16629: Arthur Re: 16585: Racine125@aol.com (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

In a message dated 8/30/2003 5:02:28 PM W. Europe Daylight Time,
Racine125@aol.com wrote:

<< Even at the most individual level, people in rural communities do all they
can to cross and impede and drag each other down, instead of working together
or at least just leaving each other in peace.  Sure, the USA killed the pigs,
and that was awful, but what do Haitians do now?  They steal each other's
animals, that's what!  They raid each other's fruit trees and gardens, they
backstab and backbite and work wanga like mad!  (I'm a Mambo, I know!)

 If one Haitian man has a taxi, and the other does not, the one without the
taxi does not say to himself, "I will work hard just like he did, and take good
care of my cows, and in two years I will sell my cows and all their grown
calves and buy a car, and then I will drive a taxi too."  Instead he hates the
man with the taxi and goes to the bokor to poison the poor guy!  THAT kind of
behavior is what makes Haitians poor - I think in the USA it's been referred to
as the "crabs in a bucket" syndrome. >>


Charles Arthur writes:

I wonder if we can apply Mambo Racines' analogy of individual Haitian
behaviour to the country's political leaders too. I am thinking here of the
Democratic Convergence. Let's see:

If one Haitian political party has won an election, and the others have lost,
the ones which did not win the election do not say to themselves, "We will
work hard just like the victorious party did, and convince a majority of voters
to give us a chance, and in four years we will present our programmes to the
electorate and if we really have something to offer and have convinced enough
voters of our competence, then we can win the election and hold power too."
Instead they hate the party that won the election and go to the US and French
Embassies and say the victorious party cheated, let's cut off aid, and undermine
the legitimacy of the winning party!  THAT kind of behavior is what makes
Haitians poor - I think in the USA it's been referred to as the "democracy
enhancement" syndrome.