#925: Inflation in Haiti: Dorce comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:LAKAT47@aol.com

In a message dated 11/10/1999 8:53:24 AM Pacific Standard Time, Max Blanchet 
<MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net> writes:

<< Note the very high percentage of the consumer's income
 
 spent on food!    (Foods, drinks and tobacco   49.4%)
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I have a few comments here.  First I remember when you could eat pretty darn 
good for less than a dollar a day (in the 80s).  Simple food, yes but 
everyone could get their nourishment so cheap that almost anyone could not 
only buy food but have enough to pay someone to cook it for them too.  Since 
the 'embargo that was not an embargo' destroyed the marketplace of Haiti, 
food prices have skyrocketed and never returned to pre-black market days.  It 
seems that obscene profits are too attractive to give up.  And why didn't the 
United States feel the necessity to bring Haiti back to pre-embargo 
condition....I thought that was de rigueur.  Family members living outside of 
Haiti have simply had to send more money to sustain those who cannot or do 
not want to leave.  I think lots of new millionaires were made during the 
coup years........and others got more millions to add to their fortunes. My 
next thought was on tobacco.  Education and peer pressure has hurt the 
tobacco industry in the US...so they double their efforts to send cigarettes 
to foreign countries like Haiti where it is a status symbol to be able to 
smoke.  There are no such health regulations in 3rd World countries so sales 
are hearty (interesting  choice of word!)  It disgusts me that American 
companies are allowed to operate with such a lack of morals and ethics.  
Given all the education about the health risks of smoking, there are still 
millions of smokers in the US and I would imagine there  would be in other 
countries too.  But it is only right to let people choose whether or not they 
want to risk dying of heart disease or cancer. (off soap box now)

Kathy Dorce'