26647: Leiderman: (comment) who needs reconciliation in Haiti? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stuart M Leiderman <leidermn@cisunix.unh.edu>

21 November 2005

Dear Readers:

I thank Joe Thelusca for forwarding the recent article (below) from the office 
of the Prime Minister, and Mirlande Butler of Eritaj Foundation for her cogent 
response (also below).  My own reaction is that the article has virtually no 
inspirational or instrumental value for Haiti's transition to a peaceful 
post-coup era.

Reading it, I was reminded of the speeches of Charles DeGaulle, calling for 
some kind of chivalrous French unity, back in the days when students and 
workers were marching in the streets for education, bread and jobs because 
their national government was retreating from the complexities of 20th century 
life.  DeGaulle wished to slip back to the rules and aroma of the Old Empire, 
where reflections came from gilt-edged mirrors rather than from the mud of 
dark, wet streets.

The Prime Minister's address is not inspirational because it seems to be is 
filled with cliches and rhetorical expressions.  It is a band-aid too small for 
the wound.  In effect, from what I read, he or his writer is asking "Why can't 
we all be friends?" when to me it does not seem that achieving friendship among 
Haitians was ever an explicit, practical priority of the transitional 
administration.  Or, if it was, there was not the talent to make many friends 
and not enough effort to attract the talent.

The language of the article also reminds me of the kind of locker-room speech 
that a football coach might give during half-time to his battered players.  In 
Haiti's case, I believe the players are not to blame. Probably, most all 8-10 
million of them would risk their lives in strenuous teamwork if they thought 
the game could be won.  But
unfortunately, the coach has a very thin book of game plans.  Locker-room 
speeches do not substitute for good game plans.

Finally, the Prime Minister's article talks about the need for reconciliation, 
but it never defines reconciliation and there are no details on what needs to 
be reconciled.  Instead, he dwells on the sad condition of Haiti's poor, 
uneducated and diseased.  I think poor people have nothing to do with Haiti's 
problem of reconciliation.  First, they are resigned to a worsening life, year 
after year after year. Second, they have little or no freedom of choice about 
where to live or what to eat.  Third, they don't have access to resources to 
help them survive and, in turn, to help their neighbors survive from day to 
day.
They are living in captivity.

By contrast, the Prime Minister's article is silent about other Haitians who 
have relatively much more freedom of choice, including the choice to save their 
country from ruin, but who nevertheless have relatively self-centered, 
unsustainable and conflicting lives brought on by the way they accumulate and 
use their material goods, land, privilege and celebrity status.  I think it is 
from within this particular class and complex of lifestyle and competition for 
Haiti's wealth and resources that small differences arise among these men and 
women -- things they like and things they dislike to a greater or lesser extent 
-- that grow in importance among them, then become irreconcilable with national 
interest and then become a blow to the whole country.  I think it is among them 
that reconciliation has to occur, among the minority of Haitians who have 
freedom-of-choice, because it is from their irreconcilable differences that the 
effects filter down to make everyone's else's life dirty, dangerous and 
devalued.  When this happens, you don't have a country, you have a camping 
ground.

Do poor people who flee the countryside need reconciliation?  No.
Do HIV/AIDS victims need reconciliation?  No.
Do boat people need reconciliation?  No.
Do unemployed youths need reconciliation?  No.
Do beggars in the street need reconciliation?  I think not.

I urge the Prime Minister and the leaders who come after him to clearly 
identify those who need reconciling; I think it is not all Haitians.

Thank you.

Stuart Leiderman