18995: Raber: Re: 18980: Burnham: Toronto Sun: Haiti's only hope is foreign intervention (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Burnham writes
>
"A multinational force should stay until Haiti is reforested, and its basic
> institutions - courts, police, civil service, schools - made to function.
> This tutelage will take a decade and cost millions. But there is no other
> choice for desperate Haiti, except more agony, or a Castro-style Marxist
> revolution."

I fully agree with you here. However, in this bicentenial year,  will the
aspiring Haitian politicians and  intellectuals  swallow their pride and let
that happen?  Many seem to think that because of the 1804 independance,
Haitians should never be under occupation.  Never mind that what we have now
is not what the ancestors shed their blood for.  Once the country is
educated and has an infrastructure, it will be very difficult for
politicians to manipulate the people into voting for inept leaders or to
polarize the population  along class and color lines.  Aristide is still
fairly popular in the slums but for years now he has been losing support in
the country side.   It would be interesting to see an honest popular vote
choosing one of two options:

1-Aristide for president with commitments of billions of development dollars
promised to his and next governments by foreign powers (with no option of
stopping that aid regarldess of political happenings and mismanagement for
10-15 years).

2-Temporary tutelage (10-15 years) under the US or France with billions of
dollars of development, education, and infrastructure promised

In the long run, the international community would save much more money and
risk fewer lives by implementing some form of intensive development.  Just
think of how many would be employed just planting trees and watering them?
Building roads and schools?  Teaching in the schools?  Villages could get
bonuses according to how many trees survive and grow.    Haiti is no Iraq or
Rwanda,  The religion and tribal problems responsible for most of the
horrors around the world are virtually non-existent.  The surface area is
small leaving few places for guerillas to hide.  The Haitian people would
immediately get on the side of those helping them eat and send their
children to school.   Too bad W. Bush had to go halfway around the world to
try and force democracy on a culture where half the population (women) are
considered less valuable.  Democracy is a much simpler and realistic goal
right next door in Haiti.  Ironically,  the Haitian boat people crisis of
the end of  Bush Senior's term helped tip the scale in favor of Clinton.
Now Bush Jr  may suffer the same fate from Clinton's failure to use a heavy
hand with Lavalas right after returning Aristide to power.