This week in HaitiHaïti Progrès
November 1 - 7 2000
Dialogue, yes, but not at the
expense of institution-building by Dumas F. Lafontant
I support the efforts of the Government of Haiti and the Organization of American States (OAS) to engage Haiti's political parties in a dialogue. However, the primary concern of such dialogue must be to strengthen, not weaken, Haiti's independence. Toward this end, a new president must be sworn into office on February 7, 2001. This is a condition that assures the political integrity and territorial sovereignty of the nation.
Indeed, it is important to debunk the myth that the United States, Canada, Argentina and Venezuela are the four "Friends of Haiti." History has shown that nations do not have friends. They have interests. Haiti's interests are to be neither isolated nor assimilated. Moreover, Haiti's interests today are best served and safeguarded in an "open world" characterized by social mobility, political freedom, diversity of opinion, and freedom from the legal restrictions that impede not just trade, but above all migration.
Although we live in a supposedly post-colonial period, a new world order is being implemented which appoints a handful of political and financial institutions as the overseers of nation states. This is the reality Haitian political leaders presently face. For example, the OAS contends that the counting method used by the Provisional Electoral Council to tabulate the May 21 Senate races violates the election law. But it is clear that their real objection is to the current composition of the Haitian Senate.
I would prefer to see the international community contribute to institution-building rather than play the role of overseer. Institution-building is one of the prerequisites that would enable Haiti to break free from the stranglehold of dependency. Presently, this condition is far from being achieved. Instead, the OAS mediation approach seems to be modeled on European colonial ideology. This ideology goes as follows: it is the duty of Euro-Americans, and the United States in particular -- the "mission civilatrice" if you will -- to bring democracy to Haitians, to elevate them to the level of other civilized men.
Haiti is the only nation founded and built by former slaves. When our founders bequeathed us this enduring legacy, they clearly never envisioned Haiti as dependant on foreign aid. This is a legacy and a vision that Lavalas should work to uphold.
The author is a Haitian community activist in Boston.
"Cry
of the Excluded" Is
Heard
in New York City by
Jose Matta
On the anniversary of the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere more than 500 hundred years ago, Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and other renowned Latin-American human rights activists gathered in Manhattan on Thursday, October 12th to inaugurate the "Cry of the Excluded" movement in the U.S.
The event took place at the auditorium of the health workers' union Local 1199/SEIU (Service Employees International Union). The movement has also been launched in Philadelphia and soon will spread to other US cities.
The "Cry of the Excluded" is a mass movement that grew from the struggle of landless peasants in Brazil for political recognition from other sectors of society and also to coordinate their numerous nationwide actions. The Brazilian landless peasants comprise close to three million families who roam the country seeking to occupy abandoned lands and make them productive. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of landless farmers have lost their lives in the last 20 years, some in confrontations with landowners and their private armies or with the police. Others have perished from incredible hardship.
Landless peasants and many other poor people's organizations have been ignored by most of Brazil's traditional political parties (with the exception of the Brazilian Worker's Party) and excluded from the political process. Therefore, "Cry of the Excluded" groups were formed to obtain political representation.
Similar exclusion occurs around the continent, and now "Cry of the Excluded" groups have been launched in fourteen Latin American nations, generating a truly "Continental Cry".
Facing poverty, police brutality and relentless political exclusion, numerous popular and community organizations in the US have joined in the "Continental Cry", loudly and assertively.
The author is the 1199/SEIU Nursing Home Education Fund Coordinator.
Errata
Last week we erroneously reported that Guy Philippe was in the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince based on incorrect information we received as we were going to press from a close family member of former police chief Ralph Fetière. That family member later corrected the information to say that Fetière was rather in the Dominican Embassy in Haiti and Philippe was indeed in the Dominican Republic. We regret the error. The rest of the story was drawn from another source, and we stand by it.
** 1 Novembre 2000 **