Sixty five percent of Haitians live below the poverty line

United Nations estimates around the turn of the century put sixty five percent of Haiti’s population below the poverty line, and eighty one percent of the rural population below it. Life expectancy at birth stood at fifty one years for men and fifty six for women. Mortality among children under five was 125 per thousand, which is one child in eight. Haitians have a name for the people these figures describe. They are the san non, those who have no name. Above them sits a French speaking minority, largely light skinned and cosmopolitan, that treats politics as a contest to be won or died in and keeps the majority out of its privileges entirely. The two are locked together. Scarcity at the bottom sets the terms of the fight at the top, because holding office has been the most reliable route to income in Haiti, and losing office has meant losing everything.