Washington Post editorialist Lee Hockstader wrote a puff profile on Haiti’s thuggish President-elect Michel Martelly (“Haiti’s ‘Sweet Micky’ Martelly Turns Presidential,” 4/24/11), whom he depicts as
a fresh, vital force on the political scene, bringing with him energy and a new (mostly untested) crop of advisers, unbeholden to any recent political establishment. Little wonder that in the runoff election, Martelly, who is 50, beat a professorial 70-year-old former first lady 2 to 1.
How can you write about Martelly’s run-off “victory” without noting that both rounds of the election had historically low turnout—not just for Haiti, but for the Western Hemisphere? According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (4/5/11), which follows Haiti closely, Martelly “won only 4.6 percent of the electorate in the first round and 16.7 percent in the second round.” There is indeed “little wonder” that even a candidate with ties to the bloody Duvalier dictatorship who promises to restore the hated Haitian army can get that much support.
Speaking of Duvalier, Hockstader includes the usual spurious equation of the dictator with twice-deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, calling both “divisive former presidents who have recently returned to Haiti from exile and who might face prosecution.” In the most recent election he was allowed to participate in, Aristide got 92 percent of the vote with a 68 percent turnout. So who’s really the “divisive” president?
UPDATE: The Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental organization, calculated the turnout for the 2000 election at 78 percent, which may be a more accurate number.
To all my fellow Haitian, I wouldn’t have voted for Mr Martelly but he’s the president elected therefore I support him one hundred percent. If you love Haiti? You need to respect the laws of the land. Like I love the U.S.A I respect laws.
Aristide is pure unfiltered supernatural awesomeness. He’s basically a god. He’s a saint realized by the universe and a handful of people in the world who are really really really smart know this. Looking at him is like looking at the sun and if you do it you’ll just go blind. So what happens with Hockstader is that he just can’t wrap his little peanut brain around the massive brilliance of Aristide who is a supernova on earth. None of us can fully understand the miracle of Aristide. And Hockstader, he too just ain’t seeing it.
Lane ….um…..I really wish girls” i had slept with” talked about me in the glowing terms you use for Mr Aristide.That would make me feel real rooty tooty.If he should pass on before you and i… maybe we could meet at the ascension.
I’m so sick of seeing this dudefashion and beauty tips,women’s fashion advice,free fashion advice