For the first time in years, the Haitians of Petit-Goave are seeing the light -- regularly.
Children in the small coastal town no longer have to squint under dim kerosene lamps, vendors can serve frosty drinks, and people feel safer.
The arrival of electricity also has a political dimension -- fewer anti-government protests.
"The immediate payoff is undeniable. Light is bringing social stability," said Jean-Marie Vorbe, president of Sogener, the private energy company that brought electricity to Petit-Goave.
"By the end of 2004, every major city except the capital will have 24-hour electricity," he said.
Since April 15, Sogener's two diesel-powered generators have provided the town of 15,000 and neighboring areas with their first constant flow of power in a decade.
In this town of brightly painted cottages, where front porches are battered by salt-laden winds, there's a new sense of well-being. Petit-Goave is an anti-government stronghold, but people here have stopped mounting the often violent protests that used to erupt every few days over questionable elections, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government and its failure to deliver basic services.
Homes aren't electrified, and if they were, most Haitians couldn't afford electricity even at the government-subsidized price.
But in a town that faded into the shadows each night, children can now study under bright streetlights.
``People aren't afraid to go out at night any more,'' said Jesula Israel, 45.
Until three months ago, she provided for her two children by selling cigarettes and candy. Now she can run her refrigerator, and people gather on her porch to buy cold drinks and ice cream.
Private companies sell electricity to the state utility, Haiti Electricity, which resells it at subsidized prices. Five towns have gotten power in the past year, and the government has projects, for example one with the Canadian government, that light another half dozen towns.
Haiti's second city, Cap-Haitien, has had round-the-clock power for a year, and Les Cayes since February. Soon Sogener plans to light up western Gonaives and St. Marc, joint population about 150,000.
"We want to light the way to 2004," the 200th anniversary of independence from France, said Lionel Carre, Haiti Electricity director in Petit-Goave.
But there's a long way to go.
Haiti still lacks the money to upgrade its decrepit web of wires, transformers and electricity poles. Last month a frayed high voltage line snapped and fell onto fans watching a basketball game in Petit-Goave, electrocuting 15 spectators.
Fewer than 6 percent of Haitians have electricity full-time, and blackouts still plague greater Port-au-Prince, the capital and home to about one-third of Haiti's 7.9 million people.
In 1999, Haiti consumed 40 kilowatt hours per capita, compared with 646 in neighboring and black-out prone Dominican Republic, according to the latest UN Human Development Report.
Aristide has pleaded with Haitians to be patient, saying progress takes time in a country whose history is a timeline of political unrest.
"When the price of food goes down, the current of hope rises. Even if there isn't electricity, the current of joy can rise," he said in his 2001 inauguration speech.
Instead, poverty has taken a crueler grip as Aristide's government and the opposition have deadlocked over holding parliamentary elections.
While the improvements have satisfied many in Petit-Goave, there's still dissatisfaction over soaring prices and battered infrastructure. In January fuel prices doubled after the government removed a subsidy.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion