a1289: Re: a1266: Re: a1243: Re: a1228: Re: a1210: Small Businesses?Poincy replies to Pierre (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Hyppolite Pierre <hpierre@irsp.org>

Poincy,

I am not going to get further in this debate with you. I only want to make
these three points.

First, you seem to be arguing for barter in Haiti. Not only that, you seem
to be arguing for primitive agriculture by just asking the people to just
grab their rudimentary tools, then go and plant. So that way, the natives
(as they would be or perhaps even are) will be content once they find food
to eat, and a place to stay.

Well, also, if you are arguing against money as you are calling it a
fiction, why then not just leave the European or American city where you
are, move back to say, La Savane Désolée in Haiti? Better yet, I will send
you a private email with my home address and me and my wife's bank account.
That way you can either, send us the balance of your account after your
moving back to Haiti (La Savane Désolée), or simply transfer the balance of
your account to ours (me and my wife). We would thus ensure our two small
children's college education in the United States.

Now, all jokes aside, if money is not that important, how are you going to
buy tractors, seeds, etc. for more efficient agriculture? How are you going
to pay the agronomists? How are you going to build the roads and the ports
to transfer these now-produced agricultural goods from your new home town
(La Savane Désolée) to either a larger city like Port-au-Prince, or abroad?
I am sorry Poincy but I just don't get your argument against money.

Now the next computer that I buy so I can reply to you on the Corbett list,
I will go to the nearest Sears in my town, pick-up the best on their shelves
and just leave. I will also carry a printed copy of your email so that, if
they try to call the police on me, I can prove it to them, Poincy dixit,
that money really ain't that important and is perhaps even worthless.

The second point that you refered to, the matter of Tourism, is an argument
that has its merit to some extent. However, having said that, I can tell you
that one can even sell sand to the people of the Sahara Desert with the
proper marketing tools and techniques. Haiti as Hudicourt explained it very
well in her post this week, has enough to offer to attract loads of people
in the Diaspora, and all other foreigners. If Haiti doesn't have such
"gusto", then how come so many foreigners go to Port-au-Prince of all
cities, and are so attracted to the filthy city as some might say, fall so
much in love with it and the rest of the country that some return there
every year, and others even stay there to live?

Finally, I must say that I do understand that you don't like money. So from
that logic, even the term "corruption" doesn't even exist in your book.
Still I, perhaps wrongly, believe that Haiti cannot move forward unless we
have sustainable economic plans. For that to happen, Haiti needs not just
one or two, but a body of people who are well-versed in economic theories
who also understand the country's reality, so they can help us shape a
sustainable and applicable plan for a sensible market economy.

Also Poincy, your disagreement with Kesner Pharel does not make him a loco,
nor a genial economic theorist. He writes and says things that sometimes
make sense, at least to me. I am not sure I understand your attack of him,
unless you provide us with some arguments based on his theories or logic.
May be you're right, Poincy. Maybe he tries to see "money" too much in
everything. Well, if that's why you don't like him, you may be right since
we don't need money. We should forget about all economists, and learn all to
just "live and let live".

Hyppolite Pierre
IRSP
http://www.irsp.org