6488: RE: 6266 & Andrea Medard's comments. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: archim <archim@globelsud.net>


     Dear Andrea,
        Greetings from Haiti. I would actually respond to you off-line, but 
     since you had this posted on the Corbett List, I thought I should 
     respond in the same manner so that others will be able to read what I 
     have to say.
        Additionally, please excuse the late response, but I have been 
     pretty busy for the past two weeks with visitors and Christmas.
        Since my initial report regarding the voting percentages in the 
     Nov. 26 Haitian election, there have been numerable other responses 
     which pretty-much support that initial report. I would only offer 
     several other "on-site" reports from around Petion-Ville, two of which 
     were "manned" by several of the young men associated with Maison 
     Orthodoxe and The Church here. All of them were impartial and worked 
     at the polling stations in order to help the country. One polling 
     station of which I speak was at Pelerin 2, and the other at Tet Dlo; 
     both of which had many hundreds of voters and both of which 
     experienced NO problems. The ballots were properly deposited in the 
     boxes and they were carried to the central counting place (The 
     Petion-Ville Police Station).
        There have been many other "on-site" accounts of the voting from 
     throughout the country, and the overwhelming majority positively agree 
     with my conclusion, and that is that there was VERY GOOD 
     PARTICIPATION!
         Now, I would venture to say that the word "IMPARTIAL" would not be 
     completely fair in describing the workers at the stations, and that is 
     because ALL of them were inspired to work because they support 
     ARISTIDE. This IS the case in Haiti...pretty-much everywhere: THE 
     PEOPLE WANT ARISTIDE! There are some who do not want him, that's a 
     certainty, but in a democracy (which the US has urged upon Haiti...and 
     for good reasons), the majority rules! The majority in Haiti has 
     spoken, and it would behoove the few "others" to pocket their pride 
     and begin to work together with the winner...the peoples' choice, to 
     make Haiti work. (Even Marc Bazin agrees with that!) L'Union fait la 
     Force" is the motto of Haiti, and it stands to reason that without 
     such union, neither Haiti nor any other association will ever be 
     strong.
        Maybe there are some who do not like Aristide. Maybe there are some 
     who fear Aristide. (I'm scared to death of what is coming with the 
     marginal "election" of Bush!) BUT, and this is a serious "but", we all 
     must wait to see what happens...both in Haiti and the USA. If Bush 
     "goofs-up" he surely won't be elected again, and I expect the same 
     thing to happen with Aristide. However, I expect Aristide to be able 
     to do better than any of the other "contenders", and he has a lot of 
     persons on his side: Haitians who live here and love their country and 
     want to work to improve it. He will surely be better than any of the 
     former "leaders" of this poor country. Let's give him a chance and 
     help him make the dream a reality. 
        I feel quite third-class in my writing on this subject, especially 
     when we are able to read the clear and correct and well-worded 
     comments and analysis from Guy Antoine, Tom Driver and a number of 
     others who were also here "on-site" for the elections.
        "Alternate governemnts" and "Parallel governments" and "Consortium 
     governments"; for God's sake, let's stop playing with Haiti and its 
     people. We don't have any "parallel people" or "consortium people" in 
     Haiti; and I doubt that we have many "alternative (life-style) people" 
     here either.
        Let's get on the band-wagon and march to the same beat, and in 
     doing so, "together we will win"!
              archim