15040: This week in Haiti 20:51 3/5/2003 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French
and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100,
(fax) 718-434-5551 or e-mail at <editor@haitiprogres.com>.
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      March 5 - 11, 2003
                       Vol. 20, No. 51

CANADIAN OFFICIALS INITIATE PLANNING FOR MILITARY OUSTER OF ARISTIDE

A group of high-level North American and Latin American diplomats has been
secretly meeting in Canada to plan President Jean Bertrand Aristide's
removal from power and an ensuing foreign military occupation, according to
an article by Michel Vastel in the Mar. 15 edition of the Canadian magazine
"L'Actualité."

The group of officials, code named the "Ottawa Initiative on Haiti," wants
regime change in Haiti this year before the Jan. 1, 2004 bicentennial of
Haiti's independence, says the French-language article entitled "Haiti to be
Under U.N. Control?." The group, which will next meet in April in El
Salvador, has been convened by Canada's Secretary of State for Latin
America, Africa, and the French-speaking World, Denis Paradis, who will
accompany the U.S. State Department's "Continental Initiatives"
representative Otto Reich and Organization of American States (OAS)
assistant secretary general Luigi Einaudi in a delegation to Haiti on Mar.
19.

"The international community intends, according to a new United Nations
principle, to assume its 'responsibility to protect,'" Vastel writes. "This
principle was established in Dec. 2001 by the International Commission for
Intervention and the Sovereignty of States, created by Canada in Sep. 2000,
in response to a call by the U.N. Secretary General. The responsibility to
protect is defined as follows: 'When a population greatly suffers from the
consequences of a civil war, an insurrection, state repression or the
failure of its policies, and when the state in question is not willing or
capable of putting an end to these sufferings or to avoid them,
international responsibility to protect takes precedence over the principle
of non-intervention.'" Vastel does not clarify from what document he pulled
this quote.

In addition to Denis and OAS officials, a meeting of the "Ottawa Initiative"
in late January included French Cooperation Minister, Pierre-André Wiltzer,
two U.S. State Department functionaries, and El Salvador's Foreign Minister,
Maria Da Silva. "It was the first time that the European economic community
and the Intergovernmental Agency of the French-Speaking World ever
participated in a meeting with the OAS," the article states.

OAS Resolution 822 last year instructed the Haitian government to hold early
parliamentary and municipal elections this year. "We see the ironic
situation now where the Haitian government is anxious to hold elections, but
the opposition is refusing to go and trying to block them," said Ira
Kurzban, a lawyer who has represented the Haitian government for many years.

The "Ottawa Initiative," if true, would complement nicely the calls for
Aristide's extra-constitutional removal by the election-allergic
Washington-backed Democratic Convergence opposition front. "It will be
difficult to create the peaceful conditions necessary for the holding of
credible elections in the country with Jean Bertrand Aristide in power,"
said Convergence leader Evans Paul of the Democratic Unity Confederation
(KID) recently. "The electoral experiences with Aristide have all proven
disastrous." Disastrous mainly because Convergence politicians remain
tremendously unpopular in Haiti.

Denis Paradis seems particularly intent on bringing change in Haiti. "If
Canadians treated their animals the way that Haitian authorities treat their
citizens," he said, "they would be placed in prison." Ironically, Paradis
has not spoken out against the Bush administration's blockage of $500 in
international aid and loans to Haiti which has contributed greatly to the
dire straits of the Haitian people.

Vastel is vague about how a military occupation would unfold. "No decision
has yet been taken, but in French diplomatic circles," he writes, "they say
that there has been talk of a sort of 'guardianship' as in Kosovo... Even if
the United Nations doesn't want this kind of intervention leading to
military occupation, this might be inevitable until elections are
 organized."

The article indicates that in some way Paradis sees Haiti's internal
problems as a "threat" to North American countries because Haiti might have,
by some estimates, a population of 20 million by 2019. The correlation is
unclear, but it is enough to excite Paradis. "It is a time bomb," he said,
"which must be defused immediately."


HOW HAITIAN YOUTHS CONCEIVE OF THEMSELVES
by Wendy François

Time and again, our social circumstances cause us to take on assumed roles.
Living in the U.S. among North Americans significantly contributes to the
way Haiti youths see themselves. It conditions what I call their
"self-concept."

As human beings, we all maintain a self-concept that is formed from our
objective reality and our perception of that environment. Many Haitian
youths do not perceive positive stimuli. Instead, they experience want,
struggle, and discrimination. In this environment, some Haitian youths have
a negative self-concept.

Haitian adults often accuse Haitian youths of trying to act like African
Americans. But, in fact, there are not many differences between the two
cultures. If African American culture appeals to Haitian youths -- they
listen to the music, they eat the food, they buy the clothes -- then it
becomes a part of who they are, and an element of their self-concept.

Furthermore, when Haitian youths adopt parts of African American culture,
they often begin to gain hope and motivation. A Haitian youth may see
nothing but poverty and may even be unable to imagine a future without an
element of poverty. But upon seeing that people of color can rise above and
beyond the demoralizing environment that surrounds them, the youth begins to
focus on success, not failure. "Imitation is the last thing that we seek,"
comments Daenne Joseph, a Haitian student at Homestead High. "Rather we are
trying to adopt our own independent status."

Wendy François is a senior and class valedictorian at Homestead Senior High
School. On the National Honor Roll in 2000 and 2001, she also hosts a local
radio show on issues affecting Haitian teenagers.

All articles copyrighted Haïti Progrès, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haïti Progrès.

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