a1667: Morse rambles on

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: OLOFFSONRAM@aol.com
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I'm sitting here in Port-au-Prince on a Saturday morning not knowing
whether to
think about the Haitian Government's new ideas on eco-tourism or the
shooting
sprees my friends tell me are going on in La Saline. You could do local
eco-tourism by handing out flashlights to the population in Port-au-Prince
and
then people could find their ways to the beautifully lit parks. An even
better
promotional campaign might be to contract the Survivor television series
people
and send the contestants to Sans Fille or Cite Soleil. The dust alone
would
knock me out of the running within a day.

The twelve foot rock formations in the mountains of Seguin were
underground
fifteen years ago and the whole area was forest. My math tells me that
thats at
least twelve feet of soil erosion. The rock formations are beautiful but
then
again some people like hanging out in cemeteries.
I hear there's a new tear gas out that is not sensitive to citron (Haitian
lemons) as was the old tear gas, so if you plan on going to a
demonstration, be
forewarned.

The radio in my car told me this morning that the marche in Lascahobas is
fine
when the sun shines but when it rains animals break their legs. Its like
that
old story about the leaky roof that only leaks when it rains. <Kay ki
koule ap
tronpe soley, li pap tronpe la pli>.
Did Bob say the <hopelessness> of the situation? When I got here in '85
every
once in a while things would get worse. After a point I said, "Well they
can't
get any worse" and lo and behold, plunge things did plunge. In fact every
time
I said to myself <things can't get any worse> it was only a matter of days
before I was proved wrong. Bob's statement that things are hopeless, now
gives
me hope. Is that inverse logic?

I remember in '86 Henri Namphy saying it'll take two years before we can
have
democratic elections in Haiti and there was a Jungian collective uproar of
anger from the masses. Sixteen years later.........

I saw a complaint while corbetting  (yes you can use it as a verb <to
corbett>)
about attendence in the Parliament. The Parliament had a much higher
profile
during the Cedras years. Go figure. It's a land of paradoxes.
My 25th college reunion is in 2004 (just coincidence) and we had some
planning
meetings at Princeton last weekend. There's a Haitian community in
Princeton
that I was aware of when I was a student but when I'ld run into a Haitian
and
tell them my background, they would just look at me and snicker. Well last
weekend I was walking through the Quakerbridge Mall and a woman started
shouting <se li menm, se li menm>. Lunise pretended she didn't hear. She
tried
to hide in the clothes racks. I just stopped and stared. A bit stunned. I
finally waived and she came up for a closer look, timidly as though I
might
attack her, and she got a good look, and off she went saying <mwen di ou
se li
menm>.

People in Haiti like to talk about <lwa achete> (bought spirits) but the
concept has spread to other domaines such as <djazz achete> (bought bands)
or
<radyo achete> (bought radio stations). If you want to know the difference
between a bought and an unbought radio station, the bought station doesn't
get
torched, shot at or attacked by rock launchers.
For those of you who were here in '86 or '94, can you believe it's 2002
already?
All my love
Richard Morse