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What
a Paradox! Haiti Continues to Import Workers
While its Unemployment Rate is Nearly 85%
by
: Jacques Dady Jean
News
Today: the UN is Sending 680 Troops to Provide
Camp Security
The decision to send 680
troops to Haiti to provide camp security is an
indication that the UN has no intention of
building a better habitat for those left
homeless following the January 12th
earthquake that destroyed Haiti’s capital and
surrounding cities. UN leaders have completely
ignored the basic principles of human dignity
and the discomfort and shame created by the
occupation of Haiti, a sovereign nation. Not any
sovereign nation, but the first free black
nation in the Western hemisphere, a nation that
voted the first law to allow African slaves to
enjoy freedom once they stepped into its soil.
While the Haitian people
are dealing with a chronic double-digit
unemployment rate that has only worsened during
the past few months, every little opportunity
goes to foreigners. In large economic and
intellectual centers of the world such as New
York and Boston, Haitian workers play a very
important role in private security agencies as
well as in the public police forces; why can’t
Haitians be trusted to take charge of the
security of their country?
Some will refer to the coup
d’etats and recent violent unrest that has
created political instability in Haiti to
convince the mainstream opinion that Haitians
are not fit to work as security officers in a
refugee camp on their own soil; we all know that
most of the coups d’etats were engineered and
sponsored by American, French and Canadian
diplomats.
In addition, the situation in many of the
countries where the UN recruits its soldiers are
inferior to Haiti where the violence is
marginal, spontaneous and motivated by shortages
of food and jobs and not connected with any
organized terrorist or other criminal movement.
Imagine the UN preferring
to send peacekeeping soldiers to Haiti selected
from countries that harbor terrorists and
countries with histories of state-sponsored
violence that have adopted anti-democratic
philosophies that restrain the freedom of women
and practice sexual promiscuity as acceptable
behavior.
The UN action in Haiti can
be described as a vast conspiracy of greedy,
wealthy nations and their accomplices. It is
obvious that the UN is navigating far from the
purpose for which it was created,
to bring all nations of the world
together to work for peace and development,
based on the principles of justice, human
dignity and the well-being of all people.
The UN is petrified to
integrate former Haitian soldiers and innocent
young Haitian men and women as part of Haiti’s
security force, but they have no problem to take
the risk of sending “potential Al Qeada and
communist operatives” from countries like
China and Pakistan to help build democracy in
Haiti. Pakistan has UN peacekeepers in Haiti
too. Another paradox. Pakistanis are killing their leaders; their
own fragile security relies on the US soldiers.
The day our soldiers step out of Pakistan, the
Al Qaeda will take over.
Why can’t the former
Haitian soldiers, who were well trained and who
have not committed any crimes, be hired to
provide basic security to their people with more
dignity? The salary of one UN soldier and their
cost of living in Haiti can pay at least 10
Haitians soldiers that will be able to do a
better job.
Why does the UN refuse to provide
logistics and expertise to help rebuilding the
Haitian Army? Can the UN learn from the US
military experience in Iraq?
The basis of the US greatest
accomplishments in Iraq is the reintegration and
the mobilization of the ranking officers of the
defeated Iraqi Army into the new Iraqi defense
force.
Instead of sending more
soldiers to reinforce its troops in Haiti, the
UN should focus on training more Haitian police
officers and help create and train an elite
national guard to take over the security of
their country. Besides security, these guards
should receive basic training in emergency
medical attention, environmental and other basic
handy skills in carpentry, plumbing, electricity
and management. This initiative will create
20,000 to 25,000 jobs in the short term,
allowing the $300,000 plus another $700,000 in
operating expenses, making it $1 million every
year pouring into the Haitian economy. This will
generate long-term economic growth and social
development. The nation will regain trust in its
government and pride in its country. In
addition, the UN will have more resources to
invest in other durable, practical development
projects with tangible results.
Let’s put Haitians back
to work for the well being of their country.
The UN occupation of Haiti
is chaotic and will have long-term consequences
on the future of the most impoverished nation on
the planet.
The conspiracy can be seen at many
levels. The last time I was in Haiti, I noted
that foreigners were holding many basic jobs
that Haitians can do. I mean jobs like cashiers,
bartenders, truck drivers, etc. I spent 3 days
in a hotel where 25% of the staff was foreign.
At one construction site
that I visited, I noted that the operators of
the heavy equipment, like the tractors and
diggers, were all Dominican. Most of the
merchants are Dominican and even the high paid
prostitutes are Dominican. One morning I took
breakfast with a few gentlemen from several big
American and Canadian cities. They were
engineers and project managers hired as
consultants by US, Canadian and Brazilian firms
that have contracts with the UN in Haiti. Some
of them have no credentials, others have little
or no experience but they have connections.
On the street was another
depressing scene. There were groups of
out-of-shape retired police and army officers
from Brazil and other nations squeezed into the
shade of homes and trees staring at young
women’s chests and behinds, targeting their
next victim for the night. Driving towards the
South, you can see UN trucks lined up while the
UN soldiers enjoy the island’s sun and beaches
with young Haitian girls.
They are making thousands
of dollars doing nothing and their countries are
making millions for sending them. From toilet
paper to candy bars, Brazil sold everything that
the soldiers are using in Haiti so Haiti does
not benefit from the presence of the UN
soldiers.
The UN soldiers are now a
huge liability for Haiti. They are consuming
every dollar that would have been used to train
a professional army, a talented police force and
for other development projects that will create
jobs and establish a structural, economic and
social foundation to build on for future durable
development.
Another aspect of the
damage is cultural: Haitians are fundamentally
Christian, many are Catholics, and others are
Protestant and voodoo believers. Since the
January 12th earthquake, Muslims and
the Mormons are racing for popularity and are
buying faith for food. The fear that the Al
Qaeda may take advantage of insufficient
government control and poverty to infiltrate the
ghetto is high among concerned citizens.
The other problem caused by
the UN occupation of Haiti is the social damage
caused by immorality, incompetence and a lack of
educational standards of the occupiers.
Some of the UN soldiers have very
promiscuous sexual behavior; they seek illicit
sexual opportunities constantly and date
underage girls for money. Haiti has never
considered sexual predators as a threat to
society and the current government does not have
resources and authority to stop the UN soldiers
from sexually abusing the children.
Another sad situation is
that these children, from 15 to 21 years old who
are having affairs with the UN soldiers, have
enough cash to escalate the social ladder. With
no basic education, these children are exposed
to large sums of money. They find drugs and
alcohol as needed, drive the most expensive
cars, sleep in luxurious hotel rooms and live
extravagant lives. How will these children be
able to come back to normal life of eating bread
and “casaba” with peanut butter and sleep
tossing and turning on bare ground after the UN
decides to free Haiti and the money stops
coming?
A young lady, known only as
Tisimone, considers herself a 17 year-old
princess; her beauty, her shape and her innocent
age placed her next to the heart of a UN rank
officer. She is already pregnant by her partner,
a Brazilian soldier. Tisimone is well aware that
the father of her baby has a wife and 5 children
in Brazil who are waiting for him. She confessed
that she saw the pictures of the man’s family
and is worried about the possibility that her
man gets transferred even before their baby is
born. Nevertheless, Tisimone cannot give up the
nice apartment that the soldiers are paying for
her in Petion-Ville and all of the nice gifts
and 1,000 gourdes each week.
Tisimone enjoys respect
because of her “Blanc” white man that she
never got from her parents and the society. In
Haiti, any occupant is called white, regardless
of the color of your skin. However, this is just
a temporary arrangement because the man is an
occupant, he does not belong there. A simple
order from his troop leaders and he will go back
to Brazil to join his family and the life of
this poor girl will be in limbo again, made
worse because of the baby she will have to care
for. Thousands of Haitian women in every class
of the society like Tisimone, are living in
temporary love affairs with UN soldiers that can
have long-term social and economic consequences
on Haitian families.
For sure, the world leaders
can easily get away with their actions in Haiti,
for now. Someday history will condemn them and
it will be a shame for the future generation.
Thank God Haiti has sons and daughters
everywhere, we are taking notes and we will
never forget who the true enemies of Haiti are.
Jacques Dady Jean BS, MBA
is the President of the Mattapan
School of Technology
jacjean1@hotmail.com
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