Of all the countries I have visited Haiti is the only one I really should not want to visit again.
It was 40 years ago & I was there for less than 48 hours, so I did not get to see very much. But the atmosphere was somehow threatening, even though the people I met were charming & helpful.
It’s not the people. I can’t remember whether it was PJ O’Rourke or David Landes who pointed out that the value (in the labour market sense) of even the poorest most ill-educated Haitian multiplies manifold the moment he gets to New York even as an illegal immigrant.
Somehow it sums up everything to hear a reporter tell us that he had come to a kind of makeshift camp or congregation of the people just a few minutes walk from the airport, but even there there had been no sign, as yet, of any aid getting through.
