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28210: Hermantin (comment) Re Morse comments Out with the Old... (fwd)




From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


I am writing in response to Richard Morse's post, advising President elect Rene Preval to stop hanging out with the same old " Wealthy Haitians" wishing to " perpertuate the current economic status quo". He went on to list the members of the entourage he thought should dumped ASAP.

While I don't know too many of the folks identified by Mr. Morse, I do know Maryse Penette Kedar, and I will tell you Mr. Morse that you are WRONG. For the sake of transparency let me just say that Maryse is a friend and a woman whom I admire tremendously for her intellect, her love and passion for Haiti and most importantly her ability to get things done. Mrs. Penette-Kedar has spent most of her professional life at the service of her country. She was the principal negotiator who ensured Haiti's succesful bid to become a signatory of the Lome Convention. Under her abled and indefatiguable leadership as the undersecretary of Tourism, Haiti's tourism industry was revitalized to the benefit of all. Even in her current, private sector tenure, as the representative of Royal Carribbean in Haiti, she has worked for the benefit of her country and for the workers gainfully employed at Labadee. Ms. Penette-Kedar is an asset to any political leader with a vision and a plan. She has the passion, the drive, the institutional memory and the kick ass organizational skills to make things happen.


Who would you send to Washington with Mr. Preval? I would love to see your list. I think that you raised an excellent point about the need for an economic plan not driven exclusively by the interests of the export sector ( which requires the maintance of a very cheap pool of labor). How would you go about creating that middle class? You have "dissed" Jerry Tardieu ( he's also on the list), the economist, whose recent attempt to address this issue has somewhat gone unoticed. Have you read the book in which he discusses Haiti's economic development in the context of a global economy? Although I found some of his recommendations very problematic, especially with regards to labor, I find it an interesting starting point to debate and discuss Haiti's economic development in the 21st century.

Again, I don't know the other folks on the list but I think that at least one or two of these "proponents" of the economic status quo, are keepers.