In Aid State, journalist and Haiti expert Jake Johnston reveals how longstanding United States and European capitalist goals ensnared and re-enslaved Haiti under the guise of helping it. To the global West, Haiti is and always has been “open for business”: a place where labor is cheap, politicians are compliant, and profits are to be made. Over the course of nearly 100 years, the United States has sought to control Haiti and its people with occupying police, military, and “peacekeeping” forces, as well as hand-picked leaders, meant to quell uprisings and protect corporate interests. Earthquakes and hurricanes only further devastated a nation left helpless by the aid industrial complex. Based on years of on-the-ground reporting in Haiti, Jake Johnston’s Aid State is a compelling, conscience searing book of witness.
