Haiti

[Bright Banana Beard]

Will anyone tell me what going on on Haiti? I have many Haitian living in this area and I know their food in Haiti is only mud cookies. but what the about the government? How strong is the leftist is in Haiti? (even the Marxist-Leninist) and how strong the media is in Haiti?

[JazzRemington]

I don't know about Leftism in Haiti, but I can explain some current happenings.

Recently, the Haitian government has begun collecting tariffs on imports and cracking down on illegal goods. They are doing this by searching every container that is to come into the country. As a result, imports have ground to a halt and there's a back log stretching all the way to the sending countries, and food (literally) rots in the containers. I recall reading a story where workers had to air a ship out for a few weeks ebcause of all the rotting food. This is especially damaging because Haiti has to import some 75% of its food, since it doesn't have the resources to put into farming (which is another issue altogether).

As a result of the failings of the government to do something about the economy, the prime minister (whose name I can't recall) was almost censured, but survived (by a wide margin). The people who are currently angry at the government are calling Rene Preval, current Haitian president, a traitor to the country and want Aristide back.

Some other sides notes is that teh UN peacekeeping operations are somewhat working. Kidnappings are down and there is a general feeling of security felt thru the country. The IMF has given the country good marks for its economic and education programs and the UN is expected to start a few more programs along those same lines. Though a great deal of the country is still under gang rule, especially Port Au Prince, one of the worse ports in the world.

Technical Correction: Port-au-Prince is the capital, not a port. But currently there are massive, violent protests in the capital over how the government is handling the economy, specifically the high food prices. The protests started Monday, got worse Tuesday, and have calmed down somewhat today.