28673: Wiedenhaefer: Greetings From Port Au Prince (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Wiedenhaefer <wiedenhaefer@un.org>

Greetings from Port Au Prince. I am LtCol Bob Wiedenhaefer of the U.S.
Marines. I am one of all small handful of U.S. Military Officers working
on the staff of MINUSTAH (United Nations Mission for Stabilization of
Haiti).  One of my predecessors put together a "turnover" binder and in it
was your history of Haiti. I got my MBA from Webster University and felt a
small kind of kinship from reading your piece.

After I was here for about two days the Deputy Special Representative to
the Secretary General of the UN for MINUSTAH (United Nations Mission for
Stabilization of Haiti) called me up for a welcome chat. We talked about
this and that. One of the things he recommended was that I read a history
of Haiti. So noting that this thing was in my "turnover binder" I sat down
on my first day off and read the whole thing .... WoW!

My impression? Historians often say that history repeats itself. I think
that you could have given someone the story of the revolution and asked
them to write the history of modern day Haiti (withiut knowing it) and
they could have come pretty close.

After I read the story of the Haitian revolution, the reports that I get
in my Operations Center now all make sense- gangs who go to other
neighborhoods for revenge killings, complex alliances and deceptions - I
see it ten times a day!!! This is the way things have always been in
Haiti.

I digress -Two nights ago an American Embassy vehicle was stolen as they
kidnapped the Haitian Driver. In negotiation with the kidnappers, they
told us where the vehicle was abandoned - in a "danger" zone ... some of
the embassy guys are going to retrieve a $30,000. vehicle (Jeep Liberty)
in the most violent povert stricken slum of Cite Soleil - should they be
careful one may ask (?). Read the history book and one will see that the
answer is like ..."yes."

I'm sure I'll have many more impressions during my  next 5 months here.
Thanks for posting the info.


Dr. Bob Wiedenhaefer , DBA

Lieutenant Colonel Bob Wiedenhaefer
Deputy U3 - Military Operations
MINUSTAH Military Force Headquarters
509-244-2050 ext 6007, cell 526-4230
wiedenhaefer@un.org