more than 100 years. so we should agree that this has incidence and impact. and you had various interferences, military and otherwise, from the united states, alongside the debt you were forced to pay to france. i think people do understand that haiti suffered a great dealfrom its colonial experience and then from its. the fact that it was neighbouring to the united states, and washington took a great interest at times in haiti s politics. i get all of that. but are you therefore saying that the haitian people, but more particularly the haitian elite, of which you are a part, bear no responsibility for where haiti is today? i would say that the oligarchs that has taken hostage millions of people living with less than $2 a day, i would say that, yes, an elite few that has been really acting against the majority yes, they are a part of where haiti is now.
can haiti be saved? claudejoseph, welcome to hardtalk. thanks for having me. it s a pleasure to have you. it is eight months or so since president moise was brutally gunned down, assassinated in his own home. haiti today is still in chaos as a result of that. why is it still in chaos? one of the reasons is because the current prime minister, prime minister henry,
..those who really possess the country s wealth, the less than i% that actually earn more than 80% of haiti s income and wealth. so this is what we are talking about. so myself, as a young, if you will, academic and politician, i m not a part of this. but what i m trying to do today is to actually denounce this situation where an elite few takes hostage a whole population. so this is exactly whatjovenel moise was denouncing. jovenel moise was not a politician. he was a family man from the northern part of the country. and when the then outgoing president martelly hand picked him, they thought that he could be a puppet. someone with the right background and history, someone who would nod yes to everything that they ask him.
earlier in this interview, you said that there is a sense of neglect in haiti, neglect by the outside world, and you connected that directly to race and potentially to, i guess, to racism. when you look at the united states today, atjoe biden and his attitude to haiti, do you see a man who wants to use america s power in a positive way to help your country? or do you see an american leader who is doing everything to stop haitians entering the united states? i believe that our problem is haitians should be actually take care of their own problem. yes, we love, you know, we appreciate partnership, we appreciate generosity. but we can t rely on other nations, on other countries, allies, if you will, to resolve our issues. so we believe that the haitian problem should find haitian solution. but i asked you that question because the figures are quite astounding. the biden administration is close now to a figure of repatriating, forcing
welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. haiti is one of the world s most broken nations, and the internal fractures are tearing the country apart. last summer, the president was assassinated. despite a swirl of rumour, the perpetrators haven t been brought to justice. the current prime minister is under a cloud of suspicion, elections have been shelved, and haitians live in grinding poverty, gang violence and amid international indifference. my guest is the former foreign minister and briefly acting pm, claude joseph. can haiti be saved?