Philippe Girard's book about the chaos and utter hopelessness of Haiti makes for mesmerizing but disheartening reading. It seems that for 200 years, Haiti has been plagued by voodoo-like bad luck. Haiti's slaves may have staged the first and only successful uprising against one of the most brutal (French) occupations, but this did nothing to improve their lot. But as Girard makes clear, international racism is NOT the cause of Haiti's never-ending troubles! Haiti's problems are directly due to the unspeakable ineptitude and corruption of political leaders who expressed utmost contempt for the very people they were elected to Govern. Papa Doc Duvalier may have been one of the most vicious dictators, but he was in fact just one in a very long line of political leaders who have systematically stripped Haiti of whatever potential it once had. Sadly, Haiti now seems forever destined to retain its status as the poorest, most desolate nation in the western hemisphere.
Girard splendidly details Haiti's history from colonial to present-day. He writes of Haiti's entangled and complicated racial history, the abdication of the French, the contempt that the remaining ruling class of mulattoes (of mixed race and lighter skin) had for their illiterate and ill-informed darker-skinned countrymen; the US occupations; the unrelenting exploitation, pollution and pillaging of land, resources and foreign aid; the brutal repression, violence and callous indifference of politicians to building an infrastructure that would allow the country to advance from an antiquated rural-based economy to one more modern and service-oriented.
I was expecting to receive a thick, heavy history book--one that is usually issued in high school or college, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book is a very SLIM volume and a very quick read, the better to showcase Mr. Girard's beautifully concise and lively writing style. I highly recommend this book to anyone remotely curious (as I was) about why Haiti continues to be the pariah of the carribean. "Paradise Lost" is a real page-turner, worth every penny and more!