdom, economical imbalance is very common in the developing countries.
There is the class of the rich elites and the class of the illiterate poor. The minority rich in these countries own factors of production, giving them power to acquire even more wealth. This creates an economic imbalance where one fraction has a stronger economic power, while the other bracket suffers from poverty.
Several bodies including the United Nations and World Bank have come together with an aim of alleviating extreme poverty in the member countries, especially the living conditions of those living below one dollar a day in these developing countries. This has however, remained very elusive due to the leadership of these countries. These people lack the necessities that include food, clothing, and shelter.
The World Bank in 2001 reported that the level of poverty in some of these countries is one the increase due to leadership practices that are based on greed and self interest (Hill & Jones 2010, p. 67). While poverty level is reported to reduce in developed countries, in some countries like Haiti, people are still in absolute poverty. This research will focus on poverty in Haiti. This paper seeks to ascertain the argument that poverty of poor countries is due to the wealth of the rich.
Poverty in Haiti
Haiti is a Caribbean country occupying some portions of Hispaniola Island. This nation is recorded to be the first to gain independence in the Caribbean community in the year 1804. Within the western hemisphere, Haiti is ranked as the poorest country. Researches show that approximately 80% of the rural population in Haiti lives in extreme poverty.
Haiti’s income per capita of $250 is considered a tenth less than the average of that in Latin American (Evans 2012, p. 78). This nation is also very popular among the Caribbean community, known to be the poorest in America as per the measurements of the Human development Index (Hooley 2008, p. 190).
Worldwide, Haiti nation is categorized as one of the poorest countries. The life expectancy for Haiti is only 57 years compared to 69 for Latin Americans. This is because of inadequate healthcare facilities. Almost three quarters of the Haitians are illiterate.
This is worsened by the fact that the country has limited natural resources that they can use to develop themselves. The nature of poverty in this nation is associated with several factors. The rich class in Haiti has greatly contributed to the current status of the majority poor in this country. The current government is trying to come up with measures that can help mitigate the current state of poverty in this country.
The Historical Perspective of Poverty of this Country
From the historical perspective, the current poverty levels of Haiti nation can be viewed on various grounds. The Hispaniola Island, which a third of it falls under the current Haiti, attracted many Europeans in the pre-colonial period. The coming of Europeans to the island brought so many issues that directly affected Haiti people several years after their departure. The Europeans came to this land to colonize the people around this place.
When the slaves were released following the abolition of slave trade and slavery, all the slaves were settled in this land which later became the Haiti state. The rich Europeans and Americans enslaved many Haitian for several years and when they were freed, they were not given any economical support to start a strong nation.
Haiti slaves used to work in the agricultural lands for these rich farmers and in their businesses without any pay. These colonizers acquired a lot of wealth from the coffee, sugar plantations, and other businesses because of slave labor. These two factors explain the root cause of poverty in this country.
The enslaved Haitians were treated ruthlessly and with a lot of hatred leading to the death of many. Enslavement brought the practice of voodoo religion that led to the rise of the class system that is present in Haiti to date.
These people resigned to their fate, and believed that they were a third class people, and nothing could be done to change this. Among these slaves was a minority group comprising of the Catholics who were light skinned, and were able to speak the French language (Hooley 2008, p. 17).
These were treated with some little concern as compared to the blacks who were not able to read, write and did not believe in Christianity. This majority group practiced the voodoo religion and spoke Creole language. They were considered by the ruling class as people who could not hold any position of leadership in the society, however junior the position.
The minority class took the available leadership positions and when slavery was brought to an end, they acquired most of the available resources that were left by the whites. This was the genesis of the rich class and the poverty-ridden Haitians in this country. The rich class ensured that the trend that was left by the whites is maintained.
They embraced segregation based on the level of wealth owned by them. The two social classes had different service resources like schools and health centers. This contributed to the status of Haiti witnessed today. History has it that in the 1780’s, Haiti was a relatively stable state with a very strong agricultural sector and transport system by world standards then. It grew coffee, sugarcanes, cocoa, and cotton.
These agricultural products attracted so many Europeans and French in the markets. These two groups started relying so much on the Haitian agricultural products to help them develop their industries in their homeland. However, these nations ensured that these products were taken at cheap prices with the help of the puppets they left in power when the country was declared independent. This greatly contributed to the fall of the economy of the Haiti, a state they are yet to recover from to date.
Corruption in Haiti
The vice of corruption is very common in most governments of developing countries. Corruption is commonly exercise by those in power in any these countries because on self interests. According to the Transparency International index report, Haiti is ranked among the countries that are most corrupt (Ferrell 2011, p. 112).
This report outlines a clear relationship between corruption and poverty in Haiti.Corruption leads to poverty in many aspects. Practice of this vice results into lowered rate of economic of growth. The systems of taxation are biased and there is unequal distribution and access to resources. In Haiti, due to high corruption rates, international donors are always hesitant in assisting them.
In 1994, charitable organizations gave the nation 2.6 billion dollars with an aim of assisting the poor Haitians. This donation cannot be accounted for to date. It is reported that in Haiti, those in power highly abuse their offices for their personal benefits. Corruption in Haiti is wide spread and felt in all aspects of life which include social, political, and economic spectrum. Socially, corruption features in a number of areas.
In Haiti, less than a half of the population has access to medical health care. The majority can only afford ill-equipped hospitals which offer very poor services. The minority group has the best medical health centers with the best services. In schools, very few get access to quality education services with the families of the rich acquiring having access to best schools. Those who take the social leadership are the elites who own factors of production and therefore, have the capacity to corrupt their way to power.
Politically, the vice is manifested in many ways in this country. The Haiti leaders are very corrupt. They use their political power and privileges not for the support and benefit of the nation but for their own gains. The law of this nation is modeled in a way to favor the rich.
There law does not address areas like land tenure, bank operations and regulations, administration of the country’s income, and many other areas. The law is meant to benefit the rich. Despite this, those in power always ensure that this law is poorly implemented to their favor.
According to Gerber (2008, p. 83), the law favors the rich while discriminates against the poor in the community. The Haitian law states the penalties for criminals and officials practicing corruption (Ferrell 2011, p. 118). This law however, has not been implemented effectively. Many government officials found engaging in corrupt dealings in their offices and impunity are not prosecuted. They would find their way to freedom, and back to their office by compromising the corridors of justice.
High levels of corruption in Haiti have great impacts on the economic status of the poor in this country. Corruption makes both the foreign and local investors in the country to shy off from this country.
The only groups that have invested in this country are the few elites who can afford to give out bribes. Comparing Haiti and other developing countries around the world, this nation is one of the lowest in the per capita income. Generally, corruption is viewed as the main contributor of poverty in Haiti.
Poor Haiti Governance
Haiti nation is highly faced with poor governance, worsening the level of poverty in this nation. After revolution, those elected to power turned into tyrants. Instead of governing the nation for the benefit of all Haitians, these leaders’ main objective was to protect and maintain their power irrespective of the means.
When ‘Papa Doc’ was elected into power in 1957, he did not deliver as was expected. Although interested in improving the living standards of many within the countryside, he also majored in ways of protecting his leadership (Handlechner 2008, p. 118). On his election, the Haitians thought he was a source of hope for the poor nations.
Their hopes and expectations were turned down, worsening their poor situation. When the son took over after his father’s death, a series of economic problems were experienced in Haiti. He neglected the interests of Haitians completely and introduced a lot of bureaucracy to the investors.
He instead mismanaged all the revenues from charity bodies and World Bank. Jean Claude Duvalier consumed all the revenues in his luxurious lifestyle with other few Haitian elites when he came to power (Gountas & Mavudo 2008, p. 78). This was a high contributor to Haitian poverty levels.
The Haiti government, apart from being poor and corrupt, is full of bureaucracy. For the foreigners and those from the majority poor to invest they have to follow several procedures which delay the process and finally discourage them from investing in the country. The competitive ability of most of the Haiti firms in the world market is poor. This is because of lack of government support. As such, the rate of unemployment in the country is very high. This has worsened the economic status of the poor.
Conclusion
The discussion above demonstrates that poverty of poor countries is directly related to the wealth of the rich. The rich have factors of production which enables them to generate more wealth. This means that the rich can generate more wealth at the expense of the poor. This is worsened by the fact that the rich uses their wealth to get to position of power in the country. Once in power, the engage in corrupt deals that make the poor poorer while making them wealthier.
List of References
Evans, D 2012, Poverty in the contemporary world, Wiley Indianapolis.
Ferrell, C 2011, Corruption in the third world countries, Cengage Learning, New York.
Gerber, K 2008, Fighting poverty in Africa and other third world countries, Pearson Education, Cape Town.
Gountas, J & Mavudo, F 2008, Poverty: A Decision-Focused Approach, McGraw-Hill, North Ryde.
Handlechner, M 2008, The poor states in the world, GRIN Verlag GmbH, München.
Hill, C & Jones, G 2010, Strategic management theory: an integrated approach, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA.
Hooley, G 2008, Poverty Management, FT Prentice Hall, Harlow.