It's interesting to see Haiti's poor agricultural productivity being blamed on small scale household farming, because exactly the opposite argument has been made to explain the Asian "development miracle". In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell traces the origin of economic takeoff in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan to land reforms that redistributed big landholdings into family plots, which could be cultivated intensively to generate an economic surplus, and the proceeds helping to kick-start industrialization. The Philippines, where land reform stalled, provided a negative comparison.
I was always skeptical of Studwell's explanation. Eastern Europe has seen multiple land reforms that established small farms from the early 19th century to the 1990's and these reforms always resulted in lower productivity and peasant autarchy.
Would the difference between those two be that Haiti achieved independence from France via a slave revolt, whereas Britain abolished slavery in Jamaica while retaining political control?
I believe that's part of the point made in the article:
> After all, when slavery ended in the British Empire, Jamaica also divided its plantations and gave them to the former slaves. Yet by the early 1900s, large-scale agriculture had returned to Jamaica.
> This didn’t happen in Haiti, primarily because its constitution banned foreigners from owning land. There were also heavy restrictions on foreigners operating businesses in Haiti.
Why did you ignore how Haiti invaded and occupied what is now the Dominican Republic from 1822 to 1844 with the excuse of abolishing the little existing slavery and then prohibited Dominicans from speaking Spanish, practicing Catholicism, studying at the university and imposing part of the debt contracted with France?
Haiti was born as a hostile, racist and criminal nation against the Spanish-speaking people of the island. Hence, we Dominicans do not have the slightest confidence in Haitians.
Good comments I guess many are indeed true and factual But as is often the case the spiritual component (which is 90 to 100 % of the problems) in the world is dismissed As the enemy of your soul continues to steal, kill and destroy you report the results natural solutions are thrown at spiritual manifestations and they dont work satan who is the god of this world has been influencing the mind of men since the garden and will continue until the Lord returns.
> But that requires more work than putting up a satellite photo showing that Haiti is in the rain shadow of the mountainous border (because trade winds blow from the east) and claiming it as evidence of deforestation.
To my knowledge, satellites can't measure rainfall, and no, NASA is not NOAA, and I don't think they do know much about weather. So where are the weather stations collecting the rainfall data. Certainly there aren't enough to produce such detailed maps. Try a Google search on "Hispaniola rain shadow", and you will see I am not making this up.
YES, there has been extensive deforestation and erosion on the Haiti side. But there were also massive logging operations in the DR by Trujillo cronies up through 1967, estimated to have reduced Dominican forest cover by 3/4. (see, for example, here: https://hoy.com.do/los-aserradores-mermaron-los-bosques-durante-la-era-de-trujillo/ How do the deforestation processes compare? I know Craig Palsson's work well enough not to disagree with him on anything related to Haitian agriculture; but understanding the divergence must be quantitative as well as qualitative, and, if you grant that a rain shadow explains PART of the photo, it is worth saying so.
It's interesting to see Haiti's poor agricultural productivity being blamed on small scale household farming, because exactly the opposite argument has been made to explain the Asian "development miracle". In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell traces the origin of economic takeoff in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan to land reforms that redistributed big landholdings into family plots, which could be cultivated intensively to generate an economic surplus, and the proceeds helping to kick-start industrialization. The Philippines, where land reform stalled, provided a negative comparison.
I was always skeptical of Studwell's explanation. Eastern Europe has seen multiple land reforms that established small farms from the early 19th century to the 1990's and these reforms always resulted in lower productivity and peasant autarchy.
A lot of discussion of symptoms without addressing the elephant causing them.
What elephant?
The african one.
Genetics wouldn't explain the difference between Jamaica and Haiti.
Would the difference between those two be that Haiti achieved independence from France via a slave revolt, whereas Britain abolished slavery in Jamaica while retaining political control?
I believe that's part of the point made in the article:
> After all, when slavery ended in the British Empire, Jamaica also divided its plantations and gave them to the former slaves. Yet by the early 1900s, large-scale agriculture had returned to Jamaica.
> This didn’t happen in Haiti, primarily because its constitution banned foreigners from owning land. There were also heavy restrictions on foreigners operating businesses in Haiti.
Why did you ignore how Haiti invaded and occupied what is now the Dominican Republic from 1822 to 1844 with the excuse of abolishing the little existing slavery and then prohibited Dominicans from speaking Spanish, practicing Catholicism, studying at the university and imposing part of the debt contracted with France?
Haiti was born as a hostile, racist and criminal nation against the Spanish-speaking people of the island. Hence, we Dominicans do not have the slightest confidence in Haitians.
Good comments I guess many are indeed true and factual But as is often the case the spiritual component (which is 90 to 100 % of the problems) in the world is dismissed As the enemy of your soul continues to steal, kill and destroy you report the results natural solutions are thrown at spiritual manifestations and they dont work satan who is the god of this world has been influencing the mind of men since the garden and will continue until the Lord returns.
Haiti genocided it’s whites.
bla bla bla bla
> But that requires more work than putting up a satellite photo showing that Haiti is in the rain shadow of the mountainous border (because trade winds blow from the east) and claiming it as evidence of deforestation.
A macro-view of average annual rainfall, 1950-2015, doesn't support the claim that the stark border contrast seen in some areas is primarily due to the rain shadow effect. This is because there is no obvious rainfall divergence along the border. (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Observed-precipitation-climatology-over-Hispaniola-Island-a-Annual-precipitation-cycle_fig1_347693918).
You can also compare climatic zones: Haiti (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haiti_K%C3%B6ppen.svg), DR (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dominican_Republic_K%C3%B6ppen.svg). I don't see a border divergence.
Finally, NASA cites Haitian deforestation, not the rain shadow effect (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2640). NASA probably knows something about weather.
To my knowledge, satellites can't measure rainfall, and no, NASA is not NOAA, and I don't think they do know much about weather. So where are the weather stations collecting the rainfall data. Certainly there aren't enough to produce such detailed maps. Try a Google search on "Hispaniola rain shadow", and you will see I am not making this up.
YES, there has been extensive deforestation and erosion on the Haiti side. But there were also massive logging operations in the DR by Trujillo cronies up through 1967, estimated to have reduced Dominican forest cover by 3/4. (see, for example, here: https://hoy.com.do/los-aserradores-mermaron-los-bosques-durante-la-era-de-trujillo/ How do the deforestation processes compare? I know Craig Palsson's work well enough not to disagree with him on anything related to Haitian agriculture; but understanding the divergence must be quantitative as well as qualitative, and, if you grant that a rain shadow explains PART of the photo, it is worth saying so.