13830: Re 13824: Simidor responds to Corbett (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: karioka9@arczip.com

On 27 Nov 2002 at 12:29, Bob Corbett wrote:

> Haiti desperately needs to become a country of political life by
> constitution and law and non-violent means of resolving political
> disputes.

I agree 100%.  Haiti so desperately needs a culture of tolerance and accountability
that hundreds if not thousands have given their lives to that struggle in the last 20
years. But how does Haiti become such a country in the first place?  By pretending it
is a democracy, just because people were allowed to vote for the crooks who are
now in power?  Real change will never be born out of this kind of pretense -- not in 5,
not in 10, not in 20 years.  And Haiti doesn't have 20 years left at the rate things are
going.  Haiti is running out of time.  This is the urgency that is driving people today.

Most democracies were born in some kind of upheaval -- because patriotic and
idealistic (mostly young) people were/are willing to sacrifice their lives for a better
tomorrow.  A better tomorrow in Haiti is possible, but it will probably take more than
one upheaval to get there.  Haiti has too much negative bagage to overcome
(extreme poverty, corruption, a predatory state, etc), to achieve meaningful
democracy in one go.  But each upheaval must count, each life given to the cause of
humanity must get up closer to the top -- not yank the country backward.  This is why
Lavalas has to go, now.

A citizens' initiative in Gonaives (where a youth was shot in the head twice, by
members of the Lavalas "Cannibal Army") calls for the five institutions that have sent
delegates to the CEP to set up a "National Mediation Committee" to ensure a
"peaceful passation of power."  Yesterday, a group of usually timid intellectuals
issued a declaration to say no to "the social, cultural and political practices
responsible for the reality of exclusion that has led the country to this catastrophic
situation."  Tomorrow, Nov. 28, has been designated "Citizens' Renewal Day." There
is a new call for massive demonstrations across the country to invite Aristide to
leave. With any decency, Aristide would resign to spare the country the blood bath
that his gangs are threatening.

The country is crying for change. And the only guarantee that change will not be
subverted once again is the sovereign will of the people.

Daniel Simidor