Shrug off Fatigue
Nov 20
If you caught the news this week, you probably heard about the riots in Haiti. To read the reports, you'd think the country was at war with itself. I don't want to down play the genuine frustration of the people. They have much to protest. But for those who are thinking of doing business in Haiti, it's important to understand a great deal of what you see on TV is politics as usual.
If the situation weren't so dire it would almost be comical. One "protest" this week looked quite serious on TV. The reality was they set the tires up the night before. Assembled at the appointed time. Made a lot of noise, stunk up the palace area and departed in time to catch the football game. At this stage of the electoral calendar, much of what you see is designed to influence the vote.
I traveled around Haiti this week with few problems in spite of the protests and cholera. Meetings ran on time. Everyone showed at the appointed hour. Restaurants were filled to the brim with humanitarians and election observers. Our project even made huge leaps forward.
There is no denying that much must change in Haiti. The one year anniversary of the earthquake will be upon us in just over 50 days and little progress has been made toward rebuilding. There are many many reasons for that. It's easy to blame it all on the government. The hard truth is the donor community is as much, if not more to blame, than the government.
Rather than get up on my soap box and bloviate about good intentions gone very wrong, I offer a challenge to private enterprise. Shrug off your "Haiti fatigue" and invest in a population with tremendous potential. Drive the streets of Haiti and it's clear this is a culture of entrepreneurs. There is an abundance of desire and talent waiting to be harnessed. Yes, the government makes it very difficult and the IHRC approval process is confusing. But it's not all that much easier to do business with the US government. There is also corruption, but have you looked at our headlines lately?
Haiti isn't for every business, but for are those who raced to Haiti to help immediately after the earthquake, hoping too that there would be opportunity, know that there is! Pursuing those opportunities feels like a long hard slog sometimes, but the Haitians are full of pleasant surprises. Give them a chance.
