For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference.
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere; some say the poorest in the world.
I actually happened to be in Haiti right before the earthquake in 2010. I was there already with the organization I work with now, Artists for Peace and Justice, visiting the primary school that I had adopted, the Academy for Peace and Justice in Port-au-Prince. I came back, and within days, the earthquake happened.
If you love Black people, why are you destroying Haiti? If you love Black people, why did you, [Hillary] Clinton, stop them from the rice that they were producing in Haiti to feed themselves and other Caribbean nations? You put the rice industry out of business; and now rice is coming from Arkansas, chicken coming from Arkansas, when it once was growing right there in Haiti.
You need governance, but you also need a middle class, you need agriculture, they need to be able to export. I think that's probably the biggest issue, the job creation that could come with the kinds of things that Haiti has all the potential in the world to export.
I was at a little Haiti the other day in Florida. And I want to tell you, they hate the Clintons, because what's happened in Haiti with the Clinton Foundation is a disgrace. And you know it, and they know it, and everybody knows it.
Haiti is in desperate poverty.
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