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PARTISAN IU:VIEW
of Aristide, a four-year-old Catholic Church literacy program, run by
some of Aristide's closest associates, was persecuted so violently by the
military that
it
was forced to dismantle.
If
mob violence and class warfare
are cited by the elite as reasons to fear Aristide, they also prefer not to
talk about his interest in education.
The United Nations, the OAS, and the United States have been
trying to get Haiti's rulers to negotiate their own removal. Other goals
may be more attainable. An end to the nightly killing and the reign of
terror would have to be a precondition to other deals. The interna–
tional community needs to invest millions - not billions - of dollars an–
nually, not in surplus wheat (which has been the mainstay of U.S. aid to
Haiti) to be stolen by the elite, but in education for Haitians through
UN-sponsored schools with Haitian teachers educated abroad on
scholarships. Such goals are attainable. Fidel Castro brought education
to twice that many Cubans.
It
has not made Cuba a democracy, but it
has made Cuba ready for democracy . It is the only way to b:-eak the
Haitian system, to have a beginning, to create the kind of revolution
that can save Haiti.
