Only three tourists are in sight, and he dreams of boarding a rickety boat bound for Miami. I have no choice. A mother waits in line, day after day, hoping for a job at an American sweatshop that pays 30 cents an hour. Often, she returns empty-handed. In Haiti, the vast majority of people don't know where their next meal will come from-that's accepted as a fact of life.
Many factors contribute to Haiti's poverty, starting with the lack of a stable government.
Since the collapse of the Duvalier dictatorship, Haiti has averaged one government a year. Cheap labor has attracted multinational corporations eager to exploit it. Many people point to policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. One IMF policy forced Haiti to open its doors to rice from the U.S., making it the fourth largest market for U.S. rice in the world. Cheap North American rice has priced out unsubsidized rice grown in Haiti, devastating local growers.