14478: Jean-Pierre: Re 14468 Adoption advice (jean jean-pierre responds) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jean Jean-Pierre <JJEANPIERRE1@aol.com>

Dear Anonymous:

"My heart goes out to any family willing to take up the burdens and
joys of adopting Haitian children.   I adopted two Haitian children,
and I wanted to urge other such parents to give their children access
to steady psychological counseling for the first few years here."

My heart also goes out to you for having adopted two Haitian children.
Thank you very much.

But what is this business of some mandatory psychological counseling?  Are
you suggesting that only adopted children from Haiti should undergo such
therapy
or should it be for all children from the country?  Of course many children
from Haiti
are messed up.  So are many from the United States and elsewhere.
Are we to believe that we cannot be adjusted here unless we go to some
rigorous
psychological evaluation and/or treatment?
No wonder we Haitians here are so screwed up.

"...how violent Haiti is." You also said.
Maybe this is some knee-jerk reaction on my part, but this "Haiti is so
violent" falsity ticks me off.  Check these stats out.

New York City  (5 boroughs)
Population : 8,350,000
Police officers (detectives, transit and housing included)      37,500
School safety and Traffic
8,000
Port Authority                                          12,000
Auxiliary                                                   8,000


Haiti (the whole country)
Population: 8,000,000  (estimation)
Police officers                                       4,000  (that's all)

Should we even go into comparing the respective rates of criminality?
This idea of Haiti being an inherently violent country is just plain wrong.
And any journalist covering the country who continues to echo this canard is
just plain lazy or part of this propaganda machine defaming a whole people.

Jean Jean-Pierre