rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

Richard Clarke, the Naked Emperor and National Security

The testimony of Richard Clarke has put the spotlight on Bushs ineffectual and even counterprodutive counterterrorism strategy and they have been trying to tear him with with all the dirty tricks they are accustomed to using against substantial critics. He must have known they would come after him harder than theyve gone after Bin Laden. But again, as with other instances where real media attention starts getting paid, the truth is so obvious that the more spotlight on it the better. Bushs credibility has never been able to withstand the harsh light of truth and the more they spin the larger the holes will appear.

It has long amazed me that the Bush administration sells itself as strong on terror when its 9/11 response has been criminally inept. Bush sells himself as a strong leader but not only did he run scared on 9/11 (remember Air Force one) but his slogan based policies since have been unbelieveably counterproductive.

Clarke has made two major accusations. So far the media has focused on what Bush knew and did before September 11th but thats not the real crime here. The real crime was his obsession with invading Iraq and how counterproductive a response that was.

Its like they werent really serious about stopping Al Qaeda and defusing radical islam. Their pre-tmptve invasion of Iraq has inflamed it. Invading Afghanistan was a nobrainer, but combating radical Islam requires nuance and ideological sophistication. Bush wouldnt know a nuance if it stepped on him. Far as Im concerned they still not taking terrorism seriously. These are some serious times and we need some serious folk up in there. I fear we are going to lose this 'war' if we dont get this bunch of homegrown fundamentalists out of there.

But hey, I will let Clarke speak for himself, he says it with more authority than I ever could. This is an excerpt from his book, Against All Enemies:

"From the interactions I did have with Bush it was clear that the critique of him as a dumb, lazy rich kid were somewhat off the mark. When he focused, he asked the kind of questions that revealed a results-oriented mind, but he looked for the simple solution, the bumper sticker description of the problem. Once he had that, he could put energy behind a drive to achieve his goal.

"The problem was that many of the important issues, like terrorism, like Iraq, were laced with important subtlety and nuance. These issues needed analysis and Bush and his inner circle had no real interest in complicated analyses; on the issues that they cared about, they already knew the answers, it was received wisdom. . . .

"Many times since Sept. 11 I have wondered what difference it made that George Bush was president when we were attacked. What if it had happened with Clinton still in office or what if the Florida voting procedures had been otherwise?

"Although Bush had heard about Al-Qaida in intelligence reports before the attack he had spent little time learning about the sources and nature of the movement. His immediate instinct after the attacks was, naturally, to hit back. His framework, however, was summed up by his famous line ``you are either with us or against us'' and his early focus on dealing with Iraq as a way of demonstrating America's power. I doubt that anyone ever had the chance to make the case to him that attacking Iraq would actually make America less secure and strengthen the broader radical Islamic terrorist movement. Certainly he did not hear that from the small circle of advisers who alone are the people whose views he respects and trusts.

"Any leader whom one can imagine as president on Sept. 11 would have declared a ``war on terrorism'' and would have ended the Afghan sanctuary by invading. Almost any president would have stepped up domestic security and preparedness measures. Exactly what did George Bush do after Sept. 11 that any other president one can imagine wouldn't have done after such attacks?

"In the end, what was unique about George Bush's reaction to terrorism was his selection as an object lesson for potential state sponsors of terrorism, not a country that had been engaging in anti-U.S. terrorism but one that had not been, Iraq. It is hard to imagine another president making that choice.

"Others (Clinton, the first Bush, Carter, Ford) might have tried to understand the phenomenon of terrorism, what led 15 Saudis and four others to commit suicide to kill Americans. Others might have tried to build a world consensus to address the root causes, while using the moment to force what had been lethargic or doubting governments to arrest known terrorists and close front organizations. One can imagine Clinton trying one more time to force an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, going to Saudi Arabia and addressing the Muslim people in a moving appeal for religious tolerance, pushing hard for a security arrangement between India and Pakistan to create a nuclear-free zone, and stabilizing Pakistan.

"Such efforts may or may not have succeeded, but one thing we know they would not have done is inflame Islamic opinion and further radicalize Muslim youth into heightened hatred of America in the way that invading Iraq has done. . . .

"One would have thought that it was equally obvious after Sept. 11 that high on the priority list would have been improving U.S. relations with the Islamic world, in order to dry up support for the deviant variant of Islam that is Al-Qaida. After all, Al-Qaida, the enemy that attacked us, was engaged in its own highly successful propaganda campaign to influence millions of Muslims to act against America, as a first step in a campaign to replace existing governments around the world with Taliban-like regimes. To defeat that enemy . . . we needed to do more than just arrest and kill people. We and our values needed to be more appealing to Muslims than Al-Qaida is.

"By all measures, however, Al-Qaida and similar groups were increasing in support from Morocco to Indonesia. If that trend continues, the radical imams and their madrasah schools will (as Donald Rumsfeld finally understood in 2003, as reflected in his leaked internal memo that painted a far more bleak assessment of the war on terrorism than his public statements) produce more terrorists than we jail or shoot. Far from addressing the popular appeal of the enemy that attacked us, Bush handed that enemy precisely what it wanted and needed, proof that America was at war with Islam, that we were the new crusaders come to occupy Muslim land.

"Nothing America could have done would have provided Al-Qaida and its new generation of cloned groups a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country. Nothing else could have so well negated all our other positive acts and so closed Muslim eyes and ears to our subsequent calls for reform in their region. It was as if Osama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush, chanting, ``Invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq.''

Baba John O. Killens: The Great Griot Master of Brooklyn

I am Flowers of the Delta Clan Flowers and the line of O Killens. I was trained by John Oliver Killens. The Great Griot Master of Brooklyn. John O. Killens taught me not only how to write but how to be a writer.

This weekend I am participating in a John Oliver Killens Conference at Medger Evers. As is only fitting. MEC was his final resting place.

I came to NYC in the summer of 73 to get into John Os workshop at Columbia and stayed in it till he died in 1986. For 13 years I followed John Killens from school to school. Wherever John taught he always stipulated that his workshop would be open to the 'community' so over the years it drew a little literary community unto him. Dorisjean Austin, Malaika Adero, BJ Ashanti, Wesley Brown, Joyce Dukes, Jacqui Johnson, Brenda Miller, Terry McMillan, Elizabeth Nunez and Barbara Summers, one by one my literary companeros drifted into the circle of young writers that gathered around John O Killens and followed him from Columbia to Howard to Bronx Community to his final resting place at Medgar Evers.

Prestigewise Medgar Evers was a long drop from Columbia and Johns reputation had suffered, he was no longer treated as a serious writer. But for us his students he was in his prime during those Medgar Evers years. He had attained Grace. Medgar Evers was not only in his own Brooklyn neighborhood but it was a gathering place of blacks from all over the Western Hemisphere and all these diasporic dynamics played out there. It was a Holyspace. I called it The Meeting Ground. And John Oliver Killens was its Master Griot

Folk who leave John Killens out of any exploration of black literature just dont understand the game. John Os influence transcends his work. John Os efforts to institutionalize a progressive black literary infrastructure and train generations of blackwriters will make his influence unprecedented. He left behind legions infused with a sense of divine responsibility for the tribal soul and destiny. He taught us how to be cultural players. He taught us how to be visionaries. What he called a longdistance runner. What I call the Longgame. John O Killens showed us the way.

We are all politically inclined and had to learn, as must all politically inclined writers, that politics cant carry a story. John used to tell us over and over, "The more important that you have to say, the more obligated you are to say it well. He preached craft, craft and more craft, told us we had to grow as craftsfolk for the rest of our literary lives.

BabaJohn tried to make sure we were not only powerful but righteous. In my literary youth I felt that the will to power was the answer to black folks problems. I aspired to be a Machiavellian thinker who would forge blackfolk into a conquering horde and fling them into battle. Power was my field of study and people were just factors to be used. This was reflected in my work. One day BabaJohn pulled me aside and said, "Art, you a brilliant writer but with a little compassion you could be profound." I didnt get it. "Brilliant" was all I heard. It wasnt until many years later that I realized he was trying to ensure that my artistic contribution to the tradition, my legacy as his student, would not be hard and cold but warm and loving - an old shaman trying to ensure the health of the tribal soul.

BabaJohn taught us that what makes a writer significant is not the popularity of the moment but the lifetime commitment to craft, content and character. To Discipline and Sincerity. He taught us that the judgement of any literary movement is the quality of the works (masterpieces) produced by it: the issues raised pertinent to its generations: the ideological instruments forged to finesse its challenges: its influence on future literary work: its legacy. But in the final analysis it is the Work that counts.

But for works like Keith Gilyard's recent Liberation Memories, John O suffers a lack of respect in todays literary world but true work is judged anew every generation. John O believed in work that mattered, work that meant something.

John O Killens was irredemptively oldschool. He believed passionately in the moral dimension of literature. It was his understanding then that you must constantly purify and refine your character, vision and craft, your understanding of people, the human condition and the historical/destinical process. That you must constantly strive for generational relevance. That you must constantly strive to truly reflect the concerns and needs of both Tribe and Humanity and all Jah creatures great and small. It is the responsibility of you who would be great to be productive, significant and of the righteous. At all times willing to grow. To work hard. To pay your dues without whimpering. To aspire to work so powerful it can not be ignored.

There are moments in the life of a writer - fleeting moments - when you being strong and disciplined and productive or when you’ve written a really good passage or participated in an historically significant moment when you are are aware of yourself as Historical. Mythical. History in the flesh. If you pull it off - you and your works will live in the hearts and aspirations of generations to come. To the extent that your Works are relevant and significant to those generations, to that extent are you Immortal.

John O Killens is a Literary Immortal. History in the Flesh.

John O. Killens died in May 1987. He had been terminally sick for awhile, in and out of the hospital, one of those folks who just refuse to go, a fighter to the bitter end. The last time I saw him I went out to Brooklyn, the house full of folks on the deathwatch. John was on the second floor, I went up to see him and was shocked. He was laying there all thin and wasted, a pale reflection of who I knew him to be, skin and bones and spirit. Still had that impeccable spirit. Nobody else was in the room. We talked. He knew I was thinking about going to L.A. and chase some Hollywood dollars and he was telling me to be careful out there, so weak he couldnt sit up in bed and still teacher, Dont get lost out there, he told me, dont let ever money rule the work . Then he asked me to lift him up. Put him in a chair that was sitting by the bed. I did, arms behind his knees and his back and when I lifted him I stumbled, shocked by how feather light he was. I carefully placed him in the chair and arranged the blanket over him. Call Amazing Grace, he said, thats what he called Ms Grace, Amazing. I called her and she came upstairs and beamed at him sitting there so proud

Im sitting up, he told her.
I see you are, she said.
I like to see what's going on around me, he said.
I know you do, she said

To John O Killens literature was a sacred calling. I followed John O Killens from workshop to workshop for 13 years and only looking back do I see that I was learning what is called in mystic traditions - the unwritten knowledge - that which can only be learned from the extended example of the masters life. I have internalized so much of BabaJohns passions and precepts about writing and being a writer that he is always with me, always teaching even in new ground.

John O continues to watch over us. And those of us who loved him will continue to watch over him. And his legacy. Wherever I go and whatever I do, John O Killens walks with me.

That is all.
Gods Blessings on us all.

Rest for the Weary

I am Flowers of the Delta Clan Flowers and the Line of O Killens. I am a babagriot of the hoodoo way.

And I am unhappy about the Darfar situation in the Sudan. In Feb 2003, the blacks of Darfar rose in rebellion against the government in the Sudan. Samosamo - Arab/Islamic repression. The Sudanese government responded with an allout assault by the army and Janjaweed Arab raiders on Darfar which has resulted in the killing of thousands of blacks and driving almost a million out of the country into exile. The Sudanese army has also attacked and bombed refugee camps in Chad. Whats so appalling to me is that this Arab oppression of Blacks in the Sudan is a historical pattern that has continued to this day.

And nobody seems to care. I put Darfar into Google News and got one listing which just barely mentions Darfar in an article about Al Qaeda in Africa. All Africa wasnt much better but I did get some info from Sudan Net. Apparently EU backed talks have started in Chad between rebels and the government. I will keep an eye on this situation.

What irks me most is that that is about all I can do. Again, I feel helpless to really help a beleaguered black population.

I did my previous Haiti post in a think tank mode in an attempt to actually make a difference. Facilitate action. A frustrated dreamer railing at the moon. And so unlikely to ever make any difference in Haiti. Or the Sudan. Or the Middle East. Or any one of a million other world hot spots.

The strategy is to keep doing this (rootsblog) and hope that in the longrun it does become an influential platform, but right now Im just spitting in the wind. And Im going to keep spitting in the wind because I cant help myself. There is so much happening in the world that I want to influence.

I am always telling folk we need instruments, so that we can exert policy influence, so that we can respond to situations that affect us with more than hollow bleats of moral outrage. Rootsblog is one of my many efforts to build instruments and infrastructures and to be a little more influential in the affairs of the world than art (my beloved novels) will generally allow. Art is a more nebulous and generational kind of influence. I want influence in my lifetime on the issues that I am passionate about.

Like the Middle East. I am, like much of the world, dismayed by the Israeli assassination of the sheik yesterday. This would not normally be in my sphere of active interest but the Middle East generates some of the most dangerous destabilizing tensions in the world today. And I put the bulk of that onus on Israel. Israel has become a fulcrum of world tensions that is almost biblical in its scope.

Which actually leads into a longer and more nuanced post about Blacks and Jews and Chosen People scenarios that I will have to get to at some point.

Right now Im just ranting. And feeling frustrated and helpless before all the unnecessary grief in the world today. Africa, Iraq, Haiti, Israel/Palestine, etc etc etc etc. The Bush Administrations systematic dismantling of Great Society Programs like Social Security and Medicare, their disastrous foreign policy and the way they play with the American people. And let me not get into my ongoing efforts to empower African American culture. To take care of the tribal soul and destiny. And what about the big ones, hunger, poverty, AIDS and so forth. And the even bigger pains of family and friends. God help us all.

Okay, enough whining, looks like I got those burnout blues coming down on me, best I just get back in the saddle:

BUSHS VULNERABILITIES

The Bush Administration is wiggling behind the accusation of Richard Clarke, their ex counterterrorism officer, that the Bush administrations obsession with Iraq has been at the cost of the war on terror (which is in itself a silly jingoistic phrase). As always the Bush Administration, addicted to governing by lies, has indignantly denied what is so obviously the truth to other folk but . . . .

Oh what the hell, what Im about to say Ive said before and Im not really feeling this today. Maybe tomorrow or next week I will be back on my groove. But right now Ima close this blogpost down and go get me a couple of hours novelwork in before I have to start preparing for my class at 1. (Lord I wish I had a extra couple hours a day to do all the things I got to do.)

The name of my novel-in-progress is Rest for the Weary. Used to be No Rest for the Weary. I changed it a couple of years ago in a burst of Flowers legendary optimism. But right now Im just tired. No, right now Im weary.

If Im going to be putting all the time and energy I put into this blog I need my posts to be signficant, to mean something, to make a difference, cause otherwise Im just wasting good noveltime. Other day I was talking to George Saunders about literary style and he said why waste your time doing what anybody else could do. Do what only you can.

I think in the future I will do more of the afrospiritual posts I am partial to anyway. My next post will probably be on the nature of God. Been on my mind lately. Sometimes you look at all the pain in the world (so much of it in Gods name) and you want to despair but I basically believe in:

God the Benevolent Universe, In Its Many Names and Infinite Manifestations.

And in spite of all the trial and tribulation that comes with the human condition, I believe there is a harmony to the universe far greater than what we see.

And I will continue to try to contribute to it. What I can when I can. But sometimes my friend I get weary. Tired of preaching to the choir. Tired of trying to save the world. Of trying to awaken the sleeper, protect the weak and guide the strong. Tired of people dying and suffering on every hand. No matter what I do.

Novelwork is frustrating too, if anything my greatest frustration, I love novels, they can be so beautiful, so comprehensive a vision, but its like the only thing Ive ever tried that I might fail at, takes everything I got and then some. That kind of challenge seems to intrigue me, making novels is what I live for, three to six hours a day keeps those burnout blues away, straightup longgame, the Power of Art allows me to do more than occasionally stick a couple of broken fingers in the dike.

My Work is the one thing I think might really make a difference.

So let me take this moment to encourage my loyal readership, believers all, to keep the faith and dont get faithhearted when you get weary as we sometimes do.

Kinda like using the blues to get through the blues, the very act of writing is redemptive and I believe in my soul that somewhere somehow there is Rest for the Weary, child.

word by rickydoc

Up Against the Wall in Haiti

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.