#1702: More about lack of maintenance : Auguste replies

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:JRAuguste1@aol.com

Hello Nekita:

Many things can be done to improve the situation in Haiti generally. I often 
say to myself that Haiti is the country about which more "plans," "projects" 
most probably have been written. It seems like everyone has an idea as to 
what to do to remedy everything in Haiti. Not to be left out, let me add my 
two cents:

How about all Haitian-born people living abroad and who have acquired other 
nationalities to work together toward Haiti allowing dual citizenship. That 
would lead to the right to vote in Haiti's elections and would at last allow 
this powerful Haitian diaspora to really influence things at home. 

The Haitian diaspora already has economical clout, it needs to acquire 
political clout. Now it occupies a position somewhat analogous to taxation 
without representation. 

With dual nationality and the emergence of Haitian-Americans onto the foreign 
political stage, as observed in South Florida, USA for instance, Haitians 
could be a "kouteau deu bor" capable of influencing laws abroad and in Haiti. 

That, coupled with the implementation of the above mentioned various "plans" 
and "projects" could do the trick. 

OK, you say that dual nationality cannot solve things fast enough for the 
upcoming 200th anniversary celebration? Right you are. But I am not planning 
to celebrate anything at all in 2004. The way things are presently going, I 
don't think there will be much to celebrate about January 1, 2004. 

After having recently been bombarded by newspapers articles about how in 
Haiti, the majority of the population experiences Y2K types of problems 
everyday (candle light to see at home at night, lamp bobech, no running 
water, lack of health care, almost non existent infrastructure, etc., etc., ) 
 and that nothing could possibly be further disrupted in Haiti on 1/1/2000 
due to the bug, you should have seen my face when I woke up to the front 
pages of the Miami Herald this past January 1 and 2, 2000. "US TURNS BACK 
BOAT WITH 406 FROM HAITI" and more titles of the same genre backed with 
appropriate color pictures of desperate Haitians crowding the deck of a 
wooden boat, at the half way mark of a frustrated voyage. 

I am not a disciple of gloom and doom, but wouldn't it be surreal if the same 
pictures came back again to the front page of the Miami Herald on January 1, 
2004, regarding a contemporaneous analogous situation developing one mile in 
the waters off the city of Miami shores?