Haitians Take Arduous Path to Brazil, and Jobs

[Judi Lynn]

Haitians Take Arduous Path to Brazil, and Jobs
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: January 6, 2012

BRASILÉIA, Brazil — Of the odyssey that delivered him to this town in the Brazilian Amazon, Wesley Saint-Fleur could muster only a look of exhaustion and bewilderment.

Months ago, he boarded a bus in Haiti, before getting on a plane in the Dominican Republic, landing first in Panama and then in Ecuador. That was where his wife gave birth to their son, Isaac, he said, bouncing the 4-month-old infant on his knee and brandishing the boy’s Ecuadorean identification card. Then they continued by bus yet again, through Ecuador and Peru. Next, they trekked by foot in Bolivia, where, he said, the police robbed him and his wife of their clothing and their life savings: $320 in cash.

“Then we finally got to Brazil, which I’m told is building everything, stadiums, dams, roads,” said Mr. Saint-Fleur, 27, a construction worker, one of hundreds of Haitians who gather each day around the gazebo in Brasiléia’s palm-fringed plaza. “All I want is work, and Brazil, thank God, has jobs for us.”

Gambling everything, thousands of Haitians have made their way across the Americas to reach small towns in the Brazilian Amazon over the past year in a desperate search for work, including a surge of hundreds arriving in recent days amid fears that Brazil’s government could slow the influx before it overwhelms the authorities here.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/world/americas/brazils-boom-absorbs-haitis-poor-for-now.html?_r=1&ref=world

[Peace Patriot]

1. What is Slimin' Romero up to, do you think?

I'm boycotting his tripe, these days--it's such a sickening stew. But I'm sure there's profit in it somewhere, for his owners.

Guessing just on the quoted part. He's slimin' Brazil, cuz "divide and conquer" (Brazil vs Venezuela) didn't work. Brazil remains a staunch Chavez government ally and keeps doing things that the U.S. Corporate/War Profiteer Establishment hates, for instance, inviting the president of Iran to Brazil, just like Chavez did in Venezuela. Will he follow up with something stinky poo-poo about Brazil's leftist government's treatment of these "poor Haitians" (as if he cares a frack about them)?

??

Where was he when tens of thousands of Colombian refugees were pouring into Venezuela and Ecuador--fleeing from the Colombian military ($7 BILLION in U.S. taxpayer funding) scorched earth policy (five MILLION peasants brutally driven from their lands) and U.S. Corporate "war on drugs" toxic spraying?

Where was he when the U.S. State Department rigged the Haitian election, excluding the majority party (Aristide's party), to keep control of the $9 billion in earthquake aid in U.S. puppet hands?

There is nothing quite like the flabby-brained 'journalism' of a fake "liberal" like Romero. He turns my stomach.

[Judi Lynn]

2. He truly sucks. Maybe he's trying to prove he's not always openly vicious.

Maybe he's finally taken a look at how well he's going over with people who've actually read his material and can't take it!

This is a strange departure for the fella. Right after New Year's, too. Maybe it has something to do with his New Year's resolutions. Or, maybe he's actually disoriented, hung over, still. You never really can tell.

It was interesting to learn some Haitians are finding employment in Brazil, after suffering complete devastation in Haiti. That part is good, and I hope will sustain them.

[Bacchus4.0]

4. you posted the story nt

s

[Bacchus4.0]

3. the article is on Haitians traveling to look for work in Brazil

as Brazil´s economy keeps improving immigrants will likely continue to flow in just as they have in the US for decades. not sure what your problem with reality is.

[Peace Patriot]

5. The New York Slimes don't care about poor Haitians any more than they

cared about the slaughter of over a hundred thousand innocent Iraqis. They are liars and disinformationists on behalf of the war profiteers and transglobal corporations. And Slimin' Romero is one of their worst so-called journalists, in a category with Judith Miller for whom "reality" is silly putty that reporters shape into fanciful voodoo dolls to serve their masters in the Pentagon.

So what is he up to, wetting his keyboard with his tears about poor Haitians migrating to Brazil for jobs? Hm?

You are very, very naive to think that he is innocently sympathizing with the poor and trying to keep his 'news' consumers well-informed--if that's what you really think.

[Bacchus4.0]

7. Romero´s sympathy for Haitians is irrelevant to a story about Haitians seeking

opportunity in Brazil. Brazil is becoming magnet for immigrants, that is the issue.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Oh, please! You don't think Slimin' Romero has MOTIVES?!

He just stumbled upon this tale of woe and is just being a good journalist and letting us all know about the poor Haitians seeking jobs in Brazil and their trail of tears over the mountains?

Give me a break. For one thing, he's now made these Haitians a target for anti-immigrant fascist hatred in Brazil. That is one of the slimiest tactics of the Corporate Press--pitting one workforce against another and stirring up nazi thugs. They do it here. It is a method of bolstering rightwing power. Or maybe our war profiteers are trying to sell Brazil their latest killing and spying toy--drone aircraft. ??

Slimin' Romero DOESN'T DO honest journalism.

[Bacchus4.0]

9. one of the lamest posts Ive seen in awhile PP

I imagine that Brazilians know that Haitians and other immigrants are coming and already there.

although your claims about nazis is quite dubious, I also think it is quite dubious they read the NYtimes.

you are one of those always complaining that the US media doesn´t report on events in Latin America and here is one you are complaining about that they are reporting.

the new reality is more immigrants will likely be heading to Brazil and somewhat less to the US given the new economic climate. you need to settle down.

[naaman fletcher]

6. Let's not forget:

Part of the reason there is no jobs in Haiti is the opposition to development there that is expressed on this forum. Better to let people live jobless and homeless than a developer make any money!