Haiti crisis appalls writer

Hampshire Daily Lunacy ^ | 3/5/04 | Davis

[pabianice]

(*psst... it's Bush's fault... pass it on...)

[Pikamax]

"Williamsburg author Tracy Kidder, who spent extended periods in Haiti over the last decade while researching his most recent book, has watched with dismay over the past month as a country he came to know well has devolved into violence and political unrest. "

I stopped right there, anyone who says it devolved over the past month only is an idiot.

[Spok]

"as a country he came to know well has devolved into violence and political unrest"

So the corruption, oppression and starvation was okay?

[ECM]

Kidder also visited Haiti as recently as a year ago to research an article for The Nation...

Stopped reading right about here.

[Joe Brower]

In land he knows well, Kidder says U.S. is to blame

[Conspiracy Guy]

It never ends, does it. Didn't W's environmental policies cause the mass extinction of dinosaurs as well? Where was W during the big bang? What did he know and when did he know it?

CG

[keysguy]

I spent a lot of time in Haiti in the 80's. When I was there the population was 3 1/2 million. It's now 8 million with fewer jobs. Do the math. This guy writes for the "Nation"--a liberal rag. Aristide stood by and let drug dealers from Colomiba basically do their thing "at will" once again do the math.He's out and most haitians I know are happy about it.

[gcruse]

Tsk, tsk.  Haiti is still Haiti, Chernobyl is still radioactive, and Franco is still dead.

[dirtboy]

Me too. For the lefties, a despot is OK as long as he's a Marxist or Socialist despot.

[Gothmog]

"Kidder said he worries that the crisis could impede efforts to get food, medicine and fuel to people who need them."

But apparently he didn't mind that Aristide's corruption/incompetence also kept "food, medicine and fuel" from people.

I'll bet he felt the same way when the USSR fell.

[per loin]

Has anyone yet calculated how much Aristide stole?

[Robert DeLong]

A picture of the idiot.

[goldstategop]

Events in Haiti affect my life how, exactly?

[Robert DeLong]

He didn't mean it, after all he is a kidder.

[cake_crumb]

Uh...so the Clinton administration deposing the last regime and imposing the dictator Aristide was a good thing?

[AnAmericanMother]

Me too. I was in Haiti a good deal in the 60s, while Papa Doc Duvalier was riding high. Things were bad then, they were bad in the 80s, and they are bad now. We have a good friend who lives in Cap Haitien (I know he's o.k. because he was quoted on CNN the other day - whew!) and he has kept us informed of what has been going on. It's all been bad, it didn't just start a month ago, just different players.

I think at this point many Haitians are nostalgic for Papa Doc, as ruthless a tyrant as he was.

But so long as Haitians allow themselves to be ruled by superstition, nothing will change.

[Semper Paratus]

Screw Haiti. It's Venezuela that she should be looking at.

[metesky]

In a telephone interview this week from his home in Williamsburg

Williamsburg, MA AKA touchy-feely central. Kidder is probably one of the few non-lesbians in Williamsburg, if only by virtue of his "gender".

His book on the building of his house, strangely enough titled House, is probably the worst book about residential construction ever written.

[Old Professer]

He's like the guy on T.V. wearing the latest in Lands End hiking boots while leading an elfin-faced, barefoot street urchin in some 3rd World Country's dirty, rocky streets looking earnestly into the camera and asking me for money to buy her shoes.

[keysguy]

Funny you should mention Duvalier, his name is being bandied abouto a lot these day. Main reason safety and security, lots more scholing for kids. Main reason against of course is the ton ton macoute and other little things like that.