I am Flowers of the Delta Clan Flowers and the Line of O Killens. I ask Lord Legba to open this gate. A strategic analysis by Rickydoc Flowers. For we both love Haiti.
Latest Developments:
Jamaica has agreed to host Aristide for an undetermined length of time. This is in keeping with the skeptical attitude CARICOM has taken against Aristides removal by the US.
CARICOMS move puts Aristide back into play. This is an interesting development to which I shall play close attention. Depending on what moves CARICOM makes with Aristide, Aristides return or participation in the next elections is an option that has to be considered.
In bringing Aristide so close to home, the likelihood of his partisans remaining a cohesive and influential force is increased. This is an interesting development and Im not quite sure at this point how its going to play out. But so far its been the strongest African American move on the board
In incurring US hostility for keeping the issue of Aristide alive, Jamaica has performed an act of political courage that will now put it in the US crosshairs as “uncooperative”.
Hopefully African American policy influents will be more effective in defending Jamaica than they were Haiti.
Developments To Be Looked Out For and Resisted:
- marines shooting/disarming Lavalas partisans in order to let ‘rebels emerge unchecked when they leave
- the independence and the democratic nature of the Haitian political process being now shaped.
- the continued exploitation of the poor in Haiti and the resumption of Haitian class oppression.
SITUATION DYNAMICS
America, with the assistance of France and international funding institutions, has apparently orchestrated a coup against Aristide and Haitian democracy.
This operation has been in progress since the inauguration of the Bush Administration, and perhaps even before when Aristide was deposed during the first Bush Administration by an army and paramilitaries associated with the CIA.
The current Bush administration has always considered him a leftist troublemaker and Clinton holdover. The Bush operatives in charge of Caribbean policy are neocon ideologues Reich, Poindexter, Abrams, Negroponte and the Asst Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, Roger Noriega, all of whom have been aggressively and overtly targeting Aristide since his first fall in 1991. In the words of Vice President Dick Cheney, "We're glad to see him go."
Some of us are not. Haitis unique history has made it an important icon of black empowerment and geopolitical positioning.
Haiti has historically been riven by class and color issues, with a small exploitive elite and masses of the oppressed, composed in the main of subsistence farmers and the urban poor. Aristide, a priest serving the poor and preaching liberation theology, rode a wave of resentment that frightened the Haitian elite with populist calls of redistribution and retribution. The elite then conspired with the army (traditionally an instrument of repression) to topple him once in 1991 and again in the current “rebellion”.
After a paramilitary reign of terror that killed thousands of Haitians and triggered massive refugee movements, the Clinton Administration forcibly reinstated Aristide. Aristide disbanded the army and continued to alienate US neocon ideologues and the Haitian elite with populist policies.
Riding the dispute over the election of 7 senators during the election of 2000, the Democratic Convergence, an opposition alliance of Haitian elites, Duvaliarists and disaffected Aristide partisans, was supported and financed (some x millions a year) by US policy instruments like the Democracy Enhancement Project and The International Republican Institute. This US backed movement gridlocked Haitian government.
This gridlock was used to trigger a full embargo of international aid that had begun under media radar by the Bush Administration. This in turn crippled the ability to provide services by a government that was already one of the poorest in the world and Aristide began to lose support. In spite of Aristides attempts to compromise, the US backed Democratic Convergence made it clear that they would accept nothing less than his resignation.
Aristide made mistakes. Under pressure he too easily adapted to the Haitian winner take all style of governance and with no army and a weak police force he followed another traditional Haitian practice of arming partisan gangs. It was one of those disaffected gangs that started the ‘rebellion’ in the North, which was soon joined by ex army officers and paramilitaries previously convicted of crimes against humanity during the first Aristide coup, suddenly reconstituted, armed and organized by unknown outside forces.
The official media line has been that Aristides government lost popular legitimacy because of the irregularities of the 2000 election.
But according to Heather Williams in a recent Counterpunch article, this process reflects the Noriega modus operandi, “fund an opposition, report every clash as repression against the population, arm pliable thugs and mercenaries in exile, embargo the government, precipitate acute crisis, play up the discontent of a hungry population, and then happily leave it to internationalist liberals to lead the charge for military intervention on humanitarian grounds.”
The official media line is that this is but the collapse (again) of a failed state with bad management practices - as opposed to the result of official US policy that would surely be questioned if it were fully known.
Again, Aristide clearly made mistakes and his government was what we used to call back home a colored shop (as in operating on CPT principles), but his government is one of the precious few in Haitian history that sincerely tried to reverse the endemic exploitation of the Haitian people. To empower them and raise their living standards. To make of them a truly free people. In a country where 65% of the country cannot read, Aristide set up critical adult literacy programs. Aristide understood that Haitis redemption will come only through the empowerment of its people.
In the final analysis Aristide represented Haitian democracy, shaky perhaps but no more illegitimate than the equally questioned election of George Bush in the same year. Without an army and unable to stop them, Aristide agreed to the Administrations power sharing plan. The US backed Democratic Convergence did not.
America made it clear that it would not stop the rebel advance as long as Aristide remained in power. Then came the questionable exile, which, if not a political kidnapping, is close enough. As soon as he was gone, the Marines were on their way.
Basically what happened in Haiti was that America and France endorsed the armed takeover of a democratically elected government whose populist policies they did not approve of.
AGENDAS
The Haitian People:
A restless population in need of stability and development. Quality of life issues are predominant and Empowerment Strategies a must. A powerful force for change that must be channeled.
Haitian Elites:
Right now Haitian elites just want their power back. Security is high on their wishlist. They must be made aware of progressive principles of political stewardship. Instruments of influence and constraint must be designed.
USA Agendas:
Primary US agenda will be to shape a stable government that will be pliable to United States interests and influence.
The US attitude toward the Caribbean is one of marginal interest and as long as they do not openly defy America (as in Cuba) they are pretty much left alone. Jamaica and CARICOM have defied America on Haiti and will probably be targeted for retribution.
Supplemental issues that move the US there are trade, tourism, drug transshipment, refugees and immigration. There is little sense of US awareness of the human condition factors in their motivation here.
Joke of the Week: "No president has done more for human rights than I have," George W. Bush
The West Indian/AfricanAmerican lobby is not considered strong enough to be an effective brake on a hostile administration. Blacks in power in the Bush Administration tend to follow the company line and work against black world interests.
Hopefully after so artlessly orchestrating Aristides departure the Bush Administration should feel some sense of responsibility in making sure the ‘replacement’ government is functional, but perhaps that kind of progressive imperialism is beyond this fundamentalist bunch. It will probably be nakedly neocolonial and all that easier to check.
CARICOM And Regional Agendas:
CARICOM has taken an unusually strong stand on this. The countries of the Caribbean and South America fear hegemonic meddling in their own affairs. A primary ongoing agenda of theirs is to empower the counties of the hemisphere against American hegemony.
Regional pressure has proved effective in the past: Regional opposition and an OAS embargo tempered the first coup against Aristide in 1991. The US backed overthrow of Hugo Chavezs in April 2002 was reversed by the refusal of the people and 19 Latin American governments, including Mexico and Brazil, to accept it.
CARICOM will try to use this both to question Aristides removal and empower themselves as a regional force. This move back to Jamaica puts Aristide back in the game. We may have to be prepared to back a very strong move.
African American Agendas: (Games: Long and Short)
Short Game: immediate attempts to finesse current strategic dynamics
Empower the Haitian Population Through Nation Building and Investment in Social Capital
Social Capital. Quality of Life. Are your people downtrodden masses or are they viable factors in international competition. This is the critical component of any state developmental strategy, an investment in social capital. Literacy. Poverty. Living Wages. Health, Education and Social Welfare. Political empowerment. A state is only as strong as its people. A point that needs to be made to the Haitian elite. They need a much better sense of stewardship.
Haitis agricultural sector (most of its people) has been devastated by environmental misuse and economic agreements w/US. These issues have to be addressed systematically
Make sure that the marine occupation does not, as it did in 1915-34, cripple the organizations of the poor in favor of continued elite rule and increased US hegemonal pliability.
Breaking that cycle of dysfunction in Haiti is going to be a long and difficult task. It will take somewhat more than a village, it will take a generation. Or two.
Transform the Haitian Elite Into A Progressive Force with Class and Color Consciousness.
They must be forced to face their own contradictions, the progressive strands supported, the exploitive ones restrained.
Convince them that they will never be respected in the world as long as they continue to treat their people like this. Convince them that they will never know stable development. Convince them they will never know respect, power or security as long as they are renegade forces.
Bind them with democratic instruments designed to empower the Haitian people.
Influence The Dynamics of Haitian Governance Currently Being Shaped by International Forces.
Now the struggle will be to promote a viable government and progressive politics in Haiti, to build and shape a democratic infrastructure, and to ensure that discredited forces that joined hands with the Bush administration to destabilize Haiti are not rewarded for their efforts.
CARICOMs move bringing Aristide to Jamaica means his return or participation in the process becomes an option. We need to back CARICOMs play, whatever it is, and try to deflect some of the hostility and pressure they are about to incur from Bush and Co.
The Bush administration will try to install folk willing lead Haiti to the corporate slaughter. Folk willing to sell out Haiti for a fistful of trade beads.
The Election of 2004. Getting the Bush Administrations neocons cabal in charge of Caribbean policy out of office will give Haiti a chance to breath. In an effort to distinguish himself from Bush, Kerry has vaguely spoken out in support of Aristide. While nothing to bet on, this is just another reason to work hard for the defeat of George Bush. (Fundamentalists who continue to claim that there is no difference between electing Democrats or Republicans need to get out of the way and go sit in the corner somewhere.)
Basically the immediate move is to transfer control of this Haitian governing process from the US to the UN and regional associations, the OAS and CARICOM.
And to further ensure that developmental strategies of official and NGO instruments are designed to truly empower the Haitian people.
Depending on what moves CARICOM makes with Aristide, Aristides return or participation in the next elections is an option that has to be considered.
In bringing Aristide so close to home, the likelihood of his partisans remaining a cohesive and influential force is increased. This is an interesting development that im not quite sure at this point is going to play out. But so far its been the strongest African American move on the board
Empowering African American Policy Influence in Global Affairs & In Particular the Caribbean
This effort to influence the international shaping of Haiti will be an exercise in frustration exposing our weaknesses in policy instruments. Its hard not to feel a certain sense of guilt that we didnt do more for Aristide and Haiti before it got dicey and much too late. (Including calling him on it when he made bad moves.)
Accordingly this should be a dual effort, (one) to affect the current situation and (two) to enhance and institutionalize our ongoing ability to influence events in the world that concern us. Situations like African development or slavery in the Sudan or the struggles of the untouchables in India.
We, African Americans, need to forge a foreign affairs capacity equal to other influential minorities (which will go unnamed). We need an ongoing and proactive lobbying infrastructure that will give us the ability to respond to crises that affect us with something more than hollow bleats of moral outrage. We need instruments. Have to support the ones we have. We have to build new ones shaped to our needs. Got to get in front of the curve.
Show Unity With A Beleaguered African American Population.
Personal Commitment: its difficult to take on new responsibilities that ask us to give to others when we have so little ourselves, but it is the fundament of the strong people we would our generations be.
THE LONGGAME: Fa: Shaping Our Generations and their Destiny
Use the mojo generated by this situation:
To empower the Haitian people and culture and to make of it a nation, strong, healthy, wealthy and wise.
To conjure Haiti as the mythopoetic icon of black pride and empowerment we all know it capable of being.
To empower and strengthen strategic ties with African American populations of the Hemisphere.
To foster respect for Voodoo (and ATR) in the world.
To illuminate and empower Haitian voodoo and remind it of its tribal guidance responsibilities. If they had been doing their jobs, Haiti would not be in the state it is today.
Arthur, peace and blessings,
The Haiti coup is the damnest thing I have ever experienced in my adult life, and I include the wars of Vietnam through Iraq, including Grenada. This Bush administration believes it can do anything that it has a mind and nerve to do. For its decisions cannot be undone. Moreoevr, who cares what is done to Haitians or other colored people of the world?
Here is a word from John Maxwell in Jamaica on the American coup:
"The CARICOM prime minister's press conference ended at about 1330 EST (3 March 04) after meetings which began yesterday and ended about midday today. I must confess pleasure and some surprise at the strength of the response. Here are the main points of the press conference. A communique is being drafted and will be issued later.
Caricom does not accept the removal of Aristide and demands the immediate return of democratic government in Haiti. Caricom leaders had been in almost constant contact with Aristide before his removal and were never given the impression that he wished to resign or leave Haiti.
Caricom demands an impartial transparent investgation, by the UN, into the circumstances surrounding Aristide's removal. Caricom will have no dealings with the so-called government of Haiti. Seems like a good strong statement. Love John"
Despite the statements and resolutions of CARICOM or even if any come from the UN, the deed of undermining the most liberal forces in Haiti has been accomplished.
We have entered the New World Order of Masters and Slaves: those in the Northern Hemisphere will enjoy the wealth and comfort of the earth's resources and those in the Southern Hemisphere will make that wealth and comfort possible for this white minority. And this slavery will be sustained by tanks, gunships, and bombs.
It is the same scenario within the United States: those in the Colored Urban Centers will receive a different level of living and education than those in the gated communities or in the more wealthy suburban regions of the states. In the US this system will be sustained by repressive laws, increased police forces and prisons, and murder.
All our state and national politics are geared toward the white middle classes, and even these are being abandoned for the benefits of the upper classes. The urban and rural poor -- black and Hispanic -- must settle for a second-class life and education. For the state and the national governemnts are determined to decrease taxes to such an extent that such developmental services cannot be delivered to those most in need.
And no political candidate can receive the resources to win office if he/she does not agree to go along with this structured view of how life in America should be organized. . . . I just watched a program on California education and how that education system was more or less destroyed by Howard Jarvis' Proposition 13, which reduced education in California almost to the same level as that in Mississippi.
So Freedom, Equality, Fraternity have been emptied of any significant meaning -- they make nice sound bytes but they have no real substance. That is, not in this New World Order, which is geared to squash all resistance.
Most of us here in America the poor and the near poor realize that our participation in electoral politics is almost meaningless. And those of us who do participate are so lacking in education and critical skills that we are mere pawns of the spin doctors, the slick promoters, and unsympathetic political operatives. White corporate money control the system and that whomever the politician (black, white, or Hispanic) the working poor will get the shaft.
The hopes and dreams of so many are being thwarted by so few. As ever and always, Rudy
Posted by: Rudy | March 04, 2004 at 12:54 AM
Why would the US go against their own history and motives, and leave Haiti alone to develop and hone true democracy? They never did it before.... For two hundred years in one way or another they have interfered with the political process and the economic development in Haiti.
What is funny to me, is that anybody still believes so much as one word that comes out of the mouths of the Bush administration and his lackies.... So when Rumsfeld trots out and sings out, "No it is not so. He got onto the plane.", hasn't the doings in Afghanistan and Iraq not make the ignorant, insular, thumb sucking American public not perk up and go, "Baroo?"
Personally, I think Colin Powell is the worst of the bunch, a house Negro if ever there was one. Worse, he's Jamaican, and a prime quality, grade A, sell out as far as I am concerned.
As for Haiti, as distressing and disturbing as it's been to watch the devolution of all that Toussaint, Dessalines, Christophe and the POWERFUL IYA who really ran the Haitian revolution, fought for and died for; I think that this was ultimately inevitable. I feel that way, because America will never allow Haiti to become a prosperous, self governed country. To do that would be to allow African descendents in the rediscovered 'New World' to have an example of what is possible if armed revolution against the opressors of our peoples can occur.
Why wouldn't the racist government of the United States NOT remain true to form, and kidnap Aristide and dump him in Central Africa? What in their past behaviour indicates to any of us, that they are incapable or not guilty of this behaviour?
There is no real democracy in America, isn't Bush's election into the office he holdsso why should there be real democracy anywhere else?
My Heart Weeps For Haiti
http://sungoddess.journalspace.com/?entryid=317
Posted by: sungoddess | March 05, 2004 at 08:07 AM
That last sentence should read: There is no real democracy in America, isn't Bush's election into the office he holds, prime evidence of the break down of democracy and all America holds dear? So why should there be real democracy anywhere else?
Posted by: sungoddess | March 05, 2004 at 08:11 AM
i know, i feel the same way
my heart just weaps
im working on a piece now
up against the wall in haiti
that i am designing as a strategic analysis
thats gotten all twisty and complicated
rudy just came out with a piece
in defense of aristide
that i wish i had wrote myself
cause im trying to capture that sentiment
cause he did try as martin luther king said
to 'feed the hungry'
he did try to 'help somebody'
we know he made mistakes and i wish
we had helped him more when we had a
chance to (including calling him on
his missteps when they could have been
corrected)
rudys new piece on aristide is
clean and surgical
http://www.nathanielturner.com/indefenseofaristide.htm
obviously rudy has a soft spot for
black revolutionaries
in struggle
arf
Posted by: rickydoc | March 07, 2004 at 11:42 PM
Jamaica Hosts Aristide.......
I find your writing incisive and thought provoking. (I always did though.) This particular article was touching because Haiti is one of those issues very close to my heart.
Posted by: sungoddess | March 19, 2004 at 08:08 AM
Whoops.... forgot typepad strips HTML....
http://sungoddess.journalspace.com/?entryid=519
Posted by: sungoddess | March 19, 2004 at 08:12 AM