30668: Clerie (reply) : Re: 30652: Lorsbach (reply) Re: 30648: Durban (comment): Re 30613 Forrest and 30588 Kathleen on Security (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Philippe Clérié <philippe@gcal.net>

As a haitian living in Haiti, I could not agree with you more!

Reading you post, I was reminded of several anecdotes. They really all boil
down to two things:

1) Security is a collective good. You cannot secure yourself by raising walls
and having armed guards at the gates, if your neighborhood is not, and does
not feel, secure.

2) No matter how you slice it, and even after the recent peaks in crime, the
haitian people is still _remarkably_ peaceful. In fact, I think, abnormally
so... In other words, what makes us so tolerant of oppression?

Like you said, and like everywhere else, perception is considerably more
powerful than knowledge of the reality. And it gets even more weight when
there are no statistics (even lying ones) or any solid information about
crime levels in Haiti.

I'm not trying to minimize the dangers here. It is a fact that we are
under-policed; considerably so. That is why the current calm is not only
surprising, but also, it cannot possibly last.


--


Philippe

------
The trouble with common sense is that it is so uncommon.
<Anonymous>