Where will Haiti be five to ten years from now?

[T-dodo]

I wonder if each of Ann Pale readers would dare imagine, based on where we are now, where will Haiti we be in ten years. For example, some of you can imagine that the elections take place and then draw a plan as to how the new government will deal with the opposition, the international community, the diaspora, the elite, the slum dwellers in P-au-P, and the peasants in the countryside. The same questions if President Aristide comes back and constitutionality restored? What if a new Lavalas leader emerges? Or, will the current forces allow the elections to be really free? If not, imagine its consequences over the next ten years.

Choose one of the scenarios more likely to happen in your opinion. In that scenario consider what will follow in the next ten years. Provide support for each idea. For example, if you say "new roads will be built." You need to to cover how it will be financed - debt,
international donors, new taxes resulting from economic growth or better tax collection - and what effects it will have on jobs and other aspects of the economy and the country. How will the face of the country react in terms of reforms under each scenario: new government, return of Aristide government, new Lavalas leader wins elections, a new coalition government of Lavalas and the elite, or the U.N. takes over Haiti and is still there after ten years ( like Haiti becomes another Puerto Rico)? For example, will electricity be back 24/24? Will the jobs come back: assembly lines, farming, service, light manufacture, agro-industry, etc.? What type of jobs will be the more dominant, domestic services, financial services, etc.? Try to cover all major areas of life besides jobs and infrastructure, such as: education, healthcare, entertainment, the country's defense (militaries), linguistic, religion, environment (effects of erosion on our mountains or its reversal) etc.

Jean-Marie

[guysanto*]

Thank you for all those important questions, Jean-Marie. I am afraid to answer them.

[Leonel Jean-Baptiste*]

Even a psychic wouldn't know or wouldn't pretend to know???

I would like to be optimistic about it. But, I have a great concern about the ways, Haitians from every sector deal with the major problems.

For instance, the haitian elites, Middle-class add Masses deal with Haiti's problems individually. No electricity, everyone has a Generator/Inverter. Water, they can buy it from the Tankers... Hospital, save money for Avion Ambulance (whatever that means). No sewer systems, either they buy Septic tanks or spread it all over.

No drivable Roads, buy a SUV if you can afford it...

The sense of Collectivity does not exist whatsoever.

I am wondering, if by breathing the air in Haiti, One has developped some type of amnesia. A lot of the elites came from Ivy leagues and mostly from developped countries. But, they think that they can be exempt fom environmental diseases...

Yo reyelman panse ke pwoblem PEP pa rega
de yo... Is it Ignorance? For, they don't see the common land and air that they are sharing with the Masses.

You guys know about Ebola and other terrible diseases. TB is also another one.

Sometimes, I hear so many outrageous statements from the Well-offs vis a vis the masses. They don't get it.

Haiti so far is a very lucky Country. I am waiting for a major environmental disaster if we (Haitians) don't act quickly...

So, going back to your questions Jean-Marie. Haiti is in a state of Emergency. We all need to adress the problems presently without thinking of further beyond. I would love to think that 10 years from today, I can think of living in my Country... But, unfortunately, I am very concerned with our ways of living back home.

NB- Personally, I do not think that One man (like the Omnipotent, Knowing all, Power-loving President) can do that difficult TASK. But, All of Us can make a big, Huge Difference.

L*UNION FAIT LA FORCE
leonel

[Gelin*]

...For instance, the haitian elites, Middle-class add Masses deal with Haiti's problems <B>individually</B>. No electricity, everyone has a Generator/Inverter. Water, they can buy it from the Tankers... Hospital, save money for Avion Ambulance (whatever that means). No sewer systems, either they buy Septic tanks or spread it all over. No drivable Roads, buy a SUV if you can afford it...<B>The sense of Collectivity does not exist whatsoever</B>.

Try to take a closer look at the tragedy....look at it from purely economic angle...It's not an individual approach, and it's not a collective one either. It's rather a selectively collective thing, almost a kind of....

Now, who benefits - economically - from the poor performance of EdH (the Etincelles d'Haiti)? Those who can sell the generators, right? Less electricity from EdH means more generators/inverters to sell, ie more mone
y and big business. Who has the tankers to go get the water and sell it? Who can provide the basic services from a private-sector perspective?

In every chaotic situation, there is always somebody with a smile on his/her face: tout sa k pa bon pou yon, li bon pou yon lòt...

gelin

[DPean]

Unless some miracle happens, the situation will probably get worse. We have a growing population in front of diminishing resources. Then, there is the phenomene of globalization. The question is :"What do we have to offer? Do our politicians have any plans?" Our so-called elite has no vision. The fact that we keep repeating the same errors for 200 years say a lot. Many constitutions have been written in tne history of Haiti, but none of them ever gets respected. Only Haitians can solve Haiti's problems. It seems that we are looking to foreigners to solve our problems. It's not going to happen. They might make them worse. Our mentality, maybe our culture needs to be changed. From the news I have been getting from the motherland, it seems to me that the vicious circle is about to be repeated all over again.

[Shelony*]

I wish I could be optimistic but when I put my "glasses", I see what "Antwan nan Gomye" do not see and it's not good at all. I wish a "bon kout gidon could be done" and allows us to take the road of salvation and development but "helas!"
As other people that talked before me (dpean, leonel), Ayiti's situation can become worse. I am young ( still in my 20's) and I want to devote all my being to helping my mother (Ayiti) but I should say when I talk to my sisters, I tell them that we may not see the fruits of our effort. But we could die in peace if we can be assured that, at least, our grandchildren will benefit from it.
Why am I that pessimistic?

Because what leonel said about the elite is true. There is no sense of collectivity whatsoever. I do not even see what Gelin calls the selective collectivity. Anyone who knows Haiti's history and reality can stop counting on this elite.

When it comes to the poor majority, th
ere is love for the country for the most part, but there is no money, or power. Twice they elected a president, twice he was overthrown. Now s"elections" are being prepared but I doubt their vote will be respected if they really go to the polls. Many of them are already labeled as "chimeres" and I think it will take time before their battle will be considered as legitimate.

In between the two, there is the "middle class", the "intellectuels", the "professionels", the university students. There I see problems too numerous to talk about. I want to name two of them. One is a sense of "superiorite par rapport au reste du peuple". Many of these people, although they emerge from the people become very distant from them. "yo pa kanmarad yo." The second one is a problem of the education system. Many of these people who think they are not "kanmarad res pep la", have a basic broblem. As secondary school's students, they had the habit to "etidye sije pa ke" instead of learning to think themselves.
We have the majority of a generation who as students, depended on the ideas of others. Many of them, as university students, continue to totally depend on their professors' ideas. Whatever is said in the classroom (by a superior) is like a "medikaman ke tout etidyan vale glot san pran tan pou goute l".
I remember a good friend of mine who thinks the idea of "restitution de la dette de l'independance" was bad just because Kesner Farell thought so. At that time he was a student of "sciences economiques" at the public university. Another student thought that was the worst thing president Aristide could do because "it was the practice, those days, for the colony to pay for its independance after a slave revolution." The student did not know that we were the first to have a succesful slave revolution and since we were the first, there could not be any practice or habit before our independance. She was a university student at that time (June 2003). While talking to her at her house, there were a coupl
e old acquaintances present and each one was saying something on the matter. One guy, another student said that instead of asking France for the money, we should have offered even more because our "guerre de l'independance" cost too much to France. We were about 8, 6 of us opposed the idea of restitution. I could not believe my ears, young haitians talking like that. I asked myself where on earth they got those ideas. Where is the sense of patriotism? what about "l'education civique de nos jeunes"?

Ce mois de juin, J'ai ete en haiti pour une visite. J'ai parcouru la ville de Port-au-Prince avec plusieurs amis et membres de famille. C'etait richement decoree car c'etait juste apres le bicentennaire du drapeau. L'une des personnes qui m'accompagnaient (un etudiant a la FASH) m'avait annonce que le bicentenaire du drapeau serait le dernier a etre fete par le president (we know that two more were celebreted by him -vertieres et independance) mais ce n'etait pas le plan et le reste, vo
us le connaissez tous.

There are many more I could say about this so-called middle class but I am already too long. All I can say is that it won't be easy to change Haiti with so many of our "schooled people", as once said by someone on this forum, not being able to think independantly. While we are fighting for clean water, food, shelter, medical care, electricity, road, respect, etc, we should not forget education reform, so that the rising generation may be better prepared for a better Haiti.

Remark that I do not say anything about all our friends and "friends". I may say something about them at a later post. Qu'il s'agit de nos amis ou de nos "amis" ils ne peuvent rien si nous ne leur permettons.

Shelony