By Jean H Charles:

 

I have often mentioned in this column that life is so wretched in Haiti for the majority of the population that the very fact of survival of this segment of the population is a case study worthy of a scientific sociological inquiry.

According to Leannec Hurbon (God in the Haitian Voodoo), Haitian society keeps reproducing the ubiquitous colonial model with 11% of the population controlling 50% of the national revenue. Indeed, in 1789, a decade before the Haitian revolution, the social structure was represented as such: 7% large plantation white owners, 13% small plantations owner represented by the mulattoes and 80% black slaves condemned to perpetual servitude.

The picture today in 2012 in Haiti is not much different from the colonial era, with the peasants living in endemic and abject poverty comprising 87% of the population, the middle class 11% and the bourgeoisie at 2%. Through dictatorial, military and illiberal democratic regimes, it has been plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose: the more things change, the more they remain the same. 

It seems with the government of Michel Joseph Martelly, Haiti is turning the tide to reverse the slide.

This week on Monday, President Martelly introduced the program: Give me light, give me life -- or Bam lumiere, bam la vie. Shepherded by his Secretary of Energy Dr Rene Jean Jumeau, the project plans to provide electricity to 200,000 homes in two years, in particular to those in the rural areas that have never seen electricity before.

By contrast, EDH (Electricity of Haiti), which holds a monopoly in supplying electricity to the country, has only 200,000 paying customers after 40 years of existence.

On Tuesday, in a project Aba Grangou – Down with Hungriness -- Mrs Michel Martelly, deputized by her husband, has introduced a program that will eradicate famine in Haiti through healthy nutrition, school meals for one million children, revaluation of national produce, better warehousing and distribution of crops and, last but not least, a movement of solidarity of one for the other in the nation.

I met at the National Palace with the director of the project, Mr Klaus Eberwein, on the day of the inauguration of the program to inquire what will happen on Wednesday! 

He smiled and told me the president is heading to Davos to defend the cause of the Haitian people with the illustrious gathering of kings, princesses and celebrities. The event happens every year in the mountains of Switzerland, as a way of telling the downtrodden of the world that they are not forgotten.

He added with additional smile if you want a real scoop, next year President Martelly will introduce universal medical coverage for all Haitian people. 

Indeed the tide is turning.

Even when the government was not yet functional, the president had already proposed a project of schooling for all, through a tax from the international calls and the money transfers from the Diaspora. He is still getting bad rap from that segment of the population that has infused one billion dollars into the national economy with no apparent result to the nation as a whole.

Turning the tide to bring a nation from squalor to splendor is not an easy proposition.

Lesly Pean, one of the most analytical minds in the Haitian intelligentsia, in an article published on January 24, 2012, titled Social Capital and Investment, opened the eyes on the Chinese leap forward.

During the last 35 years, the Chinese government has succeeded in bringing from squalor to a relative splendor some 800 million people. This is a feat that has never been recorded anywhere and anytime, in the history of humanity. 

It is not a canvass that all the social problems have been resolved. Li Minqui in The Rise of the Middle Class and the Future of the Chinese Revolution has catalogued during the year 2011 some 180,000 demonstrations for better worker conditions, more freedom of movement and an equitable process of privatization. 

Concurrently, President Barack Obama, in the State of the Union address, placed emphasis on the same issue: “We can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair share. We can either settle for a nation where a small number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by.”

It was forty five years ago that President Lyndon Johnson, in collusion with Dr Martin Luther King, chose the road of hospitality for all in the United States. It is a work in progress, invigorated by the determination of President Obama to reclaim American values in redistributing the peace dividend by giving a fair share to each American, black or white.

The social initiatives launched by President Martelly can be seen in the same light, as a work in progress because the headline in the Nouvelliste, the oldest newspaper in the country, is: “A budget without a plan of development”.

Eddie Labossiere, the president of the Haitian Association of Economists, decided to cry foul concerning the national budget. “Nothing has changed; there is no transition towards rationality and growth. It is a 3 billion dollars budget without a global vision of development. It is a budget of salaries; it is not a budget leading to results.”

The key sectors such as agriculture and environment have received respectively only 6.4% and 1.4% of the national budget. The goal of the government to reach 7.8% is not sustainable according to Mr Labissiere. In addition the target of 1 billion dollars in tax revenue out of a budget of 3 billion dollars is too dependent on foreign support.

Are these notes of sour grapes from an economist who is not seated at the decision making table or genuine concern of a citizen who wishes Haiti well? 

Only time will tell!

President Martelly has already demonstrated tangible results in the last four months of his government, more than previous governments have realized in the last forty years of governance in Haiti.

- $16 million collected through the National Funds for Education to send all children in school age to school. Nine hundred thousand new students are already attending.

- Relocation of 3,500 people from sordid camps into sustainable homes.

- Fabrication of 3,400 homes soon to be delivered to former camp refugees from the earthquake.

- Facilitation of the construction of the industrial park in the northern part of Haiti leading to 60,000 new jobs.

- Initiation of the Aba Grangou project to eliminate malnutrition and famine in the country.

- Launching of the project Give Me Light and Give Me Life to electrify 200,000 homes in two years, mostly in the rural areas. 

President Martelly, in spite of large outcry by legislators from the old regime who keep distracting his government from turning the tide, is steadfastly moving the ship of the nation towards safe and pleasant water. He is not confined into the capitalism or the socialism box. The interest of the nation constitutes his only guiding post. 

May Michael (his name sake) the Archangel protect his front and his back so he shall continue as a vigilant captain, leading the nation into a spot where milk and honey will be the lot of everyone!

January 28, 2012

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