June 25, 2009
"Beat the Dog Too Hard" Haiti's Elections
By MARK SCHULLER
Port-au-Prince.
This was the final round of elections for a third of the Senate in Haiti. I woke up with a start as several UN helicopters zoomed to and from downtown from uphill. Given this week’s events, I feared the worst. As it turns out, it was nothing.
I went out this morning around 9:30, when some church services like the brand-new Spanish-language “United Pentecostal Church of Latin America” were just getting out. I walked 12 minutes to the site of a polling place and I didn’t see anyone. I couldn’t even see where the polling place was. I knew it had to be there because of the police truck where 2 officers stood guard and 2 others rested in the cab.
On my way back I perused the neighborhood market, quieter than usual for Sundays after church. Even compared to this past January when I was last in Haiti, the global financial crisis is particularly noticeable for the timachann, the street merchants. Some have stopped chèche lavi (literally, “looking for life” – making a living) in the neighborhood. On my street, one family has packed up and left for a bidonvil (shantytown) far away in the Pòtoprens metro area. The stands where I usually get cans of juice or tomato paste are always almost completely empty. One didn’t even have a dime bag of bread to sell.
The streets were almost completely blanch – empty, very little traffic. The National Police issued a curfew against motorcycles in effect until a half hour ago, in an effort to bring security to the electoral process. Most everyone I know simply stayed home. If they went out at all, it was to their local market or to church. I called a friend who is a high-ranking member of the government. He was the only one I spoke with (more than 30!) who voted today. When he voted, around 12:30, his was the fifth ballot of several hundred eligible voters for his neighborhood of some 20,000 people. True, it was a kilometer or more to the polls, which is a long way in crowded Pòtoprens.
I went down to his polling place, on Channmas (French: Champs-de-Mars), the national plaza containing the National Palace and most of the central government bureaucracies. I took Lalue – the normally very busy thoroughfare connecting downtown to the suburb of Petyonvil. As I crossed the street not a single car was in sight. Channmas itself was emptier than I had ever remembered seeing it. There were a couple of places where small crowds huddled.
Thinking a crowd would be the polling place, I went to one. As I arrived, the crowd of 20 or so men cheered. Apparently Brazil had just scored a goal. It was a soccer match. Hungry, I went to a timachann selling a lukewarm plate of rice. Today was not good business for her. I asked her what the score was: Brazil 3, Italy 0. I asked where the polling place was. She laughed and said she didn’t know. I retorted, but you know it’s election day, right? She said a variant of what many friends I’ve known since 2003 or earlier said: “these elections don’t concern me.” To some, they didn't vote because their party was excluded. Others said "elections do nothing for us pep la (poor majority)." Still others said that they had to work to make a living.
As it turned out, the polling place was some 30 meters away, across from the UN truck (incidentally staffed by the victorious Brazilians). I sat in the plaza for almost an hour – until just before polls closed at 4, and the only people I saw coming or going were the police officers standing guard. And this was the polling place for several precincts, not just my friend’s.
According to friends who were here for the first round of elections on April 19, it was the same, except for road blocks and all traffic being stopped. Fanmi Lavalas, the party of deposed president Aristide, was excluded from the first round in April, so they continued to be excluded in today’s runoff elections.
It’s now 5:45 and the clouds are beginning to cover Pòtoprens while the sun still shines over the bay. The first rumblings of thunder from the east, from beyond the mountains, are just now barely audible. Today is the first day in almost two weeks that it hasn’t rained (it just did, at 6:40, for a short time). A couple of days ago, the UN troops (MINUSTAH) gave a press conference about the upcoming elections, promising that they would be secure and devoid of violence. The only thing that worried the UN was the weather.
Why is the UN so interested in these elections, especially since it seems clear that many people here aren’t?
At this same press conference, the MINUSTAH spokesperson was questioned by several journalists about their increasing aggression against the Haitian population. On Thursday, UN troops roughed up a partisan of deposed president Aristide at a funeral and following demonstration for Father Jean-Juste, a leader within Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas party. This triggered a reaction from the crowd, and according to the spokesperson, MINUSTAH fired seven shots in the air. At least nine were audible in footage by Tele Ginen. One person died at the protest, found lying in a large pool of blood. The UN denied it was by their bullets (they ignored the question of whether they were metal or rubber), suggesting he died from someone throwing a rock. To date, if there has been an autopsy, the results have not been published.
For the better part of the month of June, college students have been staging almost daily protests, that began with a localized concern about taking away labs and shortening classes in the State University of Haiti’s School of Medicine but have broadened to support the movement to raise Haiti’s minimum wage. At many of these protests the UN has responded by firing teargas. It has been the cause of concern for many neighboring residents and doctors at the State Hospital, adjacent to the School of Medicine where many canisters of teargas have been shot.
The UN evaded all questions about the severity of the response, instead asking journalists a rhetorical question if they didn’t have a duty to respond when public property was destroyed. In a case last Wednesday, the only provocation was a tire was burned on a street corner and a burned-out minivan was blocking traffic in front of campus.
Right or wrong, many Haitian people are increasingly fed up with the UN occupation, which according to many sources spent $600 million last year. For the first time since I’ve been coming here since 2002, I have begun to hear people to tell me to f*** off and go home. Other blan (foreigner / white people) are noticing the same.
Many people are speculating about the timing of the UN’s escalation of violence. Some have theorized that it represents the UN’s putting in place a new order, a new stage in the country’s development. On Wednesday, the day before the UN allegedly shot the Lavalas member, Haitian president René Préval officially announced his objection to the law raising Haiti’s minimum wage from 70 goud ($1.75) to 200 goud ($5). The day before this, former U.S. President Bill Clinton officially accepted his post as UN Special Emissary, in which he promised to bring together a range of donors, including the private sector, to bring jobs to Haiti. In his presentation with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Clinton cited the Collier Report more and in greater detail than a plan ostensibly coming from the Haitian government.
The Collier Report – and ostensibly the Haitian government’s strategic plan – argue that Haiti’s future lies in low-wage manufacturing work, exploiting Haiti’s dual “comparative advantage” of proximity to the U.S. and very low wages. Granted a unique opportunity in the HOPE Act, a nine-year tax relief that according to industry sources is $1.50 per pair of pants, Haiti needs to act quickly to privatize two of the remaining four public utilities (the port and electricity) to capitalize on this momentum and create jobs, says the Collier report (and according to Clinton, who said he read both, the Haitian government’s plan). Of two dozen grassroots activists who are actively engaged in civic life and debate world events such as Iran’s elections and Israel’s settlement policy, none have heard of the Collier Report or its author, Oxford economist Paul Collier (and all I’ve heard from since Bill Clinton’s speech haven’t heard about
the government’s plan either).
The manufacturing lobby, just granted a unique opportunity not given any other country in this $1.50 customs exemption, have made it their top priority to stop the passage of the minimum wage law while refusing to testify and submit to Parliament’s questioning until the previous weekend, more than a month after the Senate unanimously passed the minimum wage legislation. Some workers believe that industrialists are afraid to be asked about their bookkeeping practices, among others. Several workers complained that while their taxes were taken out of biweekly pay, the Haitian social security office didn’t even have a file for them. The industry lobby threatens that the 200 goud minimum wage will be the cause of 15,000 jobs lost. One of the eight primary industrialist families, presidential candidate Charles-Henri Baker, allegedly sent a pink slip to 300 workers, saying they would be fired the day that the 200 goud minimum wage law is put in effect.
Research with several factory workers reveals that the average quota for pants is 500 per day and average wage is 100 goud ($2.50) per day in Pòtoprens factories, which is 20 Haitian cents per pair of pants per person. Since the average size of factory lines is 25, this is 5 goud, or 12.5 cents for ALL Haitian laborers on a pair of pants. Consequently, doubling the minimum wage would be 10 goud, or a quarter per pair of pants. This extra 12-and-a-half cents pales in comparison to the $1.50, to say nothing of the final retail cost. According to union sources, in the Wanament Free Trade Zone, the average quota for t-shirts is 3000 per day per ‘module.’ Average wage is 150 goud, or 5 Haitian cents per person per t-shirt. Again 25 people per module and this figure is 1.25 goud (three and an eighth cents) for all Haitian labor.
Article 137 of Haiti’s Labor Code obliges the Haitian government to augment the minimum wage to keep up with inflation if it’s greater than 10% in any given fiscal year (Oct 1-Sept 30). The last time the minimum wage was increased was in 2003. Given the global food crisis felt acutely in Haiti last April, it is long overdue, and 200 goud is actually lower than it should be to keep pace with inflation and the devaluation of the goud.
This conflict, the UN’s increasing use of the trigger, and the debate in Parliament are likely to continue with increased intensity when Parliament will reconsider the act in light of the President’s objections next Tuesday. This conflict is but one manifestation of a larger global system that is reeling from an economic crisis and shifting following the new U.S. administration. Speaking of the UN and their attacks against both the students and Lavalas, I was told of a proverb, bat two fò, chen pap rele. If you beat a dog too hard, it won’t bark anymore (because it is dead).
Mark Schuller is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at York College, the City University of New York. He has co-directed documentary Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy (2009) and co-edited Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Neoliberal Strategies in Disaster Reconstruction (2008) among other reports and articles about Haiti, development, and globalization. He is in Haiti for the summer.
Showing posts with label Minustah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minustah. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, April 21, 2008
Food Aid Arrives but runs short
In hungry Haiti, handouts only go so far
By BEN FOX
Hundreds of Haitians stood in long lines Saturday, just as others had walked for hours throughout the week to receive the U.N. and regional food aid pouring into the country after a spate of deadly riots.But amid the tenuous calm, aid groups say they are just buying time - and long-term solutions seem remote in the desperately poor nation."The beans might last four days," said Jervais Rodman, an unemployed carpenter with three children who emerged from a churchyard Friday with small bags of food. "The rice will be gone as soon as I get home."
Rodman was one of the lucky ones. Luis Elaine, 48, clutched an empty sack after being told at the same church that there was no food left. Many distribution centers simply ran out."I just hope God will provide something," Elaine said.More than half of Haiti's nearly 9 million people live on less than $2 a day, but the sharp rise in prices has thrown some of those who could barely support themselves into the throngs of the utterly destitute.Market stalls are piled with papayas and small bags of pasta, even in poor areas, but vast numbers of people simply lack money to buy them because global food and commodity prices have risen 40 percent over the past year.At least seven people were killed in the food riots this month that cost Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job.
The riots also were a setback to international efforts to stabilize the country, U.N. envoy Hedi Annabi said. U.N. peacekeepers came after a violent rebellion ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004."We now need to turn this around, draw the lessons from this crisis and move ahead," Annabi told The Associated Press.
The United Nations says it will distribute 8,000 tons of food and other aid in the next two months. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has pledged more than 350 tons of food. And U.S. President George W. Bush has ordered the release of $200 million in emergency aid to nations hit hardest by surging food prices - though it was not immediately clear how much Haiti would get.Brazil has given some 18 tons of food since the crisis began."It's not much, we are aware of that, but it's something," Brazilian Ambassador Igor Kipman told the AP at the churchyard in a part of the capital known as Cite Militaire. "You have an emergency, people are hungry, so we are handing out some food for the immediate problem."
As he spoke, Brazilian marines gave out rice, sugar, beans and cooking oil, while others armed with shotguns and automatic rifles stood guard or monitored the scene from armored vehicles and rooftops.Hundreds of people, including many small children, thronged the steel gates outside another church, where aid workers were giving out bags of food donated by Venezuela.Relief group World Vision said food distribution this week in Haiti's Central Plateau, north of the capital, drew about 800 people over two days, some who had walked more than three hours.The sharp rise in prices has thrown some of those who could barely support themselves into the throngs of the utterly destitute.Rodman said he was so desperate to feed his family that he pawned the tools he used to make furniture and now has no way to earn an income.
The 38-year-old said his wife is angry and frustrated."She tells me to go out and get a job, buy some food," he said, drying his tears with his dusty, blue Puma T-shirt. "This is the first time I've had to lower myself and come get this food."Since the riots a little more than a week ago, the U.N. multinational force of about 9,000 soldiers and police and Haitian police have increased patrols and checkpoints, hoping to catch gang members and confiscate weapons. Many fear that violence could easily return."Things are back to normal but it's precarious, it's fragile," said Fred Blaise, the spokesman for the U.N. police force.But most agree the short-term situation is bleak.
Haiti's economy has been shattered by years of political turmoil. The nation's infrastructure is in a shambles and its agricultural sector has been devastated by inefficiency, cheaper imports - primarily from the U.S. - and a shortage of arable land.World Vision, which is distributing $80 million of U.S. aid in Haiti over five years, says it is trying to raise private donations to buy more food and will distribute seeds and tools in the countryside, where the poverty is most extreme.Aid groups are also struggling with higher prices and say they do not have huge stocks that they can easily divert from one needy group to another."We are dealing with a very fluid situation," said Rose Kimeu of World Vision. "People are getting angrier and angrier."
© 2008 Miami Herald Media.
By BEN FOX
Hundreds of Haitians stood in long lines Saturday, just as others had walked for hours throughout the week to receive the U.N. and regional food aid pouring into the country after a spate of deadly riots.But amid the tenuous calm, aid groups say they are just buying time - and long-term solutions seem remote in the desperately poor nation."The beans might last four days," said Jervais Rodman, an unemployed carpenter with three children who emerged from a churchyard Friday with small bags of food. "The rice will be gone as soon as I get home."
Rodman was one of the lucky ones. Luis Elaine, 48, clutched an empty sack after being told at the same church that there was no food left. Many distribution centers simply ran out."I just hope God will provide something," Elaine said.More than half of Haiti's nearly 9 million people live on less than $2 a day, but the sharp rise in prices has thrown some of those who could barely support themselves into the throngs of the utterly destitute.Market stalls are piled with papayas and small bags of pasta, even in poor areas, but vast numbers of people simply lack money to buy them because global food and commodity prices have risen 40 percent over the past year.At least seven people were killed in the food riots this month that cost Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job.
The riots also were a setback to international efforts to stabilize the country, U.N. envoy Hedi Annabi said. U.N. peacekeepers came after a violent rebellion ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004."We now need to turn this around, draw the lessons from this crisis and move ahead," Annabi told The Associated Press.
The United Nations says it will distribute 8,000 tons of food and other aid in the next two months. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has pledged more than 350 tons of food. And U.S. President George W. Bush has ordered the release of $200 million in emergency aid to nations hit hardest by surging food prices - though it was not immediately clear how much Haiti would get.Brazil has given some 18 tons of food since the crisis began."It's not much, we are aware of that, but it's something," Brazilian Ambassador Igor Kipman told the AP at the churchyard in a part of the capital known as Cite Militaire. "You have an emergency, people are hungry, so we are handing out some food for the immediate problem."
As he spoke, Brazilian marines gave out rice, sugar, beans and cooking oil, while others armed with shotguns and automatic rifles stood guard or monitored the scene from armored vehicles and rooftops.Hundreds of people, including many small children, thronged the steel gates outside another church, where aid workers were giving out bags of food donated by Venezuela.Relief group World Vision said food distribution this week in Haiti's Central Plateau, north of the capital, drew about 800 people over two days, some who had walked more than three hours.The sharp rise in prices has thrown some of those who could barely support themselves into the throngs of the utterly destitute.Rodman said he was so desperate to feed his family that he pawned the tools he used to make furniture and now has no way to earn an income.
The 38-year-old said his wife is angry and frustrated."She tells me to go out and get a job, buy some food," he said, drying his tears with his dusty, blue Puma T-shirt. "This is the first time I've had to lower myself and come get this food."Since the riots a little more than a week ago, the U.N. multinational force of about 9,000 soldiers and police and Haitian police have increased patrols and checkpoints, hoping to catch gang members and confiscate weapons. Many fear that violence could easily return."Things are back to normal but it's precarious, it's fragile," said Fred Blaise, the spokesman for the U.N. police force.But most agree the short-term situation is bleak.
Haiti's economy has been shattered by years of political turmoil. The nation's infrastructure is in a shambles and its agricultural sector has been devastated by inefficiency, cheaper imports - primarily from the U.S. - and a shortage of arable land.World Vision, which is distributing $80 million of U.S. aid in Haiti over five years, says it is trying to raise private donations to buy more food and will distribute seeds and tools in the countryside, where the poverty is most extreme.Aid groups are also struggling with higher prices and say they do not have huge stocks that they can easily divert from one needy group to another."We are dealing with a very fluid situation," said Rose Kimeu of World Vision. "People are getting angrier and angrier."
© 2008 Miami Herald Media.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
UN policeman killed in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A U.N. peacekeeper from Nigeria was shot and killed in the Haitian capital on Saturday as tensions fueled by riots over food prices continued to simmer in the Caribbean country, officials said.
Witnesses said the uniformed officer was taking food to colleagues at a police station near the National Palace when he was attacked by a group of "bandits" near the Bel-Air slum, not far from the main Catholic cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, a police official said.
He was dragged from his car and shot, the official said.
The United Nations said the victim was a 36-year-old member of the Nigerian police squad taking part in the Haiti peacekeeping operation.
"(The U.N. force) will pursue the authors of this abject crime with the greatest determination," the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, said in a statement.
Port-au-Prince has been relatively tranquil since President Rene Preval called on protesters on Wednesday to stop rioting over soaring food prices. At least five people died during a week of violence in which U.N. troops battled demonstrators.
Opposition senators on Saturday voted to fire the impoverished country's prime minister over the sky-rocketing cost of food, which has had a painful impact in countries like Haiti, where most people earn less than $2 a day.
A U.N. spokesman was not available for comment.
There are about 9,000 Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeepers and civilian police in Haiti. The force was sent in after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in an armed rebellion in 2004.
Thirty-three U.N. personnel, not including the latest fatality, have died during peacekeeping operations in Haiti, according to the MINUSTAH Web site.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
Witnesses said the uniformed officer was taking food to colleagues at a police station near the National Palace when he was attacked by a group of "bandits" near the Bel-Air slum, not far from the main Catholic cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, a police official said.
He was dragged from his car and shot, the official said.
The United Nations said the victim was a 36-year-old member of the Nigerian police squad taking part in the Haiti peacekeeping operation.
"(The U.N. force) will pursue the authors of this abject crime with the greatest determination," the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, said in a statement.
Port-au-Prince has been relatively tranquil since President Rene Preval called on protesters on Wednesday to stop rioting over soaring food prices. At least five people died during a week of violence in which U.N. troops battled demonstrators.
Opposition senators on Saturday voted to fire the impoverished country's prime minister over the sky-rocketing cost of food, which has had a painful impact in countries like Haiti, where most people earn less than $2 a day.
A U.N. spokesman was not available for comment.
There are about 9,000 Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeepers and civilian police in Haiti. The force was sent in after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in an armed rebellion in 2004.
Thirty-three U.N. personnel, not including the latest fatality, have died during peacekeeping operations in Haiti, according to the MINUSTAH Web site.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Destabilishing Haiti
The stability of the very fragile peace in Haiti is being threatened by many who are calling for the withdrawal of the United Nations Forces.
Among the loudest voices are the women of WILPF, heretofore a respected peace organization which is now endangering its credibility over this issue. They appear to be only informed by many paid professionals, of the former, and disgraced President Aristide.
As Michael Deibert, who was on the ground in Haiti at the time, reports in his excellent book, Notes from the Last Testament:
None of the scandals of Aristide's corrupt government pass through the guardians of the gate of the American left. Neither the fall of his government's promoted co-operative bank scandal, nor the rice that his cronies stole, nor his taking of kick-backs from the telecom company, nor the fraudulent elections, nor the drug ring that surrounded him,nor deep and firmly rooted opposition to his rule have appeared in the progressive press.
The voices touring the circuit of the American "progressives" appear to have no respect for Haitian democracy, or for the voice of their current democratically elected president, who stated at the UN Security council that the UN peacekeeping forces are "only formula that is realistic and available at this time that enables Haitians to restore freedom and live in peace."
The "progressives" appear to answer only to the call of Aristide.
As Aristide's recently returned-from-being kidnapped spokeswoman said:
"He is in good spirits because he knows he will come back and that we are fighting for that," said Maryse Narcisse, one of five directors of the Aristide Foundation, which bankrolls student stipends, aid for activists with his Lavalas Movement and political agitation for his repatriation.
When pressed by Aristide supporters to invite him back, Preval has pointed out that there are no impediments to his predecessor and onetime mentor's return -- except the former president's own concern about pending charges of criminal drug trafficking and misuse of government funds while in office.
One can only surmise that the goal of the public outcry for the removal of the MINUSTAH troops is so that once again, the drug dealers can control the country.
While Haiti now is enjoying a fragile peace and is in desperate need of all possible public support, the American progressives prefer to spend their time looking backwards and to the left.
I apologize to the people of Haiti for our benighted ignorance of the facts.
You deserve better.
We are, theoretically, a literate nation and have extensive access to the internet.
Perhaps, once the UN troops are removed, and the poor of the slums are once again armed with automatic weapons, Aristide,is counting on the support of yet another Clinton to support his return.
J'en ai mes doutes.
Fortunately, there are quieter, saner, calmer voices who wish for a stable Haiti.
Among the loudest voices are the women of WILPF, heretofore a respected peace organization which is now endangering its credibility over this issue. They appear to be only informed by many paid professionals, of the former, and disgraced President Aristide.
As Michael Deibert, who was on the ground in Haiti at the time, reports in his excellent book, Notes from the Last Testament:
According to U.S. Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings, between the beginning 2001 and the end of 2003, the Miami law firm of attorney Ira Kurzban — responsible for funding the U.S attorney Brian Concannon and the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Haiti as well as the Haitian government's domestic representation in the United States — received $3,569,026 from the Aristide government of behalf of its efforts ( www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fara/), The same filings, between the beginning of 2000 and the end of 2002, show the public relations firm of former Black Congressional Caucus member California Representative Ron Dellums was paid almost $600,000 by the Aristide government for its lobbying efforts, and that the firm of Hazel Ross-Robinson, wife of TransAfrica founder and vehement Aristide defender Randall Robinson, who had served as Dellums's senior foreign policy adviser before going into the private sector, was paid $367,966 by the Haitian government starting in 1997. Robinson, Dellums and U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters were all official advisors to the tax-exempt Aristide Foundation for Democracy, the body that Aristide had set up to raise and administer funds for projects in Haiti.
None of the scandals of Aristide's corrupt government pass through the guardians of the gate of the American left. Neither the fall of his government's promoted co-operative bank scandal, nor the rice that his cronies stole, nor his taking of kick-backs from the telecom company, nor the fraudulent elections, nor the drug ring that surrounded him,nor deep and firmly rooted opposition to his rule have appeared in the progressive press.
The voices touring the circuit of the American "progressives" appear to have no respect for Haitian democracy, or for the voice of their current democratically elected president, who stated at the UN Security council that the UN peacekeeping forces are "only formula that is realistic and available at this time that enables Haitians to restore freedom and live in peace."
The "progressives" appear to answer only to the call of Aristide.
As Aristide's recently returned-from-being kidnapped spokeswoman said:
"He is in good spirits because he knows he will come back and that we are fighting for that," said Maryse Narcisse, one of five directors of the Aristide Foundation, which bankrolls student stipends, aid for activists with his Lavalas Movement and political agitation for his repatriation.
When pressed by Aristide supporters to invite him back, Preval has pointed out that there are no impediments to his predecessor and onetime mentor's return -- except the former president's own concern about pending charges of criminal drug trafficking and misuse of government funds while in office.
One can only surmise that the goal of the public outcry for the removal of the MINUSTAH troops is so that once again, the drug dealers can control the country.
While Haiti now is enjoying a fragile peace and is in desperate need of all possible public support, the American progressives prefer to spend their time looking backwards and to the left.
I apologize to the people of Haiti for our benighted ignorance of the facts.
You deserve better.
We are, theoretically, a literate nation and have extensive access to the internet.
Perhaps, once the UN troops are removed, and the poor of the slums are once again armed with automatic weapons, Aristide,is counting on the support of yet another Clinton to support his return.
J'en ai mes doutes.
Fortunately, there are quieter, saner, calmer voices who wish for a stable Haiti.
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