AP story on yesterday's episode in the slum war in Port Au Prince:
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050617%2F2308144447.htm&sc=1102&ewp=ewp_news_0605haiti

It makes me very sad to see this continue (for well over a year). I have a friend whose father (since passed away) was Haitian, and he filled me with much love for their music and culture (not to mention beautiful pictures of the ocean there).

So..what's our next step? Continue this charade with the UN troops? Force Aristide back into office? :worried:

it's my understanding that the infrastructure damage that has been sustained over the last couple of years has been a huge setback for haiti. it's anarchy. people living in miserable poverty are willing to do all sorts of desperate things.

and we could do something about it, but our resources are going to iraq, to fight weapons of mass destruction. it's a matter of priorities, and since the president talks to god...

are we planning a next step? i doubt it. if haiti had oil, we'd be there.

Actually, the problems in Haiti go way, way back in time. If anyone's interested, there's a great chapter on Haiti and its problems (along with why things are relatively much better in the neighboring Dominican Republic) in "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. A lot of what is happening now can be explained by the history of colonization in Haiti hundreds of years ago.

Whatever the cause, though, it's a sad situation. Poorest country in the western hemisphere, and few prospects for improvement.