#2106: Re: #2103: Re: # 2092: CBS Sunday Morning News - Dreyfuss replies

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Joel Dreyfuss <jdreyfuss@ibm.net>

I'm afraid I saw the Sunday Morning piece as completely useless in fostering
any understanding of Haiti and its entranched problems. The slum shots were
nothing new, but they didn't even bother with the contrasting picture of the
homes of the elite, which suggests that the official US view of the MREs has
softened. Braver talked about violence, but didn't mention that one of the
reasons for it was the U.S. failure to disarm many of the former soldiers
and militiamen. That would have required delving into the current risk-free
approach to international policing that the US military now insists on.
There was no mention of Haiti's origins as a revolutinary black nation and
its 100-year ostracism-which go to the root of some of the problems often
discussed here: the complete lack of working institutions, the absence of
the concept of benevelent government, etc. Haitians may be blamed for a lot
of their own problems, but Braver never got past "The Phrase."