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| Haitian President warns of exodus | |
| 2004-02-25 | |
Prospects for a settlement of the crisis in Haiti have faded, after opposition politicians rejected a power-sharing deal. The development came as beleaguered President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said rebels had attacked another city in the north of the country. President Aristide, facing an armed revolt that caps months of political protests from the opposition, warned that the violence could spark an exodus of boat people to the United States.
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| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #7 The problem is, Haiti has NOTHING. There are no known natural resources. Most of the land is pitiful, and won't grow much. A lot of it's mountainous and rocky, with short, swift rivers that can hardly be used to produce electricity. The native language is different from ALL their neighbors. The beaches are poor, and there isn't much else to attract tourists. Gambling's been played to death throughout the Caribbean, so even that's not a great possibility. "Long-term" could very well be forever for such a poor place. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-2-25 11:16:59 PM |
| #6 Did I hear that the REVERAND Al Sharpton is going to Haiti? Too bad they are not cannibalistic there... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-2-25 2:55:11 PM |
| #5 They're not lazy or slothful, nor accepting of a hopeless future. Yeah..but if we prop them up, they will become that way. |
| Posted by: B 2004-2-25 10:56:31 AM |
| #4 The problem is that we've turned Haiti around so many times they're dizzy. |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-2-25 8:23:36 AM |
| #3 Yes, and guess who'll be leading the |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-2-25 8:21:15 AM |
| #2 Aristide is playing the "prop me up or I loose the boat people invasion card." Read a good opinion piece, Stay Until the Job is Done, on military.com that presented a conservative view on why Haiti is a special case in which we should actually engage in nation building. Joe Galloway writes, "For me, the best argument for us fixing Haiti, even if it takes 25 years and costs us billions, is that 7.5 million Haitians are worth saving. They're not lazy or slothful, nor accepting of a hopeless future. In the poorest village in a very poor country, on the parched Isle de la Gonave, the people built themselves a one-room schoolhouse out of the only material available to them: the thorny twigs of a bush that grows there. Every day, the mothers shoo their children, in uniforms freshly laundered and starched, off to school. Every night, under the village's lone street lamp, those boys and girls gather in a circle, reading and writing, as they do their homework. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday: "There is frankly no enthusiasm right now for sending in military or police forces to put down the violence that we are seeing." But if that should change, the United States should plan to stay this time, and plan to pay for a long reconstruction, until a country that's a disgrace to the neighborhood is rebuilt - and those Haitian children have a brighter future." If we can sucessfully turn Haiti around, the neighborhood might stop fiddling with socialism. It's worth a shot and will gloss up the neighborhood. If we are going to do it, it needs to be sold. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-2-25 8:02:03 AM |
| #1 Mobile soup kitchens would help! |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-2-25 12:29:23 AM |