28683: Wiedenhaefer: Greetings From Port Au Prince (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Wiedenhaefer <wiedenhaefer@un.org>

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Greetings from Port Au Prince. I am working with a government-sponsored
organization. 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 (without knowing it) and
they could have come pretty close.

After I read the story of the Haitian revolution, the numerous reports of
violence that I see now all make sense- gangs who go to other
neighborhoods for revenge killings, complex alliances and deceptions -
Haiti has seen the most extreme violence repeated over and over again.

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

Dr. Bob Wiedenhaefer , DBA, LtColWeedy@aol.com
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Thanks




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