An Open Letter to the President;
I hope my President responds as he has not, nor any of his staff, nor anyone period, in any way or shape responded to my previous letters and e-mails making me worry about all these .GOV’s, transparency and openness, I hope not.
Maybe because I am not a “professional op-ed writer”. I am merely a citizen of this nation. Just a street kid from Brooklyn with a higher education than Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck who never made the second Freshman Semester, thus I have no staff to write the vile and critisism they retch, I just have a sense of humor and values.
I have no credentials just a sense of values pounded into my head from a strong matriarchal family leader and I learned compassion from a angelic loving wife of thirty plus years who is doing service with the Lord these days.
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
One can not hide from the massive media coverage of the death, the crumbled buildings, the lack of infrastructure, the crying children, devastation and despair in the faces of those lucky enough to have survived the earthquakes in Port-au Prince.
Lucky? Lucky about what? The levels of luck are apparently disturbing. You might be considered lucky with just loosing a house, or shelter, or a family member, an arm, or leg or both. You might have survived the initial quake but succumbed to shock, starvation, water, infection, unsanitary conditions, or the lack of the bare necessities of life. This will be a long term on-going effort for survival and it has consequence if not done right.
Lucky for the future you to look forward too? The television crews and the images they broadcast tell a story of a country in the Western Hemisphere in 2010 that is like a little lion cub who always gets to eat last at the kill and gets the scraps if lucky.
That is the history of Haiti, but like the little cub often gets ignored. If we do nothing, maybe it will go away, seems to have been the policy. In the wild the cub will starve and die. In the Western hemisphere, Haiti will die if we do not do the right thing.
HEROS:
After the earth quake struck Haiti, it was clear that the private aid organizations who already were established there were performing services overwhelmed in their roles as first responders. They performed admirably. They should be honored for so many of those organizations have been doing this work in Haiti before the quake now had their job multiplied by thousands, I hate to think of what could be worse had they not been there and had knowledge of the country. Without them being on the job in country, it could of been worse, unimaginable.
REACTION:
The United States certainly acted quickly. This is no Katrina. The efforts of our citizens and military have been exemplary and I truly believe we rose together with our global friends in a speedy on-going effort to save, recover, rebuild, re-invigorate those wonderful people of Haiti. But we need to do it right. With a future in mind.
The real effort is soon to come and this will be the determining factor. The rebuilding of such badly damaged institutions as hospitals and schools over the months and years to come is a priority. But useless without the infrastructure. What infrastructure? What little they had is gone.
Just as in the United States, we spend billions on devices to destroy the works of man and then don't have money to improve things. Our things, our bridges and roads, our power needs. Im referring to the disastrous state of the roads and bridges in our nation where the dollars to fund everything come from.
The last regime, politely expressed as "the former administration", probably didn't even know where Haiti was till we sent troops there. I call it the real "Bush Doctrine". Laura finds a new country in the library and George blew it up.
It seems about the only course taught, during BUSH TWO - The Edulator, is Geography since we have learned new names of countries we really would of been better off ignoring. But Haiti is our doorstep. The money wasted, stolen, used for bribes, (sometimes called a surge) and corrupted in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN, could of saved a nation that would be loyal to us. If they only had oil....
FUTURE COMPREHENSIVE THINKING:
Haiti will need infrastructure first after the basic rescue efforts. Rescue efforts make for news and guess what happens after the press leaves. Will we look upon Haiti ten years from now and see Haiti the way it was before? Is this like the Katrina aftermath which stalled, when the press left, no more photo ops, and literally took a football team and the spirit of the people to bring it back to life all over again?
SPARE THE ROD...
RE-BAR, a cheap steel 1/2 inch rod could of saved thousands. The magnitude of the damage, could be blamed on years of bad construction. Most of the priority buildings were weak substructures at best and were destroyed. It’s apparent that concrete without rebar is glued sand and water and a recipe for disaster. But thats all they had to work with. Poor is poor. Poor is beyond hope, in the shocked, the starving and the faces of those in need of a simple thing like water. I saw that same look many times in Ethiopia, and other pats of the world and in the death camps.
Someone said to me it looked like some of the people after days of no food and water were so traumatized, they looked like zombies. Ironic, their choice of words as "Voodoo" is the second religion in this region and refers to Zombies. It is based on fear and death. Call voodooism a populist religion based on the local conditions. Only the missionaries and charities offered them more.
THUG-OCRACY:
Before the quake, Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The government was largely ill-equipped, legions of corruption, and the gangs really ran the place. Some called it a "Thug-ocracy”. What little existed was barren enough, now business’s are ruined, no education, and livelihood is a non-existent word. how do we effect change. Simple questions, difficult answers.
Will a normal life return slowly to Haiti? What is a normal life in haiti and do we really want it? Who in their right mind would want it to return it to what it was. Like an open wound Haiti is open to infection if we do not cleanse the wound and prevent infection. We have an opportunity in Haiti to show the world a different image of what can be done.
THE US WILL BE THEIR ONLY HOPE:
Hopefully Mr. President not on your watch. This is a time for healing. The one thing in our favor is in the thought we have nothing to get rid of, we have a clean slate, literally. Port-au -prince is a clean slate, flattened, totally devastated, ready to start over, most of the flattening mother earth provided.
The steps after life saving, disease prevention, and basic humanitarian need, have to shift quickly to rebuilding the infrastructure which is none, to building core institutions such as schools and hospitals. It’s obvious, a country that has fallen to thugs and voodoo on a good day, has enough problems, add poor health which was a predominant problem before the quake, and superstitious ignorance to the mix and we have a potential for further disaster.
Here is my plan, maybe I am naive, or my thinking too simple, or it is factually impossible, I don’t know, I can only think what I would like to do and suggest, not criticize.
THE HAITI REDEVELOPMENT ACT-
TRAINING - Financial aid promised by the U.S. should be used after humanitarian causes to pay American Temporary Construction Workers working tax free in Haiti to restore the core elements. Providing they have Haitian trainees working with them, two or three per worker on a schooling/volunteer basis.
UNEMPLOYMENT - We have workers out of work drawing unemployment with skills, the best in the world; They need work. Under this work and train program, Haitians get real on the job training: For safeguards the bulk of the money stays in the States till needed; Credits are written and used. Helps the Haitians and the US unemployment.
TRANSPARENCY - No abuses, in addition it is, helping our economy, providing jobs for our people who will be helping others. This sends a message to the world, a positive one at a badly needed time. We can be the worlds healer as a partner and not a regime changer. The money stays out of the hands of the thugs and crooks on the island. This is critical. Since we control it, it is transparent and no insiders or outsiders get their hands on it.
"HOTEL Guantanamo" -
• Offer the Guantanamo prison temporarily for those thousands that have escaped the collapsed jails. Get them off the island. They have already infiltrated some of the safe areas and business is as usual.
• Haiti can provide low-cost tramp steamer accommodations to Cuba under the name of the Haitian Global Travel Agency. One way and no first class. Lets get a tough Social Director like Sheriff Joe Arpaio to provide the entertainment on board and at the prison.
• Establish Haitian Martial Law temporarily till the bad guys get rounded up under strong Haitian law. Tell the ACLU, it’s not on their turf and to stay out of it. These thugs are not Robin Hood, they are just hoods who robbed from the poor, and the rich, and kept it. They are rapists, killers, extortionists and drug dealers. They are the poisoned blood of the Haitian people who to survive, will need a transfusion.
• That will also take a lot of pressure off the Haitian police as we train them at the same time to work with a civil civilian population.
DELETE THE PHOTO OPS:
Lets get the photo-op jerks out of there, tell Sen. Edwards to find another place of penance. And I’ll give you a whole list of jerks if need be. Starting with Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh’s comments. We need people like General Honore of Katrina fame. He has the experience, the language, the talent and should be the Ambassador at Large, or temporary Civil Representative to Haiti. They might just make him President. He turned Katrina, he can turn Haiti.
If you are here for the Haitians, ”Grab a shovel, feed the poor, bandage the wounded, hand out water, comfort a child, move pallets, babysit a child, this is real, not a reality show”. But don’t come on this island for personal attention, photo-ops or speeches, go home or stay out, you are in the way.
LOGISTICS:
Look into the possibility of establishing a Central American base of operations in Haiti. Move our Southern Command and just build in a safer area than the Port-au-Price area, and a Navy/Marine facility, plenty of workers and easily trained since they have nothing now. It will do the following.
A strong presence will deter the Thug-ocracy from reforming and not damaging any good work we do. Doing it now stems the illegal immigration, bring a piece of America to Haiti, give them a reason for the future of their land or you will see the largest illegal immigration in history with the major strain on Florida.
We have the logistical power to move 500,000 troops across the world to fight wars that we will never really be appreciated for. We can use that same logistical power to bring whats needed to Haiti. We have the architects and designers to design and build basic simple housing for those people. We have the power to dispose dictators. Good, lets dispose the thugs once and for all. That step in elimination of the thugs is critical to Haiti’s future.
We have those marvelous Roll-on, Roll off ships that can transport entire divisions of Abrams tanks, thus they easily could carry bulldozers, cranes, backhoes and forklifts and entire compliments of steel and concrete workers and their entire company for that matter. The port is damaged, sixty five years ago on d-day, the Brits made their own ports with floating docks. Surely this is a workaround for today.
QUEREY:
What ever happened to those thousands of FEMA trailers not suitable for use here but as a crash program might work for awhile in Haiti? An investigation is needed. The formaldehyde might of blanched by now.
Even if they are not in the best shape, a roof is better than none and they have sinks, toilets and stoves which might be salvaged for use in more permanent shelters for them. Or did they simply vanish and the millions of dollars also vanish to hide another embarrassment of the previous administration. And who made the money when they vanished ?
Those folks are very industrious and can make do with the barest of facilities and be creative. Right now all they have is dirt and rubble. Anything is appreciated. Those shelters could be ripped apart and used if they haven’t been sold off and someone made money on the deal.
AGRICULTURE:
Haiti is fertile land and needs to develop and redevelop a strong agricultural climate. Tough yes, because of the topography. I see it as possible using stepped plateaus or tiered farming, as used in other parts of the world. It’s population for a small area exceeds the room available. But it could feed it’s own, if done right.
It needs to lure manufacturing business such as clothing and textiles, light industry, as the people are easily taught and make good workers. They are family oriented.
Without the thugs, they could lead a fruitful rewarding life. The thugs and gangs, as I have said repeatedly are the problem. Fail to address that situation and nothing will be realized.
We have the horsepower in the theatre to do it, and we have Guantanamo base to park them at till the Haitians decide what to do with them, the most critical point is to get them out of the way for the island and it’s people to breathe fresh air, then you will see the beauty that is in that island.