Opposition parties have been trying desperately to oppose the present government, but with political terrorism rampant, and with no fewer than fifteen political assassinations in the past few weeks, the opposition is increasingly fearful and discouraged. Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the brooding Catholic priest brought back from his exile in Florida in 1994 by the United States and the United Nations, sits like a wizened Wizard of Oz in his home in the hills outside Port-au-Prince. Earlier, in the late 1980s, the US had, with the best of intentions, pushed for globalization. US rice farmers have taken over virtually the entire Haitian rice market and, since the start of free-market policies in the early 1980s, annual income per person in Haiti has dropped. Meanwhile, the do-gooder international community is intent on monitoring everything, in particular elections. Monitors from all over the world will pour in next weekend.