13986: PLEASE POST ANONYMOUSLY (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

POSTED ANONYMOUSLY:

Haiti has been and is currently about "circles," with no real "out" that
is satisfactory enough to a sufficient number of involved actors and their
power bases.  Hence, the country can be said to be "stuck" in a "circle."

To further understand this concept, it is helpful though imperfect to
envisage Haiti as in a pull between "Super-State," ''State," and
 "Society."  In this conception, I am terming "Super-State" as the
Parental U.S., its allied countries and international institutions, and
the Haitian elite sectors both within and without Hait, with the allied
countries and international institutions greatly tending to defer to the
U.S. in matters regarding the Western hemisphere.  ''State" is the
emerging democratic State of Haiti who is placed in power through
universal suffrage.  While in most democracies "Society" must be thought
of as made up of the whole of the country's people, Haiti presents a
dillemma.  For one, in most democracies, members are relatively fluid in
forming voting blocs across class lines.  This is scantly so in the
Haitian case.  Two, Haiti simply lacks sufficient numbers of rich and
middle-class persons for them to be able to place any substantial number
of "their" candidates in office.  Hence, in the Haitian context, "Society"
must be thought of, however reluctantly, in terms of the majority poor,
because they are easily capable of comprising a singularly dominating
voting bloc in the country.  This is because, simply put, Haiti's majority
poor will be able to place "their" candidates in office until such a time
as a substantial middle-class arises from among them and their political
interests change.  All the while there can be no substantial parliamentary
opposition any time in the near future to those candidates by reason of a
lack of sufficient support for genuine opposition candidates among the
voting population.  However reluctantly we might wish to admit it, this
means that Haiti is rife to be a one party dominated democracy at the
consent of popular Haitians for some time, even as it is today.

Given this, the "State" has been subverted from making decisions in the
perceived best interest of its "Society" by reason of various
interventions from the "Super-State."  For this reason, both the "State"
and its "Society" are "stuck" in a sort of liminal phase, and are much
prevented from entering into a phase of individuation and "maturity."
Believing it is doing best for itself and its "child," the "Super-State"
intervenes to "protect" their "children" from harm.  The "Super-State"
externally funds minority opposition groups, funds militias who will
follow their interests, undertakes destabilization measures to discredit
majority groups and their representatives, carries out and/or supports
coups d'etat, etc.  My contention, however, is that the "Super-State" is
only preventing the "State" and its "Society" from reaching a sort of
"stability" and "maturity" that only can come by being allowed to break
out from the "circle"-"stability" and "maturity" that can come even if it
breaks out to enter a "phase" that is quite far from ideal in the view of
the "Super-State."  I wonder if Haiti's popular sector just needs to be
let go to run things "their own way" for a while--sort of like a "child"
who must "rebel" for a while; who needs to "run away from home" to "learn
their lessons" and "get their head on straight" because their is no other
way to learn them.

"Allowing" such a thing might seem a horrible act of disertion to the
"Super-State."  For example, it might seem that is would take much longer
for "more adult" debate and behaviors to emerge.  And it is true: many
mistakes would be made, even unknowingly, by "the children."  Still, as
wise "Parents" know, "letting" the "children" go is sometimes the only
thing that will work.  And letting a "child" go can be the hardest thing a
"Parent" has ever, ever done.  It tears out their heart, and brings tears
to many sleepless nights.  But more often than not, when all is said and
done, the "letting go" was just the "child" needed.  Because after the
"child's" time of "wallowing in the mud," and after their time of
"collecting all the dirt from the swine pit" and experiencing the real
pain of it, they return "home" in measure like they never quite did
before.

Many in recent days within Haiti feel their country has "circled" within
and been "encircled" from without for so long, that it is, in fact,
teetering on the brink of Civil War.  This is an analysis that recent
upheavals and the rising number of organized militia movements in the
country tends give corroboration to.  Perhaps this analysis might do
something so as to prevent it.

Anonymous