#2582: Mihoko comments on assistance

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: mihoko tsunetomi <miho0087@yominet.ne.jp>

>I think not.  I think the case is strong that Haiti needs people,
Haitians and non-Haitians alike, to participate in TWO battles
simultaneously:

-- the battle for fundamental structure change,

-- the battle to alleviate immediate material needs now.

Haiti needs BOTH those who contribute to basic works of mercy:
.  Haiti needs leaders in analyzing and leading
the country to fundamental structural change.  It desperately needs both
groups.  They simply are not on another's enemy.

On the other hand, structural change takes so very long and often for
every step forward there are several backward.
Yet I would argue that Haiti needs both groups, and that Haiti would be much
better off if members of each group could come to respect the efforts of
one another.  <

Thank you, Bob, for neatly summarizing and even including non-Haitian
participation.  If you allow me to add some more, I would be grateful.

     When Mario mentioned the shadow cabinet of the diaspora, I thought
the time has finally arrived for those in this category to work together
for the advance of Haiti, as diaspora originally includes this meaning.
For an outsider, there seem to be many points that you can contribute
without changing your approaches.  Once thing I don't understand is
whenever the word structural change is mentioned, it is always with the
phrase that it takes generations of time, when the Haitian mass are
starving.  The real fundamental structural adjustment may take time
and efforts, but to me at least,  there are things that a person standing
a little far can see better.

    If this is irrelevant, you can ignore.  But one thing I was quite sure
was the problematic ID cards.  Why did they pay to a foreign company
 such an enormous amount of money (almost 1/5 ?) just to create havoc?
I was further surprised to hear that was Polaroid.   I, a rich Japanese
have a Polaroid camera, but cannot use it because the films are too
expensive.  It is all right if all qualified people could be covered, and
in order to do that, there could have been some other way worked out
to create jobs for Haitians themselves.  What happens if some eligible
voters cannot obtain ones?  If you live in America, didn't you realize
that at the beginning?  Sorry, diasporas, what have you been seeing?
I am tired of some of the discussions on democracy or dictatorship,
or French or Kreyol.  To an ignorant foreigner's eye,  diaspora is not
a diaspora without making the very best efforts to unite, rebuild
their motherland.

                                             Mihoko