Language, Education and Representation: Towards Sustainable Development for Haiti

Abstract

As Haiti labours under the extreme stress of possibly its greatest natural disaster to date and as vast sums of money seek to enter its vacuous system and to bring relief, it behoves us to consider the many aspects of the Haitian situation which have kept it in abject poverty down to the present and to seek means of redressing, not just the immediate crisis, but its long term internal socio-political dilemma. We all recognize the power of education in enabling a people to rise up, to become empowered, to take control of its own destiny, and yet Haiti remains with an education system which effectively excludes 75% of its people, despite ‘on paper’ efforts to address the problem.