13382:: Re: 13355: re 13301 Labrom

[corbetre@webster.edu]

From: Mark Schuller <marky@umail.ucsb.edu>

Something is missing in this analysis.  I live in Santa Barbara, arguably one
of the wealthiest areas in the world.  Much of the service workers that the
public sees (i.e. not migrant labor) are undergraduate students whose parents
average -- AVERAGE -- $185,000 per year.  As someone who has to make copies,
buy groceries, etc. i can tell you that the service here is no better than the
service in Haiti, and in some instances worse.

Whenever i bought food, prepared or otherwise, from a timachann in Potoprens, i

usually had a lively conversation.  Maybe because they own the means of their
labor they give better 'service' than people you've observed?  I did notice,
however, that some Americans who come to Haiti have unrealistic expectations
and seek to continue a US-level consumption without thinking about its
effects.  Maybe the people who can afford to stay at a Hilton in Haiti, and be
shuttled away in a rented SUV so they don't interact with the local culture
would rather only see Haitians in the role of cute local cultural icons dressed

in colorful "native" garb singing Ayiti Cheri.

In any case, poor service does not stop local consumers in Santa Barbara from
spending obscene amounts of money in the local economy.