With the US immigration status changing for Haitians living illegally in this country to legal status will this prompt more Haitians that are still on the devastated island to sail to the US?
Please see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-haiti-refugee16-2010jan16,0,7757504.story
Groups like FAIR lead by Dan Stein are conservative and no doubt not likely to open their arms to the Haitian people that may set sail north.
We will no doubt need a refugee plan for Haitian people so they can be safe from the ravages of the quake and following anarchy. Other countries will indeed need to be refugee hosts as well. If we don’t what does that say about our US moral fibre?
With the US dubios history in this country, how will the US help rebuild the island nation. Capitalist will traditionally want to decend on the country, because traditionally they will be able to scent the short term rebuilding profits ( And for gods sake don’t let Haliburton in there). If that happens then the Hatian government and therefor the people will see short term gains in rebuilding infrastructer and so on but once done with that then the bills come due. Then the small island economy will be starting out in the hole, much like the US students start there careers after college. Being always under the financial gun is highly likely to run into failure issues if anything happens from natural to political.
Should the UN take a major role and try to get the capitalists to rebuild the country in the form of world grants instead of loans? The grants could have stipulations requiring this and that be done in order to get the rebuilding money flowing. The capitalists will enjoy a stable income in the future with the new economy put into place. There would be plenty of money to be made but not so much in the short term. The main principle in this way of thinking is Hatian agra, financial, political sustainability, and respect gained from the Haitian people to the world for a ‘hand up’ not just a financially temporary expensive ‘hand out’ . But the key factor in this is that the country as a whole would not be starting out with a big debt causing the poor of the country not to be able to afford items causing political unrest due to the items inflated cost because of loan monies.
Obviously the current Hatian President René Préval, has a large job in front of him. Without the world backing of the UN lack of progress will only turn into more violence, and more failure both socially and economically leading to more refugee camps. The world has a chance to turn this lemon into lemonade if done correctly. If the world stands by and watches, a few foreign rebuilders will get richer while the many islanders will remain poor and angry then again pressuring that term ‘hope’. And yes we the US will have to go back again and again and again.
I believe that if the Haitian people see hope for rebuilding their country they will want to stay on the island and the need for long term refugee camps will be a short term one.
S
