22971: Leiderman: cruising into history or away from it? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Stuart M Leiderman <leidermn@cisunix.unh.edu>


dear Readers:

I know and respect Ron Daniels and the Center for Constitutional Law, and
I have followed the months of work his Haiti support group has done
to organize the Caribbean cruise this week.  it has been a huge and I'm
sure anxious project.  I hope it's a financial success and that the
cruisers become quite friendly over the coming week.  ordinarily, only
those who put their own sweat and money into the project should enjoy the
privilege of criticizing it but, clearly, the linkage of the cruise in
time and space with the backwash of this spring's revolt really opens up
the discussion, doesn't it?

I learned early on that this was a cruise on the open sea, primarily as
an occasion for African-Americans to HONOR Haiti's independence
bicentennial, and this was this was the plan even before this spring's
revolt.  to my knowledge, it was never intended to be a cruise TO Haiti
for the purpose of spending much time there ashore or even for
circumnavigating the island and dropping anchor in various ports so that
the cruisers could say they had fairly sampled the country.  further, the
onboard cruise program was primarily African-American in nature, not
Haitian.

what was primarily Haitian and of direct Haitian benefit was the group's
pledge, described on the cruise website, to establish and contribute to a
new fund for a range of grassroots health, education and welfare projects
in Haiti.  I assumed this would come from the proceeds of the cruise.  at
one point, I wrote and asked how much of a contribution it would be.
I never learned the amount although I expected it would or should be
in the "tithe" range of 10% of the gross revenue, i.e. simply a
contribution from the cruisers paying to cruise.  but I don't know the
details.

further, I never saw the cruise as political in nature, in the national
politics sense.  it certainly was about Black pride and Black history, it
was about the personal politics of Black people's day-to-day struggles
and triumphs over slavery, racial discrimination and persecution.  but it
didn't really concern itself with the political enigma of Haiti's
history, current status or fate, what it is and what it should be, where
the future leaders would come from and how could we help them survive
to the age of serving their country.

that being so, this spring's revolt was probably a traumatic externality
to the cruise group, not something that the cruise event itself could
influence or turn into a learning experience for the cruisers.  while
there may have been time to change the onboard program around to grapple
with poor Haiti's predicament, it didn't seem to happen.  "ca ne faire
rien", as far as I'm concerned, except that I would have welcomed the
opportunity to whip up a set of political learning sessions to measurably
change the awareness, capabilities and proclivities of the cruisers
into some kind of democratic Diasporic counterpressure to keep the new
Port-au-Prince administration under the bright light of constitutional
accountability.  eight days together on a large, comfortable ship would
have been plenty of time for that.  I think this would have been a
welcome spice to the onboard program.

about not now going ashore, I'd say that if any Haitians worked directly
with the cruise people to invest time, money and materials on any kind of
hospitality or tours ashore, then it's only fair that the cruise offer to
pay for their losses.  to cushion this, I'd say that any items purchased,
such as those riding saddles mentioned in a recent post, could be
auctioned aboard the ship, and that any handicrafts, paintings,
sculptures or clothes made or prepared for the occasion be sold in some
kind of shipboard bazaar.  I'd also invite other native Haitian sellers
or guilds to send representatives to sell their things onboard.

for realism, I had suggested early on, that a flotilla of Haitian boat
people sail up to the cruise ship as soon as it reached coastal waters,
and be brought on board as guests for a day or two so that their stories
could be told from the safety of stateroom, not from the bucking deck of
a lifeboat.  now, having read last week that refugees from the Dominican
Republic side of the island are also taking to the seas, it may not be
necessary to prearrange such a close encounter.

I wish I could have afforded the price of admission.  best of luck and
smooth sailing to everyone.

Stuart Leiderman