"The repeated calamities that befall Haiti prompt me to propose a radical solution: to take measures to create, somewhere in Africa, the conditions for Haitians to return," the 83-year-old Senegalese president said on Saturday. "They did not choose to go to that island. It is our duty to recognise their right to come back to the land of their ancestors."

Well, some of their ancestors, anyway. The slave populations of all the Caribbean islands were deliberately drawn from different parts of the West African coast, so that they would speak a variety of languages and find it harder to rebel.

His spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye, explained that: "The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin. If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region."

Now, it's true that 90 per cent of Haitians would leap at the chance to leave their country - the poorest in all the Americas - but although Senegal is one of the best-run and most democratic countries of Africa, it does not feature prominently on Haitian wish-lists.

Most Senegalese feel that their country is quite full enough without an influx of Haitians. There are 14 million people in Senegal, and the population is growing fast. There are 10 million people in Haiti, and its population is growing fast, too. Moving a million Haitians to Senegal would relieve the intolerable pressure on Haiti's badly degraded land but it would cause chaos in Senegal.

So, yes, it is a stunt. What gives the game away is the fact that Senegal is offering voluntary repatriation to Haitians, not assisted passage. They are welcome to come to Senegal if they can find the money for the airline tickets. But how many Haitians can do that?

Abdoulaye Wade is big on stunts and dramatic gestures. His last one, now nearing completion, is an enormous bronze statue higher than the Statue of Liberty, overlooking the capital, Dakar. It is called the African Renaissance Monument.

Abdoulaye Wade is showing more and more signs of the "big man" syndrome that has wrecked so many African countries which once had quite functional governments. From Sudan to Zimbabwe and from Sierra Leone to Somalia, we have watched them fall into tyranny and chaos. Senegal may be next.

And what of Haiti? As hard as you might look for signs of hope amid the ruins, you will not find any. The earthquake is a dramatic interlude in a long history of tragedy. What has devastated Haiti is politics, much of it imposed from outside by foreign governments: the French in the 19th century, the United States in the 20th and 21st. No competent Haitian government has ever survived more than a couple of years.

The denuded land, runaway population growth, unskilled and illiterate population, universal corruption: all these are due to failures of policy.

No wonder most of them want to leave. But most of them never will.

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/blogs/between-the-lines/president-senegals-haiti-
stunt/1732546.aspx?storypage=0