THERE IS a growing sentiment in support of the building of a ‘new Haiti’ following the horrific devastation caused by the nightmare earthquake on the night of January 12 this year.
It is, therefore, to be expected that the just-concluded 21st Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in Dominica will reflect this concept in the Region’s own efforts to help Haiti, a partner State of the Community, in the enormous challenges ahead for much more than the reconstruction of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
As the Haitian President René Préval said last week following his meeting with President Barack Obama: “We have to face the reality of building and transforming Haiti…”
Subsequently, the former long-serving Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson, now serving as CARICOM’s Special Envoy for post-earthquake Haiti, in expressing his own anxiety for national reconstruction, told a public forum last Tuesday in St. Lucia:
“The devastation caused by the recent earthquake must be converted positively into an opportunity to build a new and sustainable economy and society capable of satisfying the country’s goals and targets set for the new Millennium…”
Special Envoy Patterson, who was then on his way to attend the CARICOM Inter-Sessional Meeting in Roseau that concluded on Friday evening, reminded the forum that it was under his chairmanship of the Community that Haiti was admitted as its newest member, and praised President Préval for his own commitment to have Haiti fully assimilated into the Region’s economic integration movement.
CARICOM is currently working closely with the Haitian government in preparation for the forthcoming special United Nations conference on Haiti’s future development.
The Region’s concerns for poverty-stricken Haiti and its courageous, creative and hardworking people will also surface at the coming G-20 meeing in Ottawa, Canada in June.
The outpouring of goodwill and practical forms of support for Haiti in the wake of the unprecedented human disaster in this hemisphere has simply been most commendable, and augurs well for better understanding as all citizens of the 15-member Community join hands and minds to move forward in the fulfillment of the vision for a
‘new Haiti’.