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26949: Rachel Fouche: (reply) Re: 26926: Morse (ask) Jobs in Haiti (fwd)





Your post reminds me of something that Yves DeJean once said -- "Haiti does not have an unemployment problem. You have to have jobs first before you can have unemployment." Poor translation of the joke (I can't tell jokes in any language), but a problem that only continues to grow as Haiti is outpaced by other developing nations in education and its ability to prevent foreign companies from devastating the agricultural industry, the last solid bastion of jobs to be had in Haiti.

But how to grow jobs to stabilize the economic and political health of Haiti? In order to employ the largest amount of people rapidly, jobs would have to be based in agriculture -- since Haiti's economy has restricted the use of pesticides on the land, that makes Haiti a good candidate as a grower for the booming organic food trade. The only other issue with food export was no access to a cold storage harbor, which has been solved (someone "on the ground" please correct me on that point). These agricultural development zones would have to be placed strategically to encourage better population spread throughout the (less than 1/2) island. In the more arid, environmentally degraded areas of Haiti, greenhouses could be used instead, or composting farms could be set up to turn largely organic trash into "black gold." The compost could then be used to revitalize spent farmland.

But Haiti has always had these jobs before -- Haiti's biggest problem is that the current middle class largely lives abroad, with non-governmental organizations attempting to fill in the craters left behind by decades of dictatorship and unstable "democracy." In fact, I'll offer the devil's advocacy and state that the current role that NGOs *as a whole* play in the Haiti further destabilizes the Haitian economy by "outsourcing" jobs and funds provided for such work (for those of you who work in non-profit, I am an unabashed disciple of John McKnight's work "The Uncaring Society"). The state must take direct responsibility for functions currently abdicated to the non-profit industry growing in Haiti or it will not stand. There are too many bosses and not enough workers in this scenario.

Whomever becomes the next president of Haiti will have to harness the educational power of the diaspora through innovative job programs like the Works Progress Administration, pairing diaspora with their Haitian counterparts. Low wage, long hours, possible loss of life, but at the end of the 2-3 years, you would earn dual-citizenship -- something that even the most jaded Haitian parent can be proud of. With stability, Haiti could branch out again into tourism -- which should be just one key in its economic revitalization, not the cornerstone. Haiti is fortunate to have many wonderful historic attractions spread throughout the island, from Cap-Haitien to Jacmel. And when we are not battling each other to the death over politics and poverty, we are some pretty nice people, goshdarnit! There are groups involved with developing eco-tourism in Haiti and there's the traditional hoteliers, so I won't belabor that point.

Well, that's as far as my overpriced education takes me on the issue of jobs in Haiti, folks -- I hope Richard's post sparks some great brainstorming!

Rachel Fouché