21916: Esser: Re: 21880: Durban: About Labor Creation in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

That Haitians need more sources of steady income is well established,
that this is best accomplished through assembly factories. not.

As for example the case of the Mexican maquiladoras shows, this
business sector often breeds more misery and preys on people from the
countryside trying to escape the ever worsening conditions, brought
about by the same policies that try to encourage assembly or light
manufacturing. In many cases, precious little stays behind in the
country and the wages might be enough to eat but also guarantee a
life of misery.

I have been in the homes of garment workers in the slums of
Port-au-Prince and the picture is less than pretty. Even if the
minimum wage is paid, which often they are not, tis is not a livable
income. You write: "Fact is, you would have to go back to the
Duvalier-era to find much of any government effort to attract foreign
investment in light industry". Is that so deplorable? Foreign
companies tend to repatriate their profits and what except misery
stays behind?

Haiti's problems are rooted in the country side, factories in the
cities will not make a dent in this. Unless someone were to come up
with a concept that pays Haitians enough to ensure their well-being
besides taking advantage of their cheap labor these light industries
are highly unlikely to prove a productive tool for the betterment of
Haiti.

While I have no knowledge of the prevailing conditions in your
business, every single factory in Port-au-Prince that I visited, had
workers toiling in appalling circumstances and less than happy. Sure
they take that over starving, but people also get into activities
such as drug dealing or prostitution to save themselves, in a vain
attempt, from the  inherent difficulties of surviving in a market
economy. I don't think we would like to advocate sex tourism a la
Thailand or Opium growing such as in Afghanistan, to solve the
problems of Haiti either...
.