14995: Hermantin:Miami-Herald-Hopeful Aristide starts Carnival (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami-Herald


Posted on Mon, Mar. 03, 2003

Hopeful Aristide starts Carnival
Celebration feels effect of hard times
BY JANE REGAN
Special to The Herald

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Flanked by more than a dozen Carnival kings and queens
lavishly dressed as heroes from Haiti's independence struggle two centuries
ago, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide opened Haiti's three-day Carnival
celebrations on Sunday calling for peace and an ``economic rebirth.''

Saying he hoped that one day all Haitians would have double their current
salaries, he talked about the British Industrial Revolution, the economic
''rebirth'' of Japan, Korea and China, and said ``our economic renaissance
is possible.''

''Renaissance'' is this year's theme for Carnival, which is part of the
government's run-up to celebrations of Haiti's bicentennial next year.
Shaken by a spate of antigovernment demonstrations, a deteriorating economy
and nearly empty state coffers, Aristide has been emphasizing the 200th
anniversary of Haiti's victorious slave revolution.

The National Palace is encouraging revelers to wear the colorful costumes of
the past. It also encouraged musicians to write songs focusing on the past,
but some stuck to the tradition of criticizing the present.

BETTER DAYS

''We want Carnival to be a money-maker, like it was a long time ago,'' said
Mathilde Flambert, a member of the Carnival Committee and former minister of
social affairs. She accused foreign governments and the press of scaring
tourists away from Haiti.

Some of the country's major businesses and media did not pay for stands or
sponsor bands this year, and those that did provided less money than in the
past.

''We have a truck but not the sound system,'' said Frederique ''Fredo''
Pierre-Louis of Kanpch on Friday. A ''float'' -- usually a flatbed truck
loaded with giant speakers -- costs up to $150,000 for the three days of
processions, he said.

The popular Radio Kiskeya said it won't be providing live coverage, because
with tripled fuel prices and little state electricity, all its revenue now
goes to power two generators.

Radio Metropole won't provide live coverage either, but that is more because
of threats against its journalists, reporters said.

Economic difficulties, such as those faced by most Haitians who survive on
less than $1 a day, will keep many away.

''I used to go, but now things are so bad, I figure that in the time I spend
dancing, I could make an extra gourde [about two cents],'' said Pierre
Philippe Jean on Saturday as he stirred a popular beef stew -- a supposed
aphrodisiac -- which he sells in plastic cups for about 10 cents.

But even in desperate times, many revelers turn out, happy for three days
when they can forget their worries. On Sunday, when the snaking, throbbing
procession reached the avenue of wooden spectator stands, thousands were
waiting.

Vendors hawking beers and cane liquor, professionals rarely seen outside of
their air-conditioned SUVs, street boys, traditional carnival street bands
and flatbeds blasting music at bone-rattling decibels competed for space.

POWER OF MUSIC

As revelers danced, they sang songs expressing popular frustrations, such as
the one by Boukman Eksperyans that calls for people to rise up like
``freedom fighters.''

''Carnival is when people can criticize society,'' Boukman's leader,
Theodore ''Lolo'' Beaubrun Jr., said last week. ``Our message is that we
need a different kind of leader, not thieves. Leaders who serve the country.
Music has a lot of power, and in Haiti, music has the strength to pull down
governments.''











_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail