Our Poorest Neighbour

Haiti is a poor little place that tugs at the heartstrings. Countless other countries—in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Central America—are also poverty stricken, violent and fragile; their misery blurs across our television screens every day and many hands are briefly wrung. Haiti, on the other hand, is less known to Canadians—at least outside Montreal. But for those who have had occasion to take an interest, Haiti, by far the poorest country in our own hemisphere, stands out crisply and captures the imagination. Graham Greene, notably, featured and captured the mysterious atmosphere of 1950s Haiti in his novel The Comedians. Recent visitors would say that if there were changes since then, they have been for the worse.

Why is this country with such a history of incompetence and violence, largely of its own making, so appealing? Why should anyone care? Perhaps it is because Haiti is in our hemisphere. Perhaps it is because Haitians who have immigrated to...