27043: ( Nekita, Comments) Ginoux Mondesir's assassination covered (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Kawolina,

The brutal act of violence on Ginoux Mondesir is widely covered on Alter
Presse and I know of one multilingual Haitian discussion line that relays Alter
Presse and many discussants intervene in French. If there are other webmasters
or yahoogroups moderators on Corbett's line who have not yet put this horrible
crime in their line, I believe they should do so by now. I went and checked
before I finish writing this post. I agree with Kawolina, there needs to be more
coverage in the web sites.

Domestic violence  an issue that I have been personally addressing since the
l980's is not an exclusively Haitian problem. Those of us in the States, know
the FBI statistics revealing every 30 seconds a woman is beaten. Women
regardless of social status or educational level are not exempt from being hurt
physically or psychologically by men. The difference is in the past 25 years, the
legal system in many western countries have established bills and laws to
punish offenders who abuse women whereas in many Thirld World countries including
Haiti, the political system dominated by men is still ignoring violence
perpetrated by men against women. As in Haiti, with so many political and
infracstructural roadblocks, physical, verbal, emotional violence against women is not a
high agenda item in Thirld World countries.

Even in the Haitian setting at least in Boston, it had taken a long time for
some women to address issues of domestic violence. For instance, in the
l980's, even women were not happy with me when I held radio programs, called or
wrote in the Haitian papers about men hitting women.  I remember sometime in the
l990's I called a Haitian woman radio  host who was talking about women's
involvement in society, I asked, "When will we start talking about men abusing
women? She replied " Se on pwoblem santimantal, nou pa ka pale de sa." (It's a
sentimental( emotional) problem, we can't talk about it).

I also remember on a International Women's Day around March l991, l992, I was
playing one of the TiParis piece that translates" Honey if I do something to
you, don't hit me, call me so we can talk." The lyrics in Creole start" Cheri
si m fe on bagay, relem apa...." a Haitian woman from a group that  still runs
a monthly radio program on women issues in the same studio I was in , said to
me " Nekita, Sa w ap jwe la a?" ( Nekita, what are you playing?) Once in a
while , I mail articles to those women about mainline Anglo churches in the
Boston area that have begun in the last  3, 4 years making pamphlets available or
talk to the Boston Globe that domestic violence should also be addressed in
the churches. Those women never respond. As far as I know  clergy from all
linguistic groups are still not addressing domestic violence in the pulpits either.
 But as a deacon told me once" How can men talk about domestic violence and
women abuses if women themselves are divided?"

It has taken a long time for some women in the case of Haitians to talk about
domestic violence as it will take a long time in the Haitian diaspora to
collectively address the importance of Education in the Haitian community. Once
Education becomes a topic here and in Haiti, educating Haitians about long term
impact of all kinds of violence against the least powerful as Kawolina
illustrated, will be done nationally and in the diasporic communities in a systemic
fashion that will involve not only women activists, but professional men and
women in the medical, psychological, pyschiatric, legal, religious , historical
fields and  many other disciplines that can intervene and help  alleviate the
pains in a culture of violence.

Hopefully if every Haitians work together against all sort of violence, the
wishes of "Peace" that one utters at  each New Year's will materialize in Haiti
and our diasporic communities.

A Peaceful and a Happy New Year to all!

Nekita