19293: Esser: The Passion of Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser toerx@joimail.com

WBAI Radio 99.5 FM
New York City

Feb. 25 2004
http://wbai.org

The Passion of Haïti 	   
by John L. Hess
(John Hess, WBAI News Commentator, Feb. 25)The Passion of Haïti never
ends. Its people have been twisting on the cross ever since they were
brought there as slaves. They rose against their French masters two
centuries ago and defeated Napoleon’s army to set up the first
African republic. Our slave-owning President Jefferson saw that as a
danger and set up an embargo. Ever after, Washington would use the
Navy and the Marines and local whiphands to keep the Haïtians down.

It culminated in the nightmarish rule of the Duvaliers, father and
son, with their murderous Ton-Ton Macoutes. They became an
international scandal.

Haïti held its first free election ever, and a little priest named
Aristide came out of nowhere to win, overwhelmingly. That is, he came
out of nowhere as far as our media were concerned. The Times had
never mentioned his name before, and served as the mouthpiece of his
enemies thereafter. In a few months, he was overthrown -- the Times
said by a popular uprising against a clown -- which is just how it
reported the CIA’s overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran 50 years ago.

Bill Clinton stalled about Haïti for a couple of years, and finally
sent in a force that put Aristide back to finish what was left of his
term. He was then re-elected by an overwhelming majority. But ending
poverty proved beyond him. As often happens, power seems to have
corrupted Aristide. He left the priesthood, took on a trophy wife,
and lived it up in the palace.

Now the killer thugs are back -- men who used to be on our secret
payroll -- and they’re on the verge of taking over the whole country,
in cahoots with the chamber of commerce. Don’t look for the big media
to get the story right. Notice how today’s lead in the Times is
datelined Washington?

Poor Haïti. Poor world. Is that what Christ died for?
.