29413: Leiderman: comment: looking for "Mr. Haiti-Bar" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leiderman@mindspring.com


dear Readers:

I've had the pleasure to correspond with and then meet and do some work over the past week with John Rigdon, a member/reader who's compiling the next-generation comprehensive Haiti directory and list of contacts from all the ones a few of us have assembled in the past few years for specfic purposes.  this new one intends to accurately portray all the people and resources poured into Haiti problem-solving every year, perhaps with geographical pointers showing where these efforts are focused.  the idea is to post everything to a website that's easily and equally accessible to heads of state as to students doing homework, and regularly maintained.

now, there are a whole bunch of private Haiti-related websites that one would think would lead to sets of lists, but only a few are what they seem.  others are virtually empty and not completely relevant.  others might benefit from more descriptive web addresses.  this morning, for example, I found <www.ngohaiti.com> and <ngohaiti.com> that seemed to be mainly placeholders, and then <www.haiticonnection.org> under which <www.haiticonnection.org/churchgroups.html> had a brief list of church organizations working in Haiti.  that was new to me.

I'd say the condition of sites for the Government of Haiti [GOH] itself is of concern; the existence, timeliness and completeness is certainly not in keeping with a sovereign nation about to receive more than a billion dollars of foreign aid over the next year, with all the coordination, management and quality control that will require among thousands of citizens organizations, agencies and communities that entails.  alas, I couldn't find an actual website originating from GOH in Haiti.  is there one?  what I found is the website of Haiti's Embassy in Washington, D.C.  it has an ordinary NGO address of <www.haiti.org>  among it's contents:

-- on the homepage are links to the latest press releases, the most recent is August 23, 2005 -- "Prime Minister Gérard Latortue had orthopedic surgery on his right knee this morning and has gone home in Boca Raton where he's recuperating before returning to Haiti next week."

-- there's a link for the National Palace <www.haiti.org/www.palaisnationalinfo.org> that doesn't lead anywhere.
-- there's a link to the Parliament <www.haitiparlement.org> but that's essentially empty.
-- a link entitled "Secretary of State for Tourism" <www.haititourisme.com/> shows some signs of life but is essentially empty, too.
-- in the frame at the side of the homepage, clicking on "Government" brings up a wobbly list at <www.haiti.org/Government/main_gov.htm>
-- in it, clicking on "President" brings up a nice closeup of Mr. Preval smiling, with some closed window blinds in the background.  there's no context and no text.
-- clicking on "Prime Minister" brings up an empty site with the address <www.haiti.org/aristide-bio.htm>  for that, I expected the music to "Auld Lang Syne" to come on.
--a few, but not all, links on the remainder of the page are active; "Haitian Diplomatic Missions" at <www.haiti.org/Government/diplomatic_missions.htm> is fairly comprehensive.  under "Civil Society" there's a long  page of political organizations at <www.haiti.org/Government/haitian_pol_parties.htm> but without any contact information.  and there's a nice page of Media Contacts at <www.haiti.org/Government/haitian_media.htmdown>
-- near the bottom of all that, in a yellow diamond, is a drawing of a Haitian shoveling something.

I remember an old AT&T public relations art-poster campaign from the 1960's with the slogan "In communications is the beginning of understanding."

if Haiti really exists, it ought to show itself.

thank you,

Stuart