20600: Hyppolite Pierre re: Intervision2000 and Michael Madsen (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Hyppolite Pierre <hpierre@irsp.org>

[P.S. I promise I'll be brief]

Dear Michael Madsen,

If I am correct, I believe that Intervision2000 is part of Radio Vision 2000
in Haiti. In case it is, let me first congratulate Radio Vision 2000 along
with other media insurectionnists like Radio Métropole, for a job well done.
They have indeed accomplished brilliantly their task of "psychological
insurrection" against Lavalas, and Aristide personally. By the end, even I
was absolutely convinced and still am, that Aristide had to leave power:
controversial for some, but quite correct decision for myself.

But I still believe that by the end, all Haitians will share the same basic
civil rights for better and greater economic opportunities under the law.
That will be even if the old-new general, Herard Abraham, succeds in his
goal of bringing back a standing army to "control" the disinherited impulses
towards claiming those rights. Anyway ...

You tried to justify the new PM's (Latortue) position vis-à-vis CARICOM. I
empathize with you, perhaps sincerely, perhaps cynically, perhaps even both.
Nevertheless, what strikes me in your argument, is the claim that the DR and
Cuba, two larger potential markets in the Caribbean, have opted out of the
CARICOM. This is correct, but... there is something else to consider.

Cuba and the Dominican Republic, although geographically close to us, are
Spanish-speaking countries and also culturally and linguistically parts of
the Latin American region, much more so than the Caribbean.

Also, the Latin American market is much larger than that of the Caribbean
with bigger countries and populations than the Caribbean and therefore, more
products to sell and more profit to make. Consequently, it makes perfect
sense for these two countries you've mentioned (Cuba and the DR) to be
members of SELA (Systema Econónomico LatinoAmericana), than to be members of
mostly former British colonies in the region smaller in size and population
than Haiti.

Interestingly enough, because Haiti is also considered a "Latin American
country", the only one in the region with strong Afro influence, we are also
members of SELA. I am not sure how active we are but one can verify this
claim by clicking on this link: http://www.sela.org/index.html.

In any case Michael Madsen, I still believe that although Latortue may have
started on the right foot in the formation of his cabinet, he may have hit
his big toe on a rock by being so hard-nose with CARICOM who are much more
our natural economic partners than SELA is. Only time will tell. I
understand that he is an economist and based on his initial decisions, I
suspect that he had earned at least parts of these credentials. But I am not
sure that his attack on CARICOM because Aristide is in Jamaica are neither
justified, nor beneficial to the business class in Haiti in the longterm,
should he remain president (sorry, Prime Minister) for the next 20 or so
months.

Hyppolite