The Disintegration of Haiti

With months-long protests in Chile, Lebanon and Iraq, it's fair to say that the coverage in the Western mainstream media has been spotty. It is also fair to say that media coverage of the year-plus protests in Haiti against president Jovenel Moïse over the collapse of Petrocaribe has been basically non-existent.

That's why it's nice to have NPR's Wednesday report from Carrie Kahn in Port-au-Prince:

It's going to be increasingly more difficult. There are supposed to be parliamentary elections in January - the second Monday of January. But there is no signs that they can hold an election, and that just means that there will be no active parliament in force come the middle of January. I think there's something like only 10 senators' terms have - will not be termed out, so that just will intensify. And many people and analysts believe that the protests will resume once the holidays are over.

[snip]

It's very difficult. The currency here - inflation has spiked. The currency is just worthless. It's hard to get basic goods. What is interesting, though, is that you have seen the president out in the open and trying to rehabilitate himself to sort of take advantage of this lull to get out. He seized the largest private electricity provider in the country. Many say this is an illegal move to silence his opponents, and the head of the company has been a very outspoken critic.

But he just is asking people to be patient, but patience has really run out, especially when it comes to electricity. He campaigned on bringing electricity 24 hours a day to Haiti, and people barely have three to four hours, at that.