Where My Money At?

The agony and sadness of Haiti is unbearable for those who are lighthearted. With Wyclef Jean's new song, "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)," a new light has been shed on Haiti. Wyclef shows one of the ways that Haitian women are forced to make money in order to feed their family.

If you haven't seen the video (which you can see on YouTube here), Wyclef shows how some women basically have to trick in order to make money. While it is often a choice in the United States, it is often not a choice in Haiti. Why? Let's look at some facts.

According to www.globalissues.org, Haiti is the third hungriest country in the world. The wealthy in Haiti, making up 1%, control nearly half of all of Haiti's wealth. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (fourth in the world).

With virtually no money, Haitian women are forced to sell their bodies for sex, while Haitian men are normally locked in drug battles. Even though the Haitians are forced to do what they do, they still live on less than one U.S. dollar a day. While there has been efforts to improve Haiti by the United States, France, Canada, and the U.N., all of those efforts have ironically caused more problems than they have helped.

One of those efforts were establishing an election. However, the victor Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted after it was clear that he was hurting Haiti more than helping it. The United Nations, however, is still dedicated to helping Haiti grow, despite its failure so far.

Ironically, one of the people dedicated to helping Haiti is a U.S. outcast. He lives in Cuba everyday. His name is President Fidel Castro. Castro has been trying to aid Haiti for the longest, and is probably one of the only leaders of a nation that is really trying to help Central America.

Castro was the one responsible for sending in numerous Cuban doctors into Haitia after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. He was also the one that came up with a viable economic development plan for Haiti, which has yet to be followed by other nations.

Castro proposed that for every $1,250 of the $250 billion of the U.S. defense (1999) budget, one dollar be set aside. This would have given $200 million to the aid of Cuba which would help reconstruction and socioeconomic development in Central America and Haiti. While Castro is labeled as a dictator by the U.S., one can easily applaud his efforts to restoring a ravaged area of the world.

It's clear that the effort to restore Haiti will not be successful overnight. It will take years of patience and guidance by those with nothing to gain from the restoration of this country. Politics need to be taken completely out, so the areas that will immediately profit Haiti and Haiti only can receive the most attention.

Until then, all we can do is try to donate to the U.N. to help Haiti out. It's time that something right happens for that country in 2008. Just remember...she used to be the sweetest girl ever...