Articles

L’île autrefois connue sous le nom d’Ayiti, Hispaniola, Saint-Domingue, Kiskeya ou Bohio

Image
  Opinion | The Island Formerly Known as Ayiti, Hispaniola, Santo Domingo, Quisqueya, Kiskeya or Bohio By Patrick Prézeau Stephenson (Le Français suit) There are many ways to spark a diplomatic crisis on the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. You could mention migration. You could mention history. You could mention the border. Or — if you’re truly committed to chaos — you could simply say the island’s name. This week, a Haitian footballer did exactly that. He pointed at the ground and declared that Ayiti is the true name of the island . Not a manifesto. Not a territorial claim. Not a cartographic coup. He pointed at dirt. And yet, the reaction was so explosive you’d think he had tried to annex Santo Domingo using shin guards and a corner kick. The Island With a Full-Blown Identity Crisis Let’s be honest: this island has more names than a reggaeton artist with tax problems. Haitians call it Ayiti , because that’s what the Taíno called it lon...
Enregistrer un commentaire
Lire la suite

Haïti peut‑elle encore voter ? Et si la vraie surprise venait des outsiders ?

Image
  Can Haiti still vote? What if the real surprise came from the outsiders? By Patrick Prézeau Stephenson (Le Français suit) PORT‑AU‑PRINCE, HAITI — The air in Port‑au‑Prince feels heavy with anticipation, though not the kind that precedes a celebration. Haiti’s long‑delayed elections, once imagined as a turning point toward stability, now hover between possibility and paralysis. The provisional electoral council’s latest bulletin lists eleven presidential hopefuls, among them Jean Ernest Muscadin — a name that, until recently, belonged more to the country’s security headlines than to its political calculus. A vote that may or may not come The government’s own barometer of feasibility sits at 19 out of 100 , a figure that officials themselves classify as “impossible.” The United Nations resolution extending the mandate of the multinational force until March 2027 pointedly avoids assigning it any electoral duties. In other words, the machinery of voting exists mostly on pap...
Enregistrer un commentaire
Lire la suite

L’instabilité d’Haïti : le secret inavoué de la croissance dominicaine

Image
  Haiti’s Instability: The Dominican Republic’s Unspoken Engine of Growth By Patrick Prézeau Stephenson * The Dominican Republic sits beside one of the most severe humanitarian and security collapses in the Western Hemisphere. Yet, despite the proximity, despite the shared island, despite the daily flow of people and goods across the border, Santo Domingo has shown remarkably little interest in supporting a durable resolution to Haiti’s crisis. The reasons are not rooted in indifference alone. They are structural, economic, political — and, for Dominican leaders, brutally rational. A Crisis That Benefits the Dominican Economy The Dominican Republic’s economy has quietly adapted to Haiti’s collapse. As Haitian state capacity eroded, Dominican exports surged. In 2025 alone, $648.4 million in Dominican goods entered Haiti through just two crossings — Malpasse/Jimaní and Belladère/Elías Piña — corridors increasingly controlled by Haitian armed groups [1] . As the document not...
Enregistrer un commentaire
Lire la suite