13823: Re: 13816: Simidor replies to Laleau (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: karioka9@arczip.com

On 27 Nov 2002 NLaleau@aol.com wrote:

> Dear Daniel--I am glad to hear that there is some sane and uncorrupted
> force on the scene in Haiti. What makes you think they won't go the
> way of other forces that at one time were also sane and uncorrupted?
> nancy laleau
>
Because, dear Nancy, history is not really a broken record.  Only those who refuse to
learn from the past are condemned to repeat its errors.

Lavalas, because of who Aristide was 12-15 years ago, was a very hard, very painful
lesson for the people to learn.  But the reality of life in Haiti is an even harder and
more painful task master.  For now, the task is to rid the country of the Lavalas
locust.  The next time people have to vote, they will want to see the fine print.  And if
the same cycle threatens to repeat itself?  Why, it will be up to the people to throw
the new bums out.  Without waiting five years to do it.

The clamor to let Aristide complete his five-year term has nothing to do with
democracy or common sense.  If you hire a contractor for a job, and from day one he
is stealing from you, do you feel bound by the contract he is so glibly breaking, or do
you fire him?  Clearly the answer in Haiti is to fire him.

One of the slogans in the recent pro-Lavalas demonstration was: Aristide for life or
until the second coming of Jesus Christ!  As a rule, Haitian heads of state (with very
few exceptions) do not wait for the end of their terms to break the Constitution and
claim more power for themselves (a new term or the presidency for life).  With
Aristide, this is already a foregone conclusion.

Haitians are a proverbially patient people.  But their patience is finally running out.
Enough is enough, they are saying, let's break the damn, vicious cycle. If Aristide
and his puppet Neptune really want to avoid a blood bath (instead of threatening one,
like the hysterical pedophile Micanor did in his stead), all they have to do is to step
aside.

Daniel Simidor