It was certainly surprising to see former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier return to the country on January 16. To say he hasblood on his hands is an understatement–the Duvalier regimes were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and widespread abuse, and stole millions of dollars from the country.
Soon thereafter, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide announced his intention to return to his country.Aristide, twice elected andtwice removed from office, remains a popular figure in Haitian politics. His first stint in office was remarkably peaceful; his second, during which he faced armed attacks that eventually succeeded in overthrowing his government, was scarcely more violent. But some media accountsare expressing concern about Aristide’s return, in effect equating him withthe bloody Duvalier.
USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham wrote a piece on February 8 headlined “U.S. Meekly Allows Despots to Return to Haiti.” Wickham recounts the horrors ofDuvalier’s reign of terror, but for some unfathomable reason decides that Aristide poses some comparable menace to Haiti–his return might “push Haiti closer to turmoil,” and the two of them are “old troublemakers from returning at a time when Haiti’s democracy is most vulnerable to the havoc they almost certainly will produce.”
Wickham seems mostly concerned about democracy:
With another round of voting scheduled for March 20, the thing Haiti needs more than anything else now is a level of stability and calm. But what it’s likely to get once Aristide returns–and once he and Duvalier rally their old supporters to their side–will be a return to the bloody factionalism that punctuated their time at the helm of Haiti’s government.
It might be worth pointing out that Aristide’s Lavalas party–still enormously popular–was banned from participating in last year’s election, which as a result had the lowest turnout of any election held in the Western Hemisphere in the last 60 years.
The Duvalier = Aristide equation could be seen elsewhere. A New York Times report (2/9/11) warned that “experts inside and outside Haiti fear that the presence of the two former leaders could further destabilize the country.” The Times went on to note that “members of the international community expressed concern that Mr. Aristide…could create widespread instability at a precarious moment.” The story does note that Aristidewas “beloved by the poor but criticized by many”–given Haiti’s massive poverty, it’s hard to know what to make of that.
A short Los Angeles Times piece (2/8/11) conveyed a similar message: Aristide “has broad popular support but remains a polarizing figure in Haiti.” That article also equated Duvalier and Aristide, reporting that “the return of the two former leaders comes at an unsteady moment for the country.”
One would hope reporters could find a way to make a meaningful distinction between a ruthless, bloody dictator and a popular elected president. It is obscene to refer to them both as “leaders” or,as the USA Today headline put it, “despots.”
The corpress wasn’t particularly concerned with “stability” when Aristide was being overthrown with our tax dollars, were they?
Their preferred version of stability was on display in Tunisia, Egypt and points east until recently, wasn’t it?
To equate these two men is quite a feat. This is dissimulation at its best. The major newspapers are actually quoting the ‘party line’ of this and most administrations that have unsuccessfully tried to control the Haitian population for their own benefit. The election of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a popular and desirable person to run the country is by far the height of democracy. The Western powers surely had a hand in the uprisings that eventually caused this presidents ouster twice. I look forward to the time when Amerikka, gets out of the imperial hegemony business and lets other countries run their governments for themselves.
Our meddling in the affairs of Haiti, has for the last 150 years brought nothing but heartache to the Haitian population. The policy which forces our style of government on the Haitians is nothing but a racist and hegemonic policy of ‘big brother’ looking out for the poor and backwards population of Haiti.
Should the American people wake up, it would be a fine thing for our government to leave well enough alone and stop the meddling in the affairs of other countries.
I am personally aware of the heartache that our policy of interference causes in Haiti, as I had many friends from Haiti when I lived in South Florida.
The dissemination of this information, not only to the people of Haiti but to the American public would be the best thing that could happen to both our countries. For the people of Haiti need to be able to run their own country for, what may be the first time in history.
Obama is already voicing the US disapproval of Aristide’s return to Haiti, so the bias is apparently going to continue, and the media will fall in line with promoting the US government’s attempt to paint Aristide as a problem. That he was a problem for the U.S. – or rather US corporate interests, is not going to be mentioned. There will be other ‘reasons’ put forward, all carefully worded to avoid mention of our machinations of Haitian politics.
I must point out a substantial diminution of the actual temporal span
of US meddling in the fortunes of the slave population of Haiti. Lest
the first great slave revolt in the modern world actually succeed in
the island, Congress dispatched $750,00 to the aid of the oppressors.
In view of the parlous state of our finances in 1791, reckoned in 2011
dollars that amount compares all too closely to the 1.3 billion slated
currently for Egyptian coffers, where the first success of democratic
change in the Muslim world hangs in the balance. Though 220 years
late, benign neglect may be preferable to heavy-handed intervention
in HAITI; unrelenting vigilance over our government’s role in EGYPT
during the critical months ahead will test whether we have learned
something in the intervening centuries.
Dean Baker at the CEPR website makes some good points about the OAS and the USA’s takeover of the election in Haiti. What exactly is the lure of Haiti? It is a very poor country, the first site of a successful slave revolt over a hundred years ago. I just do not understand it. Unless it is just the Imperialist’s show of power over another country too small and devastated after the earthquake to do anything to fight back. Removing aid to Haiti was actually used to threaten the people to make them tow the line and go along with the US and the OSA’s objectives. Disgusting. American exceptionality at its best, huh?
As a Haitian citizen my country must deal with three former strongmen who are implicated in both political and economic crimes, Jean Claude Duvalier, Jean Bertrand Aristide and Rene Preval. For more on Haiti’s elections and strongmen challenges I invite you to read this oped from one of my countrymen click here: http://solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2011/02/haiti-elections-run-offs-only-part-of.html
There you go again.4 out of 5 blogs here are anti USA,with one dissenting.Bout normal round these parts.I was just looking at the response to the earthquake ,and the amount of cash that went to Haiti after the disaster.Hundreds of millions in aid.Medical ,technical support.Food and water.The list is endless….and never enough.And what thanks do we get?We are to blame for every problem these people have today.We are to blame for being too involved.We are to blame for not being involved enough.We(you and i)are to blame for the slave history that created the island.We are duty bound to subsidize it.WE may of even created the storm through global warming. Sometimes as harsh as this sounds…as sad the reality….I just wish we told the truth and said”we are broke and simply cannot help you”.And then simply allowed the personal charity of those amazing Americans to kick in.
As far as their leaders….I said it about the Arabs now I will say it about this neck of the woods.Name me two leaders we can trust?It is a crooked lot, on a crooked road ,running a poor and dispirited people.
Michael e, I was impressed by how easily you gave up during our last encounter. Allow me to give you a chance to redeem yourself here.
”I was just looking at the response to the earthquake ,and the amount of cash that went to Haiti after the disaster.Hundreds of millions in aid.Medical ,technical support.Food and water.The list is endlessâ┚¬Ã‚¦.and never enough.And what thanks do we get?We are to blame for every problem these people have today.We are to blame for being too involved.We are to blame for not being involved enough.”
This is a typical lament from a state ideologue, who wishes to forget the history of a country like Haiti even if the victims don’t. This allows you to absolve yourself of any moral responsibility, while lamenting others for their ”moral equivalency”. Those damn foreigners can never perceive the unflinching generosity of the United States. They’re ungrateful, for example, when American bombs tear their kids to shreds, unable to grasp the humanitarian motives that drive US foreign policy. In the Haitian saga, the US has been heavily involved in pretty much every torment the country has suffered (fact, whether you like it or not), right from its independence (an act that necessitated instant punishment, lest the virus spread. We might also note that this took place well before the advent of the Communist pretext during the Cold War, suggesting important continuities in US policy and the forces that drive it. However, nothing is allowed to derail what the reigning doctrinal system wold have us believe: that US crimes are ”mistakes”, deviations from an otherwise virtuous program of emancipation).
Obama sent G. W. Bush to oversea the ”aid” to Haiti, which by itself should tell you something about it. The disaster in Haiti was itself largely man made, with the Haitian state, reduced to a shell that is overshadowed by foreign NGOs, failing to even implement, or even really bother drafting, building safety regulations (this would interfere with the prerogatives of the Free Market, after all). Another glorious example of how unfettered capitalism is a good thing, no doubt (an axiomatic truth that can be weaved out of events that utterly contradict it, in this case, ungrateful Haitians and their blogger apologists in the West).
”Sometimes as harsh as this soundsâ┚¬Ã‚¦as sad the realityâ┚¬Ã‚¦.I just wish we told the truth and said”we are broke and simply cannot help you”.”
What you should be wishing for (and working towards) is for the United States and France, Haiti’s historical torturers, to pay massive REPARATIONS to Haiti, without conditionalities, rather than providing it with ”aid” (which comes with all manner of tiny handwriting attached to it) and whining about being the victim in this.
Second salvo?