18483: charles: Fwd: 18418: Pierre Jean Re: 18406: ANDRE APAID IS HAITIAN (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Philippe Charles <pgcharles@hotmail.com>

Dear Pierre Jean:

Thank you for your clear reply to my question. However, I was a bit
disturbed by the following
paragraphs from your note:

    Finally, it saddens me that many people in Haiti and
    in the US resort to the same discriminatory practices
    that would have been met with great alarm in the US,
    but that somehow we let slide in Haiti. When a Haitian
    citizen of foreign origin (especially Lebanese or
    Syrian) is viewed as an "enemy" then all of a sudden
    he becomes an "Arab". Never mind the fact that the
    vast majority of them are at least third-generation
    Haitian.

    When Randall Robinson referred to Andre Apaid as a
    Haitian of Lebanese origin on WBAI in New York, in a
    context where the "Lebanese" part had no relevance to
    the discussion, what was that if not incitation to
    hatred of a foreign, lighter-skin group? For better or
    for worse, they are Haitian as much as I am and have
    the same rights. If we want to talk about the rule of
    LAW in Haiti today, we cannot talk about "full"
    citizens and "second-class" citizens anymore. This is
    as much an issue as the now-past discrimination
    against Haitians from rural areas who had a different
    type of birth certicate than the folks from the urban
    areas.

Andre Apaid was referred to as an Arab-Haitian by a Reuters reporter; not by
me.
Also, as far as I know, Randall Robinson is not Haitian. So, I don't quite
understand
your point above about "many people in Haiti ...". I think there are
Haitians of Arabic
descent on many sides of the political spectrum. It is well-known, for
example, that
Antoine Izmery, a great supporter of Aristide who lost his life because of
it, was of
Arabic descent. I would disagree with you that the term Arab carries any
negative
connotation with Haitians and that it is only used to identify an "enemy".
Finally, if
you go back to my note you will notice that I carefully excised the word
Arab and
asked the plain question: Is he Haitian? To which you replied: yes.

Inflaming ethnic passions is a dangerous business with unpredictable and
disastrous
consequences. Therefore, conditions that can give rise to such a situation
should be
avoided at all costs.  Historically, Haiti's resources have been owned and
controlled by
a small group that treats the majority with contempt.  In 1990, this
majority finally had
an opportunity to democratically  elect a government of its choosing.  Seven
months
later that government was brutally overthrown.  Many of those demonstrating
today
against the current government's undemocratic ways would have more
credibility if they
had been on the side of democracy and the people in 1991.

Witness the reaction to the current demonstrations demanding the ouster of
President Aristide.
>From 19372 (18372?), we read:

    Dismissing anti-government demonstrations in recent months as the work
    of a mulatto elite opposed to rule by the black majority, Aristide says
he
    intends to serve out his second term to 2006.

"World on Fire", by Amy Chua, is a book that is very relevant to the current
situation in Haiti.
Her thesis is that Democracy and Free Market Capitalism are a volatile
combination when they are
introduced simultaneously in a society consisting of a tiny endogamous elite
group that controls
most of the wealth and a large impoverished indigenous majority. In such
circumstances, she
argues that (one man, one vote) Democracy favors the masses whereas Free
Market policies
help the elite to grab a bigger share of the national wealth. In particular,
she points out that if
this elite group is perceived as an "outsider" group, it becomes easy for a
demagogue to rise
to power by blaming this group for the economic imbalance as well as all
other problems of the
society.   This blaming, in turn, has even led to "ethnic cleansings" in the
recent past in places
like Bosnia, Kossovo, Indonesia, The Philippines, Rwanda, ... etc.

Back to the original question. You said that Andre Apaid was issued a
Haitian passport four times.
The first time being in 1987. Does that mean that he became a naturalized
Haitian citizen in 1987?
Was that before or after the 1987 constitution took effect? I would greatly
appreciate an
answer to each of  these two questions.

_________________________________________________________________
Optimize your Internet experience to the max with the new MSN Premium
Internet Software. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200359ave/direct/01/