Perennial Haitian exodus widens

Those are just the happy endings: Not everyone returns unscathed, or alive.

A UNICEF dispatch denouncing the insecurity cited a case of an 11-year-old girl who, because her family was unable to pay a ransom, was blinded. And last month, the respected Haitian journalist and poet, Jacques Roche, was kidnapped and murdered - and his tongue was cut out. His assassination barely brushed the pages of the international newspapers.

Times are so critical that my two closest Haitian friends - middle-class people who I always thought of as part of Haiti's poto mitan (the center pole of the voodoo temples) are also seriously contemplating leaving Haiti for the first time in the turbulence of the past 20 years. One, who runs a small handicrafts business, has already been to the Dominican Republic scouting future employment possibilities. The other, a construction entrepreneur, is spending the summer in the safety of the US to figure out what his next step should be.

Many journalists have already left, as have aid workers. The Peace Corps has been sent home and the US, as well as Canada and France, has asked all non-essential personnel to leave.

The US policy mantra has always been that democratic elections will cure Haiti's ills - there have been nearly a dozen changes of government with only three democratic presidential elections since 1986.This fall, Haitians are to vote in local, legislative, and presidential elections. It's too soon to know if the electorate will participate or if they are registering only because the voter ID cards they receive will soon be mandatory for routine transactions. A change of governments will produce new figureheads and new headlines, but Haitians have less reason than ever to believe it will alleviate their poverty - some of the worst in the Western Hemisphere - or contribute to security and stability.

Haiti's only democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forced to leave the country during both of his terms as president. His party, Family Lavalas, is probably the only party that has enough votes to win - but its partisans are accused of committing much of the violence strangling the nation. With chaos the norm, it's hard to say who in Haiti is ultimately responsible for the country's anarchy - or who could handle the responsibility of stabilizing the country.

But if and when Haitians go to the polls, they must do so with faith in the system and not in the supreme reign of an individual. Although they've never had reason to believe in the system, it's not too late to try to instill such a belief. It will take supreme faith, a cast of altruistic candidates, and an international community that promises to be there for the long haul. Unless that happens, the Haitian exodus is bound to swell and rob the country of the very people the nation needs for stability.

• Kathie Klarreich's new book - a memoir of her years covering Haiti for the Monitor and other news organizations - is 'Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou, and Civil Strife in Haiti.'

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