24776: Naab (Discuss) Re: 24775: Mahony (discuss) banking coruption in haiti

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

Sara Naab <saranaab@hotmail.com>

I would like to say that between the bribes thread and the bank corruption
thread, it would seem that Haiti is full of totally dishonest people.

I would like to balance things out and say that I've shipped many vehicles
through Mariguane and never had a problem. I've also used my credit cards
and debit cards in port-au-prince and in Les Cayes without problems. People
have been professional and respectful in business dealings.

That isn't to say that I've not had troubles doing work in Haiti. I have
worked with several non-profits there and have seen a number of well meaning
projects fall apart. What I keep running into is institutional weakness.
Organizational knowledge seems to rest too much in the minds of the founding
people and never really gets institutionalized. That combined with an
absense of resources leaves people scrambling in a number of directions
without really achieving the organizational goals.

We need to think of ways to help overcome these problems so that things can
get better. There are such bright kids coming up with minds filled with
hopes and dreams. They have the capacity to really do great things, but we
need to be there to help guide them and teach them.