Most of these people have never really experience life outside of the United States or where Americans are not fully taking care of. There is a large part of the world that will eat anything that walks, swims, flies, or crawls.... and in any condition what so ever.
I tell people many times on this forum that they haven't experience how life is outside America, they have no idea that they have no idea.
There is nothing wrong with the geographic area known as Haiti, so what is the factor that makes it a terrible place?
Answer to the last question is
poverty. And why is there such poverty? Well, the French.
After Haitian independence in 1804, the Haitians were forced to pay millions and millions to France for France's lost property (much of it compensation for "lost" slaves.) Without this payment, France would not agree to diplomatic recognition of Haiti. In the weird politics of the time, other nations wouldn't deal with Haiti lest they piss off the French (who still had power on the world stage at that time).
So, Haiti agreed to pay the equivalent of millions and millions of dollars to France in exchange for recognition. In the 1800's, that was real money.
The Haitians were essentially forced to choose between their present and their future. It is a bargain they continue to make today.
I seem to recall the Haitian debt was not paid off until after WW2. That is a lot of debt, and a long time to pay! But, people will pay what it takes to try to ensure their freedom.
Sadly, this debt, meant to secure freedom, also created voids. Lack of infrastructure, education, health, etc., By the time the debt was paid, the damage was done. The lack of development and production has spiraled the economic system into total failure. There are very few places like Haiti when it comes to survival. Long term planning is unheard of. Everything they have has to be imported. So, even if they have a dollar, that dollar soon leaves the country. It doesn't stay there to be spent and to grow their own economy.
I flew near the Haiti/Dominican border once. The Dominican side was full of trees. The Haitian side? Dotted with smoke rising from the charcoal fires cooking goats in the countryside. Why? Haitians have raped their resources to try to survive. The Haitians can't even grow trees for tomorrow because of the need for cooking fuel for today. Heck, when we constructed buildings in Port Au Prince, we had to rent the lumber we used to form and pour concrete. You couldn't buy it because it was so scarce. In Cap Haitian, dollars flowed into the Dominican while goods flowed into Haiti to be consumed. When the goods were gone, so were the dollars. There is nothing
produced.
The debt burden faced by Haiti led to a catastrophic economic system that made way for despotic rule for much of the last three quarters of a century.