This week in HaitiHaïti Progrès
6 au 12 Décembre 2000
Letter to the Editor
November 24, 2000
Dear Sir,
I have visited your beautiful country on numerous occasions. I am involved with a church mission which has taken on a number of local projects, including agricultural assistance, health clinics, churches, drilling wells for clean water, etc. I find your people to be full of life and love, truly people whom I respect and have a desire to be with.
I must take exception to the article "The U.S. Political Crisis: What Does the Republi-crat Vote Squabble Mean for Haiti?" (Vol. 18 No. 35, Nov. 15, 2000). I also must confess that if the Haitian people are all going to take an aggressive attitude towards Americans, I will be forced (not because I want to) to reconsider my efforts in Haiti.
The most obvious and glaring problem with your editorial is the willingness to totally ignore history. America has had over 40 presidents since 1800, NEVER experiencing a bloody transition of power from one president to the next. In that same time period, your country has experienced approximately the same number of presidents. How many peaceful transitions have occurred in Haiti? I say this not to pretend that Americans are better than Haitians, not to rub your nose in your problems. I only point this out to say that in general, the American system has worked incredibly well. For countries that have not had anywhere near the success that America has had to now say that there is no good in our system is incredible, a baseless accusation which merits no response.
Secondly, no one is happy with what has occurred in Florida in this election or in other elections around our country where the lure of power has led people to cheat to win elections. Any informed US citizen knows this has happened. However, despite the apparent wickedness in the system, our country has generated wealth and prosperity beyond the wildest dreams of most people. Granted, many people consume the wealth they have created; it is still true, however, that America is the world's philanthropist, and we would like a little respect and patience while we work out our internal issues. Thank you.
Lastly, the Electoral College is not archaic, and it does not constrict democracy. Much of your analysis of the mechanics and the intentions of the Electoral College are correct. However, the Electoral College does much more than what you suggest.
First, the EC amounts to a state election, where all states have independent elections and are allowed to cast Electors for the president. In order to win the presidency, you must win a majority of the Electors in this election of states. One reason the Electoral College is here to stay is that it guarantees that small states will always receive attention from candidates. If there were not a disproportionate number of electoral votes cast from states like Montana and Wyoming, no candidate would ever campaign there. The only states that would matter would be California, New York, Texas, Florida and maybe Michigan.
Smaller states (by population) are guaranteed at least some attention because of the College, and this will not be going away any time soon.With regards to constricting democracy, this is also fallacious. It is true that the system lends itself to only two parties, but this is not such a bad thing. It has allowed some uniformity in public policy and has allowed elected officials to move the country in a single direction. To have many parties in power at any time, à la Italy, Israel, Germany, France, often breeds chaos and divides the country instead of leads.
Really, it would be much appreciated if you could lay off the rhetoric. For all the problems that America has (believe me, we know there are lots of them), can't we have a little respect as we try to work this out? Or will you continue to attempt to turn this into a David and Goliath thing, where we are apparently Goliath and there are all these little Davids running around, who are apparently our enemies, even though they pretend to be our friends when the checkbook is open.
Dan Johansson
....
Haïti Progrès
responds: It is ironic when Mr. Johansson, apparently
a U.S. citizen, writes that "we would like a little respect and patience
while we work out our internal issues." This is all that most Haitians
would ask of Washington.
During Haiti's recent political struggles, the U.S. government has done much more than just criticize Haiti's "internal issues." It has directly meddled in them, providing overt moral and political (and surely covert financial) support to opposition parties while cutting off much needed financial aid to the Haitian government. In violation of diplomatic protocol, U.S. officials regularly admonish the Haitian government for its sovereign decisions.
We also disagree with Mr. Johansson's assertion that "America has had over 40 presidents since 1800, NEVER experiencing a bloody transition of power from one president to the next." What about the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, McKinley, and Kennedy? What about the Civil War, one of the world's bloodiest conflicts? What about the decimation and expropriation of Native Americans and the equally barbarous murder and enslavement of millions of Africans, both of which laid the foundation for U.S. wealth and relative political stability? What about U.S. expansionist wars in Mexico and Cuba and neocolonial occupations in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Vietnam, and other nations? In recent decades, the Pentagon and CIA have waged wars and subjugated nations through surrogate militaries, paramilitaries, and dictators. No, Mr. Johansson, not to rub your nose in it, but U.S. history is one of the most aggressive, bloody, and ignominious on the planet.
Lastly, we don't buy Mr. Johansson's justifications for the U.S. Electoral College. It clearly subverts majority rule, the cornerstone of a democracy. As he also admits, the Electoral College throttles political diversity, innovation, and change, all of which he likens to "chaos."
Yes, we do see the U.S. as a Goliath surrounded by many little Davids.
They don't wield the giant's might, but the occasionally well-aimed stone
reminds us that resistance is not futile.
The Haitian
Elections According to the AP
by Stan Goff
In her Nov. 27 dispatch "Disenchanted, frightened Haitians fail to flock to polls," Associated Press correspondent Michelle Faul states that "fear, apathy and an opposition boycott marred Sunday's presidential election" and dutifully reports that "opponents say [President-elect Jean-Bertrand Aristide] will install a dictatorship." She insisted that voter participation was dismally low, in part due to bomb attacks which "Aristide blamed (...) on opponents" while "opposition leaders say the pro-Aristide government of President René Préval staged the attacks to explain an expected low voter turnout." According to Faul, Aristide "lives reclusively behind heavily guarded walls," while "Haitians have become increasingly disenchanted with their floundering democracy."
Michelle Faul is demonstrating the triple cause of press distortions about Haiti: near exclusive association with Haitians elites; fear of bucking US Embassy sources (and lines) on whom reporters depend for future "scoops"; and the tacit acceptance of the racist characterization of Haitians as incapable of self-governance.
Faul gives equal weight to Aristide's supporters, the vast majority of Haitians, and the shopworn hypocrisy of Duvalierists and coup-makers, claiming Aristide will be a "dictator." If Faul would list the authors of these comments, we could better scrutinize their histories.
She also gives equal weight to the claim that recent bombings are the work of Aristide opponents, and counter-charges by Duvalierists and FRAPHists (right-wing death squads) that President Préval staged bombings to explain "low voter turnout." Preposterous! This is like saying the Southern Christian Leadership Conference killed Martin Luther King, Jr. to discredit the opposition.
If 60-70 percent turn-out, even in the face of weeks of right-wing terror, is a "floundering democracy," where does that leave the US? We barely register 50 percent for a General Election. And that vestige of slavery, the Electoral College, has put us through our most recent "democratic" conundrum.
Faul is not asking a single penetrating question. She is shilling for the US foreign policy establishment, one that does not under any circumstances want to see this populist priest with a mandate to seek real independence from the Northern "massah." Shilling is fine. But she should call it that... not journalism.
Stan Goff, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier, is author of the upcoming Softskull Press book "Hideous Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of the U.S. Invasion of Haiti."
**~