27879: Morse (reply) Kondrat re: US role in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

_oloffsonram@aol.com_ (mailto:oloffsonram@aol.com)

1) If it wasn't for the US, Cedras' followers would have been running the
show. It would have been Democracy, Cedras style and Civil Society, Cedras
style. Aristide would have been long gone. Did you forget?

2) Aristide? budding democracy? budding civil society?... phew!!...no  comment

3) Foreign intervention is tricky terrain. Should we have let Germany run
amok back in the '30's and '40's? South Africa and Aparthaid? Should we have
ignored it? How about Vietnam or Iraq? Nicaragua? Korea, Japan? I don't  know
the political details of all American interventions historically but I have
been living in Port-au-Prince for 20 years. If I can convince the US
government

to do something that may in the end be beneficial to the Haitian  people, I'm
going to do it. I' ld rather be on tour, gigging with the band mind  you. In a
perfect world that is. But as it stands, here I am. Witness to awful  things
and almost victim to awful things.

As a musician, I'm very sensitive to Freedom of Speech and Right to
Assembly; two things that would have disappeared under Aristide. You know
that,

right? I didn't have to tell you that they were trying to burn down radio
stations
and killing journalists did I? You're a Haiti expert, you knew that,  right?

Is the US a perfect world? No. But on paper, according to our constitution,
we're pretty good. And our Bill of Rights is pretty good. We just have to try
and live up to these ideals.

4) You can get pretty cynical about this last election, but unlike 2000, we
knew most of the candidates. And unlike '87, there wasn't a massacre. And
unlike  '95 and 2000, there was turnout. I' ld say things are improving in a
bizarre  way. It's unfortunate that the people had to take to the streets when
the
smell  of fraud attacked their nostrils last week, but alls well that ends
well, in  this case.

5) I don't believe I know you Mr Kondrat, though we may have met. I don't
know. Perhaps if I saw you I would remember. You don't seem like a bad guy and

your principles seem well founded. I just believe that you're not getting good
 information to <put into your equations> that's all.
One of my former dancers from Belair laughed when she told me how they  were
stuffing ballot boxes in Belair during the 2000 election, bringing little
kids in to help them vote, but she left Belair a year or two later  when
Aristide
sent goons in as <civilian police> to intimidate and  extort the population.
They frightened her.
Can the US solve all the world's problems?........ I doubt it.

6) When I first came to Haiti in '85, a young kid invited me to his house
for Sunday dinner in Martissant. I had to jump over a gully full of gray water

matter to get in the front door. The smell was so strong I had to hold my
breath  to eat. I ate alone. My host, his sister and his young uncle just
watched.
 Amazed to have a blanc in their little home. When Aristide won in 1990, I
thought of them. Their little one room house with the tin roof baked by the
sun. I thought <those are the people that voted for Aristide>. Those  are the
people that need a boost up. A job. An education. Some  understanding. I hadn't

been to the provinces yet. I didn't know the whole  story. You know, Mr
Kondrat, we're probably, beneath the surface, on the  same side.

----- End forwarded message -----