I was over on an alternate history chat page. The question of how could Haiti become a stable or at least functioning state came up. Where in it's history past or present could change have happened.

I posted,...

Without a humane, and foreseeing local change in customs, and leadership it will stay as it is. Outside help as we have seen for the last century did little good as the ruling families used it to deepen their hegemony. 

I'm tempted to suggest some sort of profound revolution to remove these feudal forces. However that's what got them into this mess in the first place. The great slave rebellions against French colonialism only gave them a new slavery at the hands of their "liberators". 

True I gloss over a very complex tragic history, but this is basically the situation. Put bluntly they're fucked. It would be as if Alabama was a country since 1789.