Fwd: A Conversation with Ambassador Raymond Alcide Joseph and Lola Poisson-Joseph
Leon David
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eunice Charles <eunice....@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 12:39 AM
Subject: A Conversation with Ambassador Raymond Alcide Joseph and Lola
Poisson-Joseph
To:
Earlier this month the Women Foreign Policy Group hosted a program
with Haiti's ambassador to the US Raymond Alcide Joseph and his wife,
the activist Lola Poisson-Joseph. Feel free to read a summary of the
event here, highlights are listed below (bold font is my own thoughts
and opinions).
The ambassador explained that Port-Au-Prince will now experience the
changes it has needed for decades. "This gives us an opportunity to do
what we should have done long ago." -well why hasn't the government
you represent implemented any programs to see these changes through
Ambassador? Why did it take a natural disaster to galvanize your
administration to work?
The Ambassador spoke of plans for a UN conference at the end of March,
where the issue of whether to move the capital of Port-Au-Prince to
avoid future disasters will be discussed. He does not believe,
however, that the capital can be realistically moved elsewhere.
Instead, he sees reconstructing a smaller Port-Au-Prince with "sister
cities" built nearby to keep people in the area, but not necessarily
within the city itself. -interesting.
Poisson-Joseph commented on the importance of the accountability of
NGOs. Her vision is for, "NGOs [to] get together and do collaborative
work" in order to prevent duplicated efforts. -I would also like to
see a more transparent process. where organizations, local
communities, and the government can all be held accountable for funds
received and distributed.
--eunice
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin (1818).