12714: Simidor replies to Hyppolite

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: karioka9@cs.com

Dear Hyppolite,
You take the Haitian state under Aristide much too seriously -- no one else does, certainly not Aristide.  So you demand to know who will administer things in that 10% of Haitian territory the President has so graciously conceded to the Dominican government.  My answer was and is that history, common sense, and the relation of forces between the two countries leave little doubt that Haiti will lose its sovereignty over that territory.  Then I went on to name three reliable sources that have opined at length about the 10% land deal.  Read their literature: it's right there on the Internet.  But if you really want to know what's what, I urge you address your questions to the Leader himself or to his henchmen.  So far they are not telling anybody.  Ask them to make the agreement public.  And please don't say, like people usually do when things get ugly, that you don't know enough to get involved.  That's precisely the point of keeping the agreement secret.
That was the gist of my answer, but let me ramble on just a bit.  The Haitian community is jaded with too many Lavalas scandals and people are beginning to tune out. Patriotism and sovereignty have become dirty words and tired old clichés that the hip, business-savvy "new generation" would rather forget.  So, they ask among themselves, what is so precious about the land, that you couldn't trade some of it for jobs and economic opportunities?  If it's the topsoil, why couldn't we move it elsewhere?  Why couldn't we uproot the people, the whole town or village, and move them some place else, where there is less demand? Then they start theorizing - if you care to call that a theory - that there is a generation gap in our society, and that some people are just too old to get on with the new program.   It is said that people get the government they deserve, but I don't call these folks the people.  The people want to stay on their land and in their own country.  They don't want to be relegated to a no man's land, nor to the twilight zone.
Daniel Simidor