19866: erzilidanto: A spoken word poem about the ouster of President Aristide of Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Erzilidanto@aol.com


On Thursday, March 4, 2004, Ian Reed <tango_poet@hotmail.com> wrote:


'Haitred' by Ian Reed

(on the ouster of President Aristide from Haiti)


Having won independence at great cost

By slave rebellion in 1804 --

A fight in which Napoleon's armies lost --

Haiti is stripped of what she gained before,


Because the U.S. engineered a coup,

A democratic leader overthrew,

Enforced regime-change by a murd'rous crew,

Installed dictatorship (what else is new?).


A former priest, the kidnapped president

Espoused theology of liberation,

Upheld reform with noble sentiment

To earn displeasure from our pious nation.


So U.S. foreign policy became

To furnish death-squads with despisèd arms,

To starve the nation in strategic game,

And cap it all with propaganda's harms.


They false-accused Haiti of false elections

(Pot-calling-kettle-black hypocrisy),

Incited violence and insurrection,

Defying constitutionality.


That country, with no army and few police,

Against well-armed militias had no means.

Now is its leader, in a blow to peace,

Abducted by United States marines.


Our mainstream media made a scene, meanwhile,

Of popular uprising at the fore,

Proving once more by treachery and guile,

The New York Times is rotten to the core.


Now chaos reigns and military rule,

Blood in the streets, riot, agony and fire.

They kill civilians and ransack the school,

Rampaging anarchy by thugs for hire.


Behold what springs forth from our leaders' minds,

Behold their business of betraying trust.

See how they torture Haiti, read the signs:

The same atrocities are meant for us.

_ _ _


Ian Reed - March 2004


'Polemics', a collection of political poems and essays by Ian Reed,

can be viewed at:


http://www.ReedandWrite.com