[News] Politics of the Earthquake - Respect the People of Haiti
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Sun Jan 17 20:01:59 EST 2010
From: haiti action <action.haiti at gmail.com>
POLITICS OF THE EARTHQUAKE
RESPECT THE PEOPLE OF HAITI
By Robert Roth
Haiti Action Committee
In June of 2004, I went to Haiti with two other
members of the Haiti Action Committee. We were
there to investigate the effects of the political
earthquake in which the democratically elected
government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
had been overthrown by a coup orchestrated by the
United States, France and Canada.
What we saw still resonates. Hundreds of
families who had had to flee their homes in the
face of repression, thousands of grass roots
activists in prison because of their association
with Aristides Lavalas movement, literacy
projects and schools destroyed, community-based
activists forced into exile, Haiti returned to
elite control in the name of stability and security.
We also saw the beginnings of the United Nations
occupation, labeled peacekeeping by UN
(Minustah) authorities, but clearly seen by the
popular movement as the beginning of an international take-over of Haiti.
The coup devastated Haiti. It shattered the
promises of a truly democratic period in Haitian
history. It interrupted a process of building
schools (more schools were built under Lavalas
governments than had been built in all of Haitian
history), establishing health clinics and parks
in the poorest communities, support for literacy
efforts among women, , respect for the indigenous
religion of Vodou, and a commitment to the
development of Haitian agriculture in the face of
the flooding of Haitian markets by U.S. goods.
Six years later, here we are. Fanmi Lavalas, the
most popular political party in Haiti, has been
banned from participating in elections, with the
full support of the United States. The Preval
government has tailored its policies to what the
United States demands, rather than to what the
people need. There is a deep fissure between the
people and the official government, a deep gap
between the occupied and the occupiers.
Yes, the earthquake was a violent natural
disaster, presenting overwhelming challenges to
any government or any aid responders. Yet, it is
clear that this natural disasterjust like that
of Hurricane Katrina -- is compounded by a
political failure, the continuation of
generations of assaults against Haiti, and in
particular a brutal UN/US occupation that has
brought to a grinding halt the promise of the Aristide years.
Now we watch the U.S. gear up for a massive
military operation in Haiti, while people die due
to lack of medicine, or starve while food
supplies sit on the airport tarmac. We see the
pictures of families digging their relatives out
of the rubble, with no aid in sight despite the
presence of 9000 UN troops. We read the usual
racist slurs against Haitians, called
scavengers or looters when, after days of no
assistance, they look for food and water in
abandoned homes. We read that the problems of
Haiti are rooted in their culture and religious
beliefs, rather than in the harsh realities of
colonialism and occupation. We hear CNN reports
of a field hospital being ordered out of a
community for security reasons by the United
Nations, even in the face of wounded and dying
people. And we read that Doctors Without Borders
cargo planes were denied landing space in
Port-au-Prince by U.S. military authorities.
This is a time to respect the resiliency and
courage of the Haitian people. It is a time for
aid, not charity, for solidarity not a U.S.
military take-over. And it is a time to return
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to his homeland.
Please support community-based organizers in
Haiti who are working day and night to get aid to the people. Please
contribute to Haiti Emergency Relief Fund at
<http://www.haitiaction.net/>www.haitiaction.net
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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