Kendrick Meek: “We have to look at the stage the way it is set. I think it is important for us to understand the U.S. has asked U.S.…”

“We have to look at the stage the way it is set. I think it is important for us to understand the U.S. has asked U.S. citizens and mission workers to leave Haiti for their own safety. The French have advised their own citizens, which is justified. Canadians have done the same and other representatives from other countries that are there. There are a number of U.S. citizens still in Haiti. That is still something for us to take into account. Because 97 percent of social services in Haiti, including schools and educating the children, are by missions. They are privatized. I mean, it is not like the government has the ability to be able to put forth an education system. So when that breaks down, that means that the elderly are not receiving the care that they have received before in the past. Children are not receiving the kind of care that they need, prenatal care for women that are pregnant, some of the very things that are there. The AIDS and HIV work that this country is invested in, should invest more but has invested in, is all going to go for naught and having to rebuild all of that if we do not stop the violence. We have people that are pro-Aristide and that are against Aristide; but one thing they have in common, Mr. Speaker, is that we must, yesterday, stop the violence.”