🇭🇹 Haiti

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country — 11.7 million people with a GDP of about $20 billion and per capita income around $1,700. It shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, but the contrast is devastating. Haiti was the first Black republic, winning independence from France in 1804 through the only successful large-scale slave revolt in history. The country has been in a state of near-collapse since the 2021 assassination of President Moïse, with armed gangs controlling much of Port-au-Prince. The 2010 earthquake killed an estimated 220,000 people and the country never fully recovered.

The formal economy is tiny — textiles assembled in free trade zones for US brands are the main export. Remittances from the Haitian diaspora (about $4 billion annually) are the largest source of foreign exchange, exceeding all exports combined. Agriculture employs about 50% of the population but the country imports over 50% of its food. The informal economy dominates. International aid has been a major but controversial factor — Haiti has received over $13 billion in aid since 2010 with limited visible improvement.

Haiti's Citadelle Laferrière, built after independence to defend against a French return, is the largest fortress in the Americas — it sits atop a 900-meter mountain and took 20,000 workers 15 years to build. Haitian art, particularly the vibrant "naïf" painting tradition, is collected worldwide and has influenced artists from Basquiat to Wyclef Jean. Haiti's Vodou religion, often misrepresented in Western media, is a sophisticated spiritual system recognized as an official religion.

Haiti's crisis has no obvious solution — the state has essentially collapsed, gangs control territory, and international intervention has a terrible track record. The resilience of the Haitian people is extraordinary, but resilience alone can't substitute for functioning institutions.