Haiti - inflation

Haitians continue to face severe food shortages

Tuesday 22 April 2008

Low salaries and rising food prices have made it difficult for Haitians to make ends meet. FRANCE 24's Sophie Claudet and Willy Bracciano report on the crisis from Haiti.

Analysis, reports, and interviews: check out our special report on the world food crisis.

Eighty percent of Haiti's nearly 9 million people live in poverty and most get by on less than $2 a day.

FRANCE 24's Sophie Claudet and Willy Bracciano visited a textile factory in Port-au-Prince industrial Park amid the deepening food crisis.  They met with Paulaine Fidèle, a factory worker,  who makes shorts and polo shirts for an American company.

 
According to Jean Kesner Delmas, director of the National Society of Industrial Parks, the textile factories have helped boost employment in Haiti. "Our policy is to attract industrial plants that will export our goods, because each of these plants creates a minimum of 300 jobs," says Delmas.
 
Factory workers like Paulaine Fidèle work for at least eight hours a day but can barely afford a plate of rice and meat for lunch. "We have thirty minutes to eat. We get paid 14 Haitian dollars a day and I pay seven to eight Haitian dollars for a meal. 14 dollars is all we get. It’s really unfair," complains Fidèle.

In early April, the price of fuel and basic food commodities jumped sharply in the already impoverished island nation. The price of rice doubled from 35 dollars to 70 dollars for a 120-pound sack, and gasoline has seen its third price hike in less than two months.

By the time Fidèle gets home, her daughter Samenka is already cooking a mere plate of beans for dinner. Fidèle lost her husband two years ago and must provide for her three children alone. Sometimes she is unable to make ends meet. Her daughters have been unable to attend school because she failed to pay the school fee of 600 Haitian dollars.
 

Violent demonstrations to protest food hike

Two weeks ago, thousands of people took to the streets to protest the sudden jump in prices. The demonstrations at times turned violent,  forcing United Nations peacekeeping troops to intervene.

The blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers were called in to protect the presidential palace, using tear gas and firing into the air to repel demonstrators, radio reports said, while there were also reports of looting.

At least five people died in the unrest and 200 were injured, according to an unofficial count.  A week later, Haiti's Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis was ousted in a no-confidence vote, over his failing to address the needs of impoverished Haitians, just as President Rene Preval unveiled a plan to cut the price of rice by 15 percent.

Haiti has been rocked by coups and crises for the past 20 years. Preval's government was formed in 2006 following elections that came after two years of turmoil sparked by the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.