Aristide Returns

Haiti has been hit by two devasting earthquakes already.

First, the January 2010 7.9 quake that wreaked nationwide desolation. Make-shift camps

Then, "Baby Doc" Duvalier returned to a nation, still reeling from natural disaster and national dissolution. The recent Presidential elections were marred by widespread suspicion, chaos, and then President Preval's direct limitation of potential contenders.

Now comes the third earthquake: Jean Aristide, the President exiled during the previous decade, is returning to Haiti from his hideaway in South Africa.

Haiti needs leaders, not dictators, not thieves, not con artists dedicated to fleecing the poor masses, lining their pockets with foreign aid while the native peoples suffer.

The Caribbean does not need one more dose of unrest. It would be a euphemism to call Haiti a failed state. A poor carcase of a nation, whose former leaders ran it into an early grave, setting it up for near-annihilation by the forces of nature, Haiti simply cannot stand one more earthquake of this political magnitude.