14280: Cousineau: Re: 14265: & others, visas and fees (please post anonymously) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dominic Cousineau <dcousineau@yahoo.com>

Without getting into the debate on the role and interference of the USA
in Haitian Politics(I totally agree that the USA under it's new emperor
Georges Bush plays way too much in internal policies of many countries
anyways) I just want to say that the idea of giving anything close to a
''franchise douaniere'' to any type of humanitarian organisation leaves
me very sckeptical.

The truth about Franchise is that most of the organisation who have and
use it properly are big international organisations and bilateral
organisations. I know many organisations that have a hard time using
their franchise. Some had to pay duties or else their material would
have expired in the port. Once paid, Try to get the money back from the
governement after that. When you are lucky enough to succeed, it can
take a year or more. You need to have that money to spare.

Then there is the process of getting a franchise if you don't have one.
In order to get a franchise, you need to have a recognized status as an
NGO. In order to have the status of NGO, you need a letter of
authorization from the mayors office(try to get that in Port-au-Prince
if you don't know anybody)

In the end, organisations who need the money the most to survive will
be the ones who won't beneficiate from such a franchise anyways. it's
been like that for many years and it won't change.


--- Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu> wrote:
>
> From: sanba@juno.com
>
> I have been reading the exchange about fees being paid and the extent
> of time tourists or foreigners can spend in Haiti nowadays. I would
> like to water the fire ready to consume the essence of the issue,
> while we had rather come up with rationale sustaining both sides of
> the discussion. Particularly after having read both Matt Ray point of
> views and Pierre Jean's.
> It's time for us to command all organizations who are undertaking
> some charitable works in Haiti, such as Healing Hands for Haiti
> Foundation, Inc. We understand their claims as it is normal for them
> to consider the cost for repetitive travels in order to obviously
> help the country. On a trial and error basis, we can concede that
> such organizations must enjoy a big break, to some extent similar to
> "franchise douanière", the duty free concept. We may agree that the
> government is being pushed into imposing heavy taxes for survival,
> but those taxes can be selective. Indeed, there is a difference
> between a back and forth situation required by the nature of helping
> and a one shot deal trip a year as in vacationning that can be taxed
> as it is done by the US Consulate in Haiti.
> Having said that it is a good reason for all charitable organizations
> to put the politics of the measure into the equation. The BIG SHOTS
> INTERNATIONAL such as BID, IMF, WORLD BANK, UNION EUROPEENNE, are
> creating a situation against the government in place, the effect of
> which will necessitate more and more trips from them to Haiti. Today,
> the Haitian government is being economically asphyxiated. The
> Charitable Organizations have to wonder why? A comparative why! so
> that, they discover the nonsensical aspect of the decision. Then they
> will have to use their status to somehow influence and even
> straighten the worse than bias position of above all the US towards
> the present government. Such position has to be viewed as one, if not
> the main root of the problem to excise, unless their objective is to
> be permanently helping Haiti, which is not helping but fathering at
> best.
> At any rate The Charitable Organizations have to know that the US
> politics towards the government elected by the large majority of
> Haitian people is a punitive one at best. In fact it's a war at the
> people of Haiti for having elected the "wrong" person. There is a
> name for so doing. It's either abuse of effective power, or
> interferring with other nations affairs, or worse. That has to be
> stopped. Then the task of all charitable organizations will become
> merely educative in the mid term and very remote later on
> obliterating the need for repetitive trips and taxes.
> Meanwhile I suggest that the organizations contact the Consulates of
> Haiti and present their particular cases for special consideration.
>
> Happy New Year to all
>
>
>
>
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com