8645: Re: Simidor comments: a personal opinion (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Hyppolitep@aol.com


It’s been a while now since I’ve been reading those comments by Simidor with great interest. I respect his views, although I strongly disagree with them. I disagree because I believe that we need to raise the debate on Haiti, and leave the poor comments for those who don’t have a sense of what politics really entails.

My first concern and question for Simidor would be, where does he get his data to accuse so forcefully the whole Lavalas apparatus of such widespread corruption? I sincerely would like to know so I can do better analyses on Haiti. Are those “corruption” data from the IMF, the World Bank, the IFC, the IADB, or some other  European, or Asian, or even African financial institution? No one here is saying or suggesting that there is no corruption in the Lavalas régime. The issue to me was and still is, how come the previous Préval administration had been able to build and repair roads, build and repair so many schools, work on the Champ de Mars and the Bicentenaire, etc., while virtually every international financial institution had “walked away”, literally, from supporting his government economically. I would like to know how the present government is paying and will pay for the electricity that they purchase from Haytian  Tractor, or from the Dominican consortium, if corruption in Haiti 
is so deeply entrenched in governmental institutions. What about the ID cards (carte d’identité) on wheels campaign last month? Or the anti-polio campaign? Who paid for those programs? Who will be paying for those reduce-priced schoolbooks for those Haitian kids this coming September? Who has been paying for them since 1995?

Simidor also talks about money stolen from the telephone company, TELECO. Could he tell me, us, where he got this information? That would be so cool, man!!

Haiti is going through some very, very, very serious problems. As a country, we are negotiating now, finally amongst ourselves, a solution to issues that are as old as the country is. As smart as Simidor is, he should at least have a feel for the debate between the Lavalas régime and the Convergence for instance, and realize that it is really “same ‘ol . same ‘ol”: the question of National Party (power to the majority) as opposed to the Liberal party (power to the most capable). 

Simidor should realize that at this juncture, unless there is something deeply personal involved here, we should all refrain ourselves from making inflammatory statements that will only add oil to the fuel. Even if we do it, “convergently”, Simidor. If he truly cares about Haiti and the people as he says he is, he should discuss matters that are relevant to them, which everyone could learn something from. Since he seems to be focused on economic matters (corruption), why doesn’t he talk about Agriculture, or private investments, etc? Why is he so obsessed to know how much money Aristide has in the bank, when it is a virtual certainty that he doesn’t know. Neither do I. Nor do most of us on this list. Why all the subtle and at times simply childish invectives?

Oh boy, oh girl!! This is so true, Racine, “se bon ki ra”.

Hyppolite Pierre