6745: Pina on Parallel Universe Theory (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: KEVIN PINA <kevinpina@usa.net>

It sometimes gives you a queezy feeling to be in Haiti and trapped in what
feels like a “parallel universe theory” in practice by the member
organizations of the Convergence and the "international community.”  It upsets
my stomach to trace the footprints this long-term battle to create a reality
where the credibility of Lavalas and Aristide have been damaged by little more
than accusations of excess, imbalance and violence repeated over and over
again.  

I made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that while the real violence of
bullets and bombings has been occurring with progressive frequency, there has
been nary a peep from those who profess to be acting in the best interests of
democracy and international human rights.  Instead threats by a small minority
in Lavalas are assigned great weight while an unarmed population suffers under
the strain of an intensifying campaign of violence with the apparent goal of
striking terror into the hearts of Haiti’s citizens.

The glue of this parallel reality has stuck to such a frightening extent it
takes on a surreal quality when compared to my firsthand experiences
interacting and talking with people in the streets of Port au Prince and
Haiti's countryside. I experience a people who are fully conscious and engaged
in a national struggle to transform the depths of their physical poverty into
a vision of a new way to view themselves: strong, proud and resolved. I see
average citizens who are a little better off and educated than others taking
time to teach others to read and write and to organize to find common
solutions to the problems facing their communities. 

It is simply not my day to day experience that Lavalas is a violent mob at the
behest of a charismatic leader coveting power at all costs. What I see are a
sincere and committed citizenry who feel they have played by the rules of the
game only to have the rules changed, and when that did not deter their
determination, silent and cowardly gunmen and bombers once again met violence
upon them.  


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