Re: #429: Shacochis et al: Munsell comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: John Munsell <JMunsell@maf.org>

For what it's worth...

I've lived in Haiti for 2 years now and all I've heard is gloom and doom.  
"Don't go here", "don't go there", "it can only get worse", etc.  Obviously 
there are problems and killings and it's no picnic, BUT.  

There is always a lot of building going on.  Every morning I see masons, 
block makers, steel workers, and carpenters hard at work.  If I need some 
welding work done I have to schedule a time to get the work done, they 
can't come right out.  There are dozens of new gas stations with 
mini-markets who are doing a booming business.  If I had the time and money 
I'd get a franchise in here.  It's almost a sure bet.  There are better 
one's out there than Jerry's Sub's and Pizza and Texaco Starmart, and these 
guys are BUSY 14 hours a day.  I fly out over northeast of Port-au-Prince 
and around Cap and many other places and there's construction and land 
development.  There definitly is a middle class and it's growing.  I don't 
have any hard facts, but I'd have to be blind not to see the growth.  
Almost the entire 15 Oct road is lined with buildings and businesses being 
built.  It wasn't there 2 years ago.  There are at least 5 new cell phone 
tower sites in the last 6 months.  Busta is now the drink of choice (and 
the bottles littered all over).  "Bon" (a company from the D.R.) and Nestle 
Icecream carts are EVERYWHERE.  Carabintair and Tropical Airways are moving 
close to 700 passengers a day inside Haiti and it keeps growing.  Etc, etc.

So, are people worried?  Yes, very worried, but life goes on.

On a side note I know of two instances in the last week where zengledos 
have been hacked up with machete's and left in the street.  People are fed 
up with the crime.  The worry is not a coup, it is crime, gangs, drugs, 
car-jackings, and poor utilities.  I personally know 4 people who were 
victims of car-jackings in the last 3 months, and I don't know anyone 
anywhere in Haiti that hasn't had problems with phone, power or water 
service.

I know this is all just what I see in my life, but I hope it gives you all 
an idea of the atmosphere apart from the news reports and news about 
elections, etc.  Just heard a gun shot out on Delmas...  Life (and death) 
goes on,

John Munsell