20438: O'Brien--article from the Chattanooga Times Free Press (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Martha O'Brien <mmcpeob@earthlink.net>

The following article was written by Jeff Rogers, a sometime participant in
the Corbett list, who asked me to forward it to the list for him.  It was
published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.  Jeff and his wife lived in
Haiti for a couple of years working with Haitian potters and now run a
gallery featuring crafts from various developing nations.

If one were to confine a large number of people in an isolated environment
and systematically deprive them of adequate water and food; if one then
were to intentionally thwart every attempt on their part to provide for
themselves or to govern themselves, the people in that environment would
almost certainly succumb to acts characterized by frustration, desperation,
chaos, sometimes even brutality. This describes the 200-year history of
Haiti, a history that has been magnified over the past five years.
   One cannot begin to properly understand the situation unfolding in Haiti
today without considering the international provocation that has led to
this current chaos. From the day that Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
inaugurated as the democratically elected president in 2001, our country,
along with other western world powers, has systematically undermined any
chance he might have had to run a credible government.
   The U.S. blocked distribution of already approved and desperately needed
World Bank loans, cut off all aid, and have over these past four years
funneled Agency If one were to confine a large number of people in an
isolated environment and for International Development funds (U.S. taxpayer
money) to the Aristide government’s political opposition through the
International Republican Institute. In this manner Aristide’s government
has been systematically destabilized and today’s political impasse is a
symptom of this destabilization rather than some fluke.
   All this has taken place in a country where the International Monetary
Fund and the structural adjustment policies associated with "free trade"
have brought an already poor and hungry nation to its knees in absolute
dependence. It is in large part because of their resistance to these
policies and their devastating effects that Aristide’s government has been
so consistently undermined by foreign powers.
   In these past weeks our government and other western powers have stood
shamefully silent while the political opposition joined forces with
convicted human rights terrorists to tyrannize the already desperate people
of Haiti. These convicted terrorists were brought back from exile or
released from prisons across the country and armed.
   People fear revenge killings and many whom I most admire and love have
been forced to flee their homes and their work to hide for their lives.
When they return much of their life’s work will probably have been
destroyed. The people who depend on their efforts will be even more
desperate.
   These friends are people whose only crime was to seek human, economic
and spiritual development for the poorest of their country. Some will pay
for this with their blood. Rather than risk being pressured into a position
of support for a democratically elected government that they did not
support, international power brokers stood by as people went hungry,
hospitals were emptied and looters ran rampant in the streets.   As a U.S.
citizen and taxpayer I am ashamed of my government’s actions. The message
our president sent to the Haitians was simply that they are not welcome on
our shores. Several small boats full of desperate refugees were in fact
sent back to the city of Port Au Prince even while it was still in chaos
and flames. At the same time U.S. Marines initially were sent in just to
evacuate embassy personnel.
   While I lived in Haiti, Haitian leaders would often tell me that
American policy brought death to the Haitian people, but would then
reassure me that they made a distinction between American policy and
American people. It is clear that Haitians and others around the world are
becoming less able to make such a distinction as there seems to be little
protest for change from the American people.
   Indeed, we are too often lulled by relative personal affluence into
silent complicity. We must recognize the implications of the world’s
decreasing ability to make this distinction. This shift will be measured in
terms of diminishing stability and security in the world and at home.
   People of good conscience must work to dismantle political and economic
structures that bring death and alienation to the poor at home and around
the world. We must work to support and create viable alternatives to
policies of death and alienation backed by corporate profits and military
might. Events of these past years surely make it clear that all our
destinies are bound up together on this ever shrinking globe which we share.

   Jeff Rogers and his wife, Beth, have been working in Haiti over the past
eight years. They lived there for two of these years.
This story was published Saturday, March 13, 2004


--- Martha O'Brien
--- mmcpeob@earthlink.net
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