Here is a new and very worthwhile short piece from Progressive Fix, authored by Jim Arkedis and Mike Derham. I am more skeptical of the UN than are the authors, but I agree with many of the recommendations and perhaps the UN is the only option anyway. Here is one excerpt:
Once order is established, the UN mission will essentially become a national police force in the absence of a Haitian alternative. To transfer power back to the local government, the UN mission should be tasked with building an effective security force and justice system. That means in addition to cops, the UN may solicit prosecutors and judges in a proxy judiciary. It’s a tall order, but it may be the only way that allows the remaining Haitian government to fully concentrate on reconstruction.
Here is a truly excellent article from the NYT, on the previous lack of Haitian openness and the need to mobilize Haitian expat expertise. Excerpt:
On an economic and political level, the Haitian diaspora could be threatening, said Harry Casimir, 30, a Haitian-born businessman who opened an information technology business there just before the earthquake. “Once the elites have money and power,” Mr. Casimir said, “they’re scared of people like me, the younger generation and so on. Because we travel around the world and see how other governments function, and obviously most countries are not corrupt like Haiti.”
Your optimism about “nation-building” by outsiders such as the U.N. seems exaggerated.
Or, we could just follow Tyler’s advice, and speed up the brain draining of everybody with a 3 digit IQ from Haiti.
Dare I say it, the only time the Haitian people have enjoyed anything resembling civil society is when The USMC governed the place from 1915 until 1934. I think it highly unlikely anything good will happen in Haiti until a similar regime is put in place there. Whether that is done by The UN, The OAS, or some other entity is irrelevant. Anyone who gives a cent for building or rebuilding Haiti to anyone in its so called “government” has shit for brains. That was the case prior to the earthquake. It is evermore so now. That is precisely why the place’s best and brightest have emigrated in the past. That is why they will continue to do so unless they are given the only appropriate incentive to stay home: governance that will make “a clean sweep down, fore and aft.”
Is Douglas MacArthur available? I have a feeling that that a strong, fairly autonomous US general in control of the government would be the best way to rebuild Haiti (it worked for Japan).
Mr. Barandiaran, I think Japan’s elite merely adapted to the new rules of the game dictated by The General and his minions and changed the fellows sitting in the chairs. When the new Japan was in place it was still effectively ruled by the Zaibatsu. I think your second point is spot on.
Not that I think this is politically feasible…today’s media would have no stomach for a macho personality like MacArthur; the very personality type that would make this approach possible.
In 1945 Japan may have consisted of smoking rubble, but it was smoking rubble inhabited by, (and to a large extent still run by) very competent, educated, intelligent people who had just shown they could build the country from a medieval relic to a major industrial power in two generations. All they had to do was do it again, and not be sucked in by the lure of militaristic imperialism this time.
So did Germany. And to lessor extents Italy and the rest of western Europe.
It’s just like the thought experiment that’s sometimes mentioned of having the entire populations of Africa and the USA swap places overnight (all the Americans wake up in African villages, all the Africans in the bedrooms of American suburbs) and see what happens in 20 years.
The end of WWII ran pretty much the same experiment, and the results show that the right (educated, intelligent, socially able to work together) population makes all the difference.
Haiti does not have either the population or leadership with these features.
Judging from the comments, I see two people who obviously did not read the articles and jump to make unfounded assertions.
As for the article, I remembered prior to the earthquake, discussing this issue with family friends. We were discussing the issue of letting the diaspora back into the society and contribute their expertise/knowledge. The fact that the Haitian constitution has a law barring the diaspora from participating in everyday activities and especially, governmental activities, is bizarre. Hopefully, things will change
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