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Haiti (pronounced /heiti/; - Haitian Creole: Ayiti), is a Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago.

The country's highest point is Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft). The total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi) and its capital is Port-au-Prince.

On 1 January 1804 Haiti proclaimed the independence of Saint-Domingue. It is the only nation born of a slave revolt.

17 October 1806. The country was divided then between a kingdom in the north directed by Henri Christophe, and a republic in the south directed by a gens de couleur Alexandre petion.

Later on President Jean Pierre Boyer, also a gens de couleur, managed to reunify the two halves and extend control again over the western part of the island.

A long succession of coups followed the departure of Jean-Pierre Boyer. In its 200-year history, Haiti has seen 32 coups.

The United States occupied the island from 1915 to 1934.

In 1937 Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, in an event known as the Parsley Massacre, ordered the Army to kill Haitians living on the Dominican side of the border. He developed a uniquely Dominican policy of racial discrimination, Antihaitianismo ("anti-Haitianism"), targeting the mostly-black inhabitants of his neighboring country.

Within the country,François "Papa Doc" Duvalier used both political murder and expulsion to suppress his opponents; estimates of those killed are as high as 30,000. From 1957 to 1986, the Duvalier family reigned as dictators, turning the country into a hermit kingdom with a personality cult and excessive corruption.

Many Haitians fled to exile in the United States and Canada, especially French-speaking Quebec.

In 1986 protests against "Baby Doc" led the U.S. to arrange for Duvalier and his family to be exiled to France.

The current structure of Haiti's political system was set forth in the Constitution of Haiti on 29 March 1987. The current president is Rene preval

Haitian politics have been contentious.

Most Haitians are aware of Haiti's history as the only country in the Western Hemisphere to undergo a successful slave revolution.

The long history of oppression by dictators, including François Duvalier, has markedly affected the nation. France and the United States have repeatedly intervened in Haitian politics since the country's founding, sometimes at the request of one party or another. People's awareness of the threat of such intervention also permeates national life.
The country has had a particularly high level of corruption.

On January 12, 2010, at 21:53 UTC, Haiti was struck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake,

the country's most severe earthquake in over 200 years

The epicenter of the quake was just off the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, sparking a tsunami watch for parts of the Caribbean, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A tsunami watch was posted for Haiti and parts of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, but the watch was later canceled.

The morning following the quake (January 13, 2010), Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said, in a live interview on CNN, that he estimated the death toll of the disaster to be "hundreds of thousands of people."

{source from News.bbc.co.uk} >>The World Bank announced that its offices in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince collapsed, adding that it confirmed as safe "most" employees. Still, the Bank announced its readiness to mobilize a team to assess the damage and plan the "reconstruction" of the country.

The UN Building hosting the stabilization mission for Haiti (MINUSTAH) also suffered collapse, concentrating early UN rescue efforts on their own personnel. An estimated 200 UN workers are currently missing and 5 confirmed dead (January 13)

The head of the UN Mission to Haiti as well as the Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, have been reported to be among the dead.

Doctors Without Borders confirmed that 3 of their aid centers were rendered inoperable because of the earthquake, leaving many injured Haitians without care. So far, no large foreign aid teams have arrived in Haiti, though some smaller ones have.

Based on the latest reports from the officials more than 50,000 are feared to be dead and many more injured.

By most economic measures, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. It had a nominal GDP of 7.018 billion USD in 2009 with a GDP per capita of 790 USD, about $2 per person per day.

90-95% of Haitians (depending on the source) are of predominately African descent; the remaining 5-10% of the population are mostly of mixed-race background.
A small percentage of the non-black population consists primarily of white Haitians; mostly of Arab,[44] Western European (French, German, Polish, Spanish), and Jewish origin.
Haitians of Asian descent (mostly of Chinese origin) number in at approximately 400.

>> {source}>> from news.bbc.co.uk# The tremor hit at 1653 (2153 GMT) on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards.
There is still no official word on casualties and the extent of the devastation is only now becoming clearer with dawn breaking.
China has already indicated in reports in state media that eight of its peacekeepers are buried and feared dead, with another 10 unaccounted for.

The AFP news agency quoted the Jordanian army as saying three of its peacekeepers had been killed and 21 wounded.
The Brazilian army said four of its peacekeepers were killed and a large number were missing.
A French official told AFP about 200 people were missing in the collapsed Hotel Montana, which is popular with tourists.

There have also been some reports of looting overnight.
Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity, told Reuters that overnight the capital was in total darkness.
"You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming.
"People are trying to dig victims out with flashlights. I think hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement."
Earlier, bodies white with dust could be seen piled on the back of a pick-up truck as vehicles tried to ferry the injured to hospital.

US President Barack Obama said his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti and that he expected "an aggressive, coordinated [aid] effort by the US government".
Venezuela says it will send a 50-strong "humanitarian assistance team".

The Red Cross is dispatching a relief team from Geneva and the UN's World Food Programme is flying in two planes with emergency food aid.
The Inter-American Development Bank said it was immediately approving a $200,000 grant for emergency aid.
The UK said it was mobilising help and was "ready to provide whatever humanitarian assistance may be required".
Canada, Australia, France and a number of Latin American nations have also said they are mobilising their aid response.
Pope Benedict XVI has called for a generous response to the "tragic situation" in Haiti.

In the minutes after the quake, Henry Bahn, a visiting official from the US Department of Agriculture, said he had seen houses which had tumbled into a ravine.
"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Mr Bahn, who described the sky as "just grey with dust".
He said he had been walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.
"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just heard a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."
Reports on the Twitter message site, which cannot yet be verified by the BBC, expressed the chaos in the wake of the quake.

Haitian-born rap star Wyclef Jean has urged fans to donate to relief efforts in the wake of the huge earthquake that struck the Caribbean state on Tuesday.
"Your money will help with relief efforts," he wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter. "They need our help - please help if you can."
The former Fugees star has since said he is now on his way to the Caribbean state, via the Dominican Republic.
"Pray for the people of Haiti [and] me please," he posted.
Jean, 37, was made a roving ambassador for Haiti in 2007 and provides humanitarian aid and assistance through his Yele Haiti foundation.

I urge all who can to donate to the country of Haiti- you can donate, Money, clothes, food or whatever other services you may be able to offer this country in this crisis.

Written & edited by A, Germain. 14/01/10

sources. BBC news, wikipedia, history of haitia,

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