In more recent years, Haiti has been more politically stable, partially because of the United Nations peacekeeping missions in the last decades. Yet, while the system has been more stable, it became apparent to me that the stability of the government was not as big of a step as many might think. Upon what the UN deemed as successful elections in January, the UN Security Council has approved the final removal of UN peacekeeping troops in mid-October of this year. The UN will be leaving behind a semi stable government, but also a population suffering from extreme poverty, hunger, unemployment, and homelessness. These problems are extreme enough that a newly stabilized government, elected in what locals described as a flawed voting process, may not be able to adequately address.

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On one of our last days in Haiti, we visited a government memorial dedicated to the lives lost to the earthquake in 2010. The memorial itself is located on top of a mass grave of unclaimed Haitians who perished. Upon entering, however, it was easy to see that the memorial was only partially constructed and that construction on it had been abandoned by the government. While it is easy to understand that the government has better uses for their funds, the unfinished memorial almost seems like a metaphor for the government itself. While the structure of it exists, the aspects that make it whole do not. The UN did create the structure of the government, as the government did for the memorial, but did not create the avenues the government needs to create real change; the job remains undone. The Haitian government has a long way to go to improve the poverty issue within the nation, but it cannot effectively start until the people themselves are able to show trust in the system. The corruption and historical abuses of power cannot exist in the same government that promises to boost agricultural production, stop large importation of goods, provide education for its children, and boost economic activity to combat poverty.