With The Times

By Haley Alphonse

The child sat on the gravelly, pungent floor and watched as people screamed for their rights to be heard. People began shouting, chanting and crying while lighting their clothes on fire, waiting for millions of Americans to hear their story—not just the headlines.

As the anarchy intensifies, people wonder how the nation will recover. Contrary to popular opinion, Port Au Prince, the country’s capital, is the actual focus of this problem. Currently, Port Au Prince occupies 95 of the 200 gangs that exist today in Haiti, primarily due to government retaliation and inflation. 

The most vital increased expense is gas prices, rising from $2.10 to nearly $4.79 making it impossible for citizens to go to work without an affordable form of transportation. As a result, citizens in Port Au Prince have begun advocating for a stronger administration.

The average Haitian resident makes approximately 500 gourdes in an 8-hour day, which equates to about $4.83 per day, or 60 cents per hour in United States currency. As the prime minister, Ariel Henry, raises everyday expenses to reach other countries on the international market, he plans to raise taxes even in the country’s current economic state.

Violence in the capital has been an issue since the assassination of the prime minister, Jovenal Moïse, on July 7, 2021, and most pray for restorative justice. In most cases, Haiti is shown being blown to shreds by careless gang members looking to express extreme hatred. However, this destructive narrative is not true for the entire country.

As America has portrayed Haitian culture through one narrative — the historically intransigent residents are regarded as dangerous and violent. However, to most Haitian citizens, Haiti is filled with culture and pride. Régine Michelle Jean-Charles, a notorious professor of Black Literature at Northeastern University, says there is hope for a better future through Haitians vocalizing their views.

“As a country of black people, people don’t want to look to us as the experts of our own culture,” Jean-Charles said. 

Her childhood was spent studying Haitian pride and passion through poetry, literature, and pop culture references, which she explains is part of her identity. “My father taught me to be very proud of my culture at such a young age,” Jean-Charles said. 

As she continues, Jean-Charles said a journalist of the Miami Herald, Jacqueline Charles, writes about Haiti in a way that other news sources do not. Charles is Haitian herself, so Jean-Charles mentions that she often writes about Haiti with desired “clarity” and “care” that other news sources overlook.

While this is true, a broadcast news story about Haiti by BBC News, the UK’s public broadcaster, is destructive. In the video, reporters show violent crime currently emerging with fires throughout the capital and the city being torn apart by angry protesters. This is a common portrayal of Haiti that reaches breaking news even though the country itself is not similar to these conditions.

As a result of the events in Port Au Prince, Haiti has been politically isolated, and the people do not know of a better future in which this violent narrative recedes. However, this all depends entirely upon government policies moving forward that can potentially lead people away from poverty. 

As a whole, Port Au Prince has been characterized by other international leaders as a “low-intensity civil war” or “a failed state,” but this only applies to a lack of proper governance. Over the years, Haiti has struggled to maintain economic stability, despite their riches after gaining independence in 1804 and becoming the world’s second independent nation.

Throughout history, many other countries have invaded Haiti, including France and the United States, which forced them into a considerable economic crisis with mountains of debt. Moving forward, the country should not be defined in the media through the single narrative of its failures, and many hope to see improvement in upcoming years.

“I’m a very hopeful person, so I think we will find a way to get out of it,” Jean-Charles said. “I’m not gonna deny that it’s very difficult right now, but I know that there are people working really hard to put justice at the center,” Jean-Charles continues.