In response to the article: Réactions du Sénateur Steven Benoît sur l'éditorial du New York Times


Every time somebody says anything they put a word with an ISM behind his name. I don't know what calling for a Haitian Army has to do with Nationalism.


I see many people are calling for the return of the Haitian Army, I am going to take that opportunity to make this point.  Please before you say we need an army think about the following definitions.


POLICE FORCE: 
an organized civil force for maintaining order, preventing and detecting crime, and enforcing the laws.


or 
a body of trained officers entrusted by a government with maintenance of public peace and order, enforcement of laws, and prevention and detection of crime.


ARMY:
a large organized body of armed personnel trained for war especially on land. (source: www.merriam-webster.com)


HAITI IS NOT AT WAR.  HAITI IS NOT AT WAR. HAITI IS NOT AT WAR. AYITI PA NAN GE. AYITI PA NAN GE. AYITI PA NAN GE.
The insecurity problem that currently exists in the country is a law enforcement problem.  We need a real professional police force and we will be able to take care of these little gangs that were armed by the same wannabe powerful politicians who are calling for the return of the army.  The truth is that they don't really want the army for security reasons, they want it back so they can oust presidents like they used to, or scare and get rid of opponents like they used to.


You need to stop these blind allegiances.  Not because you support someone, you have to agree with him 100 percent at any time.  If you feel something is wrong, speak up; maybe it is nothing serious, but, from my experience if it feels wrong, it is wrong.  
Haiti cannot afford an army right, we just cannot.  We cannot take money that could be used to house people living in tents for nearly two years to buy guns.  We cannot use money that could be used to create a true free education program to buy tanks.  Where are we going to use them?


MINUSTAH was not in Haiti for Gangbangers.  MINUSTAH went to Haiti because armed groups, most of them were mostly made of former soldiers were trying to oust a president, who also armed lot of groups of bandits.  We were at the brink of a civil war, a situation created by these same former soldiers that are calling for their sweet army to be reinstated. 


 Let us drop the attitude that made us want to kill everything, every time we have a little problem.  Let's drop the attitude that make us think that we need beatings to do the right thing.  We can do the right thing without the Haitian Army or MINUSTAH.  Let's learn to respect one another, respect our laws, have competent people in our government, in all our public institutions, especially in our JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS, people will have no justification to break the laws. 


Maybe Haiti will need an army someday to protect its interests, I hope so.  But, to spend tones of money that you already don't have to create an army just to kill your own citizens is just insane.  Let's  improve our police force, we'll have security. 

A group of friends (very angry) texted this picture to me as proof that UN soldiers are responsible for the  Cholera outbreak in Haiti.  Once they determined that it was an epidemic of Cholera that was killing people in the northern part of Haiti, people took the streets, protesting, asking for the UN troops to leave.  I was against this idea for a couple of reasons.  Number one was for the fact that at that time there was no study or any sort of proof to connect the epidemic with the UN troops; number two was for the fact that the UN mission was like the de facto government in Haiti immediately after the earthquake, when top Haitian leaders have abandoned the people, without the UN troops presence I think 300,000 lives lost could  have been more than a half million.  More than the report sponsored by the French government that concluded the Cholera has been brought to Haiti by the UN troops, this picture makes it completely impossible for me to continue defending the UN mission.  How could troops of the  United Nations choose to dump human waste into a river?  Don't they know that the majority of the people in rural Haiti drink from the rivers?  Don't they know that they should not pollute the environment?  How could UN troops make such a boneheaded decision, costing more that 2100 people their lives and infected thousands?  It is very sad that after pictures like this one surfaced that the UN does not apologize to the Haitian people and works more diligently to control the spread of the epidemic.  This shows that UN mission does not really care about the people they are paid to help.  When picture like this shows how the troops have been reckless with people's lives and in spite of this, the mission does not take the necessary actions to even provide Oral Rehydration Salt to those who need it, how can I defend the mission?


 UN troops, I am not going to take the streets to protest and ask that you leave Haiti, because I am grateful that you were there with us in the aftermath of the earthquake when the whereabouts of some of our leaders were unknown.  When some leaders were on CNN doing interviews, while no one thinks about declaring state of emergency, you were there in these dark hours and for that I am not taking the streets. However, if the majority of the people that you have shown no regard for asks you to leave, I think you have to leave.  You have not shown that you have too much respect for the dignity of the Haitian people, by thinking that your waste belongs into the water the people drink.