17899: Raber: Re: 17877: Uttley: What I meant to write (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P&M Raber <raber@valkyrie.net>

Uttley writes

" I know President Aristide has travelled abroad before, but it would seem
> perilous to his future that he can leave and not be overthrown in a coup
> d'etat."

Who would do the Coup?  There is no military.  The police is one big divided
Mafia.  Plus Coling Powell pretty much just said the Aristide has to serve
out his term. The president must feel pretty safe where he's at.  Hey !
Let's not forget the Multi-million dollar  imported security which probably
could take out any armed struggle that may arise .  From what I read abd
seen , the opposition is mostly violent up north (specifically Gonaive)
where some previously Lavalas thugs have turned against Aristide.  The
Port-au-Prince violence has been mostly coming out of pro-Lavalas groups
against peaceful marchers.  A Coup would need to happen in Port-au-Prince.
Just  take a good look at the marching crowds.  The opposition crowds have
men, women, all age groups, all social classes.  The pro-Aristide crowds are
mostly young men between the ages of 15 an 25 (who are not students).

Most of the population of Haiti would love to leave the country right now.
I must know of at leat 20 people in the countryside who have purchased
French visas for 2 to 3 thousand dollars and are sitting unemplyed (but
eating) in France where the life of an illegal is not pretty. Many more keep
catching the boats to Guadeloupe and get caught in guadeloupe and catch the
boat again.  One man with 13 children (one wife) has done this about 6 times
already.  The educated (Mostly the middle and upper class) who qualify for
Canada are going there by the thousands.

Paul Louissaint wrote in an e-mail that he elected to leave "that mess"
because he has a RIGHT to do so.   He is mistaken.  He had the PRIVILEGE to
do so by either his education or his financial situation that allowed him to
obtain a visa.  The great majority of Haitians left behind only have the
right to breathe and assemble to protest the horrible situation they are
livng under.  They have the right to eat too but many cannot exercise that
most basic right to survival and are slowly wasting away and catching
illnesses due to the lack of nutrition.  Some of the opposition people
marching who are from the better off social classes are all set to leave
Haiti.  I know of many with recent Canadian and American residencies.  They
are taking one last stand before closing their honest businesses and packing
to contribute to the economy of another country.   Like most Haitian though
they do love their country and wish they could live there.

The parliament is gone.  Good riddance!  Maybe that will make so many less
$40-50K SUV's that keep getting bought yearly to replace those they destroy.
At only one dealership I know that they had ordered 2 million dollars worth
of SUV's in ONE order and these were neither Toyota nor Nissan Patrols.   If
someone on this list is aware of ONE good law voted on by the parliament,
please post.  It seem that they mostly were concerned with amending the
constitution.  Was anything at all voted on to improve local food production
or elementary education for example?  Did they ever vote a budget on time?
They were constantly calling on people to interrogate them a la Monica
Lewinsky or Iran-Contra style.  Did any of those investigations lead
anywhere?

As far as I am concerned, the first government who does nothing else but to
make quality Elementary school education available for free to all children
who cannot afford it will go down in history.  If I am not mistaken, isn't
that part of the constitution as well?  It costs about $100 per year to
provide a child an average education in Haiti.  Assuming that there are 2
million school-aged children between 5 and 15 and that about 500 thousand
are able to pay for school or attend existing church or private schools
that's only 150 million dollars per year for the government to spend on
educating all kids.   That would really be  "investir dans l'humain" .

Where would the money come from?  Fire all those public office employees who
are collecting checks by doing nothing.  At DGI for example there are rows
and rows of desks with nobody at the desks and no signs to guide clients.
Many of those people are driving government vehicles.  There are plenty of
people selling goods in there.  There are also plenty of people waiting to
get money under the table as well to pay the client (who as a tax-payer is
their employer) any attention.  Have people pay their various taxes (house,
car and other renewable taxes) and obtain ID card at banks kind of like the
US Embassy does for visas.  I guarantee you that the government will net way
more money and the tax-payer will not be so reluctant.  The average person
getting an 250 gourdes ID card for ex, ends up spending at leat 50
additional gourdes on bribes.  This goes on for any tax to be paid.  Let a
legal entity collect a set fee for providing the population with a service
that is not really provided right now.  It takes at least one wasted day to
obtain most government papers.  I know of one person who shipped a car in
Haiti.  They paid the import taxes (way too high) but when they got the
papers, only 30%  (way too low) of what they paid was written on the
receipt.  This makes it that later, when that person is wanting to resell
the vehicle, they will be sent to "expertise" at the DGI.  In expertise
there is tons more of corruption.  Fire those doctors who collect paycheck
but don't show up for more that an hour (if they show up at all) at the
clinics they are supposedly serving.  A quick investigation would show that
most government employees with part-time contract with the government
actually are someplace else on the day they are to be at their jobs.  The
government knows this and usually only the well connected get those "chek
zombis"  Try and get a justice of the peace for a "constat" at 10 am any
given day.  You will have to go get him at home where he will be running
around in his underwear.  You will wait and wait until he is properly suited
(tie of course) and then drive him to  the place of "constat", then drive
him to the municipal court where he will then inform you that you owe him
(personal money) 3 to 5 hundred gourdes to pay for his transportation.    I
could go on and on but all I want to show is that with the way things are,
should not the government quit making studies and grandiose plans with
monies they are hoping to get and attack concrete, needed and simple things
with money they can find?  And please eliminate:

Seminars and symposiums to study problems that have been studied and
re-studied to death over the years

Government vehicles for anyone but the president but instead provide
tax-breaks on personal purchase of one vehicle per five year period for
certain public servants

Completely Free University unless the students all agree to repay the
government with interest if they leave the country within 10 years of
graduation.  US and Canadian consulates could easily help enforce this