Haiti's bicentennial of bad news

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Haiti's bicentennial of bad news
Little to celebrate since 1804 war of independence
Bad just gets worse in hemisphere's poorest country


OAKLAND ROSS
FEATURE WRITER

It's shaping up to be a confused, gloomy and perhaps even bloody bicentenary for Haiti.In less than two months, the troubled Caribbean country will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its independence from French rule.

In 1804, following a long and violent slave uprising under national hero Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haiti became the first black republic in the world and only the second territory in the Americas to win freedom from its colonial masters, a quarter-century after the United States sent the British packing.

By rights, the bicentenary should be a happy time for Haiti's 8.3 million people. But it probably won't be...