9028: Re: 9022: Mr. Nau's points well-taken; link relief with restoration (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Wilson Nau <Lloc17West@netscape.net>

Good hearted donors who are truly concerned and are endeavoring to help 
relieving human suffering in Amity, or anywhere for that matter, deserve 
our utmost respect and gratitude.  There have been many cases of 
individual missionaries and aid workers who got seriously injured or 
even lost their lives in accidents in Ayiti, while in the process of 
helping the needy.  Our heart should go to their family and their 
religious organization for their ultimate sacrifice.  However, sending 
in containers of free food, dry or fresh, on a regular basis in Ayiti, 
only perpetuates the Band-Aid approach to solving the country's hunger 
problem, and reinforce the cycle of dependency on free handouts, which 
is exactly where some other countries want Haiti to be.

So the plot is there.  It is insidious and clever.  It is so invisible 
that it is being supported by people who appears to have genuine love 
and affection for the country; and they don't even know that they are 
supporting it.  They are loving Ayiti to death, and it won't be long 
before they smother the baby it they don't wake up.

What does Haiti need to solve its hunger problem?  On the one hand, it 
needs the help of NGO's that are capable, and willing, to coordinate 
with local governments, in an all-out assault to isolate and destroy the 
root causes of hunger in their communities.   It  needs a re-birth of a 
depoliticize faculty of agronomy along with a staff of expert 
agricultural scientists, from the diaspora I might add, who are truly 
dedicated and selfless, to pass their modern scientific knowledge to 
aspiring Haitian agronomists and agricultural technicians.  On the other 
hand it needs the persistency of an automatic pilot in order to stay the 
course, once begun.  Thank you


Wilson Nau