DisastersTorrential rains hit Haiti, killing 23

Published 9 June 2011

Haiti has never recovered from the massive earthquake that hit it more than two years ago; the country lacks basic infrastructure, and torrential rains turned streets into rivers and buried buildings under mountains of mud

For political scientists, Haiti has served as a model for what came to be called the “predatory state”: a country ruled by cliques utterly indifferent to the welfare of the people, but very much interested in exploiting the country and its resources for their own enrichment. Thus, Haiti has never developed a robust infrastructure or even rudimentary public services. The result is that every natural disaster exacts a much higher toll in Haiti than in other countries. More than twenty people were killed by torrential rains that hit Haiti. The country lacks basic infrastructure, and what infrastructure existed was destroyed by the massive earthquake that devastated the country more than two years ago. Le Monde reports that streets turned into rivers and that buildings were submerged by rushing waters and mud.