International businesses are becoming more interested in investing in Haiti, whose unemployment rate hovers around 70%. The poor country seems to be caught in a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: it needs investment and jobs to create societal stability, but companies are unwilling to set up shop in an unstable country. President Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, is trying to help get things moving.
The parents of Régine Chassagne, half of the husband and wife duo at the heart of indie rock superstars The Arcade Fire, emigrated to Canada from Haiti before she was born. I’ve always loved the song “Haiti” on the groups first album, Funeral. Now I can read the lyrics, translated from Haitian French:
Haiti, my country,
Wounded mother I’ll never see.
My family set me free.
Throw my ashes in to the seaMy unborn cousins
Haunt the nights of Duvalier
Nothing stops our spirits,
Guns can’t kill what soldiers can’t see.In the forest we lie hiding,
Unmarked graves where flowers grow.
Hear the soldiers’ angry yelling,
In the rivers we will go.All the stillborns (or walking dead) form an army,
Soon we will reclaim the earth.
All the tears and all the bodies
Bring about our second birth.Haiti, never free,
Never fear to sound the alarm.
Your children have left,
In those days their blood was still warm.
The band does more than just sing about the past injustice in Haiti; money raised from their Neon Bible was donated to the charity Partners in Health, “to deliver high quality healthcare to the poor, and to break the cycle of poverty and disease.” Awesome.
