6223: RE: 6218: Re: 6213: Caricom item, Dorce comments (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "Harrison, J. Derek (English & Philosophy)" <jharrison@monroecc.edu>

Kathy Dorce is absolutely right to be upset about such tags as "de facto
one-party state" in Haiti, whatever their source.  Even more than what she
wrote, the phrase is hypocritical: Haiti has always been a one party state,
the party of the wealthy elites (using party in both of the accepted senses
of the word), and all the splinter parties and opposition parties and
movements and new directions and re-directions of Haitian politics can not
disguise that.

So now it's suddenly some big deal because Lavalas  has a voter mandate and
maybe even some political power?  Who is fooling whom about how long that
will last?  The real "one-party" in Haiti will be heard from sooner or
later.

In the meantime, maybe we could all step back a little and see what Aristide
can accomplish, or will accomplish.  Surely, when it comes to the condition
of the average Haitian, he can't make things much worse, one party or not.

Derek Harrison