25611: Raber: (Reply)Re: 25606: Honorat: (reply) Re: 25598: Bob Corbett (ASK) Aristide's famous "Pere Lebrun" speech. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: raber@zoominternet.net

The art of double meaning was mastered by Aristide.  He would find ways to
say things that when read on paper did not mean much.  However, he used
words and manipulated the crowds in such a way that Haitians knew exactly
what he meant.   Regardless of what one thinks of him, he was an amazing
public speaker to Haitians. On the contrary the few times I heard his
speeches at the United Nations they were not good at all.  He mostly tried
to impress the UN by repeating clichés in several languages.  It was almost
like he was trying to show off how many languages he could speak.  There was
basically no audience participation like he used to get in Haiti and that
seem to throw him off balance.  I think audience participation was a key to
the quality of his speeches.

Bottom line:  He should have stuck to the priesthood where his sermons were
great to listen to.   Where I live amongst the Amish and other simple hard
working folks who think of the community first,  the real doers are quiet
people.

 Loud-mouth people they tend quickly run out of words and vanish when asked
to actually do something.   They are happy to speak/criticize but not
willing to contribute sweat equity.  Unfortunately this is probably why the
world over, the most decent leaders stay out of politics. Of course there is
also the issue of one's survival.  At this point any decent person who would
try to reign in corruption in Haiti would likely be assassinated.  It will
take exceptional courage to change things.  Aristide may have had god
intention, but once in power his focus changed to self-preservation.  It did
not help either that he was sensitive to flattery.   All the martyrs of the
civil rights movement in the USA were willing to lay down their life for
their cause. Same for the South Africa.