23648: (reply) Esser: Re: 23646: (reply) Raber: Re: 23639: (reply) anonymous: (reply) Re: 23633: (reply) Brown: Re: 23627 (discuss) Anonymous: Haiti tomorrow (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser <torx@joimail.com>

Tthe ruling
classes in Haiti favor a system that would let the people from the
countryside dominate the elections, most likely thereby insuring that
the more class conscious and destitute in urban areas are kept out of
the political process. Not news, but yet very revealing. The argument
that people fell in line, after the 2000 election debacle, belies the
fact that this country, the U.S., has seen protests in increasing
numbers and that the disenfranchised segments of society, mostly
African-American and Latino have not shown themselves to be content
at all.

To the revisionist idea that Jean-Bertrand Aristide, only built a few
"trophy schools": This is false and furthermore while recognizing
that, it is important to keep in mind that the Aristide government
was virtually cut off from foreign aid during that period. (See 'The
Destabilization of Haiti' by Michel Chossudovsky (Feb. 29, 2004):
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402D.html . Here's a
sentence from an article, about the debt crisis in Haiti, by Marie
Clarke, of Jubilee USA Network, in the Marin Interfaith Task Force on
the Americas newsletter:

"The Ministry of Education is so under funded that while President
Aristide prioritized building schools, tripling the number of schools
in Haiti, the Ministry is now unable to pay teachers, resulting in a
teacher's strike." -- Summer 2003


 From an article in The Patriot Ledger [MA] by Karen Eschbacher:

"Aristide does not rank high on the U.S. government’s list of favorite
world leaders. But Nannette Canniff is more kind. She’s been visiting
Haiti for 20 years and says she’s seeing new roads and schools built
for the first time." -- Sept. 17, 2003


Even The Washington Post reports in a piece by Scott Wilson:

"Since his reelection in November 2000, Aristide has pushed with mixed
success a populist agenda of higher minimum wages, school
construction, literacy programs, higher taxes on the rich and other
policies that have angered an opposition movement run largely by a
mulatto elite that has traditionally controlled Haiti’s economy." --
November 18, 2003


Would you like me to produce more quotes to dispel yet another myth
propagated by those that like to write of corruption and despotism as
long as it can't be linked to Haiti's ruling classes? In the same
vein: dismissing the newly build medical university as "some Cuban
run private University" shows yet another attempt at revisionism. I
am not here to defend Aristide, it's not in my interest and he
doesn't need it either, but the constant distortion of facts needs to
be fought in the interest of truth and justice. The creation of a
medical facility, now occupied by the occupiers, had been a major
step in working towards a better distribution of health care within
Haiti. While you claim to have interest in the education of Haitians,
you make a mockery of that notion if you dismiss the attempt, however
short lived through the coup, to educate new generations of medical
professionals.

And now to the helicopters: in common English usage when speaking of
a singular item, it is odd to use the plural form. The Haitian
government, according to my information had one helicopter at it's
disposal and the only argument that can be made here, is that
especially in a country with transportation problems, one helicopter
is not enough to confront crises, such as the recent flooding or the
terrorism of U.S. sponsored and supplied "freedom fighters".

To say that Haitians do not understand democracy is dubious at best.
I have yet to see the masses attacking democracy -- as many authors
have shown, these attacks can be largely traced back to right wing
U.S. agendas and the proverbial repugnant elite of Haiti. Which
popular organization is opposed to democracy and by what means? And
which sectors of society are violently opposed to democracy? In Haiti
they are the great land owners and the manufacturers/ wholesalers
that bankrolled the two recent coups and were, as a whole, quite
content with the terror of the Duvalier era and neo-duvalierist
suppression of democratic expression.

While you negate the education and capabilities of Haitians to
understand democracy, it's true foes maim and kill Fanmi Lavalas
partisans on a daily basis.

Among more adept observers of Haiti's recent history the consent
seems that what buried Haiti deeper in the mud was the willful cut
off of aid to the country in conjunction with the relentless assaults
on building democratic structures in the interest of U.S. hegemonic
goals.

Now, why are members of groups such as ChristianVision,
http://www.dmrtc.net/~sgregory/christianvision/cvleadrs.htm , are
seemingly doing the bidding of Haiti's elite, at least in writing?
.