19384: Knowles Re: 19290: Leiderman: about interventions (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Phil <phildk@prodigy.net>

Leiderman's suggestions Below)  seem positive, specific, and correct.  Most
of the
reactions in Congress and the media focus on how many Haitians will try to
escape to Florida, and  where the rebel leaders came from. These are not
"solutions".

As I read hundreds of bulletins about the  efforts to unseat President
Aristide, I think there's something missing.

Why it is so hard to make progress in Haiti, why has Aristide failed as a
leader, why was American aid in the past diverted, destroyed, misused, and
why does this rebellion hold no promise for a better Haiti?

This poor country has never had an educated public - ordinary people growing
up literate and informed.  They have had 200 years of despotism. Leaders
came from a small group of French-speaking 'elitists', many of whom went to
school in Paris and conducted the country's and their own business in
French, which most
Haitians could not read.  The people  speak Creole - until very recently an
unwritten language.

There are no checks and balances, no widespread understanding of rule of
law, few
institutions needed for a functioning country.. There is
no tradition of an honest judiciary to uphold the laws. The first democratic
constitution was enacted in 1987.  Aristide is the first president elected
under that document. The first police to have sound training were hired
after the 1994 US intervention. A handful of foreign educated Haitian men
and women made some encouraging beginnings in the early Aristide years -
literacy for adults, translation of government materials into Creole, for
example. But the US  did not support any of this, especially after G. W.
Bush was
elected, and now it is charged that we even aided and abetted Aristide's
opponents.

There is no near term solution in Haiti  -  you cannot make a pretty desert
from sand and mud.  Only if the international community - most especially
the US as the nearest and wealthiest neighbor,  along with France, Canada,
and interested Caribbean nations, makes a 20-30 year
commitment to help Haitians lift themselves out of illiteracy, disease, and
poverty, could I see a light at the end of this tunnel for my dear friends
in Haiti.  They are wonderful people, hard working and loving, musical and
artistic  -  but they have been held down by their owners and leaders since
the first slaves began arriving to cut the cane for France in the 1700's. We
have invaded and intervened, but we have never adopted a sufficient, long
lasting effort to turn things around.  This administration - coming to
office against "nation-building", is not likely to try  - - except in Iraq,
of course.

Phil Knowles

                    -                -                -                -
            -

Stuart Leiderman

Platform for "New Haitian Chasseurs Volontaires"

1.  provide an immediate "show of peace" by sending a ship to Haiti for
an on-board summit and reconciliation among all factions;

2.  conduct a worldwide search for candidates who will run for President
and Parliament of Haiti in its next elections;

3.  create a Haitian Literacy Corps with the goal of teaching everyone in
Haiti how to read within the next five years;

4.  create a Haitian Conservation Corps to employ one million people to
reforest and restore Haiti's countryside and village life.

5.  create a Haitian Life Corps to provide health and social assistance to
every Haitian with a life-threatening illness;

6.  redesign Port-au-Prince as a thriving national capital that is clean,
safe and honestly governed;

7.  take steps to protect Haiti's national assets -- roads, ports,
airfields, water supplies, power plants, farms, forests, marketplaces --
until peace returns to the country;

8.  work with international relief organizations to prepare and protect
coastal "safe zones" for receiving and caring for internal refugees;

9.  frame a new economic assistance strategy where, for example, the U.S.
Government matches Haitian remittances on a dollar-for-dollar basis, with
a major role for Haitian-Americans in determining funding priorities and
monitoring effectiveness.

10. establish a presence at the United Nations to advocate and conduct
official business with U.N. agencies, international organizations and
national missions.