A Better Vision

My Friend Stuart Leiderman, a friend of Haiti in New Hampshire, writes

Hello, Elizabeth and thanks for your vision. on the model community idea.

Several years ago, I worked up something for a Haitian organization who wanted to make a model community on the north coast near Fort Liberte. I imagined it as a kind of little "Haiti world's fair" arrangement that visitors would see and reach from the ocean -- a kind of reverse-boat-people's experience. It would have pavilions showing the best of Haitian work and styles, energy generation, water supply, housing, food production, etc. there would be places to live and learn, staffed by rotating grouops of members from innovative projects from all over Haiti.

I called it a "composite paradise" -- a location where you could see and learn from what existed elsewhere in Haiti but only scattered and isolated. The north coast community was never created but the idea and my interest is still there for a coastal location. It could be done at an appropriate place in the south coast, even in D.R. near the border.meanwhile, The Haitian League has adopted the idea for a partnership with Frere Armand Francklin in the Central Plateau. http://www.haitianleague.org/NewsRelease/2008/rere-armand-partnership_slideshow_final%206.26.08.pdf