Thank you for your comments. I'm in agreement about your...

Thank you for your comments.

I'm in agreement about your assessment of American aid. They, of course, are defending their interests.

This is only natural.

But around the world, other countries would defend their interests.

We as Haitians need to defend our interests too -- this is our country.

That said, I want to reinforce that the US is an ally and we should work constructively and together to come to a good arrangement.

That said, this situation in Haiti is something very very different.

We haven't seen something like this elsewhere.

Clinton is controlling virtually every aspect of aid through the US, but also thru the UN, the Worldbank and the Inter-american system (IDB-OAS).

And the decision makers are also the overseers.

In other words, there is no checks and balances here and watchdogs have been really marginalized.

Furthermore, we must judge this situation by results and we see very few. So many people are still suffering -- and really one person, Clinton, has a lock on the resources that could help them. We need to ask the tough questions: why is that?

Finally, you are right to point out that aid often only exacerbates the poverty or keeps people down. We can all see that that has happened.

But we do not need to accept it. There are strong principles on how to effectively deploy foreign aid. Clinton's own head of USAID, Andrew Natsios, put forth nine strong principles on aid and the primary principle is not to replace the client (or host country).

This means you must build capacity in-country while providing aid or it doesn't work. According to the facts, they are not doing that and that really should be questioned.

Stanley Lucas
www.solutionshaiti.blogspot.com