a943: Comments on Rice Scandal (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: J.David <Jedidiah@lyalls.net>

I am afraid that I have some comments on the rice scandal issue.
I talked to people who buy sacks of diri during late January. Mama'm  in  St
Marc says that the price is 150 $ht. She has no idea what brands exist, just
the realities of a ti-machann.

A regular buyer of large amounts of rice, in PVille, says that the price of
'diri pe' is no different from the others.

I did notice billboards around the country ( well, around PauP ) for "Diri
Kreyol". This implied to me that this was Haitian rice. It comes in
a blue bag.

When you actually look at one of the bags in person ( as it were ) it says
that it contains american rice. hm.

I am puzzled to see friends of mine defending this whole rice thing as an
assault upon the rice importing aristocracy. Wasn't it last year, and the five
years before that, that us "progressives" were declaiming against the food
import business on the  grounds of undermining domestic production?

That was  a correct  attitude. Subsidizing the  rice import business thru
exemptions from import duties makes  the whole  thing  worse.  Twice.
First, reducing the price of rice in  the city ( if that is indeed what  has
happened, altho I see no evidence for this ) puts profit pressure on the
domestic  producers, the farmers. Obviously.
Secondly, the money lost thru tariff exemptions, reportedly 5 million U$D,
could have been used to make the  domestic industry competitive. Improving the
transportation infrastructure from Artibonite to PauP is the simplest way.
Aiding  producers coops is more complex, but  should be done.
That 5 $million could have been  used to directly employ work brigades of the
permanently unemployed, to much better overall  effect.

Preval  spent his meager good PR on agricultural projects.  Getting production
up, and something to do with "land reform". What is the domestic production
now, compared to 5 years ago? After seeing the results of land invasions in
the north, namely, plummeting production and covering up productive land with
concrete  shacks, I am skeptical of talk of land reform in Haiti.

This project to  lower the price  of  imported  rice resembles programs in
many poor countries. Keeping the slums quiet is the aim. Unfortunately, it has
always resulted in impoverishment of the local producing class, the farmers.
One does not see Europe or the US driving down the cost of imported food.
Quite the contrary, well run economies try to keep their domestic food
producers comfortable, and  producing.

Increasing production is something everyone but the local gangsters should be
in favor of.
What happened with those Taiwan projects in Artibonit?

Preval is now widely praised as a  good president,  by peasants on the tap-tap
and small business people alike. They sure didn't say that three years ago.
They said he was a drunk.
Is he sitting up in Marmelade enjoying the first peaceful ex-presidency of the
20th century, enjoying the acclaim of a grateful nation?

People say  that in Marmelade there is production and jobs. It is a promised
land for country folks. I'll have to visit there  next trip.