Fairy Godmother on January 16 when she flew down there, met with and stood by him, she has way too much on her plate to be his full-time puppet master. I am certain she told him (she certainly MODELED the behavior when she specifically spoke to the Haitian people) that he needs to make contact with the people who elected him and are looking to his leadership at this dire time.There is no excuse for him to have waited 18 days before going to the Champs de Mars to see the National Palace - unless it was that he knew that this was the main camping area for the dispossessed of Port-au-Prince and he did not want to confront them. In fact, accrding to this story, it WAS the Palace he went to see, not the people. Yes, I know, he lost his house too, and he is "working" on organizing the government response, but given tat the people on the Champs de Mars have no homes, no TV, and no way to know what he is doing, he should have been out there EVERY day, if not before Hillary visited, certainly after.
I am tempted to say, OK I will, I know Hillary Clinton, and you are NO Hillary Clinton,
President Préval. She would have been working, as you have been, but she also would have made sure the people knew she was there for them. She always makes time for the people everywhere she goes. You should have followed her example with your own people.So! You waited more than two weeks and they shouted you down, feel they have no leadership, and want an international takeover. Nice work!
Meanwhile, my very consistent, dedicated, and balanced Secretary of State is regularly putting forth this message.
It’s important that we see ourselves as partners with Haiti– not patrons – that we work intensely together to produce results that can be seen and felt by the Haitians themselves. Our goal is a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Haiti. Many of us have a great commitment to Haiti that precedes the tragedy of the earthquake, and the Obama Administration was committed to working with Haiti, and we stand ready to continue to do all that we can to help realize this better future for the Haitians. And I thank all of our partners in this effort.HRC 01-25-10, Montreal
And this:
The Government of Haiti, as Foreign Minister Cannon just said, must be and will be in the lead. We all recognize that the Government of Haiti has suffered a very serious blow to its capacity and therefore we are coming together on behalf of the international community to work with the Haitian Government to establish the kind of coordinating mechanism that I think you’re referring to.HRC 01-25-10, Montreal
Nice work, René! Fifteen minutes a day would have done it, but now I think you have lost them. They are sorry they elected you. The international community does not want to take over your country, it wants YOU to!Read more>>> There is also a short video, but it is not embeddable so I could not put it here.
Haitian leader René Préval greeted by angry earthquake victims
By FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com
Haitian President René Préval walked over to the palace gates on Saturday -- and was met by hundreds of people who rushed the gates to shout demands and voice frustrations with him and his leadership. He stood on the inside listening for more than 20 minutes as the throngs screamed.
Saturday's public appearance was one of his first in the 18 days since the quake. In interviews with The Miami Herald, Préval said he has deliberately avoided touring the ruins and has chosen to spend his time coordinating the nation's response.
When he showed up unannounced on Saturday, Haitians were startled -- and angry.
