MY RANT: There are many statistics that are accurate but their meaning have been distorted. A commonly used one is that “Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.” What exactly does that mean? Have you ever stopped to think about it? What qualifiers are used for that ranking – GDP, PPP, etc.? Isn’t it more accurate that, “Haiti’s economy ranks lowest in the Western Hemisphere?” But for many, the stat simply translates into “the poorest place on earth.” And the conventional wisdom seems to be that Haiti is a poor country in every sense of the word that has always been destitute. If I said that the economies of Liberia, Nepal, and Afghanistan are poorer than Haiti, many would probably ask for proof. But that is accurate. The reality is the Western Hemisphere is not a poor turf. Many of the countries in that region are economic giants that Haiti is being measured against. When Haiti’s economy is compared to the United States, Barbados, Canada, Bahamas, and Trinidad & Tobago (All ranked among the top 50 wealthy nations in the world. There are over 180 countries being ranked), it ranks lowest. That is what the stats refers to. But keep in mind that Haiti’s economy was once the wealthiest in the world, including the Western Hemisphere. It is no longer of course. But Haiti is NOT broadly the “poorest nation in the world.” And that is the stigma that the stat has. NOTE: The Western Hemisphereincludes 32 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:14:34 +0000