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[panoramix]

Many Haitian Americans (myself included) are more Haitian than they are American but they are rejected by Haiti. Haitian American do care about Haiti and would make investments that would contribute to enhancing the quality of life of our people.

I expect a new business class and a new political class when/if dual citizenship is accepted. Donation is not the way to go, investment yields sustained growth.

[eddy15]

TiCam,

Thank you for joining our discussion! I do understand your frustration, but let me say that while it would be great to get everyone onboard, it is not a necessity. Haiti is in a hole which seems to be getting deeper by the day, but we cannot afford to give up. There is just too much at stake! For those of us who had opportunity to have lived there, we know what it means to us. If a car was in my way and I had to pick it up in order to move it, I would of course have no chance of doing that. But, if you joined me I would have a better shot, even though the result would probably be the same. On the other hand if Pano and Intruder joined us, I’d bet we could at least get one tire off the road. By my own estimation, there must be around 1 million Haitians, or descendants of Haitians outside of Haiti. Just imagine if only 1% of them got together what they could accomplish! I could be jumping the gun here, but I think we are only missing 9, 996!

So far we are just 4, but that number may have to be multiplied by 10, 100 or even 1000 before we get the answer that we need. Nothing worthwhile comes easily so let’s keep talking it out!

As we all know the resources are there, all that is needed is an avenue through which those resources can flow to Haiti!

[panoramix]

Jeanjak's idea is very hard to implement. Who can we trust with this bank? Is there an existing sytem like this that has made a substential impact in developing nations. If there is, how did they get it to work and what have they accomplished.

The only donation financed organizations that I know of are the religious missions. They have provided, food, education, health and the word of God to many developping countries. Even those religious have had their share of scandals. For the most part they alleviate the hardship of the poor but their true vision is spiritual so they don't:

Train,

Create work,

Improve logistics etc...

Create the settings to improve the economic situation of the country.

This is not their role, in all countries this is the job of the government.

Key issue: The Billions that the Diaspora has sent to Haiti last year were sent to meet personal needs of relatives etc... It's not realistic to think that the Diaspora will:

1) Ignore the needs of their relatives for the "assumed" greater good of the nation.

2) Trust any entity with their money after decades of corruption in Haiti.

An investment is made to make proffit and some of that proffit is reinvested into growing the business or diversifying in other ventures. The end result is that jobs are created, workers are trained and put to work.

[tjeanjak]

I have been accused far too often of being an idealist, and I don't deny that is true. We don't have to follow a model. Why don't we create our own model. If we are worried about crooked Haitians stealing the money if we indeed start our own Haiti Development Bank, then hire trusted non-Haitians, white Americans to run the damn thing. It is a fact we have corrupt tendencies and YES we trust white people.

We should stop asking the white man for a handout or for money. We put our own money in a bank, ask the white man to check the books, and we decide what to do OURSELVES with that money.

The World Bank and the IDB are there to make us poorer, and to perpetually remain poor. If you are in debt would you ever get a credit card with a high interest rate to pay off your debt? Which is in fact what those organizations are doing.

Most of us on here agree, Haiti's future is with the diaspora. We should also realize like a few of us have already that donations is not going to improve things in the long run. That money is better put in a bank, to deal with issues we select that are of importance to our communities in Haiti.

It is indeed hard to implement but very achievable in my opinion.

We don't lack well intended individuals in Haiti. There are quite a few "Heroes" who want to make a difference in their own way. My problem with this mentality is that those individuals are doing it on their own, partly because they want the glory to themselves, and their effort it is too little to make a BIG difference. You are right, it is a difference nonetheless and I don't discount that. However, imagine if all the Robert Duval where to get together to make a BIG difference collectively for the well being of the country as a hole as opposed to only one block or one area of the country?

Just think for one second if we had put the $6 Billion we send annually to Haiti as remittance into a Bank, and it is gaining interest. With that money alone we would be able to pay off our debt, build schools, hospitals, and re-forest our bare mountains. If you want a Marshall Plan for Haiti, it will have to come from the Haitian Diaspora that is more than capable to do the job IF WE WORK TOGETHER.

[haitiwebs]

First step would be to organize the diaspora. Currently there are no organized guidance

[panoramix]

We have the same goal but I still have to question your method. How do you get 2 millions Diaspora to agree on what project to prioritize when just the two of us can't agree on this Dev. Bank?

-People are the same regardless of race, I would trust you with my money before I trust some white guy (They've been known to cook their books).

-Your idea seems a little clearer when you mentioned, interest on the remittance. The Haitian Diaspora could also put their savings into this bank and the Bank would finance board approved projects. The board members could be elected officials from the Haitian Diaspora and Haiti-based...

Your idea needs further debate,

Do we have some International Business majors among the Haitiwebs members?

I found an example we can follow: Asian Development Bank (Wikipedia)

Out of 15,000 members only 6 of them are taking the time to respond to this thread.

That's not very promising.

[TiCam]

I admire you enthousiasm but you have to remember that Socabank claimed bankruptcy last year, the Central Bank had to bail them out. Be very careful, are you guys aware that there is a rumor that the Central Bank of Haiti is bankrupt. The bank of all bankis in Haiti is bankrupt! Is it an epidemic?

It is not the first time banks in Haiti have to be closed because they fail to provide the services for which they were supposed to provide first. Every responsible government must have a political banking policy throuth the Central Bank to restore order. When a bank goes into bankruptcy, the whole economy of the country suffers and also the credibility of the government. We have to be wise dealing with banks when their reputation is on line. We know that in Haiti rumors always fly when there is a malaise in a banking institution. You havegood intention but you also have to be very careful when investing in such a venture.

Originally Posted by PANORAMIX

The only donation financed organizations that I know of are the religious missions. They have provided, food, education, health and the word of God to many developping countries. Even those religious have had their share of scandals. For the most part they alleviate the hardship of the poor but their true vision is spiritual so they don't:

Train,

Create work,

Improve logistics etc...

Create the settings to improve the economic situation of the country.

This is not their role, in all countries this is the job of the government.

Pano, you are wrong about the religious institutions in Haiti regarding education. As a matter of fact I can say that they are the number one, the best there is, providing education, training young haitians, preparing them for jobs and business development. As for business development they are teaching them how to invest and buildup their own business.

As for logistics, Elie Dubois a secondary school who used to train young women as teacher, culinary art and fashion is now providing mostly computer classes to keep up with the demand of businesses in Haiti.

Those religious schools are not only in Port-au-Prince but throughout the whole country.

[panoramix]

Logistics is the art of managing the supply chain and science of managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy, information and other resources like products, services and people from the source of production to the marketplace. (Wiki)

It's not about computer classes. I didn't mean to discredit the religious organizations but I had other things in mind that I did not elaborate.

[TiCam]

Thank you Pano for the crash course in logistic, we use that word so vaguely I did not think you meant it in that way. Then my dear it takes you to do such an endeavour if such a thing is not already in the process in Haiti, I believe I read it from Le Nouvelliste and posted if its not that but similar.

May I ask you guys how long have you been to Haiti and also suggest that you go first there. The country is sick, you recognize the disease by its outward conditions and symptoms, but there is a broad spectrum of analysis, reasoning, testing, etc. your physical presence is necessary for that. You cannot just say let's start a bank.

Reminder, I am not discouraging you but rather I would like all of us to see things clearly.

Panoramix,

below is a link to an article of Le Nouvelliste pertaining to what you mentioned about the flow of goods, etc.

Le Nouvelliste en Haiti - Haïti a besoin de données agricoles fiables

One more article, I'll just keep on adding them:

Le Nouvelliste en Haiti - Analyse de la filière d'importation en Haïti de bananes plantains de la R.D

[kabaret]

build facfories and start manufacturing our own produts .buy local products stop buying import that why the economy is f up .import destroy haiti economy period

we need to build small food processing and packaging plant in haiti

can anybody tell me the different between haitian bean and miami bean. haitian people go googoo gaa over that miami bean they are dam stupid about imported product buy local product and the money stay in the country