In the Danger Zone by Stefan Gates

Author:Stefan Gates [Stefan Gates]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407022024
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

HAITI

Hell's Kitchen

POPULATION: 10 million

PERCENTAGE LIVING ON LESS THAN $2 A DAY: 80%

UNDP HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX: 154/177

CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX POSITION: 163/163

GDP (NOMINAL) PER CAPITA: $528 (150/179)

FOOD AID RECIPIENTS: n/a

MALNUTRITION: 47% of the population

It's a hot sticky night on Ocean Drive, the frouffed, bouffed, promenading fleshpot of Miami's South Beach, Florida. From my plate a lobster stares forlornly at the Ferraris, Range Rovers and Hummers that crawl the strip. The lobster seems to have been involved in a strange military torture experiment – it's been turned inside out, but is still attached to its shell. I sincerely hope this didn't happen whilst it was still alive.

To the casual observer, Ocean Drive is the epitome of brash American glamour: beautiful whitewashed art nouveau buildings oozing glitz and cash, facing a glorious wide beach of white sand along which ladies with taut bodies and big hair saunter. Up close, though, the ladies and the buildings alike seem tacky, and the restaurants offer shabby food, dreadful service and spectacularly high prices.

The sloshing of filthy lucre around here verges on the obscene, but in a contrast that would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic, just a couple of hours beyond that white sand and through the sweaty night lies Haiti, one of the poorest places on the planet. I'm hoping to get there tomorrow, and the lobster sitting in front of me is a heavy-handed gesture to help me feel the contrast.

• • • • •

After a series of airport cock-ups (US airport staff are almost as nasty as their odious immigration colleagues), I miss my flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, along with about 50 Haitians who all arrived on time but stood in a queue for hours. The airline doesn't seem to give a toss – it's already got our money, so why should it care?

Stepping out of the stale, cool air of the plane into the shit-flavoured sauna that is Haiti, I am almost immediately covered in a slime of sweat that I know is unlikely to dry off for the next two weeks. So it's with gratitude that I hop into a huge white Land Cruiser lent to us by the UN's World Food Programme. Charity workers across the world despise the UN for driving these big expensive cars around poor countries, but I confess to a guilty relief each time I get in them – they can negotiate God-awful roads, they're safe, clean and even mildly air-conditioned. Attached to the bull bars is a vast short-wave radio antenna, lending a slight (possibly false) sense of security. When you're working in difficult places these vehicles make life just a little bit better. I'll be spending a fair amount of my time here with the UN military and the WFP, so I hope I'll get a couple of days' use of these.

A Brief History of Haiti

We don't hear much about Haiti apart from tales of voodoo and the latest military coup, so here's the potted guide: Haiti has been given a rough ride by the world since 1492 when it was discovered by Columbus.

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