22409: Durban: 2 responses to Marx-Vilaire 22374 on Grupo M (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Corbetters--

Let me preface this by saying I have met Marx-Vilaire and know
him to be a bright and thoughtful fellow.  His post 22374 on the
assembly sector is, to my thinking however, simply wrong.

I have been forwarding the recent Grupo M closure dialogues and
related discussion on the assembly sector to a couple of friends
who are NOT on the Corbett Group.  In forwarding them the
referenced post, I had commented that I had no idea what that
PAPDA group referred to was about, but that it sounded (to me)
like another of the "Beltway Bandits" in DC who are always
interested pumping more foreign aid into Haiti.  Two responded,
and I thought the group might be interested:

Response #1

Lance, as a parting shot you could send them my comment.

     As a manufacturer for the local market in Haiti I have been
following the Groupo M affair in Cap Haitien and I regret the
closing of this factory.  So many foreign do-gooder
organisations deride the benefits of the assembly industries.
The employment potential is much bigger that 50,000.  The
Dominican Republic has gone from 25,000 in 1986 to over 200,000
now, Honduras went from virtually 0 to over 100,000 in 5 years.
In the DR the net exports of the assembly industry represent
about 40% of the total exports for the whole economy (IDEO study
presented 2 weeks ago).  In Haiti the percentage is probably
much higher.
     The presence of all these people who have regular cash
incomes means many more people who are able to purchase products
manufactured by local industry which can allow us to expand
offering more employment and even better conditions.
     Certainly the wages are low and could be improved but
nobody is putting a gun to the heads of these workers forcing
them to take these jobs.  This means that there are no other
alternatives available to them.  If they want these jobs who are
these organisations who want to deny them this opportunity?
    In the specific case of Groupo M there may have been abuses
and if there were these should have been rectified.  There are
plenty of laws on the books in Haiti to protect workers from
these kinds of abuses.  The problem was probably that the
Ministry of Affairs Social did not have a presence in Ouanameth
to try to dig out and eliminate these problems when they
occurred.
     The question of the land use is being posed by people who
flunked high-school math.  The Industrial park occupied at most
10 hectares of land and was going to provide a living wage to
over 1,000 families.  Expoiting the same 10 hectares for corn
would not have provided the same revenues for 10 families.
Please stop talking about land use.
     As far as Batay Ouvriye is concerned this is a French Group
who are following an anti-mondialiste agenda and have no real
concern for the Haitian workers.  Their confrontational tactics
are not in search of solutions but rather trying to embarass the
international companies any way they can.  Thanks to their
efforts Grand Marnier was chased out of the Plateau Central
after more than a century.  What has Batay Ouvriye done for
those unemployed worker lately?  What are they going to do for
these 700 more they have created in Ouanameth.

Tom Adamson
a local manufactuer (not assembly)


Response #2  (LPD notes with a smile:  I include this one
  to balance the profound "tilt" found recently on Corbett
  due to the numerous left-wing postings of that potent
  double "E" combination: Ezilidanto and Esser).


You cannot win any argument or agreement with any of these
theory-inebriated folks who so far, at least, have not offered
anything to replace the paychecks your employees bring home to
feed their families.  To state that the Haitian government has
failed to do its job... how profound an observation!

I think there is real donor-fatigue as far as Haiti is
concerned.  It has been helped and assisted and subsidized and
aided and supported for decades and it is still a cripple and
the money has disappeared with little or no visible
improvements.   Just think of the concrete highways to Jacmel,
Cayes, and Cap Hatien....no upkeep and almost destroyed.
Millions of tires must have been destroyed, too, and the added
gasoline needed to traverse it.

It seems to me that what all these do-good people have in common
is a desire for money from Uncle Sam and other developed
countries.... and appealing to our "moral duty" to fix what the
stupid inhabitants of Haiti, rich and poor, have destroyed time
and again.   I am against paying taxes to perpetuate the mess
and believe it is a very common feeling in the U.S.   Oh, the
religious Americans will continue to pour money and effort into
the ratholes because it makes them feel good and superior while
ignoring the dependency this creates on the part of the
Haitians.

I must be in a bad mood this morning when I cannot summon
gentle, caring, giving feelings for these down-and-out idiots in
Haiti and the Beltway bandits who circle around the carcass for
choice pieces.