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1A Dream of Success for One’s Country

A Dream of Success for One’s Country

Dimitri Florent

Florida International University


Introduction

The country of Haiti is one of many countries on the Caribbean. It has a rich culture,

beautiful landmarks, and millions of citizens. The purpose of this paper is to figure out the

problem with Haiti’s economy and how I can help repair it. It’s common news that the economy

is in a terrible state and it has been for a very long time now. The government’s corruption and

laziness of the citizens are one of the main causes of the bad economy. When looking at ways to

help the country there have been other researches who have researched how to help from an

architectural or medical standpoint. For example, S. N. Contreras wrote about post-disaster

recovery in Haiti and conducted surveys, interviews, and statistical analyses with organization

affiliates after the infamous 2010 earthquake that devastated the country.

The gap I will try to fill is how to help from an economic standpoint. To do so, I plan to

research how to start a business in Haiti and which type of business would be the most

innovative. My methods of learning what I need to know about starting a business are I will seek

advice from a current business owner whose business resides in Haiti. I have a set of 6 questions

I will ask and reflect on. It’s effective because the participant is an expert on Haiti’s government,

and economical structure. After reflecting on the answers, I will discuss other methods of

achieving my goal by analyzing statistical graphs on the most exported product and the locations

Haiti mostly exports goods to.

It’s common knowledge that there have been many problems that occur that would hinder

growth. For example, the Miami Herald (Charles n.d.) states that gas prices have risen as much

as 51 percent, and the country is in disarray with several riots happening in the capital and across

the country. This has further decelerated the development of the country. When I was looking


through research papers that have to do with the development of Haiti, there was something

similar about each of them. They were all lacking information about how to help the economy of

the country. We’ve seen other researchers, such as Cosy Joseph, study how to help the medical

situation and Katie M. Piens in her article “Engineering Relief for Haiti,” who researched how to

improve the country from an architectural standpoint.

This paper will be organized in a topical manner starting with background information

on the country’s history, the methods on how I will achieve my goal, a discussion of the results,

and a conclusion.

Background Information

Haiti is a country that has had a problematic history since they became independent from

France. A corrupt government, natural disasters, and several other problems have plagued Haiti’s

existence. The main purpose of this paper is to fill the gap of how someone can help fix the

economy. Other scholars, such as Piens, Shultz, Tanaka, Atzinger, and Miannan, have done

studies on engineering relief. They had a team of eight undergraduate students develop a project

that had to do with reconstructing homes and buildings to make them safer and stronger. Another

contributor to the success of Haiti is Cozy Joseph, who has started a non-profit organization

called the “Gascov Clerge” Foundation that does medical mission to help the sick in the capital

and other larger metropolitan cities.

Before I can address filling the gap, I need to review Haiti’s history and the problems that

come with it. In a governmental aspect they have had to deal with corruption and wrongdoings

by their presidents. There were three specific presidents that have caused the most trouble for the


country and they are, Francois Duvalier, Jean-Claude Duvalier, and Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Francois Duvalier, also called Papa doc, was the self-delegated “president for life” for Haiti.

TIME Magazine says that Under Papa Doc’s presidency, “Haiti's per capita income of less than

$75 remained the hemisphere's lowest.” They also give another example of his corruption by

stating that:

His secret policemen, the Tontons Macoutes (Creole for "bogeymen"), murdered and

tortured his opponents, sometimes leaving a victim's severed head on display in a

marketplace as a warning to others. They also collected unofficial taxes and tribute from

cowed Haitian businessmen and peasants.

The Tonton Macoutes were just a small example of all the crimes Papa Doc has committed. His

son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, also called Baby Doc, named himself president of life just like his

father did, and continued using the Tontons Macoutes to exploit the citizens. According to the

“Global Nonviolent Action Database,” Baby Doc’s administration “included general brutality

against civilians and rising food costs” which caused the country to protest for about 2 years.

Because of these protests Baby Doc was exiled from Haiti. The third most significant president

that contributed to the corruption is Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He was a Roman Catholic priest

who, as stated by Anup Shah in the website titled “Globalissues.com,” was also exiled due to

him forcing citizens to leave the country and go to the US, and human rights violations from his

military.

A corrupt government wasn’t the only issue Haiti has had to deal with. The geographic

location of Haiti has posed several problems for the country. Haiti is located in the Upper

Antilles of the Caribbean on the shared island of Hispaniola, they are the immediate neighbors of


the Dominican Republic. It’s common knowledge that in 2010 Haiti was hit by a devastating

Earthquake. If you look at the location of the island from a tectonic point of view, they are

located on the northeastern limit of the Caribbean plate. According to the “Journal of

Seismology,” the cause of the earthquake was due to 2 faults (the Bahoruco fault and the Sierra

de Bahoruco) colliding and one being pushed towards the southern peninsula of Haiti. In the

journal they show a picture of Hispaniola and the seismic activity around it. The picture (fig. 1)

is filled with red dots that show tectonic activity.

(Fig. 1) Journal of seismology (pp 883–896)

Hurricanes are another huge problem that Haiti has had to deal with and that also has to

do with its geographic location. If you look at where it is on the map, it’s very close to the open

Atlantic Ocean which is where hurricanes form. According to “livescience.com,” in order for a

hurricane to form the water must be 80 degrees. The climate around Haiti and the Caribbean is

very tropical, the temperature can reach and even exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit and with the

Earth heating up, the water will too.


Haiti’s history of a corrupt government and natural disasters are definitely a problem

when trying to achieve my goal, but they can also be avoided. In the Methods section I will

discuss how I will work around these major discrepancies. Now before I get into the Methods

section I want to give a small background about Haitian agriculture post-earthquake. There are

two journal articles I want to review, one called “Agriculture in and beyond the Haitian

catastrophe” written by, Marylynn Steckleya and Tony Weisb, and “Haiti’s Post-Earthquake

Transformation: What of Agriculture and Rural Development,” written by Yasmine Shamsie.

Steckleva and Weisb studied the development of agriculture regarding the aspirations of the

poorer citizens. They learned that the neoliberal reconstruction efforts were not compatible with

the mindset of the citizens because they would refuse to collaborate with the process of

reconstruction. In Shamsie’s article, she also talked about the citizens and about how they won’t

be as collaborative towards the reconstruction of the agricultural industry. The uncollaborative

efforts of the people could be problematic when completing the project but I believe the major

goal of the project could work as an incentive to encourage the citizens. I will delve deeper into

this matter in the methods section.

Methods

In this section I will discuss and conclude the methods in which I will be completing my

goal. I plan to find out how to start and maintain an NGO in Haiti, which crops are the best to

produce, and research what the cons are when starting a company and how to avoid them. I’ll

also investigate how to transport goods across the country and export goods to other countries.

To help support my methods I will seek expert advice from two owners of NGO’s in Haiti. I will

ask how they went about starting it, how they maintained it, and how they dealt with the


problems aforementioned in the background info. I will also research the types of plants that are

the most efficient to grow during which seasons in Haiti, and the most abundant crops that are

grown by looking at charts and statistics from websites and research articles.

I decided to ask a couple of experts for their advice because when it comes to business

you have to learn from the experts, it’s one of the most efficient ways to reach a successful

position in life from a business standpoint. To maintain the privacy of said experts they requested

that I refrain from using their names, so they will be referred to as Experts one and two. The

questions I asked these experts were:

1. How can I start my company?

2. Where can I find land to buy?

3. How would I go about finding investors?

4. How will the government’s corruption influence me when starting my company?

5. How can I keep my employees motivated to work?

6. How can I go about exporting goods to other countries?

The answers I received from the first expert were:

1. I will need to identify a clear opportunity or problem that I have a unique solution

or product that I can serve the market and generate benefit. I will need to do

market study to understand what makes this solution different than what exist

there, why would customers pay money to receive the product or service, how

much would they pay, are there other substitute that may compete or be more

attractive, and how easy is it for my solution to be duplicated by competitors? I

would register my company to have the right to do business in the country by


getting the ministry of commerce department papers, the Tax department, the

legal document stating the purpose of the corporation. I would open a corporate

bank account and fund it

2. I would go to a realtor in the country and provide the size of the land I will need

in the market where I will need the land. I will state my budget, so it would not be

exceeded.

3. I will prepare a project brief in order to attract investors interest and inform them

about the opportunity and the financial return the investor will receive

4. The government corruption is a big hurdle since to get the permit to operate you

must have meeting with government employees in Haiti. The employees and

official will have complicated process to make you spend money on different

consulting services and request many different studies that are sometimes not

necessary but must be provided to get the permit. The corruption causes your

company request to be delayed and increase your company cost to apply for

permit.

5. First as a leader of the company you have to provide good benefit of health care,

training, and incentive plan to outperform. Employees must have clear

understanding of corporation purpose and engage to provide the service quality

expected by customers

6. I will need to get export license. I will need to contract with a freight forwarder

and custom broker

The second:

1. ~


2. ~

3. ~

4. ~

5. ~

6. ~

I will explain these answers later in the Results and Discussions section.

The climate of Haiti is very tropical, it’s located in the Caribbean and has vast mountain

ranges and fertile spoil perfect for harvesting and crops. The information I will use to complete

this section is obtained from Amy Hylkema in her article “Haiti Soil Fertility Analysis and Crop

Interpretations for Principal Crops in the Five WINNER Watershed Zones of Intervention.”

Hylkema’s article gave information on the soil quality, soil quality issues, and fertility of soil in

different geographic locations. I will use this information as a method of research to decide

where to start the land buying process and to decide which crops to grow. Haiti’s number one

major cash crop, according to Encyclopædia Britannica, is coffee and the second sugarcane.

There are several popular crops in Haiti that aren’t getting exported such as mangos, corn, and

plantains and I plan to grow and export them as well as coffee and sugarcane. In Amy’s article I

learned about the distribution of dominant soil suborders throughout the country which she


received from Natural Resources Conservation Service, NRCS (Fig. 2).

(Fig. 2) “General Soils of Haiti” (USDA-NRCS, 2010A)

The Encyclopedia Britannica also gave information about Haiti’s major export

destinations (Fig. 3). Earlier in this section I explained how to go about exporting goods to other

countries.


(Fig. 3) Haiti: Major export destinations Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Looking at the chart we can infer that the U.S. is the country that imports the most goods from

Haiti. I plan to expand this chart by having deals with companies from other countries. My

method of doing so will be elaborated more upon in the next section.

Results and Discussion

In the Methods section I interviewed 2 experts on how to purchase land in Haiti and

researched the types of soil the land has, and which crops grow best in certain areas. I also

looked at the most popular export goods and locations for Haiti. The questions I asked the

experts were:

1. How can I start my company?

2. Where can I find land to buy?

3. How would I go about finding investors?

4. How will the government’s corruption influence me when starting my company?


5. How can I keep my employees motivated to work?

6. How can I go about exporting goods to other countries?

The first answer given from the first expert was:

I will need to identify a clear opportunity or problem that I have a unique solution

or product that I can serve the market and generate benefit. I will need to do

market study to understand what makes this solution different than what exist

there, why would customers pay money to receive the product or service, how

much would they pay, are there other substitute that may compete or be more

attractive, and how easy is it for my solution to be duplicated by competitors? I

would register my company to have the right to do business in the country by

getting the ministry of commerce department papers, the Tax department, the

legal document stating the purpose of the corporation. I would open a corporate

bank account and fund it

To summarize this answer, the expert told me that he needs to identify a problem and use the

business’ goal as a solution to the problem so that the market and benefit and profit from the

solution.

Market analysis is also a huge part of what to do before starting the company, you must

know what consumers want to buy and the price they are willing to pay, will pay for it, and

competitors prices. He also told me that he would register the company in the country to have the

rights to be able to do business in the country and open a company bank account to handle all

expenses with legal documents and other expenses with. To find land he told me he would try to

locate a realtor that sells land in the country. I plan to find realtors is to either use the internet or


connections made during a trip to the country. For advice on how to attract investors, he would

prepare a project brief, much like the Proposal section of this project, to approach investors with

in order to entice them to invest.

The hardest part of starting a business would be the government’s corruption. In the 4th

question I asked the expert, I wanted to know how the government’s corruption would influence

the businesses’ startup. He told me the main issue is how you must set up several meetings with

different government officials that will charge fees for seemingly meaningless, but mandatory

charges that are required to initiate the process of starting up a business. It will end up delaying

your startup and causing a setback in capital due to the fees.

One of the most important parts of running a business is keeping the employees satisfied

with working conditions, benefits, and salaries. The answer I received from Expert 1 was, “...you

have to provide good benefit of health care, training, and incentive plan to outperform.

Employees must have clear understanding of corporation purpose and engage to provide the

service quality expected by customers,” which is an important way to keep employees happy and

working because a huge problem in Haiti is that the citizens are very lazy, and unwilling to work.

So, by offering healthy salaries, medical benefits, and training, he can inspire them to work and

do their jobs well. The last question I asked dealt with how to export goods to other countries.

The answer I received on how to do so was, “I will need to get export license. I will need to

contract with a freight forwarder and custom broker.” According to “universalcargo.com,” a

freight forwarder is, “[a] firm specializing in arranging storage and shipping of merchandise on

behalf of its shippers.” To find freight forwarders in Haiti I would need to find a website with

contact information for several different freight forwarders in Haiti.


Conclusion

After analyzing Haiti’s agricultural market and their governmental situation I was able to

better understand what I needed to do in order to complete my goal of being able to support the

growth of Haiti’s economy. I set up a questionnaire of six questions that I used to ask a business

owner that owns his business in Haiti. They were constructed in a way that leaves ample room to

answer as openly as possible. The answers I received were very beneficial to me because they

answer questions that otherwise would have been harder to find the answers to on my own. For

example, when I asked about how I could go about exporting products from Haiti I learned that I

would need to sign a contract with a freight forwarder which I didn’t know I needed at all.

Another good example would be the problems I would possibly run into when starting up the

business. I learned that the main problems an entrepreneur faces are the unimportant fees that are

required to be paid off in order to set up your business license in the country.

With this project came limitations. Exact prices were the biggest limitation that was

apparent. I was able to learn how to go about starting a business, but the prices are a very

important piece of the puzzle. In order to attract investors, they would need to see a specific price

for everything expense that would need to be covered. Another limitation that I dealt with was

the number of participants I had. It would have been better to have more than just one although

the one participant did help.

In future studies of how to support Haiti’s economy, scholars could benefit from using

my research to further develop our knowledge on this topic. I would recommend that in order to

continue economic development, a study on how to remedy the governmental corruption could


be a perfect solution. One of the biggest flaws with my research was governmental involvement.

It shouldn’t be this expensive or difficult to start a business that would benefit the country.


Bibliography

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doi:10.1109/mpot.2014.2360558

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