29484: Durban (comment): on #29469 by Math Jay on DeVine and Graham (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Math Jay's recounting of the many problems of Haiti doesn't really help
solve any of them, but his down-grading the efforts of Senator's Mike
DeWine and Bob Graham is particularly offensive.  U.S. Senators are
supposed to represent the U.S. state from which they come, and in so
doing help govern the United States.  They are not elected to develop
Haiti, and generally will not win re-election by making that part of
their election campaigns.  Even if they were so inclined, they really
cannot do that much, other than trying to learn about the country,
co-signing foreign aid bills and supporting U.S. legislation that they
feel might help.

That is essentially what both DeWine and Graham have done over an
extended period of time, and their respective departures from the
Senate does not help Haiti.  I'm told DeWine had travelled to Haiti at
at least 10 times and genuinely liked the country... as background to
his strong support for the job-creating HERO / HOPE bill which is still
languishing in Congress somewhere.

Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham retired from the
Senate just last year, after his presidential feelers for the 2004
presidential race went unanswered.  I personally recall him leading a
Florida delagation of key State officials and business leaders to Haiti
in the early 1980s for a week of seminars/symposiums on how the State
of Florida could assist in Haiti's development.  I was finishing up a
U.N. consulting gig and looking for a job at the time, so sat in on
some of them.  (I recall the FL State's Tourism Commissioner presenting
facts and figures contrasting cruise ship tourists ...less desirable...
with tourists who fly down and stay in hotels and spend more money...
more desirable).

Then in 1994, as Cedras was leaving and U.S. helicopters were flying
over PAP, Senator Graham's office in Florida managed to reverse a visa
application rejection by the U.S. Consulate in Port-au-Prince, which
subsequently granted visas to two of our key employees allowing them to
attend a trade show in Cincinnati... aimed at bringing more work down
to Haiti.   No joke, 24 hours after the definitive and irreversable
visa rejection by the U.S. Consulate, that same office was calling to
advise that our visas were ready to be picked up.  It definitely helps
to have a U.S. Senator going to bat for you.

I had never met Senator Graham until, surprisingly, two weeks today.
It was a Sunday afternoon, and we both happened to be eating in the
same restaurant in Petionville!  Well, I wasn't going to let that
opportunity slip away so, as he was leaving, I introduced myself and
thanked him for his office's efforts on my company's behalf with those
two visas 12 years earlier.   Brief chat, with he asking about the
spelling of my name (no, no relation to Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)).

My point is that we in Haiti can not and should not be blaming U.S.
officials for the tragic state of under-development of Haiti.  There
are plenty of people IN Haiti who need to be responsible for that.  I
would expand that population only slightly by pointing out that an
awful lot of very talented Haitians have departed, making the chances
of developing Haiti all that more difficult.  By the way, where did you
say you live, Math Jay?

Lance Durban