20271: (Chamberlain) France sends philosopher to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(Financial Times, 11 March 04)


Chirac sends philosopher to Haiti

[Corbett comments:  I'm not speaking for Regis Debray specifically, but
in general it seems a marvelous idea to send and consult with philosophers
and where and on any topic.  Bob Corbett, Professor Emeritus of
Philosophy.   :)  ]

 By Jo Johnson in Paris



France will today revive its tradition of sending philosophers to war zones
with the arrival in Haiti of Régis Debray, a leftwing intellectual charged
by Jacques Chirac, the French president, with conducting a "mission of
reflection" in the crisis-hit Caribbean island.

Mr Debray, who fought alongside Che Guevara in Bolivia in the 1960s and now
heads a government-appointed group on relations between France and Haiti,
will be making his first visit to the island since last week's overthrow of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's president.

Lawyers for the ousted leader yesterday accused France and the US of
abducting him and forcing him into exile. They said they were preparing
legal cases against the US and France and accused Mr Debray of contributing
to the pressure on him to leave the country on February 29.

Mr Aristide, who is in the Central African Republic, still considers
himself president of Haiti and plans to use the courts in his fight to
return home, his lawyers said yesterday. US and French authorities say Mr
Aristide left Haiti of his own free will after formally resigning.

Violence continues on the restive island. US marines late on Tuesday killed
two gunmen in Port-au-Prince, the capital, marking the third fatal shooting
by the marines in three days.

Mr Chirac last deployed France's intellectual force de frappe in
Afghanistan. In 2002, he sent his special envoy, the flamboyant writer
Bernard-Henri Levy, to find a role for French culture in an aid programme.

Like Bernard Kouchner, the founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, Mr Levy and
Mr Debray are seen as charismatic emissaries of French civilisation, moral
guides and unofficial diplomats who can help France battle for hearts and
minds across the world.

"The French have a real reverence for intellectuals in the widest sense of
the term," says Guillaume Parmentier of the French Institute for
International Relations. "President Chirac in particular respects them,
perhaps because he does not see himself as one."

"It is a tradition in French diplomacy to make use of intellectuals and
well-known individuals because they can bring new perspectives to our
thinking," said a French foreign ministry spokeswoman. "Why would anyone
reproach us for being open to civil society?"

Mr Levy says the French approach contrasts with the empiricism and
intellectual modesty of the Anglo-Saxon world, where politics is seen as a
normal social activity rather than a noble calling and many feel uneasy at
the enunciation of universal principles.