Good article and I espouse the former of the two views expressed. In my “humble” view, Haiti is beyond help that any elections might bring. Many of us now believe, earnestly, that international trusteeship, or a multi national protectorate for a minimum of 10 years, and lead by the U.S., bolstered by Canada and France, is the only viable alternative. The realization and implementation of this form of governance for this failed state will require exceptionally strong leadership and the courage the look well beyond political correctness.  Jv

-----Original Message-----
From: hscenews@yahoogroups.com [mailto:hscenews@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Pix Mahler
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 12:52 PM
To: hscenews@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [hscenews] Fwd:"Haiti's hope and search for a president"

Interesting editorial.

----- Forwarded message from pix@... -----
    Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 13:37:23 -0500
    From: pix@...
Reply-To: pix@...
Subject: Recommended: "Haiti's hope and search for a president"
      To: pix@...

Click here to read this story online:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0111/p09s02-coop.html

Headline:  Haiti's hope and search for a president
Byline:  Kathie Klarreich
Date: 01/11/2006

(PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI)Reading the political situation in Haiti is not unlike
trying to figure
out which came first, the chicken or the egg. One line of thinking says
that no matter which candidate wins the troubled Haitian elections, the
new administration will fail because the country is infested with
corruption, criminal activity, and an inept security force. The other
believes that the only way to stabilize Haiti is to install a
legitimate government dedicated to providing security in defiance of
political and economic pressure to keep the status quo.

Thirty-five presidential hopefuls have lined up to take on this
Herculean task of righting a country that has seen nearly a dozen
governments in the past 20 years. But the one candidate who has pulled
away from the pack of politicians, alleged drug traffickers,
ex-military officers, honest well-wishers, and government officials is
former president Rene Preval. The agronomist is the country's only
president to be democratically elected and to have completed his
five-year tenure, sandwiched between the two truncated terms of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Mr. Preval's popularity can in part be attributed to leaving office
without alienating large sectors - not the wealthy ruling class, the
peasants, urban and rural poor, or the de facto security forces. And
his bookkeeping is clean. Since 2000, he has lived in his small
hometown of Marmalade, where he runs agricultural development projects,
a wind instrument music project, and provides communal cybernet access.
Once considered a close associate of the deposed Mr. Aristide, Preval
is now running as an independent and leading the polls, although there
is concern that he is still connected to armed groups that supported
Aristide.

But it will take more than popular support for Preval to neutralize
forces that have made Haiti one of the most corrupt countries in the
world. To be fair, the entire nation is not paralyzed by criminal
activity, though nearly everyone suffers from the paltry $300 annual
average household income, 50 percent illiteracy rate, dearth of roads,
a nonexistent healthcare system, and all but inoperable public schools.

The main source of Haiti's problems is concentrated in the capital, a
sprawling metropolis of more than 2 million people who live with
extended blackouts, sporadic and often violent demonstrations, and
constant shooting. Despite the presence of several thousand United
Nations troops, Port-au-Prince is also saddled with a proliferation of
kidnappings, which average 10 a day. No one is immune. Everyone is fair
game, in any part of town, and for any price. Even a presidential
candidate was kidnapped; ransoms range from less than a hundred dollars
to tens of thousands. And the UN, whose mission is peacekeeping and not
peacemaking, has done little to neutralize gang warfare. Instead its
presence has stirred resentment toward its armored vehicles,
bulletproof vests, and point-and-shoot cameras with which they snap
photos during patrol.

The new government will also have to drain the poison from the
6,000-strong Haitian National Police. Even Police Chief Mario Andersol
says his institution is a failure. Since he took office several months
ago, the youthful-looking Mr. Andersol has arrested dozens of officers
and linked dozens more to criminal activity, but he's worried that when
this interim government leaves, the criminals he has arrested will
break free.

Several thousand prisoners escaped with the 2004 departure of Aristide,
and only 100 were recaptured. Haiti's judicial system operates on
bribes and payoffs, and until there is an end to impunity, prosecution
is of no concern to the perpetrators. Without an intense crackdown on
guns and drugs smuggled across the porous border, and the unprotected
shoreline, or recycled through the former military, there's little
chance of peace.

In a country where anomaly is as prolific as presidential candidates,
Preval is unique in his reticence to campaign. His strategists say his
record stands for itself, but those who might lose a grip on their
fiefdom will not go down willingly. Some candidates have vowed to
support each other in the event of a runoff, but Preval is not part of
that group. To govern with any credibility and effectiveness whoever is
elected must unite key groups which have traditionally worked to
undermine one another: politicians, business leaders, the elite, the
poor, former military, and the international community.

Somehow the new government must institutionalize the rule of law,
cleaning up a system that has held hostage the majority of an otherwise
peace-loving country. For too long 6 million residents outside the
nation's capital have barely managed to make do without any real form
of representation.

* Kathie Klarreich, author of 'Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou and
Civil Strife in Haiti,' a memoir on Haiti, has lived in and covered
Haiti for nearly 20 years.





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