14171: Durban's Really Weird Dream... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

No visions of sugar plums dancing in my head this year, but I
certainly had a weird dream last night.  Must have been a result
of that Duvalier interview in Paris wherein Baby Doc called for
an Aristide resignation and expressed a desire to come home.
Lavalas Minister Mario Dupuy must have accused him of being a
Convergence obstructionist because the next thing I heard was
Evans Paul's radio rejoinder that Baby Doc was, au contraire,
merely an earlier version of President Aristide!  That I
remember before falling asleep, but then I starting dreaming...

Recognizing that that he needs more people on his boat (pardon
the pun), President Aristide secretly invites Duvalier back to
be part of the democratic process… a process which acknowledges
President Aristide as President elected to a 5 year term and is
presently calling for new elections for part of the Senate (?)
in 2003.  A rapport is established between the two, no doubt
helped by the fact that the hapless Duvalier's education really
only began in 1986 with his ouster from the position he had, in
effect, inherited.  A public retraction of his call for an
Aristide resignation follows... a small price to pay for a
peaceful return to his "pays natal" (country of birth).

Aristide makes new inroads into his opposition, as more than a
few older folks are reminded of the "good old days" of the
latter years of the  Duvalier Dynasty (early 1980's).  Didn't
seem so good then, but everything is relative, and few will deny
that there WAS a brief era of economic growth in '81-'83 before
the greed of the palace guard toppled the applecart for Baby
Doc.  A chastened Duvalier (in the interview he did admit to
abuse during his reign) warns Aristide all about greedy
advisors, and Aristide (whose compassion for the poor is
generally acknowledged) talks about the real Haiti Duvalier
never knew.  Duvalier admits to having felt a tinge of guilt in
reading the French translation of Wilentz' "The Rainy Season",
where a youthful Father Aristide is chased by Tonton Macoutes.
Apologies for dreadful wrongs follow.

A suitably mellowed Aristide admits to feeling sorry for
emprisoned grandfather, Prosper Avril.  "Gosh, the old guy
really ought to be home playing with his grandchildren",
Aristide mutters.  More apologies, release on probation for
Avril follow.

Duvalier announces a desire to run as an independent in Senate
elections.   Several Convergence members sensing the train
leaving the station without them announce they also plan to run.
 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jimmy Carter is invited to sit on a
newly constituted CEP, and accepts the post.  More Convergence
people join the political  debate, and no one is talking about
an Aristide resignation now, especially when Aristide confirms
he is looking forward to early retirement from public life in
2006.

Aristide candidates do well in 2003 elections, which are
acknowledged as fairly run with a good voter turn out, but
Convergence people pick up enough seats to feel optimistic about
the next Presidential election.

Gosh, morning came to soon.  That's when I woke up.

L. Durban


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