21738: anonymous: Re: 21730: Fenton: Reeves: Haiti's Disappeared (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

 Haiti's Disappeared
 by Tom Reeves; May 05, 2004
 http://www.zmag.org

Quote:
1/
"When Haiti's poorest - the slum dwellers of Cite Soleil, Dessalines and Bel
Air
in the low-lying areas of Port au Prince - saw their elected President
snatched and his dignity demeaned, it is surprising they did not take the
hand-guns which the U.S. has alleged were supplied to them by Aristide's
government (the government denied this) and slaughter a few score of the
mostly light-skinned millionaires in the up-hill suburb of Petionville. But
they did not."
2/
"Dr. Paul Farmer, the public health worker universally praised
[...] explained, "I personally, in all my years in Haiti, have never once
seen a
peasant with a gun. And almost all of the ones around these parts are
members of Famni Lavalas (FL - Aristide's party). Now I've tended to many
gunshot wounds, but they've been inflicted by former soldiers, police, or
people who have cars to drive-- not peasants." (email from Paul Farmer,
May 3, 2004)"


It appears to me that combination of the two parts is abusing of Farmer's
authority because it links farmers with "slum dwellers" as if same people
with same life and preoccupations...

Question:
Are the peasants in Paul Farmer's area MEMBERS of  FL  PARTY, or are they
close with the party... It is different.

remark 1:
Police was mainly submited to Lavalas orders till few weeks ago... Is Mr
Farmer saying than now, when you see a policeman you see an anti-Aristide
person? Or that more people suffer from the police now than a few week ago?

remark 2:
Taking for granted the link made by Mr Reeves between peasants and "slum
dwellers" (how condescendent are those words!!!), I don't see the car
question as a relevant one... Former Aristide employees have cars, even if
"slum dwellers",  and guns too... You can live in Cite soley, not be very
rich or even be poor, but have a car, or two or three, and a gun (or two, or
three, or many more). It is not difficult to be introduced with gang members
in slums... they are persons, many of them are both clever and nice... but
they had few options except crime after they entered Aristide's system...
Many of them DID believe in Aristide, but dispaired when they saw almost
nothing being done for their areas... And as they dispaired, some
disappeared! (remember Colibri, Mr Reeves?) But perhaps Mr Reeves was not
interested in meeting "slum dwellers"...

Remark 2.1:
I don't know for the peasants as they are now very few in Port-au-Prince,
but it is not necessary to have guns to attack or kill someone... Machettes
and stones and gazoline + tires are for a long time proven as efficient as a
gun or more, aren't they?

remark 3:
As for the "why" the so-called "slum dwellers" did not "take the hand-guns
[...] and slaughter a few score of the mostly light-skinned millionaires in
the up-hill suburb of Petionville":
-Perhaps, they felt first that Aristide was definitely a traitor...
-Perhaps, they hesitated between slaughtering the "mostly light-skinned
millionaires in the up-hill suburb of Petionville" and the (light or dark
skinned) politicians, millionaires also, who made a lot of money through
compelling them, the poor, to commit crimes in order they can do THEIR
business...
-Perhaps, they felt that, contrary to what popular wisdom recommand, the
Lavalas leaders did not respect the glass they were drinking from... ('bwe
ve a,  men respekte ve a')
-Perhaps, they were just asking who to slaughter when they discovered almost
all their "patrons" were already hiding abroad  with a lot of money...
-Perhaps, they are just not as bloody thirsty and class conflict minded as
some would like to believe thay are...

They have wifes, girlfriends, children... They still hope for a better
life... They still owe Aristide to have been the first and almost the only
one to speak with them and reveal them to themselves, but they know he
betrayed them... Aristide's period is over and they would like to catch up
with a regular life if they can!!!

How will they escape private reprisal or Judiciary retribution for what they
did in obbeying Aristide's and other Lavalas "gwo neg" orders?  THIS is
their concern....

How can they feed their families no they are jobless (no paid demonstrations
etc. anymore)?... THIS is their concern.
Should they hand their guns over to marines or to the French "gendarmes"?...
THIS is their concern.
Several are not against that: but what guarantee will they have to find a
job? not to be tracked down ? etc.
THIS is their concern!!!

Here are their concerns and not, like Mr Reeves, to justify an incredible
businessman who managed to leave "infra human misery"  to reach "supra human
wealth with indignity" but never offered them even the lowest he was ever
able to promise: "poverty with dignity" !

And the very proof of this is that today, May 2004, those young guys are
reduced by Mr Reeves to be just nameless and faceless "slum dwellers".