15358: Hermantin: Miami-Herald- Class divisions hurt Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami Herald

Letter to the Editor

Posted on Sat, Apr. 19, 2003

Class divisions hurt Haiti

IN RESPONSE

Re the April 4 article Nancy Roc, a leading voice in Haiti: Nancy Roc cannot
aspire to being a ''leading voice'' or an intellectual whose perspective
displays the proper duty to her country. Often, criticizing a government is
a social disservice; it is in this case. Nowadays I see Haitians such as Roc
who try to conceal their frustration at loss of class privileges. They
protect themselves behind false accusations and fail to recognize that they
have participated in the ruin of Haitian society.

They don't want to recognize that modern slavery in Haiti involves
ignorance, illiteracy, nurturing powerless individuals and an unacceptable
gap between the haves and the have-nots. Add also the deprivation of basic
rights for their ''house slaves'' -- the domestic workers, particularly
children, carefully recruited from the countryside to support their
privileges. That could be the biggest cause, to date, of facilitating
Haiti's disintegration.

We need to criticize, not solely an individual or a government, but a system
that doesn't produce prosperity, empowerment and quality-of-life
improvement. Haitians need to attack a system that is based on the
perpetuation of lamentable cast and class privileges.

ERNST WILSON

Miami



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