Hunka Hunka Burnin' Trash

Yesterday, I finally saw the Haiti that people think I'm seeing. It's hard to say, "Ah, yes, it's so hard to be here, I had to meet with so many members of parliament. Woe is me!" without feeling at least a little bit hypocritical. I didn't want to hop around the world just to meet the luminaries, and usually I don't. This trip is a bit different.

We've been meeting with people, mainly in our hotel, or in their offices in Petionville (the richest town in Haiti), because the overwhelming majority of political players live here. It's interesting, though, when we talk to people who are running for office from another area, the difference in their perception of the issues. The people in Petionville? They say corruption is a problem, and that there needs to be a better enabling environment. The people from the city? They say food. Without enough food, we can't do anything. Their children only get one meal a day, and it's hard to see the big picture when you're hungry. As someone said yesterday, "We have to fix this from the ground up. Reaganomics won't work here, because the wealth doesn't trickle down, it trickles out."

We went down to the USAID/Embassy complex yesterday to meet with the requisite functionaries; all fine, but it definitely gave us a chance to see the city. The one thing I can say for the Embassy, they actually put themselves downtown, not up in the hills where it's all pretty and green. After an hour in the car, stuck in traffic - that would be over an hour to go literally 10 miles - we got out, went to our 20 minute meeting, and got back in the car. The streets downtown are so narrow that the cars (when two can fit on the street) careen around each other like bumper cars with no bumpers. We wound our way through the narrow streets, hanging on for dear life, past burning piles of trash by the side of the road. I'd never seen a smoldering pile of garbage before, actually. You don't get that so much in the Middle East.

Interestingly, Wyclef Jean has an NGO called Yele Haiti that employs people to pick up trash. Simple, but effective, when the gov't can't do it by itself. And now, it's time for dinner. A bientot!