Haiti crisis appalls writer

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

[pabianice]

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

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.

Kidder said he is particularly worried about the state of the public health system chronicled in his 2003 book ''Mountains Beyond Mountains,'' given the volatile political situation.

Kidder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ''Home Town'' and other books, first visited Haiti in 1994 to write about the U.S. military action that restored President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power after a military coup.

Aristide resigned Sunday after weeks of violence by rebel groups and is now in exile in the Central African Republic.

While in Haiti, Kidder met Paul Farmer, an American doctor working to establish a clinic in the impoverished nation, who became the subject of ''Mountains Beyond Mountains.''

Kidder also visited Haiti as recently as a year ago to research an article for The Nation, and remains keenly interested in Haiti's political situation.

Three days before the resignation of Aristide, whom Kidder had interviewed during one of his visits, he published a guest column in the New York Times titled ''Why Aristide Should Stay.'' Kidder said he believes much of the news coverage over the past few weeks has misrepresented the situation and that the majority of Haiti's impoverished population supported Aristide's presidency.

In a telephone interview this week from his home in Williamsburg, Kidder said he worries that the crisis could impede efforts to get food, medicine and fuel to people who need them.

A 2002 World Bank survey ranked Haiti as the fourth most malnourished country in the world, though Farmer and the organization he established were credited with making progress in combating disease.

And although as far as he knows, none of the people who appear in the book have been harmed, he said ''one of the things that will be immediately affected will be public health.''

Kidder said he is certain, based on interviews with Aristide and his wife, Mildred Trouillot, that both supported the efforts to improve health in the country. What any subsequent government will do in that area is unclear.

''One thing I certainly hope the peacekeepers will do is to maintain the public health system that has been established and allow it to go on,'' he said.

Kidder contends the political situation in Haiti is intimately connected with U.S. foreign policy, which he said was aimed at weakening Aristide because his politics put him at odds with the Bush administration...

[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.