VOA: Dust Settling in Haiti After Days of Protests
PETIONVILLE / PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — A calm has returned to much of Haiti after several days of protests over a proposed increase in fuel prices.
Merchants on Rue Rigaud, a prominent street in Petionville, a suburb of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, were back to normal Tuesday, selling mangoes, avocados and other produce.
Three men sat on a street corner discussing the anti-government protests that resulted in at least three deaths, and several Haitian-Syrian-owned businesses looted and cars burned.
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Update: Haitian officials knew the gas price hike would be unpopular. They did it anyway (Miami Herald)
WNU Editor:I have a few friends who are Haitian and who live in Montreal, and with them I tried doing a few projects for Haiti that were computer/internet related (they failed). I have also been to the country (before the earthquake), and I like to think that I am slightly knowlegeable about what is happening there. What is my assessment on the current crisis .... the massive increase in fuel prices was a mistake. In countries like Haiti you have to impose unpopular measures gradually, the people who live there are desperately poor, and an increase of 40% or more on any product that everyone uses will result in protests and violence. It is also a country that has a political-legal-economic culture that desperately needs to change, failure to do so will only mean a continuation of the poverty and the despair that it brings. My advice is to start via through the school system. Spend your money ny educating the young and instill in them the love of learning and what Haiti is capable of .... and after doing it for multiple generations we may then see some positive changes.
