29193: Morse (comment) Reed interviews Elie (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

 oloffsonram@aol.com

Great interview with Reed and Patrick Elie. I don't know how many of you had a 
chance to read it. Interesting analysis that compares South Africa to Haiti 
with the Haitian elites representing South Africa's white minority.
Two other interesting points:

1) Elie said... "Lavalas and the popular movement are one in the same. It, 
(Lavalas), was the name coined for it by President Aristide. But he did not 
invent the reality of it, he just put a name on it. He doesn’t own it. It 
owns him."

I believe Aristide forgot this. I think he thought it was his movement and 
everything within it was his.

2) Elie continues.... "If you do not stay mobilized and define your political 
agenda and support that political agenda, what will happen is that either the 
president or the senators you elected are going to be extremely vulnerable to 
pressure exerted on them from the powers that be or they’ll start drifting to 
a more traditional type of power and start having their own agenda."

This is what happened to Aristide. He and his ego started to have their own 
agenda.



3) And finally, Elie says... "So politicians, no matter what label they are 
under, have to be kept on a leash. And the leash is the grassroots movements 
permanently mobilized. That is one thing that the popular movement has 
learned."


Me, I also have to ask, "What has the Elite learned?"

Richard Morse
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