Who Has Haiti's Back?

Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. Interim Government of Haiti (IGH). What a sight. Rarely ever seen, these two phrases, just as you see them above. They are always cluttered with the phrase, "U.S. backed", and wrongly I'll add. "I've got your back."

In school ground days it meant that if a bully picked on you, then your friend Tommy would come to your side and together you would run off the bully. Or just as common, for us older kids, we use it when facing adversity or a fight. It is a fairly simple arrangement. But, this begs the question, if the IGH or PM Latortue is "backed" by the US, does that mean the US comes to Haiti's side in a times of need?

Not today. Haiti is in a fight, and has been, without wanting to sound dramatic, for 200+ years. It is in a fight today with itself, as gang violence and poverty run rampant in the country of 8 million. Money aside, because the US has given more then $1B since 1993, there is almost no US government presence in Haiti. The embassy has been evacuated (as has the ambassador, US Amb. Foley resigned last month while his wife took maternity leave), the Peace Corps, USAID, PEPFAR have been evacuated. Why then does the media insist on calling the IGH "backed" by the US? Should we not then list all of the other donor countries when speaking of who backs the IGH? Perhaps we should be calling it the French, Canadian, German, British, Japanese, Taiwanese, and US backed IGH (to name a few)?

It seems that when Haiti is looking its worst, it is the US backed IGH who's to blame, but when progress is made it is the leadership of (just) PM Latortue and (just) the IGH who are to be heralded.

Newspapers and other media outlets should change their diction to the more aptly suited, "UN backed" IGH and PM, because that is who is in Haiti.

Robert Miller
Haiti Innovation