WyW.. Those are GREAT articles. Thanks so much for finding them and posting them. They are going to take me a while to digest Rueben Silie was (is?) the Ambassador from the DR to Haiti and a sociologist from FLASCO and wonderfully knowledgeable, fluent in French.. very respectful and a great asset. I saw him at presentation for Haitian and Dominican journalists.
One question that Delite posed.. the iine in Haiti is really whether or not you speak French. That is the test of education and class. Most of the education in Haiti has always been in French. Among the elite, French and only French is (or was) spoken in the home and schools. If you speak French (I have been told) you are treated completely differently by .. say Bank employees.. waiters, etc.. it is the key that opens the door.
The news papers, the laws, etc. are in French. Most radio is in Kreyole. Tv is in a bit of both. There is a push.. particularly by the US ,, to have the curriculum now in Kreyole . which really was not a written language 30 years ago. The arguement for this is that it is language of the people. I am against this as I argue that it will keep them a small island people, deny them access to the literature of their own history, and make them forever dependent on translators. As Picardo says.. the language in most demand as a second language is English. Most people here who have met educated Haitians can testify to their facility with language.. often speaking four and five fluently. Aristide only made Kreyole an official language during his administration. I do not know the stats.. Certainly all the Haitians in the US can read and write ditto Canada and France. That, of course is not true for the ones in the DR-- who .. as some have noted.. are the bottom of the Haitian diaspora.
As for CBs continuing stuff.. yeah.. no rebar because it is expensive.. and they watered down the concrete .. incredibly stupid, right? lack of foresight? no. poverty? yes. Or.. maybe the Montana was built without rebar in which case it was just .. trying to milk it milk it.. which Haitians are good for as well. Building code? that would be? what? You want to take the risk.go ahead and do it. So I am willing to give you a whole lot of stupid.
But you cannot look at the list that I posted and tell me that their "friends" have been any help, can you?
Oh I know.. everyone has good intentions.
My best Haitian friend, when I first met her, said "Haiti will never succeed because the United States does not want her to" I vehemently denied it at the time, saying that that might have been true 50 years ago but not now...
but.. well.. seeing the help that we have been since the quake.. what with the gift of cholera and all,..
and ..most of the building has really been for the NGO workers..
I wonder really if she was not right
