Books by and about Black people
WE THANK ALL OF THE TRUE FRIENDS OF HAITI/SMOKE & MIRRORS IN HAITI/ANOTHER MAN-MADE DISASTER IN HAITI
Dr Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Former President of Haiti
15 January 2010
We thank all the true friends of Haiti, in particular the Government and the people of South Africa for their solidarity with the victims of Haiti.
The concrete action undertaken by Rescue South Africa and Gift of the Givers is a clear expression of ubuntu. Ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of ruble and debris waiting to be rescued. When we think of their suffering, we feel deeply and profoundly that we should be there, in Haiti, with them, trying our best to prevent death.
To symbolize this readiness we have decided to meet not just anywhere, but here, in the shadow of the Oliver Tambo International Airport. As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity. Friends from around the world have confirmed their willingness to organize an airplane carrying medical supplies, emergency needs and ourselves.
While we cannot wait to be with our sisters and brothers in Haiti, we share the anguish of all Haitians in the Diaspora who are desperate to reach family and loved ones.
Soufrans youn nan nou se soufrans nou tout.
L’Union fait la force. Kouraj! Kenbe! Kenbe!
Youn soutni lòt nan lespri Mèm Amou an.
Our love to the nation now labeled the poorest of the western hemisphere. However, the spirit of ubuntu that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent Black nation in 1804; helped Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador attain liberty; and inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States’ independence, cannot die. Today this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to rebuild Haiti.
Ukwanda kwaliwa umthakathi.
Thank you.
-----------------------------------------
SMOKE & MIRRORS IN HAITI
15 January 2010
by Malaika H. Kambon
As you read articles and hear 'news' concerning the devastating 7.0 on the Richter scale earthquake and aftershocks that ripped through Haiti on 12 January 2010, bear in mind that Haiti's current and totally useless puppet president, Rene Preval, hasn't uttered a peep, to the worldin the past three days.
In the ensuing devastation, dying, rampant starvation, grief, and suffering of Haitian people since last Tuesday afternoon Preval has done nothing. His face has not been seen on one camera. His voice has not been heard on any radio newscasts. But his ignorance, insensitivity, and his silence are more deafening than the mighty roaring and shaking of the earth.
Obviously hiding out and looking out for his own personal safety has been Preval's first order of business, as there have been no 'rumors' that even his U.S. puppeteers have undertaken this task.
No doubt he will eventually turn up in self-imposed isolation somewhere. And when he feels that his person is secure, he'll give an exclusive conference call-interview- state of Haiti speech in conjunction with Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush - the despotic nightmare whom Barack Obama has (incredibly) called upon to 'assist' Bill Clinton in Haiti's greatest hour of need.
Zieg Heil, the gang's all here.
Yet the Family of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, and FANMI LAVALAS, Haiti's true leadership is doing everything that they possibly can for their people from their U.S. enforced exile in South Africa, and on the ground in Haiti, despite recent U.S. attempts to isolate and destroy their political power.
And disappeared human rights hero LOVINSKY PIERRE-ANTOINE and his family would have been right in the thick of things, organizing, giving people support and doing everything he could possibly do to help people and to save lives.
So - depose the useless puppet preval and throw him out of Haiti. He is no president of the people.
Latest confirmed reports from Haiti, as of two hours ago, are that the situation in Haiti '...is Katrina all over again. NOTHING is getting to the people. Here, in the U.S. on TV, radio, corporate press, and live digital streaming, there are massive reports of:
U.S. planes bringing aid, and of hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid 'pouring' into Haiti.
On CNN, NBC, etc. reporters are talking about millions of dollars in relief supplies, U.S. Aid & UN assistance 'pouring' into Haiti.
Obama has pledged '$100M in 'aid and troop support' to Haiti. But this has been pointed out as being a mere drop in the bucket of what needs to be sent, as Obama's Inaugural Ball costs totaled $150M...
( Read: The Haitian Tragedy and Mainstream Media Response )
And, as of 9:00 AM this morning, 16 January 2010, people on the ground in Haiti report that food and water is running out amongst the people and the food and water and medical supplies that are sitting in the airport are not being distributed.
It is Katrina all over again. The more desperate people become, the more there will be fights and outbreaks of violence when the disorderly UN/U.S./France/Canada so-called distributors run by in trucks throwing small packages out like they are 'gifts or toys' instead of utilizing the orderly infrastructure that the people of Haiti have set up to distribute necessary items in an orderly fashion.
Then, the U.S. troops that are already in place, and the UN MINUSTAH forces will claim that they have a license to kill, and will start shooting hungry, starving, grieving, people.
The situation is being manipulated by the U.S./France/Canada/UN MINUSTAH in the same way that Katrina was manipulated - especially with George W. Bush there.
Obama is out of his mind bringing in Clinton & Bush - two of the biggest destabilizers of Haitian democracy.
This is information is coming DIRECTLY FROM PEOPLE ON THE GROUND IN HAITI.
What we can do:
Put this information out there NOW. Contact your churches, schools, the White House, your congressmen/women, your communities. Twitter/FACEBOOK/Myspace/Digg to all of your lists.
Let people know the real: That people on the ground have organized an infrastructure to distribute food, water and medical supplies, etc. but that the U.S./France/Canada/UN are preventing them from doing so by preventing people's access to much needed supplies that are sitting in the airport.
Tell people also that Rene Preval, president of Haiti will let George W. Bush and William Clinton into his country but is still refusing to grant President and First Lady Aristide passports so that they and their relief supplies can come to Haiti as they want to do.
Be very discriminating in what we believe and govern ourselves accordingly.
LISTEN TO, DOWNLOAD, AND SPREAD THIS FLASHPOINTS REPORT
Follow Ansel Hertz' ongoing reports from Haiti
Stay tuned to the SF BAYVIEW Newspaper, FLASHPOINTS Radio @ KPFA, my blog on the Marcus Books Social Network, FACEBOOK page, email list, and MYSPACE posts; I will post as rapidly as possible, daily, after sifting through the corporate media lies and distortions and networking w/people who are truly trying to help.
Help to bring the only true FIRST FAMILY (Drs. Aristide and Family) SAFELY home.
Tell people that the so-called millions in aid is all a lie. It is all smoke and mirrors.
The 'in-pouring' dollars and aid are but a trickle. According to reports from independent media, relief agencies, and non-U.S. controlled medical personnel, the people in Haiti are receiving nothing.
And contrary to U.S. embedded media reports, there is also nothing wrong with the airports, either. It's just that Barack Obama has decreed that only military planes can land in them. So - if you're bringing aid: medical personnel and medicines, food, supplies - you cannot land. If you're bringing guns, troops, mercenaries, and other instruments of mass destruction, you can.
Thankfully, Cuba, Venezuela, and China to date, know how to help people in need without a U.S. mandate. They got to Haiti first, despite the fact that Haiti is only an hour and a half distance from the U.S. by plane.
Thus, they had already arrived in Haiti before Obama locked down the airport. (People are wary of China, however, because they also sent troops to the occupying UN MINUSTAH army headed by Brazil at the behest of the U.S.)
Meanwhile, people on the ground are using T shirts for bandages, doing triage in the streets, and doing the best they can to find, feed, house, and protect each other.
And despite the fact that the people of Haiti, are as calmly as possible helping each other, their anger is rising. It seems that there is a controlled effort on the part of the US to use Haitian suffering and vulnerability as an avenue to instigate violence, so that the US military can rush in, just as they did from 1915 - 1934, take over Haiti, and use it as a military base by proxy.
And there is no president preval to stop this. Preval has abdicated his throne. His neo-position as puppet president is even more skewed as he bends over one last time to kiss his a** good bye. Even as we speak, the surgical attachment of his lips to neo-liberal behinds could not be more complete if he'd done an audio-video recording for YOU TUBE...
He has finally unleashed the proverbial dogs of war upon Haiti, and his U.S. puppeteers are scurrying to rush in and complete a de facto coup d'etat and ethnic 'cleansing' of Haiti while they think that the people are most vulnerable and not paying attention.
Thus, Barack Obama's actions and inactions are costing thousands in Haitian lives. Worse still, he is turning what should be a rescue/rebuilding operation into the covert military takeover of a sovereign nation, under the guise of U.S. Aid.
This will cost more Haitian lives in future generations (one wonders as well, who the designated Charlemagne Peralte** will be...) Unless the U.S. is stopped, it could be anyone.
Thankfully, people on the ground in Haiti ALWAYS pay attention.
For 5 years Haitians have demanded their beloved Tid tid's safe return. Now is the time when he is particularly needed, as the U.S. tries to install their own fake, hand picked Haitian 'regime.'
The hopeless LEPSWA party of Preval has no cabinet, president, or senate infrastructure; and is a plum ripe for Euro-American plucking.
We who love Haiti must not fall prey to nor believe ANY of the U.S. corporate hype:
not from embedded journalists spreading 'rumors' of violence,
not from troops spreading rumors of aid,
not from any other syncopants spreading illusions that U.S. troops entering Haiti are doing so for any other reason than to foment a hostile takeover of the country.
Above all, we must not forget the politics of the situation. The terrorists in blue are instigating a coup under the cover of an earthquake. It's a 2 for 1, one-two punch scenario; utilizing two of the most devastating phenomenons of nature - the unnatural forces of humanticide and the natural power of the earth.
Just as the hurricanes were used to overtake Louisiana, a covert U.S. military takeover is now being instigated against AFRIKAN Haiti, which has dared to fight Euro-American might for over 200 years to be sovereign and free.
Worse than appalling is the fact that Preval is either so stupid that he cannot see the coup that is sitting on his face; or he is an active participant in the selling of Haiti to the U.S.
One way or the other, as usual, it sucks to be him.
And as per usual, the people of Haiti are fighting back. They are not sitting around being passive victims. They are helping each other, and in so doing are helping Haiti and helping us all by showing us how to fight to win, damn the odds...
The roots of this tree of liberty run deep.
We must LOVE and HONOR AYITI UNCONDITIONALLY. We must not forget her. We must do any and everything that we can forever to help her to secure her liberation.
Tell people that it is important to stress:
NO MORE BUSH
NO MORE NEW ORLEANS/KATRINA
We won once.
We will do so again.
A LUTA CONTINUA
War Without Terms
----------------------------
ANOTHER MAN-MADE DISASTER IN HAITI
by Peter Hallward
Any large city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti's capital city on Tuesday afternoon, but it's no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now looks like a war-zone. Much of the devastation wreaked by this latest and most calamitous 'natural disaster' to befall Haiti is best understood as another thoroughly man-made outcome of a long and ugly historical sequence.
The country has certainly had more than its fair share of catastrophes to contend with. Hundreds of people died in Port-au-Prince in an earthquake back in June 1770, and the huge earthquake of 7 May 1842 may have killed 10,000 in the northern city of Cap Haitien alone. Hurricanes batter the island on a regular basis, mostly recently in 2004 and again in 2008; the storms of September 2008 flooded the town of Gonaïves and swept away much of its flimsy infrastructure, killing more than a thousand people and destroying many thousands of homes. The full scale of the destruction resulting from yesterday's earthquake won't become clear for several weeks. Even the most minimal repairs will take years to complete, and the long-term impact is incalculable.
What is already all too clear, however, is the fact that this impact will be the result of an even longer-term history of deliberate impoverishment and disempowerment. Haiti is almost invariably described as the 'poorest country in the Western hemisphere.' This poverty is the direct legacy of perhaps the most brutal system of colonial exploitation in world history, compounded by decades of systematic post-colonial oppression. The noble 'international community' which is currently scrambling to send its 'humanitarian aid' to Haiti is largely responsible for the extent of the suffering it aims to offset. Ever since the US invaded and occupied the country in 1915, every serious political attempt to allow Haiti's people to move (in ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's phrase) 'from absolute misery to a dignified poverty' has been violently and deliberately blocked by the US government and some of its allies. Aristide's own government (elected by some 75% of the electorate) was the latest victim of such interference, falling victim to an internationally sponsored coup in 2004 that killed several thousand people and left much of the population smouldering in resentment. The UN has maintained a large and enormously expensive stabilisation and pacification force in the country ever since.
Haiti is now a country where, according to the best available study, around 75% of the population 'lives on less than $2 per day, and 56% — four and a half million people — live on less than $1 per day.' Decades of neoliberal 'adjustment' and neo-imperial intervention have robbed its government of any significant capacity to invest in its people or to regulate its economy. Punitive international trade and financial arrangements ensure that such destitution and impotence will remain a structural fact of Haitian life for the foreseeable future.
It is this poverty and powerlessness that account for the full scale of the horror in Port-au-Prince today. Since the late 1970s, relentless neoliberal assault on Haiti's agrarian economy has forced tens of thousands of small farmers into overcrowded urban slums. Although there are no reliable statistics, hundreds of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents now live in desperately sub-standard informal housing, often perched precariously on the side of deforested ravines. Basic urban infrastructure – running water, electricity, decent roads, etc. – is woefully inadequate, often non-existent. The government's ability to mobilise any sort of disaster relief is next to nil.
The international community has been effectively ruling Haiti ever since the coup of 2004. The same countries scrambling to send emergency help to Haiti today, however, have over the last five years consistently voted against any extension of the UN mission's mandate beyond its immediate military purpose. Proposals to divert some of this 'investment' towards poverty reduction or agrarian development have been blocked, in keeping with the long-term patterns that continue to shape the distribution of international 'aid'.
The same storms that killed so many people in Haiti in September 2008 hit Cuba just as hard, but killed only four people.
Cuba has escaped the worst effects of neo-liberal 'reform', and its government retains a capacity to defend its people from disaster. If we are serious about helping Haiti through this latest crisis then we should take this comparative point on board. Along with sending emergency relief, we should ask what we can do to facilitate the self-empowerment of Haiti's people and public institutions. Among other things, as the journalists Kevin Pina and Kim Ives have been urging, this means that we should facilitate the full mobilisation of all those Haitian people who can help put the country back on its feet, including its most popular (but effectively banned) political party, FANMI LAVALAS, and its popular (but effectively outlawed) political leader, the exiled Aristide. If we are serious about helping Haiti we need to stop trying to control its government, to pacify its citizens, and to exploit its economy.
And then we need to start paying for at least some of the damage we've already done.
Peter Hallward teaches philosophy at Middlesex University, and is the author of Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment (Verso, 2007).
'In Honor of Dr. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine,'
disappeared Haitian human rights activist.
with:
MUSIC & LIBATION by
Phavia Kujichagulia and Val Serrant - Performing Artists
GUEST SPEAKER:
Sergio Maraboli - Chilean human rights activist and former POW
MESSAGES OF SOLIDARITY from:
Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim, SF8 Prisoners of War
XICANA Artists and vendors, and La Pena Wall Art / tapestries
Photograph by M Kambon
© 2008 M Kambon
© 2008 M Kambon
Former President of Haiti
15 January 2010
We thank all the true friends of Haiti, in particular the Government and the people of South Africa for their solidarity with the victims of Haiti.
The concrete action undertaken by Rescue South Africa and Gift of the Givers is a clear expression of ubuntu. Ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of ruble and debris waiting to be rescued. When we think of their suffering, we feel deeply and profoundly that we should be there, in Haiti, with them, trying our best to prevent death.
To symbolize this readiness we have decided to meet not just anywhere, but here, in the shadow of the Oliver Tambo International Airport. As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity. Friends from around the world have confirmed their willingness to organize an airplane carrying medical supplies, emergency needs and ourselves.
While we cannot wait to be with our sisters and brothers in Haiti, we share the anguish of all Haitians in the Diaspora who are desperate to reach family and loved ones.
Soufrans youn nan nou se soufrans nou tout.
L’Union fait la force. Kouraj! Kenbe! Kenbe!
Youn soutni lòt nan lespri Mèm Amou an.
Our love to the nation now labeled the poorest of the western hemisphere. However, the spirit of ubuntu that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent Black nation in 1804; helped Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador attain liberty; and inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States’ independence, cannot die. Today this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to rebuild Haiti.
Ukwanda kwaliwa umthakathi.
Thank you.
-----------------------------------------
SMOKE & MIRRORS IN HAITI
15 January 2010
by Malaika H. Kambon
As you read articles and hear 'news' concerning the devastating 7.0 on the Richter scale earthquake and aftershocks that ripped through Haiti on 12 January 2010, bear in mind that Haiti's current and totally useless puppet president, Rene Preval, hasn't uttered a peep, to the worldin the past three days.
In the ensuing devastation, dying, rampant starvation, grief, and suffering of Haitian people since last Tuesday afternoon Preval has done nothing. His face has not been seen on one camera. His voice has not been heard on any radio newscasts. But his ignorance, insensitivity, and his silence are more deafening than the mighty roaring and shaking of the earth.
Obviously hiding out and looking out for his own personal safety has been Preval's first order of business, as there have been no 'rumors' that even his U.S. puppeteers have undertaken this task.
No doubt he will eventually turn up in self-imposed isolation somewhere. And when he feels that his person is secure, he'll give an exclusive conference call-interview- state of Haiti speech in conjunction with Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush - the despotic nightmare whom Barack Obama has (incredibly) called upon to 'assist' Bill Clinton in Haiti's greatest hour of need.
Zieg Heil, the gang's all here.
Yet the Family of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, and FANMI LAVALAS, Haiti's true leadership is doing everything that they possibly can for their people from their U.S. enforced exile in South Africa, and on the ground in Haiti, despite recent U.S. attempts to isolate and destroy their political power.
And disappeared human rights hero LOVINSKY PIERRE-ANTOINE and his family would have been right in the thick of things, organizing, giving people support and doing everything he could possibly do to help people and to save lives.
So - depose the useless puppet preval and throw him out of Haiti. He is no president of the people.
Latest confirmed reports from Haiti, as of two hours ago, are that the situation in Haiti '...is Katrina all over again. NOTHING is getting to the people. Here, in the U.S. on TV, radio, corporate press, and live digital streaming, there are massive reports of:
U.S. planes bringing aid, and of hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid 'pouring' into Haiti.
On CNN, NBC, etc. reporters are talking about millions of dollars in relief supplies, U.S. Aid & UN assistance 'pouring' into Haiti.
Obama has pledged '$100M in 'aid and troop support' to Haiti. But this has been pointed out as being a mere drop in the bucket of what needs to be sent, as Obama's Inaugural Ball costs totaled $150M...
( Read: The Haitian Tragedy and Mainstream Media Response )
And, as of 9:00 AM this morning, 16 January 2010, people on the ground in Haiti report that food and water is running out amongst the people and the food and water and medical supplies that are sitting in the airport are not being distributed.
It is Katrina all over again. The more desperate people become, the more there will be fights and outbreaks of violence when the disorderly UN/U.S./France/Canada so-called distributors run by in trucks throwing small packages out like they are 'gifts or toys' instead of utilizing the orderly infrastructure that the people of Haiti have set up to distribute necessary items in an orderly fashion.
Then, the U.S. troops that are already in place, and the UN MINUSTAH forces will claim that they have a license to kill, and will start shooting hungry, starving, grieving, people.
The situation is being manipulated by the U.S./France/Canada/UN MINUSTAH in the same way that Katrina was manipulated - especially with George W. Bush there.
Obama is out of his mind bringing in Clinton & Bush - two of the biggest destabilizers of Haitian democracy.
This is information is coming DIRECTLY FROM PEOPLE ON THE GROUND IN HAITI.
What we can do:
Put this information out there NOW. Contact your churches, schools, the White House, your congressmen/women, your communities. Twitter/FACEBOOK/Myspace/Digg to all of your lists.
Let people know the real: That people on the ground have organized an infrastructure to distribute food, water and medical supplies, etc. but that the U.S./France/Canada/UN are preventing them from doing so by preventing people's access to much needed supplies that are sitting in the airport.
Tell people also that Rene Preval, president of Haiti will let George W. Bush and William Clinton into his country but is still refusing to grant President and First Lady Aristide passports so that they and their relief supplies can come to Haiti as they want to do.
Be very discriminating in what we believe and govern ourselves accordingly.
LISTEN TO, DOWNLOAD, AND SPREAD THIS FLASHPOINTS REPORT
Follow Ansel Hertz' ongoing reports from Haiti
Stay tuned to the SF BAYVIEW Newspaper, FLASHPOINTS Radio @ KPFA, my blog on the Marcus Books Social Network, FACEBOOK page, email list, and MYSPACE posts; I will post as rapidly as possible, daily, after sifting through the corporate media lies and distortions and networking w/people who are truly trying to help.
Help to bring the only true FIRST FAMILY (Drs. Aristide and Family) SAFELY home.
Tell people that the so-called millions in aid is all a lie. It is all smoke and mirrors.
The 'in-pouring' dollars and aid are but a trickle. According to reports from independent media, relief agencies, and non-U.S. controlled medical personnel, the people in Haiti are receiving nothing.
And contrary to U.S. embedded media reports, there is also nothing wrong with the airports, either. It's just that Barack Obama has decreed that only military planes can land in them. So - if you're bringing aid: medical personnel and medicines, food, supplies - you cannot land. If you're bringing guns, troops, mercenaries, and other instruments of mass destruction, you can.
Thankfully, Cuba, Venezuela, and China to date, know how to help people in need without a U.S. mandate. They got to Haiti first, despite the fact that Haiti is only an hour and a half distance from the U.S. by plane.
Thus, they had already arrived in Haiti before Obama locked down the airport. (People are wary of China, however, because they also sent troops to the occupying UN MINUSTAH army headed by Brazil at the behest of the U.S.)
Meanwhile, people on the ground are using T shirts for bandages, doing triage in the streets, and doing the best they can to find, feed, house, and protect each other.
And despite the fact that the people of Haiti, are as calmly as possible helping each other, their anger is rising. It seems that there is a controlled effort on the part of the US to use Haitian suffering and vulnerability as an avenue to instigate violence, so that the US military can rush in, just as they did from 1915 - 1934, take over Haiti, and use it as a military base by proxy.
And there is no president preval to stop this. Preval has abdicated his throne. His neo-position as puppet president is even more skewed as he bends over one last time to kiss his a** good bye. Even as we speak, the surgical attachment of his lips to neo-liberal behinds could not be more complete if he'd done an audio-video recording for YOU TUBE...
He has finally unleashed the proverbial dogs of war upon Haiti, and his U.S. puppeteers are scurrying to rush in and complete a de facto coup d'etat and ethnic 'cleansing' of Haiti while they think that the people are most vulnerable and not paying attention.
Thus, Barack Obama's actions and inactions are costing thousands in Haitian lives. Worse still, he is turning what should be a rescue/rebuilding operation into the covert military takeover of a sovereign nation, under the guise of U.S. Aid.
This will cost more Haitian lives in future generations (one wonders as well, who the designated Charlemagne Peralte** will be...) Unless the U.S. is stopped, it could be anyone.
Thankfully, people on the ground in Haiti ALWAYS pay attention.
For 5 years Haitians have demanded their beloved Tid tid's safe return. Now is the time when he is particularly needed, as the U.S. tries to install their own fake, hand picked Haitian 'regime.'
The hopeless LEPSWA party of Preval has no cabinet, president, or senate infrastructure; and is a plum ripe for Euro-American plucking.
We who love Haiti must not fall prey to nor believe ANY of the U.S. corporate hype:
not from embedded journalists spreading 'rumors' of violence,
not from troops spreading rumors of aid,
not from any other syncopants spreading illusions that U.S. troops entering Haiti are doing so for any other reason than to foment a hostile takeover of the country.
Above all, we must not forget the politics of the situation. The terrorists in blue are instigating a coup under the cover of an earthquake. It's a 2 for 1, one-two punch scenario; utilizing two of the most devastating phenomenons of nature - the unnatural forces of humanticide and the natural power of the earth.
Just as the hurricanes were used to overtake Louisiana, a covert U.S. military takeover is now being instigated against AFRIKAN Haiti, which has dared to fight Euro-American might for over 200 years to be sovereign and free.
Worse than appalling is the fact that Preval is either so stupid that he cannot see the coup that is sitting on his face; or he is an active participant in the selling of Haiti to the U.S.
One way or the other, as usual, it sucks to be him.
And as per usual, the people of Haiti are fighting back. They are not sitting around being passive victims. They are helping each other, and in so doing are helping Haiti and helping us all by showing us how to fight to win, damn the odds...
The roots of this tree of liberty run deep.
We must LOVE and HONOR AYITI UNCONDITIONALLY. We must not forget her. We must do any and everything that we can forever to help her to secure her liberation.
Tell people that it is important to stress:
NO MORE BUSH
NO MORE NEW ORLEANS/KATRINA
We won once.
We will do so again.
A LUTA CONTINUA
War Without Terms
----------------------------
ANOTHER MAN-MADE DISASTER IN HAITI
by Peter Hallward
Any large city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti's capital city on Tuesday afternoon, but it's no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now looks like a war-zone. Much of the devastation wreaked by this latest and most calamitous 'natural disaster' to befall Haiti is best understood as another thoroughly man-made outcome of a long and ugly historical sequence.
The country has certainly had more than its fair share of catastrophes to contend with. Hundreds of people died in Port-au-Prince in an earthquake back in June 1770, and the huge earthquake of 7 May 1842 may have killed 10,000 in the northern city of Cap Haitien alone. Hurricanes batter the island on a regular basis, mostly recently in 2004 and again in 2008; the storms of September 2008 flooded the town of Gonaïves and swept away much of its flimsy infrastructure, killing more than a thousand people and destroying many thousands of homes. The full scale of the destruction resulting from yesterday's earthquake won't become clear for several weeks. Even the most minimal repairs will take years to complete, and the long-term impact is incalculable.
What is already all too clear, however, is the fact that this impact will be the result of an even longer-term history of deliberate impoverishment and disempowerment. Haiti is almost invariably described as the 'poorest country in the Western hemisphere.' This poverty is the direct legacy of perhaps the most brutal system of colonial exploitation in world history, compounded by decades of systematic post-colonial oppression. The noble 'international community' which is currently scrambling to send its 'humanitarian aid' to Haiti is largely responsible for the extent of the suffering it aims to offset. Ever since the US invaded and occupied the country in 1915, every serious political attempt to allow Haiti's people to move (in ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's phrase) 'from absolute misery to a dignified poverty' has been violently and deliberately blocked by the US government and some of its allies. Aristide's own government (elected by some 75% of the electorate) was the latest victim of such interference, falling victim to an internationally sponsored coup in 2004 that killed several thousand people and left much of the population smouldering in resentment. The UN has maintained a large and enormously expensive stabilisation and pacification force in the country ever since.
Haiti is now a country where, according to the best available study, around 75% of the population 'lives on less than $2 per day, and 56% — four and a half million people — live on less than $1 per day.' Decades of neoliberal 'adjustment' and neo-imperial intervention have robbed its government of any significant capacity to invest in its people or to regulate its economy. Punitive international trade and financial arrangements ensure that such destitution and impotence will remain a structural fact of Haitian life for the foreseeable future.
It is this poverty and powerlessness that account for the full scale of the horror in Port-au-Prince today. Since the late 1970s, relentless neoliberal assault on Haiti's agrarian economy has forced tens of thousands of small farmers into overcrowded urban slums. Although there are no reliable statistics, hundreds of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents now live in desperately sub-standard informal housing, often perched precariously on the side of deforested ravines. Basic urban infrastructure – running water, electricity, decent roads, etc. – is woefully inadequate, often non-existent. The government's ability to mobilise any sort of disaster relief is next to nil.
The international community has been effectively ruling Haiti ever since the coup of 2004. The same countries scrambling to send emergency help to Haiti today, however, have over the last five years consistently voted against any extension of the UN mission's mandate beyond its immediate military purpose. Proposals to divert some of this 'investment' towards poverty reduction or agrarian development have been blocked, in keeping with the long-term patterns that continue to shape the distribution of international 'aid'.
The same storms that killed so many people in Haiti in September 2008 hit Cuba just as hard, but killed only four people.
Cuba has escaped the worst effects of neo-liberal 'reform', and its government retains a capacity to defend its people from disaster. If we are serious about helping Haiti through this latest crisis then we should take this comparative point on board. Along with sending emergency relief, we should ask what we can do to facilitate the self-empowerment of Haiti's people and public institutions. Among other things, as the journalists Kevin Pina and Kim Ives have been urging, this means that we should facilitate the full mobilisation of all those Haitian people who can help put the country back on its feet, including its most popular (but effectively banned) political party, FANMI LAVALAS, and its popular (but effectively outlawed) political leader, the exiled Aristide. If we are serious about helping Haiti we need to stop trying to control its government, to pacify its citizens, and to exploit its economy.
And then we need to start paying for at least some of the damage we've already done.
Peter Hallward teaches philosophy at Middlesex University, and is the author of Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment (Verso, 2007).
'In Honor of Dr. Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine,'
disappeared Haitian human rights activist.
with:
MUSIC & LIBATION by
Phavia Kujichagulia and Val Serrant - Performing Artists
GUEST SPEAKER:
Sergio Maraboli - Chilean human rights activist and former POW
MESSAGES OF SOLIDARITY from:
Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim, SF8 Prisoners of War
XICANA Artists and vendors, and La Pena Wall Art / tapestries
Photograph by M Kambon
© 2008 M Kambon
© 2008 M Kambon
Comment
Marcus Books @Twitter RSS
About
Badge
© 2010 Created by Mcipher
You need to be a member of Marcus Books Social Network to add comments!
Join Marcus Books Social Network