#1272: Drug Use in Haitian Middle Class: Villain comments (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Marc Villain <MVillain@mail.mia.bellsouth.net>

I join Mario Delatour on his comments about the impact of the
proliferation of drugs in today's Haitian society. I've been living in
the US for the last 15 years. I come from a middle calss background in
Haiti and attended Saint-Jean L'evangeliste for Elementatry School and
later Saint-Louis de Gonzague and College Roger Anglade. 

It never fails. Almost everytime I meet someone that I went to any of
these schools with, the story is the same... Remember so and so, "m'sieu
fin dejoue nan drug". I have not kept any real stats on the percentage
that these former classmates represent as a portion of the total class
sizes that I attended but it seems like a recurring story that was not
as prevalent in the social fabric when I was there.

I am curious to see if this has been the experience of other list
members, say 35-40 and under?. And also, it seems that the drug of
choice of some members of the Haitian middle class is "crack cocaine".

Finally, the majority of my school days were spent in all-boy schools.
Is there a relationship between gender and heavy drug use in Haitian
culture?


Marc Villain