back from the interviews...

Last week I completed 3 interviews for the research as explained in the previous postings: with Ms. Martin, Mr Laurent and Ms. Ambroise. I had an amazing time interviewing these different people about the topic of my paper.

Before meeting Ms. Martin, I was very nervous since I had never interviewed high profile people. I went in the office with preconceived ideas of the way government runs the foreign affairs department and how Canada has been helping Haiti (or lack of). I must say that I was pleasantly surprised after the 1st interview since Ms. Martin had extensive knowledge of Haiti and its situation. I try at several occasions to ask her tricked question about her department but she was always very good at answering my questions with extensive diplomacy. She was also extremely knowledgeable about her own department (namely the foreign affairs). In this interview I clearly understood that Canada's main goal is to rebuild the whole country since it is chaotic. The government put the emphasizes on the infrastructures (political and economic). I also learned about the fact that the government does not advertise the 3Ds anymore but instead a pan governmental effort. Moreover, Ms Martin's points correlated with my readings; Canada is focusing in multilateral missions. Ms. Martin talked to me about the extensive involvement of other countries such as Brazil and EU. ms Martin also admitted that the help provided so far by the Canadian government has not fixed the problems occurring in Haiti but at least it has brought some positives like the positive economic growth for the first time in decades and the decline of HIV. Her department biggest achievement according to her was the elected government with Rene Preval as the winner. After the interview, I thought that the foreign affairs department is realistic when it comes to its involvement in Haiti.

Ms. Ambroise interview was also very good. When I started, I thought that she was going to criticize Canada's implication in Haiti with tremendous fervor. In the contrary, Ms. Ambroise 's arguments correlated with Ms. Martin. That was a big surprise for me. Of course, there are some aspects of the issue that Ms. Ambroise put more emphasize on and since she is Haitian herself, it is understandable to see where she comes from with her arguments. Ms. Ambroise also emphasized a lot on the brain drain happening in Haiti because of the political situation. She also stated that Haiti will only get better when its own habitants will work together. Because of her main position in the Embassy (she is responsible for the culture portfolio), she thinks that it is imperative that Haitians sell their culture abroad in order for others to enjoy it while helping Haitians to get back on their feet. 2 weeks ago, there was a conference in Montreal held by CIDA and apparently the speaker stated that Haiti had no resources whatsoever. Ms. Ambroise took the time to tell me how much Haiti had to offer but that the country just needs structure.

Mr. Laurent's interview went also well. He was very courteous. He had extensive knowledge of the political situation in the country and since he is himself part of the big worldwide Haitian diaspora, he was able to give me certain perspectives concerning Haitians feelings towards Canada. He also talked about the brain drain. I will thus assume from my interviews and personal experience that it is a plague in Haiti and also in a lot of Less Developed Countries. He concluided the interview by saying that the aid coming from Canada and other countries needs to be better managed.
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I must say that I am very happy of the opportunity I had to meet with these people for my research. Their input are definitely helping me to have a good grasp of the topic.