14909: Dorce: Re: 14786: Fouche: Re: 14772: Dorce: Re: 14765: Edouard:Haitian-Americans... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LAKAT47@aol.com

In a message dated 2/12/03 6:05:09 AM Pacific Standard Time, "[iso-8859-1]
Rachel Fouché" <vze4xd3t@verizon.net> writes:

<< I find Ms. Dorce's comments somewhat disingenuous.  >>
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You may find them so, but I assure you there is little disingenuous about me.
 I have heard this $3 word from many educated Haitians and wonder what the
love affair with it is about.  I believe it is a polite way of saying I am a
liar.  It seems to me that you mean that I am mistaken not disingenuous.  I
will assume that is what you mean and you can tell me if it is indeed
"disingenuous" that you want to call my position.
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>> In the case of Haiti, in order to put "people first" you need money ->>
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In no case do you have to have money to put people first.  It's simply a
value.  When you put money before people your soul begins to shrink.  That is
why the people" of Haiti are so rich in spirit while the elite class is
devoid of same.
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>>much in the same way one would need money to put "money first.>>
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I'm not sure if you meant to say this.....do you mean you need money to put
people first and to put money first?  It's a tough argument to make, but I'm
willing to listen.  Please explain.
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>>The establishment of a Haitian Republican party only serves to better
influence
US policy in Haiti, much in the same way Cuban exiles have influenced US
policy with regard to Cuba>>
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You make my point exactly.  The Cuban exiles have indeed influenced US policy
with regard to Cuba......because we are talking about the Cuban elite who had
to leave their homes behind to escape Castro.  Democrats want to resume
relations with Cuba but the Cuban elites say NO WAY JOSE!  Republicans are
cool with this because they have an obsessive hatred and fear of Communism.
So you think the Haitian community can join the Republican Party and make
them treat Haiti better?  This will not happen.  They will serve their own
agenda and those Haitians who agree with it, in other words those who want
Aristide removed, will become Republicans.  I wish I had faith that anything
else would be possible, but I don't.
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>>A sustainable economy is what the Haitian people need first and foremost,
and if this Haitian Republican Party can re-establish confidence with the
capitalist corporate sector, I say "where do I sign up?  Do you need some
assistance?">>
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Do you ask "What can I do for my country and not what my country can do for
me?"  Because all I ever hear is how can I make a business in Haiti.  I don't
think Republicans can help Haiti get economically well.  They can exploit,
that's what they do.  I say with friends like that, who needs enemies?
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>>That, in my opinion, is Haiti's greatest problem:  a heaping majority of
Haiti's
intellectual and economic power lives outside of the country, trying to
force change from abroad with their "first-world ideas" instead of moving to
Haiti and working to develop democratic traditions from within.  There is no
country to date that has succeeded with the overwhelming absence of the
middle class amongst its ranks of citizenry, folks -- and I seriously doubt
that Haiti will go down in the history books as the example to the rule.>>
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Here we agree.  Haiti cannot be fixed from without.  And it can't be fixed by
interrupting democracy.  No matter what kind of sad justifications the
opposition is making to the contrary.
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>>One has to have the muscular strength to stand and walk -- crawling is only
an indicator of things to come.  For Haiti that strength is MONEY and
JOBS -- nothing gets done without it, period.  We, as a community of
"intellectuals," need to stop getting mired in high-minded hot air and stop
criticizing people who are trying to get things done.  Haiti needs your two
hands -- not your two cents.>>
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Why aren't you upset that the convergence hasn't done one thing except try to
remove Aristide?  Why aren't you criticizing them for not using their
strengths to help make a difference in the day to day life in Haiti?  Every
ounce of their beings is concentrated on one thing and one thing only, the
removal of Aristide and the destruction of Lavalas.  Why doesn't this upset
you?  Because they do it with style and elegance?  Jobs and Money would slip
through the giant holes that exist in Haiti's infrastructure, figurative and
literal.  What kind of jobs will help a person who can't read and write???
How much money can an unskilled laborer make?  No, there are things to be
done before jobs and money start to make a difference.  Free education for
all, how about sanitation, law and order, utilities, especially potable water
and electricity.  The US taketh away, now let them giveth back.  THEN we can
talk jobs and money.  The Republicans only help the wealthy and then count on
them to let some of that money trickle down to the people....sometimes it
does, sometimes it doesn't.  But all I know is I am way better off when a
Democrat is in the White House.....go figure.

Kathy Dorce~