Greetings,
I think that the idea of 400K Haitians paying $300 a year for 5-6 years to raise $600 million is great! There are at least 2 million of us in the United STates (probably more) and so many in Canada, Europe and Africa. Many are professionals. We pay more in long distance calls in a year. So with organized effort we can do it. We should start out with a big mailing. Let artists such as Wyclef and buddies work for this fund by doing benefit concerts and donating a modest percentage of their record/cd sales. It can be done. I am astounded by how much money was raised in such a short time for the 911 victims in NYC! It took a couple of months to raise more than a 1 billion! for less than 3K people! Why can't this be done for blacks and so-called third world folks who don't have insurance and other sympathetic avenues to raise the money needed for their daily sustenance.
Unfortunately, what the benefits for 911 have shown me is that their is a premium on life and the old adage that "if you're white you're right, if you're brown, you're down, if you're red you're dead, if you're yellow, you're mellow and if you're black get back" is still true. But like my ancestors, I vow to disqualify this in my lifetime through hardwork and determination. And with truth and righteousness on my side I will beat down the yoke of downpression and help to rebuild Ayiti so that I and my children and their children can be proud too. A nation-state is so important for an immigrant group. Look at Japan for example, their ex-patriates in the U.S. benefit a great deal from their nation-state's position in world politics and economics. Don't let's talk about occupied Palestine/Israel. That's the best example of the importance of nation-state to a people's self-and identity formation. We need to rebuild a strong Ayiti and we can start by donating to a yearly fund run by trustworthy professionals.