A Close Look at Haitian Poverty

Mark of New Jersey

Mark is a Founding Editor of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, the predecessor of Ordinary Times.

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7 Responses

  1. Will says:

    For the record, most aid skeptics don’t locate foreign aid as *the* root cause of the developing world’s problems. Colonialism, conflict-ridden histories, cultural and geographic factors, and a host of other issues have obviously done more to create human misery than, say, food shipments. The central criticism of foreign aid is simply that it’s an ineffective way to help countries overcome pre-existing problems.Report

    • Mark Thompson in reply to Will says:

      Good point, Will, and a point that I’m fairly sympathetic to, at least in many situations. It’s probably worth my remembering that dependency theory in the foreign aid arena is a different animal than it is in the domestic policy arena, with a close relationship to critiques of colonialism.Report

  2. So then what is the solution? Haiti sounds like a lot of other third-world countries in that it is a political construct with no consideration given to geography. So what do we do? Forcibly exhile the inhabitants?Report

  3. Art Deco says:

    That brief column is your idea of a definitive statement on the deteriminants of a country’s economic and social history, one that “pretty much destroys any notion that” blah blah blah? What would you consider a non-persuasive statement?Report