Stop Blaming the French and the Americans. We are Complicit in Haiti’s Collapse. Where is the Real Resistance?

I’ve been in this subreddit for a long time, and I am exhausted by the exact same posts. Every day, it’s a new thread crying about what’s wrong with Haiti, and every day, it’s a new history lesson blaming the French, the Americans, or the West. The scapegoat era needs to end. We paid off the French Independence Debt in 1947. The United States military occupation ended in 1934. We had nearly a century to regrip this country, and we dropped the ball. We love to complain about corrupt officials and the mulatto elite, but who empowers the politicians? Who works in the factories to sustain those economic monopolies? We have to look in the mirror.
I am not calling for senseless violence, but I am demanding we look at what actual resistance means. People are dying in protests that achieve absolutely nothing. You’re just showing the world you’re mad, but what action is behind it? Gangs currently control roughly 80% of Port-au-Prince. You are telling me we have millions of people in the country, and we let heavily armed teenagers kidnap our families and extort our businesses with no organized, on-the-ground pushback? We are just taking it. Look at global history. Real change requires community defense. The Black Panther Party in the 1960s didn't just march; they armed themselves to police the police and protected their neighborhoods. Before 1791, Haitian Maroons like François Mackandal and Dutty Boukman didn’t hold peaceful sit-ins. They organized networks in the mountains, defended their communities, and launched the only successful slave rebellion in human history. How did we go from "Liberty or Death" to surrendering the capital to gangs?
The diaspora needs to take heavy accountability, too. Remittances make up roughly 24% of Haiti’s entire GDP. You think you’re helping by sending money back home, but you are fueling a toxic cycle of dependency. You send your auntie $500 a month; she lives off it, eats, and passes the change around to the rest of the family. What are they building with it? Nothing. They are just waiting for the next Western Union transfer. Then, you fly back home with $1,000 in your bank account, feeling like a boss. But wake up and look around: the roads aren't paved, there are no functioning traffic lights, and you have to retreat to the countryside or hyper-segregated, fair-skinned enclaves to find a decent neighborhood.
Look at how far we’ve regressed compared to the rest of the world. Even nations in Africa that recently survived brutal civil wars are stabilizing their economies. Look at our own backyard. Guyana currently has one of the fastest-growing economies on the planet, boasting over 30% GDP growth recently. Haiti is not short on resources—we have untapped gold and copper reserves—and yet we play with none of it. We have people who haven't had running water in years. Because we lack basic infrastructure, over 70% of our energy needs are met by burning charcoal and firewood, leaving our primary forests practically decimated. We don't even have regulated supermarkets; we rely on open-air flea markets where food regulations don't exist and disease spreads easily.
Our domestic systems are entirely broken. The three branches of government don't function, the judicial system is nonexistent, and we have to beg the UN for basic medical infrastructure and security. Why are we obsessing over foreign influence when our own house is on fire? And while the country burns, we are suffering from a catastrophic brain drain. Over 80% of Haiti's college-educated citizens live abroad. I understand the human instinct to flee danger, but if everybody leaves, who is left to keep the country running? You run away to build up someone else's country while yours rots. We had a head start before any other independent Black nation on earth. We were the blueprint. Now, we are the cautionary tale. It is time to stop crying about the past, stop relying on remittances, and start organizing real, uncompromising resistance on the ground. If we don't fix our own country, no one else will.