THE UNIPOLAR WORLD:

The road to recovery in Haiti: Haiti searches for an economic future in the midst of chaos. (JANE BUSSEY, 6/07/04, Miami Herald)

There is general agreement that Haiti's interim government, as well as its business sector, is facing huge challenges.

''We have to change the rules of the game,'' said Kesner Pharel, an independent economist who once worked in the Central Bank.

There is also consensus that there may not be many more opportunities to reinvent Haiti.

''The government has no choice; they have to act, not use words,'' Pharel said. ``The Haitian private sector has to look itself in the mirror and ask if they have done their job, not only paying taxes but by creating social capital -- health and education. Otherwise, they will not be able to live in this country.''

Haiti is hobbled by its small economy, with more than half of Haitians eking out a living as subsistence farmers. In addition, the collapse of a group of unregulated credit unions in 2002 put added strain on the middle class and created ill will toward Aristide among many small investors.

''Haiti doesn't have many choices,'' Pharel said, listing the possibilities as tourism, serving as an assembly industry platform, or growing niche crops like specialty coffee.

For now it is the United States that sustains the economy; buying the bulk of exports, sending aid and serving as the source of remittances from Haitians who have left the country. ''We are living off the United States,'' Pharel said.

Even the country's drug trade, which has become a significant but unmeasurable part of the economy, is tied to the United States as Haiti increasingly serves as a jumping off point for cocaine shipments to the north.

We may as well build them a nation since they depend on us anyway.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 7, 2004 9:20 AM