Aid State

August 1, 2023

A senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Johnston looks to history as he explains why Haiti is in near-collapse today. After liberating itself from France in 1825, Haitians spend more than a century and millions of dollars compensating their former French enslavers; to this day, both U.S. and European business interests (often backed by military force) have sought to keep Haiti a place of cheap labor, high profits, and quiescent leaders. With a 50,000-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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November 15, 2023
A comprehensive, disheartening study of Haiti as a money pit of humanitarian aid. Johnston, a senior research associate for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, offers a useful comparison of Haiti and Afghanistan, "two of the most aid-dependent countries on the planet." Both have received the support of an "alphabet soup" of governmental and nongovernmental aid agencies. But although the military dimension of aid to Afghanistan is well known, in the case of Haiti, "the country [is] 'politically unstable, ' but few [care] to ponder why." Combined with corruption, political violence, and a string of devastating natural disasters, that instability has sent streams of Haitians fleeing the country, most with the U.S. as their intended destination. So it is that 14,000 people, most Haitians, were encamped under a bridge over the Rio Grande in June 2021, the very moment when, by Johnston's account, Joe Biden started to walk back promises of immigration reform that would undo the draconian policies of his predecessor. For many years, notes the author, Venezuela was Haiti's chief donor, a situation that changed with the collapse of the Chavez regime; yet Venezuela was not a favored destination of refugees. Meanwhile, at home, Johnston notes, Haitian politicians have long done their best to make a failed state of their country, looting the public treasury and essentially escaping punishment for their crimes. Baby Doc Duvalier, for example, made off with somewhere between $300 and $500 million, much of it foreign aid funds, fulfilling his role in "a true family kleptocracy." Even with coups and assassinations, foreign funds continue to pour in, including significant sums from the U.S., which, Johnston suggests, is hoping that with enough money, Haitians will stay home. A sobering view of the inevitable failures of international assistance when corruption is the dominant ethos.

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Starred review from November 27, 2023
Johnston, a senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, debuts with a powerful and disturbing examination of decades of chaos in Haiti caused by outside forces, including the U.S., the United Nations, and what he evocatively terms the “aid-industrial complex.” Johnston’s focus is primarily on the period between 2010 and 2021, an era bookended by two devastating earthquakes, when the country’s supposed reconstruction with the help of billions of dollars in aid was sidetracked by greed and corruption. For example, after the 2010 quake, agribusiness firm Monsanto donated more than 100 tons of hybrid or genetically modified seeds, which by design supplanted crops that naturally produced seeds, thus creating a new, for-profit market for the company. Johnston lends immediacy to his account through stories of individual dispossession, such as that of the residents of Caracol, who were displaced by construction of an industrial park and never compensated or adequately rehoused. Bill Clinton, named a United Nations special envoy to the country in 2009, and his wife, Hillary, who oversaw America’s Haiti policy as secretary of state, come off poorly as patronizing would-be saviors, but they have plenty of company. This cri de coeur from an expert with firsthand knowledge of what ails Haiti is a must-read.