30715: Hermantin(News)Haiti trip gives altered image (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Jul. 07, 2007
Haiti trip gives altered image
By JACQUELINE CHARLES

Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones still remembers the cautions she 
received when she told relatives and friends that she was headed to Haiti. 
Don't go, they said. The place is steeped in problems.
But after two days here, Spence-Jones and 12 other elected officials 
representing the Florida Legislature, Miami-Dade County and five of its 
municipalities -- Miami, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Miami Gardens and El 
Portal -- are finding something far different.
''It's nothing like what people say it is,'' Spence-Jones said, between 
meetings with Haitian President René Préval and U.S. Ambassador Janet 
Sanderson. ``I am glad I came. I can see for myself. We have to begin to change 
the image.''
After months of facing violence from armed gangs and an unprecedented spree of 
for-ransom kidnappings, Haitian government officials have returned a measure of 
security to the capital. But much remains to be done.
''We cannot accomplish everything at the same time,'' Préval said. ``Today, I 
am happy to hear people are discussing other problems besides crime and 
kidnapping. They are discussing the problem of the [exchange rate]. They are 
discussing privatization. They are discussing energy.

OTHER PROBLEMS
``They are discussing all of the problems that truly remain as problems. But it 
is a good sign they can discuss all of the matters besides kidnapping and 
insecurity.''
Indeed, as the South Florida delegation traveled through the jammed streets 
here, its members saw for themselves the progress -- and the work that remains.
''We want to show the people not only in Miami but in the United States that 
what they think about Haiti, what they read in the paper, what they see on the 
TV is not the truth,'' said Philippe Derose, one of four North Miami Beach 
council members, three of whom are Haitian American, on the four-day 
fact-finding trip.
As local government officials who represent communities with large Haitian 
populations, Derose and North Miami Councilman Jacques Despinosse, who 
organized the visit, said they want to build a bridge between Haiti and their 
cities.
Prime Minister JacquesEdouard Alexis welcomed the gesture but also offered one 
cautionary note: What Haiti really needs, he said, is investment and technical 
assistance.

NO JUNK
Don't send us junk, he said referring to used cars and other equipment that 
cities often send here but that often don't work.
''It's better you send less but send equipment that is new,'' Alexis said.
``Haiti is a country with a lot of opportunities. The question before us now is 
investments, and how do we attract investments?''
Also in the South Florida delegation were North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns, 
Miami-Dade Commissioner Audrey Edmonson and state Rep. Ronald Brise, D-North 
Miami.


© 2007 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights 
Reserved.http://www.miamiherald.com
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