Yet in this moment of crisis, Martelly has done little to change Haiti. His Twitter account in recent days shows photos of thousands of kids waiting near his residence to receive Christmas presents from him and the first lady, an old Duvalier Christmas tradition. As Roberson Alphonse wrote recently in Haiti's main newspaper, “No one is going to claim that our leaders are among the geniuses of the hemisphere.”
He also has failed to develop a comprehensive plan to jump-start Haiti's economy. His main economic initiatives — old tattered ideas from the 1980s and before — were to open up his country to the international mining industry and to establish a huge industrial park anchored by a South Korean garment manufacturer. Both of these endeavors are based in the north, far from the population affected by the earthquake.
Commenter cet article