22731: lyall on something or other (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: J.David Lyall <postmaster@lyalls.net>

We do have to admit, the lavalassiene are well practiced spin
doctors. Unfortunately, most haitians don't
pay any attention to this spin directed at americans.

For instance, the following excerpt. The looting did not "follow"
aristides departure. It preceded it.
The port was ransacked in the five days between the end of kanaval
titid and the departure of Titid on
his well earned vacation.  Everyone in haiti at the time knows this,
and anyone saying otherwise is simply
not telling the truth. Willfully spreading untruths. What is the term
for that  now?
The looting was committed by aristides' street troops. 'Millions of
young men' (pete ri) called out to defend the capital chose instead
to loot it. Their master, chaos.

Police weapons stolen? Police quit? Well, those are  directly
connected. They didn't just quit, they
went on to their true jobs. Bandidtry, with new armaments. All the
weapons disappeared from the caserne Kenscoff on the  night of Feb
28-29. Who has them? folks on the morne. Other folks say that Neptune
was giving orders to the enforcers with the former police weapons.

The price of rice has gone back down, but remains at a higher level
because  the world price of  rice
is higher now. I spoke to a rice trader who says that USA rice is
unavailable now. It is all being shipped to Iraq. Shiploads are now
coming from Thailand, the world market leader in the rice trade.
If the last 5 years hadn't seen the destruction of the  haytian rice
sector the  price would be more competitive.

The fact is, 95% of haytians are glad to be rid of Aristide. People
in  the north seem to be glad to have
the  ancien army  camped out there. They say that the police are
cowards and that the army doesn't rob them. I was told this three
weeks ago in  St Marc. My friends there went andeyo (to the
countryside around Ti Riviere) for two months to escape the burning
and looting and killing that followed Neptunes assault on St Marc.
They said many bodies were dumped at the beach headlands south of
that  ville. By Bale Wouze, the lavalas organization populaire.

>To be sure, Aristide was a corrupt, problematic leader
>-- but since his
>ouster, the situation in Haiti appears to have
>deteriorated to a point
>lower than
>at any moment during his tenure. The looting that
>followed Aristide's
>departure
>has cost Haitian businesses hundreds of millions of
>dollars; most of
>the
>Haitian national police force's weapons and equipment
>were stolen and
>over half of
>its officers quit; and the price of rice, essential to
>the diet of
>Haiti's
>poor, has more than doubled in the last four months.
>Moreover, recent
>reports
>describe rampant human rights abuses and
>extra-judicial killings
>filling the
>power void.


-- 
J. David Lyall
http://www.lyalls.net/