#3326: Haitian Stereotyping : Laleau comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:NLaleau@aol.com

Dear Rosann,

I think the hostility he is experiencing is a recent byproduct of the US 
military presence. I never saw anything like that in Haiti in all my years 
there earlier. But by the end of the US term there, Haitians were beginning 
to learn that the US presence there had a lot to do with the rampant 
inflation in the country, with the erosion of their already minimal standard 
of living, and their loss of hopes for a stable, secure country.

When I was there as a MICIVIH worker, "Blan!" was what the children yelled 
gleefully at us while jumping up and down and cheering our presence... It was 
a little bit of a game, and it was not hostile at all.  I had heard that all 
had changed, and your report bears it out.  I wouldn't want to be a blan in 
Haiti these days.

Nancy Laleau