Haiti faces the abyss, sees glimmer of hope. Preval is working hard.

Haiti faces the abyss, sees glimmer of hope

OUR OPINION: Storms created chance to build a better country

Haiti President René Préval has been making the rounds on a desperate mission to stave off an epic calamity in his country.

The four storms in three weeks this summer that destroyed most of Haiti's agriculture and reduced low-lying cities to giant mud-cakes have created a chance for Haiti to rebuild itself and resolve some of the long-standing problems that have stunted its growth. What threatens Haiti most immediately, though, is how and whether it recovers from the devastation of those storms.

Much help needed
The crisis is that Haiti is teetering at the edge of an abyss. World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned on Tuesday that the country is at a ''tipping point.''

What Mr. Zoellick and Mr. Préval realize is that if Haiti doesn't quickly get massive amounts of financial and technical help from its neighbors, the United Nations, the international community and the United States, it will fall into a bottomless pit of hunger, disease, crime, poverty and desperation that will make the preceding decade of poverty, violence and instability look benign in comparison.

The storms have almost eviscerated Haiti:
Major roads and bridges -- gone.
Hospitals, schools, stores, homes and shops -- caked in mud and inoperable.
People are hungry and desperate for food.
Mud puddles harbor filth, breed mosquitoes, carry diseases.
Conditions are so bad, infrastructure so battered, that just getting food and medical aid to people requires planes, helicopters and boats.

Mr. Préval has taken his plea to the United Nations, the White House and the World Bank.

Last week, he visited South Florida and returned this week, stopping for a visit with this newspaper.

Help is coming from all quarters, but not nearly fast enough and not nearly enough.

Mr. Preval's plan for short-term and long-term fixes is commendably ambitious;
just what Haiti needs.
He would:
-reroute rivers around Gonaives and other low-lying coastal cities;
-rebuild the infrastructure -- roads and bridges, sewers;
-target 13 mountainous areas for massive reforestation projects;
-rebuild hospitals, schools and homes to higher standards;
-get children back in school;
-introduce propane gas as an alternative to tree-felling charcoal;
-continue the political and economic reforms of the past couple of years.

Rebuild for the future

Mr. Préval envisions getting Haiti back on its feet.

But more than that he wants rebuilding to take on Haiti's systemic environmental, political and economic problems.

He wants a nation-building project unlike any this hemisphere has seen.

His goals are lofty.

They are achievable, but only with help, especially from America, which has the know-how and wherewithal. If Haiti doesn't succeed this time, its future will be like its past. Only much, much worse.

I will applaud President Preval's plan when he stops wasting the treasury money in useless trips aboard; when he reduces the size of the government.No one can rebuild haiti if the haitians themeselves do not realize the gravity of the situation.It can not be business as usual anymore.Haiti needs a lean government that can implement a good fiscal policy.No amount of money can help if it is wasted in buying luxurious automibiles for members of Parliament or to pay a group of bureaucrats in almost 20 Departments of government.

Is it necessary to govern haiti to have a Department of Health and population, a Department of social affairs,a department of feminine affairs?A Departement of tourism, a Department of commerce ,a Department of Finance and economy?Is is true that haiti needs a President, a Prime Minister a chamber of representatives composed of 33 Senators and 140 deputies to govern efficiently the country?How for God sake can you develop a country when its liabilities are more than its assets;where all the taxes paid by the citizens to the government are not enough to pay the bureaucrats; to the point that the haitian government depens constantly on foreign aid?

Does one need an economic degree to understand in order for a country to prosper it needs good fiscal and monetary policies?Many haitians condemn the international organistions such as BID, FMI and World bank for the condtions of misery of the people.Although these organistaions are not without sins ,but the reality is that the haitian "elite" is reponsbile for the sufferings of the people.

I AM WITH BYOU

Mr. Preval's plan for short-term and long-term fixes is commendably ambitious; just what Haiti needs.

He would:
-reroute rivers around Gonaives and other low-lying coastal cities;
-rebuild the infrastructure -- roads and bridges, sewers;
-target 13 mountainous areas for massive reforestation projects;
-rebuild hospitals, schools and homes to higher standards;
-get children back in school;
-introduce propane gas as an alternative to tree-felling charcoal;
-continue the political and economic reforms of the past couple of years.

Rebuild for the future

Mr. Préval envisions getting Haiti back on its feet.

But more than that he wants rebuilding to take on Haiti's systemic environmental, political and economic problems.

He wants a nation-building project unlike any this hemisphere has seen.

..................................................................................................

Mr. Preval.
I wish you success in the implementation of these goals.

If you, at least, get them started; the nation will be better off and will remember you as one of its great presidents.

You have now the funds to make it happen, because after the first rescue actions and repairs of the damage caused by the four cyclones, there will be a lot left for the long-term plans.

Now, we need the cooperation and the goodwill of HAITIANS to make these things happen.

There is a very important item to add to your list of priorities:
Please, initiate a widespread and massive programme to control the birth-rate, in Haiti. Without this, your goals will be unattainable.