Thanks for that answer, Mr. Laurent. I didn't know Frederick Douglass had been an ambassador to Haiti--that alone makes me glad I asked! I wonder how much (or little) respect the ambassadors *from* Haiti received in the US.

My mother was born in haiti(1940) and she described going to school with a very diverse population (arabs, italians, jews etc.). How did these groups interact?

Oh, horrors--a black ambassador?

Did any other countries accept ambassadors from Haiti following the revolution? When was the 1st black ambassador received in a "Western" country, & what country was that ambassador from?

Part of the reason for the big difference in deforestation between Haiti and Dominican Republic is the Trujillo policy of forest conservation.

Sorry, Leonard, but the U.S. was not yet involved in World War I at the time of the Haiti occupation in 1915. (Remember that one of Woodrow Wilson's most successful reelection slogans in 1916 was "He kept us out of war.")

I predicted this two years ago and was called a racist. The problem is the culture, many Haitians do very well here in the USA, when given a chance. The people on top do not care about the lower classes.

I'm deeply saddened by the slow progress in the reconstruction of Haiti. I don't see the work of the special envoy by Bill Clinton and all the Aid organizations.

My letter published in the NYT on an army for HaitiLetter

A Youth Corps, Not an Army, for Haiti

Published: October 28, 2011

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To the Editor:

Re “Haitians Train for a Future With a Military” (news article, Oct. 26):

Haiti does not need an army. The high level of unemployed youths would be better served, and so would Haiti, by creating a youth corps that is already provided for in the 1987 Constitution.

Young Haitian women and men would be trained, equipped and paid to plant trees, clear drainage ditches and irrigation canals, build schools and roads, and provide first aid.

The Haitian police should be the country’s only public security service, and they need significant international financial assistance to have the number of officers to deploy throughout the country; they also need communications and forensic equipment.

Haiti faces no foreign security threat, and creating an army is no answer to high youth unemployment.

WILLIAM G. O’NEILL
Brooklyn, Oct. 26, 2011

The writer is a lawyer who has worked on police and judicial reform in Haiti.

What has happened to President Michel Martelly's plan to reinstate the Haitian army?