Vision Circle

Interesting LKS,Black caucas shouting blame on Bush ;but the people seems to be celebrating Aristide departure.Find the pulse,then treat the sickness.
Tootsie

Interesting LKS,Black caucas shouting blame on Bush;but the people shouting celebration on the departure of Aristide.Find the pulse then treat the sickness.
tootsie

The US should offer Aristide a flight back to Haiti. If I may speculate, I guess he would refuse, and blame the US for "poisoning the political atmosphere".

Lester,

Do you have any links to statements from Robinson or Dellums regarding the current situation? I don't know if Dellums is still a registered lobbyist for the Government of Haiti, but he was on a $30k/month retainer -- according to some documents published on the web: http://www.haitipolicy.org/images/lobbyists/lobby10.jpg

I'd be interested in reading what they have to say.

As far as color identification in Haiti goes, I think you are well off the mark: "white" ain't "brown" in any way, shape, or form.

I think Aristide is done...no matter how it happened. I don't have any direct links. I heard second hand from two sources--The Diane Rehm Show (callers into the show rather than Rehm or guests) and The Tavis Smiley Show (Tavis rather than guests).

My broader point with color was that Aristide HIMSELF isn't "black." No one in Haiti would call him black.

Right on the money LKS,as Spike Lee address in School Daze,When will the color question reach the Americas and the Carribean? Where is Marcus?
tootsie

Don't mean to push this too far, but are you saying that the folks in Haiti are more literal when they use the term, "black?" If I were to apply the term that way, I would say that I've met very few "black" people in my life and the ones that I've seen have been mostly from India and Malaysia -- with a few Africans mixed in.

(I found some links that report that Robinson is talking directly to Aristide and Aristide is reporting that he was kidnapped.)

Ward living in America we've been socialized to think of race in one specific way. What places like Haiti and Brazil along with most other societies in the Caribbean and in South America, indicate is that race is very much a product of local political decisions. In places like Cuba, Brazil, and Haiti, only the darkest of what we would call "black people" are actually referred to as black. Everyone else is categorized differently, from those with very light skin and straight hair to those with light skin and curly hair to brown skinned folks. How many words do the Alaskans have for snow?

I don't understand why one's "guess" would be that Aristide is a "crook". Based on what information, and from whom does that information originate? Corporate media has not divulged any details of President Aristide's alleged misdeeds, but it has constantly made shocking and broad accusations that turn out to be so much bunk when scrutinized.

Just yesterday, Assistant Secretary Roger Noriega, the State Department's top man overseeing Latin American, admitted that Aristide was told by US officials that he MUST sign a letter of resignation or he and his family would NOT be protected from the "opposition", nor would they be given safe passage out of the country. Now it is known, by those who want to know, that the assertions made by Aristide, Randall Robinson, Maxine Waters, et al, are more true than not. This was dutifully taped by cspan. It can be seen online by going to cspan3.

It's disheartening to read what appears to be apathy towards the situation in Haiti. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we are connected to these people. In fact, white people recognize our connection to each other more than we do. For the first six decades of Haiti's existence, the U.S. embargoed Haiti for fear that enslaved Africans and free men alike would get ideas in thier heads about living independent of white control.

I'm going to break my thoughts up so that the responses aren't too long. I apologize ahead of time if it offends anyone.

*ugh* Tons of typos on that previous comment; I'll try to do better.

The "opposition" to President Aristide is made up of former FRAPH, Tonton Macoutes, and the wealthy elite of Haiti. In toto, they represent from 6% to 8% of the population. That leaves 92% to 94% of Haitians who were not opposed to Aristide's presidency (slated to end in 2006). Unfortunately, the greater percentage of the population weren't armed, funded, and sometimes trained by U.S. organizations.

Here are some:

Andre Arpaid, a well-known spokesman for the "opposition", is an American born owner of approximately 12 factories in Haiti. He came out against Aristide when the President wanted to raise workers' wages.

Guy Philippe, referred to by the media as a 'rebel leader', was trained by US Special Forces in Ecuador in the early '90s. He has declared himself the CHIEF of Haiti (you figure out what that means) and his idol is Augusto Pinochet (the mass murderer of Chile that the U.S. supported). Philippe was accused by Aristide's security team of the attack on the Police Academy in July '01 and an attempted coup in December '01. Extradition attempts failed to bring him back to Haiti to face justice. Now he's back and apparently in charge.

Louis Jodel Chamblain was a sergeant in the Haitian army (FAd’H), and a member of the elite Corps des Leopards. He left in '89 or '90 and reappeared '93 as one of the founders of the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress (Front révolutionnaire pour l’avancement et le progrès haïtien, FRAPH). These military groups carried out political intimidation murders for the Duvalier regimes. As a side note: The Duvalier's were propped up by the U.S., and now the French press is reporting that Baby Doc is ready to return to his throne in Haiti.

Jodel, along with his co-founder Emmanuel "Toto" Constant (who now has asylum in Queens, NY), has a well-deserved reputation for violence . In the report of Haitian Truth and Justice Commission, Emmanuel Constant explains that FRAPH’s central committee was composed of himself, Chamblain, Mireille Durocher-Bertin, a lawyer who was murdered in 1995, and Alphonse Lahens (a prominent Duvalierist).

There are some of the people who helped orchestrate the second overthrow of Aristide. However, there are organizations and people with far more influence who are pulling the strings, because they also hold the purse strings.

Okay, last one...

There are two key U.S. NGOs that instigated the crisis in Haiti and they recieve public monies, yet are not accountable to the public: the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Republican Institute. It was stated that those groups now do openly, what the CIA had to do secretly - a direct reference to interference in the governmental affairs of sovereign nations.

There are two key U.S. officials who asisted them: Roger Noriega (mentioned previously) and Otto Reich, who has a long history of plotting to overthrow other governments. Otto was involved in the Iran/Contra scam from the Reagan era. He is so distasteful to other politicians (which is saying a lot) Bush had to use a recess period in which to appoint him to his current position.

If nothing else, I beg people to at least read, learn, listen to the other side of the story. The compliant press in this country is acting as nothing more than a parrot, there has been no critical analysis of the information coming out of the White House.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=4977
http://www.blackcommentator.com/62/62_haiti_1.html
http://www.flashpoints.net/
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/C3_3_4.html

Those are just a start.

hey isome. i thank you for your comments. i thought this was a clear example at the least of a set of crooks (in this case the us) ousting another crook (aristide). i don't trust the administration, but on the other hand i know that in the face of reactionaries, progressive men and women often excuse internal wrongdoing. this was why i couldn't automatically trust the words of robinson or waters. did you write something on your own blog on this?

Thank you for the links, Isome, I'm looking at the first one now.
My information comes from the mainstream media, who repeat accusations of "thuggery" (necklacing, etc) by Aristide and his followers. I don't claim that this makes me very informed.
I see a revolution against Aristide. He has had since 1993, ten years, Isome, to make things better, and he isn't getting popular support. Why not? He was elected in 1990, and this is the second time he has been forced out. Call me cynical, but I suspect his integrity and competence.
I am disgusted and ashamed by American support for the Duvalier dictatorship and our neglect of Haiti since Aristide's re-installment as president.
Unfortunately, neglect is a pillar of our foreign policy. How long before our next hasty dispatch of troops in reaction to a new bloodbath? How long before we are reminded by new bloobaths of the names of Cambodia, Kosovo, Chechnya, El Salvador, Timor, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, Chiapas?
I give a damn, but it's all too much for me to keep track of. I see little performance from our leaders and from the people we hire from the big-deal E Coast univerisities to keep track of it. If you have a solution, I'm listening.

Uhhh, Daniel, real quick:

He hasn't been in office for continuously. He was re-elected in 2000.

You see revolution, whereas the rest of the Caribbean does not (Caricom does not recognize the American-installed Prime Minister). Again, more than 90% of Haitians are pro-Aristide. With those numbers, he's a more popular leader than George W. Bush. The difference is, no other country has encouraged and armed Americans who are against Dubya to threaten others with violence.

He has *a great deal of support*, but his supporters do not have American-made M16s that were shipped in through the Dominican Republic. The FRAPH members do. Also, his popularity is also why the U.S. tried to get him thrown out of Jamaica. He is so close to home (w/in 200 miles) they fear his supporters will morph from defeated to energized.

Thank you Jamaica and CARICOM for standing up for what's right!!

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