21575: Vilaire: Re: 21565: Clotildec6: Herb Gold article (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Vilaire@aol.com

The intro to Herbert Gold's article states very matter-of-factly:

<< After cocaine, Haiti's most successful export product is knee-jerkism >>

I don't know about the "knee-jerkism" part, but Haiti certainly does not
export cocoaine. It has been said that Haiti is a major point of transhipment for
the white stuff, but that's qualitatively different from exporting it. It
might be subtle, but it's a very important distinction to make. And this is true
for any product or commodity. For example: Cote d'Ivoire produces about 50% of
the world's cocoa (used to make chocolate). If we follow the route of Ivorian
cocoa beans, we'll see that most of is shipped to Europe (say,  the
Netherlands); from there, a good chunk of it makes its way to the U.S and Canada before
settling in the factories of M&M Mars. No one would say that the Netherlands
exports cocoa to the U.S. and Canada. It's a transhipment point.

If Hati actually produced and exported cocaine, the challenges for its
enonomy would have been drastically different. It would have to confront issues
similar to Columbia: will peasants plant coca or coffee? What would be the
mechanisms to induce them to substitute other products for coca? How much would such
campaign cost? Haitian peasants face no such dilemma; they face issues of
land, tools and credit.

Haiti's role in the cocaine business is its path of least resistance. Once
the corruption and loopholes are tightened, the druglords will find a path
offering lesser resistance. If it were an really an cocoaine-exporting country, it
wouldn't suffice to simply tighten the loopeholes and fight corruption. The
fundamentals of the economy would need to be changed, as is the case in Colombia.

Best regards,
Marx-Vilaire