#1936: Arthur comments on the bigger picture (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Charles Arthur <charlesarthur@hotmail.com>


Let's not lose sight of the big picture:

On Wednesday January 19 in the AP article entitled "Haiti Urged To Crack 
Down on Drugs" we read:

"U.S. Army Secretary Louis Caldera said he encouraged Preval to push for 
laws to combat money laundering and corruption and to facilitate the 
extradition of drug traffickers wanted by the United States."

Does that mean that the US will reciprocate and extradite Toto Constant and 
lean on its friend Panama to extradite Cedras and Biamby -criminals wanted 
by Haiti?

On Thursday January 20 in the AP article entitled "Haitian Slum-Dwellers 
Dream of U.S."  we read:

"In a rocky ravine painted orange by the setting sun...eight members of the 
Charles family huddle inside a one-room cinderblock shack that is their 
home. On this day the family has scraped together enough for a pot of corn 
mush that, lacking charcoal, they have heated over a
fire of sticks and plastic bottles. ``I dream of going to the United
States,'' Willy Charles says wistfully. The gaunt former sugar mill
worker has been unemployed for years. ``I want my kids to go to school, and 
to have enough to eat,'' he says. Millions of Haitians share Willy's dream. 
In recent years, many thousands have tried to make it to the United States 
-illegally - only to be caught and sent back."

The last of the big commercial sugar mills were closed down in the late 
1980's (including HASCO) because the Haitian business elite who owned them 
realised they could make higher profits by importing sugar from abroad. In a 
land where sugar cane grew in abundance for three centuries, there is 
nowhere for sugar cane to be processed (on a large scale), nowhere for sugar 
to be produced, no domestic sugar production, no domestic employment, no 
domestic market, no equitable economic development...

Charles Arthur
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