a1498: Please help me understand (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Hyppolite Pierre <hpierre@irsp.org>

In their web edition of March 27 through April 2, 2002, the Haitian weekly
Haiti Progres reported in a text titled , Northeast: Good-bye national
production, the following:

«des portions de terres occupées par les paysans ont subi de sérieux
dommages durant l'arpentage».

Translation: «portions of land occupied by peasants have been damaged during
the land surveying process».

The journalist went on to report those words of a peasant:

«Notre problème c'est qu'en tant que paysans, notre plus grande richesse
constitue la terre parce qu'elle est impérissable. En tant que fils de
paysan, je possède des terres à Massacre. Même si on m'offrait 100 mille
dollars pour un carreau, je ne le céderais jamais parce que c'est notre seul
bien d'où nous tirons tous nos produits, toutes nos denrées»

Translation: «Our problem is that as peasants, our greatest wealth is the
land because the land cannot perish. As the son of a peasant that I am, I
own lands in Massacre. Even when someone would offer me $100,000 for one
carreau of that land (one carreau is more than just one acre of land), I
would never sell it because it is our only source of agricultural products,
of wealth».

Worse, a catholic priest in the region named Gabriel Dorino went on to say
this: «Il s'agit de 80 hectares de terres, les meilleures de Ouanaminthe
pour l'agriculture. Ce sont sur ces terres que se trouvent les arbres, ou ce
qu'il en reste dans le nord-est.»

Translation: «We are dealing here with 80 hectares of land, the best of
Ouanaminthe for agriculture. It is on those lands that you find trees, or
whatever is left of such in the Northeast.»

My question is at this point, who negotiated this deal with the Dominican
Government? Do they really want to finish off Haiti's agriculture? Where are
the journalists who are supposed to report on such irrational deals?

The full text can be read on :http://www.haiti-progres.com/bot03-27.htm

Hyppolite Pierre
IRSP
http://www.irsp.org