The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.Re: Mitchell leads delegation to Haiti for immigration talks.

The Tribune, March27, 2014.

THE article states that the first action item at the meeting in Haiti concerns CARICOM’s pursuit of reparations for past slavery from some European countries.

It is highly appropriate for reparations to be discussed in Haiti because according to the UN and other anti-slavery organisations, Haiti happens to have its own thriving, although somewhat hidden, system of modern-day slavery.

It primarily involves very young girls, and sometimes boys, who are not called slaves of course, but who labour under the charming Kreyol name of ‘restaveks’ (stay with). Numerous logical-sounding and benign reasons are given as to why the despicable system still exists.

In fact, it is often said to be actually beneficial for these supposedly fortunate victims – in much the same way that slavery was once said to be good for slaves elsewhere.

Similarly, as recently as a few months ago, Phil Robertson, resident intellectual of TV’s Duck Dynasty fame, referred to “singing and happy” blacks in fields of the American South in the pre-Civil Rights era!

Hopefully, Mr Mitchell’s group, and others at the reparations talks in Haiti, will arrange an appropriate method whereby Haiti’s child slaves of today may also receive reparations from their Haitian masters.

KEN W KNOWLES, MD

Nassau,

March 28, 2014.