HAITI'S PROBLEM

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	Haiti has always had a problem with organization, government and finding any sort of common purpose as a nation. Now, of course, it is much worse. From all appearances, the country’s president Rene Praval is in hiding at a police station in Port au Prince and his glaring absence points up the basic problem with Haiti right now: no one is in charge. What stores are open are trying to sell water at inflated prices. One report mentioned six dollars a bottle in a country were many people live on a about 1,300 dollars per year (less than 30 dollars a week). Buses are reported to be jammed with people trying to leave the capital for the countryside, with the price of a ticket inflated by 100% to ten dollars per person. Gasoline is said to be available as stations, but the owners are refusing to open without protection. These are the kinds of situations where government intervention, and police action, are required. An active government, or anyone in charge in Haiti, like the US military, could not only force prices back down, they could force the store owners to give out their stock of water and food, with the promise of being paid back later. Instead, the stores are doing what they want in a time of emergency and crisis. Profiteering on death and starvation is outright evil, but such tactics are not unknown to Haiti, and other countries in desperate poverty, in much calmer times. Someone needs to step up to the plate and that is either the United Nations or the US. Unfortunately, the UN does not seem to be operating with a true sense of the problems right now in Haiti. There have been video scenes of the UN people passing out two bottles of water per person, not even enough for a single day for most people in a hot climate. Further, the UN personnel seem to be overly focused on “security”, carrying guns and taking personnel carriers, with troops, everywhere they go for food distribution. They are afraid of the people they are supposed to be helping and that is a basic contradiction. The UN appears to be, as usual, a mess. The situation is going to get worse and worse, even while, in small pockets, it will be better. With no one in charge, the dynamic will race ahead of the relief efforts in a downward spiral. The sooner strong efforts are taken to slow the dynamic, the better the chance of success. Former president Bill Clinton is supposed to arrive in Haiti today and he is about to get a real test of whether he can provide hands on leadership. 1.18.10

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