26949: Rachel Fouche: (reply) Re: 26926: Morse (ask) Jobs in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Your post reminds me of something that Yves DeJean once said -- "Haiti does not 
have an unemployment problem.  You have to have jobs first before you can have 
unemployment."  Poor translation of the joke (I can't tell jokes in any 
language), but a problem that only continues to grow as Haiti is outpaced by 
other developing nations in education and its ability to prevent foreign 
companies from devastating the agricultural industry, the last solid bastion of 
jobs to be had in Haiti.

But how to grow jobs to stabilize the economic and political health of Haiti? 
In order to employ the largest amount of people rapidly, jobs would have to be 
based in agriculture -- since Haiti's economy has restricted the use of 
pesticides on the land, that makes Haiti a good candidate as a grower for the 
booming organic food trade. The only other issue with food export was no access 
to a cold storage harbor, which has been  solved (someone "on the ground" 
please correct me on that point).  These agricultural development zones would 
have to be placed strategically to encourage better population spread 
throughout the (less than 1/2) island.  In  the more arid, environmentally 
degraded areas of Haiti, greenhouses could be used instead, or composting farms 
could be set up to turn largely organic trash into "black gold."  The compost 
could then be used to revitalize spent farmland.

But Haiti has always had these jobs before -- Haiti's biggest problem is that 
the current middle class largely lives abroad, with non-governmental 
organizations attempting to fill in the craters left behind by decades of 
dictatorship and unstable "democracy."  In fact, I'll offer the devil's 
advocacy and state that the current role that NGOs *as a whole* play in the 
Haiti further destabilizes the Haitian economy by "outsourcing" jobs and funds 
provided for such work (for those of you who work in non-profit, I am an 
unabashed disciple of John McKnight's work "The Uncaring Society").  The state 
must take direct responsibility for functions currently abdicated to the 
non-profit industry growing in Haiti or it will not stand.  There are too many 
bosses and not enough workers in this scenario.

Whomever becomes the next president of Haiti will have to harness the 
educational power of the diaspora through innovative job programs like the 
Works Progress Administration, pairing diaspora with their Haitian 
counterparts.  Low wage, long hours, possible loss of life, but at the end of 
the 2-3 years, you would earn dual-citizenship -- something that even the most 
jaded Haitian parent can be proud of. 
With stability, Haiti could branch out again into tourism -- which should be 
just one key in its economic revitalization, not the cornerstone.  Haiti is 
fortunate to have many wonderful historic attractions spread throughout the 
island, from Cap-Haitien to Jacmel.  And when we are not battling each other to 
the death over politics and poverty, we are some pretty nice people, 
goshdarnit!  There are groups involved with developing eco-tourism in Haiti and 
there's the traditional hoteliers, so I won't belabor that point.

Well,  that's as far as my overpriced education takes me on the issue of jobs 
in Haiti, folks -- I hope Richard's  post sparks some great brainstorming!

Rachel Fouché