Our new Haiti Briefing No. 81 entitled Unwanted Gifts: A Concise History of Harming Haiti is out now!

The Briefing gives a historical insight into centuries of international meddling in Haiti often marred by mishaps, bad decisions and intentional harm. In light of recent developments in the escalating cholera controversy – namely the office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last month conceding that the organisation was at fault in 2010 for the devastating outbreak of a disease that has killed close to 10,000 people – our Haiti Briefing offers readers an in-depth background into repeated efforts by outsiders to blame Haitians for their mistakes. From gunboat diplomacy and the AIDs epidemic to the Clintons, MINUSTAH and cholera. You name it, the international “community” has been there and done it. We argue that we must challenge the racist, imperialist assumptions upon which foreigners have acted and continue to act in Haiti and  defer where necessary and wherever possible to Haitian voices and Haitian administrators so that they can take the lead in Haiti’s socioeconomic reform.

The Haiti Briefing, published in English and French, is the key publication of the Haiti Support Group. Released quarterly, since 1992 our Briefing has provided our members, Haiti watchers and decision-makers with analysis of Haiti’s development issues, reflected through the voices of popular organisations on the ground.