19399: LOCCM: Re: 19348: radtimes: THE HAITI REDUX (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LOCCM@aol.com

I have just returned from Haiti.  This was my 137th trip there since 1971.  I
really appreciate the information included in this post and others that I
have read since returning to wait out the rerurn to "normalcy" in Haiti.  My
input will not be as informative as others but I see some of the problems from
parhaps a different perspective.  Certainly the current urgent situation can be
blamed on the powers in office in Haiti but I feel strongly that just replacing
one president for another will not provide a long lasting solution.  I
remember the days when I walked from the Eagle super market on Delmas to the Iron
Market almost every day without even one thought for my safety.  I felt
comfortable riding tap taps or other public transportation to Gonaives, Jerime' or
anywhere else any time day or night, and felt safe even though I am a "blan".  On
one occasion, because of a fatal traffic accident at the checkpiont in front
of the mission where I was repairing windmills, I got stranded after midnight
and slept on the sidewalk at Croix du Bouquet.  It was uncomfortable and I
remember being cold, but did not for one monent feel in danger of being robbed.
Things have changed drastically in recent years.  My wife and I have been
robbed in broad daylight by gangs of young thugs while at least 30 people looked
on without blinking an eye or offering any assistance.  I have had thieves
jump on the back of my pick up truck, attempting to steal the bags of rice that I
buy for the orphans that I care for.  I have had my watch ripped from my arm,
my camera bag and contents grabbed from me while I was sitting in my truck
and more frightening moments than I can detail.  I have watched as the driver
and passenger were forced from their truck just 6 feet in front of mine and saw
them lying face down on the pavement being robbed with guns held at their
heads.  God's protection and a 10 cylinder gas guzzling vehicle were all that
saved me from being the next victim.  When a beautiful, praceful country becomes
unsafe and ugly with mountains of trash and spray paint, can you blame any one
person?  Raising this point in Haiti usually brings the response that the
government (or the U S) is to blame.  One well dressed lady sitting next to me in
the airport for two days waiting to get a flight expressed her indignation at
comments about the trash that I made to the gentlemen sitting nearby.  She
felt that the trash problem was caused by the government because they didn't
clean it up.  I didn't have the courage to suggest that she look around the
airport where there are plenty of trash recepticles, and notice that the floor was li
ttered and filthy.  She should visit the beautiful area around Fort Jacques
where the government has placed an abundance of trash containers and see all
manner of refuse on the ground everywhere , some of it within a foot or so of
the trash containers.  To end this issue, I suggest that the solution can be
corrected by the parents not the government.  If parents set a good example and
correct their children when they drop candy wrappers or sp pi bon plastic
bottles, the result will be a cleaner invironment.  I children are taught by their
parents to have respect for themselves as well as others, stealing will
diminish.  I do not welcome comments that stealing is the only option for someone
who is starving when the gang robbing me are wearing Hilfiger clothes and gold
chains.  The children at our orphanage have no physical needs, thay are fed
three good meals a day, provided decent living accommodations, clothes and an
education and yet recently, the took the door panels off my truck and stole the
windows, radio and had the seats unbolted.  All this was done in a compound
walled in and watched over by ten employees who must be nearly blind.  I guess
that it would be inappropriate to end without at least a little president
bashing.  I wonder if it has ever dawned on him that the airport should be a
facility to efficiently process visitors to Haiti insted of a frightening experience
for visitors who are decended on by the vultures who hover waiting to attack
rather than provide service?  Has he ever considered that we should be able to
walk into a government office to buy plates for our vehicles without having to
be insulted by the "workers" sitting there at desks doing nothing while we
have to pay someone to get things done for us?  If the president gets blamed for
nothing else, I suggest that at least he has been inept at providing safety,
efficency and simple and obvious solutions for the least difficult problems.
In the meantime,  I called Haiti today and was told that the roads around my
orphanage were blocked.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we can
feed 117 hungry children when we cannot buy food or bottled gas?  What may have
started out to be a political revolution driven by the frustration of poverty,
has become a wonderful opportunity for residents with no respect, to blame the
president for their lawlesness.

John L.O.C.C Mission