26040: Hermantin(News) Perennial Haitian exodus widens (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Christian Science Monitor
August 23, 2995


Headline:  Perennial Haitian exodus widens
Byline:  Kathie Klarreich
Date: 08/23/2005

(MIAMI)Writing about Haiti as a failed state has become commonplace. Every few
months a coup, an assassination, a political massacre shocks the
sensibilities of news desks and editors and - for a nanosecond - Haiti
makes the front page with rote descriptions of violence, poverty, and
death. Then it drifts to the back page and out of consciousness.

Since the fall of the Duvalier family dictatorship in 1986, the
pendulum has swung from bright moments of genuine hope to the dark
despair of insecurity and instability. But today it appears to have
stopped swinging. In spite of the 7,600 UN peacekeepers stationed
there, more than 800 people (including 40 policemen) have died in
street violence in the past year - 200 in June alone. And kidnappings
for ransom - of men, women, and children, rich and poor alike - have
become an almost daily event.

Because of the insecurity, once again an exodus is under way. This time
it's not just the sad stream of boat people that spikes at moments of
peak political or economic stress, nor is it the class of bourgeoisie
that has always had the financial means to live abroad. It's the heart
and soul of Haiti, the solid citizens who represent the last surviving
foundations of civil stability who, despite past national traumas,
vowed to stick it out in their homeland but are now packing their bags
for the first time. It's the lower middle class (laborers) and the
solid middle class (shopkeepers and entrepreneurs) - the people who had
a genuine economic stake in Haiti's future. After years of being
knocked down by the fall of one government and rising up to the
promises of the next, these patriotic and loyal Haitians can no longer
find a reason to be optimistic about that stake. These are the people
jamming outgoing flights of airlines that fly in nearly empty to
Port-au-Prince.

The most personal example I can offer is my Haitian husband, leader of
one of Haiti's most popular street bands. For seven years he's shuttled
back and forth from our home in Port-au-Prince to our home in Miami;
but for the past two months, since narrowly escaping death after being
sought by armed gunmen of a rival band who claimed he should have been
more politically vocal, he's been shuttling back and forth across our
living room, wondering if he can ever return to his old life, or play
music with his band again.

Then there's my Haitian mechanic friend who recently went into debt to
send his wife and three children to the US. He lives just south of the
National Palace, an area known for bustling street activity and blaring
music from buses. For the last four months he's not had a single client
come to his garage, and the street remains eerily silent because of the
rash of recent kidnappings.

A local street vendor of fried food I used to buy from was abducted
this summer and then released for a ransom of $100 - the equivalent of
several month's of income for her. But an elementary-school-age child
of friends of mine was kidnapped and only returned home after his
middle-class family scraped together every last dime they had and could
borrow to pay the $30,000 ransom. They also had to hand over their new
SUV.

Those are just the happy endings: Not everyone returns unscathed, or
alive.

A UNICEF dispatch denouncing the insecurity cited a case of an
11-year-old girl who, because her family was unable to pay a ransom,
was blinded. And last month, the respected Haitian journalist and poet,
Jacques Roche, was kidnapped and murdered - and his tongue was cut out.
His assassination barely brushed the pages of the international
newspapers.

Times are so critical that my two closest Haitian friends -
middle-class people who I always thought of as part of Haiti's poto
mitan (the center pole of the voodoo temples) are also seriously
contemplating leaving Haiti for the first time in the turbulence of the
past 20 years. One, who runs a small handicrafts business, has already
been to the Dominican Republic scouting future employment
possibilities. The other, a construction entrepreneur, is spending the
summer in the safety of the US to figure out what his next step should
be.

Many journalists have already left, as have aid workers. The Peace
Corps has been sent home and the US, as well as Canada and France, has
asked all non-essential personnel to leave.

The US policy mantra has always been that democratic elections will
cure Haiti's ills - there have been nearly a dozen changes of
government with only three democratic presidential elections since
1986.This fall, Haitians are to vote in local, legislative, and
presidential elections. It's too soon to know if the electorate will
participate or if they are registering only because the voter ID cards
they receive will soon be mandatory for routine transactions. A change
of governments will produce new figureheads and new headlines, but
Haitians have less reason than ever to believe it will alleviate their
poverty - some of the worst in the Western Hemisphere - or contribute
to security and stability.

Haiti's only democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
was forced to leave the country during both of his terms as president.
His party, Family Lavalas, is probably the only party that has enough
votes to win - but its partisans are accused of committing much of the
violence strangling the nation. With chaos the norm, it's hard to say
who in Haiti is ultimately responsible for the country's anarchy - or
who could handle the responsibility of stabilizing the country.

But if and when Haitians go to the polls, they must do so with faith in
the system and not in the supreme reign of an individual. Although
they've never had reason to believe in the system, it's not too late to
try to instill such a belief. It will take supreme faith, a cast of
altruistic candidates, and an international community that promises to
be there for the long haul. Unless that happens, the Haitian exodus is
bound to swell and rob the country of the very people the nation needs
for stability.

* Kathie Klarreich's new book - a memoir of her years covering Haiti
for the Monitor and other news organizations - is 'Madame Dread: A Tale
of Love, Vodou, and Civil Strife in Haiti.'



Kathie Klarreich
www.madamedread.com


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