27618: Simidor: Thoughts on a new Preval presidency (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel simidor <danielsimidor@yahoo.com

The first Preval administration was a caretaker
government.  The electorate understood the kinds of
constraint Preval was operating under, and apparently
gave him a second chance with a very broad mandate.  A
second Preval presidency must be very inclusive and
proactive, however, willing to make full use of
Haiti?s dynamic human potential at home and abroad, in
order to address in concrete terms the terrible
problems threatening the very survival of our country.
Aristide, happily, needs to spend more time where he
is, in order to perfect his Zulu.

Preval promises a clamp down on insecurity as a
prerequisite for tourism and foreign investments.  It
is true that the country badly needs security and
social peace.  But please remember that sexual tourism
brought us AIDS in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and
that foreign investments need to be more than
sweatshops.

The coming administration is Haiti?s last chance for
an alternative to wood charcoal, and saving the
country?s last remaining trees.  Also, kidnappings and
urban violence may be relatively new, but they are
intractably linked to the recent slum explosion, which
is linked in turn to the centralization of everything
in Port-au-Prince, and to the collapse of agriculture
and the provinces.

Worse, the so-called international community is
claiming the elections as a success story, just as
they are about to turn their back once again on Haiti.

No, the International Community is not about to
finance a dreamed Haitian recovery!  This is true even
though Preval, before Haitians had a chance to vote
for him, had to pass muster with Haiti?s powerful
"friends"!  (I mean, why do you think Jean-Juste
had to spend the better part of 2005 in jail?)

Yet, the resources for a renewal of the country are
there.  The challenge for Preval is to harness those
resources through fighting mismanagement and
corruption, and by energizing the people, the various
sectors of the economy and, yes, the Diaspora, into a
unified program of national salvation.  Preval may or
may not be the man for the job, but he?s the one the
people picked for it.  To paraphrase Evo Morales, we
just have to push him if he falls short of that
commitment.

Effective immediately, we need to develop a national
dialogue, involving primarily Haitians but not just
Haitians, on which way to move Haiti forward.  And we
need Preval to really listen ? something Aristide was
not willing to do.  One of the main raison for this
national dialogue, quite frankly, is to convince
Preval that there is an alternative (or alternatives)
to the neoliberal program he and Aristide accepted so
readily as early as 1991, but which the Haitian people
denounced again and again as ?plan mouri grangou?
(starvation plan) and ?plan lanmo? (death plan).
Another world is possible!

P.S.  One of the best hopes, not only for a new Preval
presidency but also for Haiti, is precisely that
people like Richard Morse would want to join the
Preval bandwagon.  Funny that some people just can?t
wrap their mind around that basic concept....  For one
thing, Morse?s loyalty doesn?t necessarily revolve
around a zombie check -- which is often not the case,
n?est-ce-pas Michelle, for Titid?s ti-blans?

Daniel Simidor
?Life needs more sharing.?  (Club Med)

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