Haiti: Great Expectations

While the poor are bewitched by dreams of peace and plenty, the rich are preparing for an apocalypse

For three years, they have wept and cowered, despairing of the empty hopelessness of their days, terrified of the senseless brutality of their nights. Now, in the brief moment between the rule of thugs and the rule of law, under the reassuring protection of U.S. troops, the impoverished of Haiti are finally able to sleep -- and dream -- again. When Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns, they say, everything will be possible. "First there will be food, and then life will be easier," says Clemence Chaperone, 37, an unmarried mother who sells hard candy to feed her three children. When the money begins...

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