28210: Hermantin (comment) Re Morse comments Out with the Old... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


I am writing in response to Richard Morse's post, advising President elect Rene 
Preval to stop hanging out with the same old " Wealthy Haitians"  wishing to " 
perpertuate the current economic status quo". He went on  to list the members 
of the entourage he thought should dumped ASAP.

While I don't know too many of the folks identified by Mr. Morse, I do know 
Maryse Penette Kedar, and I will tell you Mr. Morse that you are WRONG. For the 
sake of transparency let me just say that Maryse is a friend and a woman whom 
I admire tremendously for her intellect, her love and passion for Haiti and 
most importantly her ability to get things done. Mrs. Penette-Kedar has spent 
most of her professional life at the service of her country. She was the 
principal negotiator who ensured Haiti's succesful bid to become a signatory of 
the Lome Convention.  Under her abled and indefatiguable leadership as the 
undersecretary of Tourism,  Haiti's tourism industry was revitalized to the 
benefit of all. Even in her current,  private sector tenure, as the 
representative of Royal Carribbean in Haiti, she has worked for the benefit of 
her country and for the workers gainfully employed at Labadee. Ms. 
Penette-Kedar is an asset to any political leader with a vision and a plan. She 
has the passion, the drive, the  institutional memory and the kick ass 
organizational skills to make things happen.


Who would you send to Washington with Mr. Preval? I would love to see your 
list. I think that you raised an excellent point about the need for an economic 
plan not driven exclusively by the interests of the export sector ( which 
requires the maintance of a very cheap pool of labor). How would you go about 
creating that middle class? You have "dissed" Jerry Tardieu ( he's also on the 
list), the economist, whose recent attempt to address this issue has somewhat 
gone unoticed. Have you read the  book  in which he discusses Haiti's economic 
development in the context of a global economy? Although I found some of his 
recommendations very problematic, especially with regards to labor, I find it 
an interesting starting point to debate and discuss Haiti's economic 
development in the 21st century.

Again, I don't know the other folks on the list but I think that  at least one 
or two of these "proponents" of the economic status quo, are keepers.