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From: "Pierre Labossiere"
<pierrelabossiere@hotmail.com><br><br>
<br>
Dear Friends,<br><br>
Best wishes for a happy and peaceful 2004 !!!<br><br>
I recently returned from Haiti where I attended the bicentennial
celebrations of the declaration of independence from France. It was a
very inspiring week-long visit.<br><br>
I was greatly dismayed by the gross inaccurate reporting of the
festivities that I had witnessed both in Port-au-Prince and Gonaives.
While in Haiti, I spent much time dispelling inaccurate stories that
friends and relatives in the US were quoting from the NY Times and BBC
among others.<br><br>
The dissemination of these false stories, on this most special occasion
for Haiti, Africa, Africans of the diaspora and freedom-loving people
world-wide, follows in the tradition of negative portrayal of Haiti since
its founding 200 years ago. This tradition, initiated by the US and
French “slaveocracy”, lives on in the western media.<br><br>
The article below by Haiti Progres is preceded by Frederick Douglass’
poem “Until She Spoke”. The article reflects what I experienced both in
Port-au-Prince and Gonaives; it follows an informative article by Sara
Flounders on the page *This Week in Haiti* 1/7/04,<br>
<<a href="http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng01-07.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng01-07.html</a>><br><br>
The San Francisco Bayview newspaper of 1/7/04, has a great article with
photos of the bicentennial celebrations. It also reports on a solidarity
conference of Haiti-based and other organizations from different parts of
the world
<<a href="http://www.sfbayview.com/010704/motherofliberty010704.shtml" eudora="autourl">http://www.sfbayview.com/010704/motherofliberty010704.shtml</a>>.<br><br>
In the same issue of the SF Bayview, Randall Robinson’s informative
article is a must-read
<<a href="http://www.sfbayview.com/010704/honorhaiti010704.shtml" eudora="autourl">http://www.sfbayview.com/010704/honorhaiti010704.shtml</a>><br><br>
Pierre Labossiere<br>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>
<br>
Inspired by the high price paid by Haiti’s revolutionaries for the sake
of freedom, Frederick Douglass, who was appointed consul general to Haiti
in 1889 and lived there for two years, left a lasting appreciation of his
love and respect for Haiti in his poem “Until She Spoke”.
SF Bayview 12/24/03<br><br>
** Until She Spoke **<br><br>
Until she spoke, no Christian nation had abolished Negro
slavery.<br><br>
Until she spoke, no Christian nation had given to the world an organized
effort to abolish slavery.<br><br>
Until she spoke, the slave ship, followed by hungry sharks, greedy to
devour the dead and dying slaves flung overboard to feed them, ploughed
in peace the South Atlantic, painting the sea with the Negro’s
blood.<br><br>
Until she spoke, the slave trade was sanctioned by all the Christian
nations of the world, and our land of liberty and light
included.<br><br>
Men made fortunes by this infernal traffic, and were esteemed as good
Christians, and the standing types and representations of the Savior of
the World.<br><br>
Until Haiti spoke, the church was silent, and the pulpit was
dumb.<br><br>
Slave-traders lived and slave-traders died.<br><br>
Funeral sermons were preached over them, and of them it was said that
they died in the triumphs of the Christian faith and went to heaven among
the just.<br><br>
- Frederick Douglass -<br>
******************************************************************************<br><br>
<br><br>
- Haiti Progres 1/7/04 -<br><br>
**Despite Opposition Boycott and Terror Campaign Haitians Joyously
Celebrate Their Bicentennial**<br><br>
<br>
Many tens of thousands of Haitians filled the streets around the National
Palace in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 1, 2004 to celebrate the 200th
anniversary of Haiti’s independence. A smaller celebration of about 7,000
took place later the same day in Gonaïves, the city where Jean-Jacques
Dessalines, Haiti’s first head of state, declared independence for the
world’s first black republic.<br><br>
Despite threats of violence from the Washington-backed opposition and
back-room pressure to dissuade them, many foreign delegations attended
the bicentennial ceremonies. South African President Thabo Mbeki and his
wife along with Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie shared center
stage with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, First Lady Mildred Trouillot
Aristide, Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, and his wife.<br><br>
The vice president of Surinam, and the foreign ministers of the Dominican
Republic and of Benin, among others, also headed high-level
delegations.<br><br>
France and the United States only dispatched their local ambassadors,
although Washington’s Luigi Einaudi and Ottawa’s David Lee attended
representing the Organization of American States, of which they are
respectively Assistant Secretary General and Special Representative to
Haiti.<br><br>
Festivities began the evening of December 31, when tens of thousands
filled the streets in all corners of the capital to watch fireworks,
listen to bands, and gather in large jubilant crowds. Thousands milled in
the capital’s central square, the Champ de Mars, to admire the normally
white National Palace and the trees around it which were illuminated blue
and red, the Haitian flag’s colors.<br><br>
Thousands more danced to rara street bands in the suburb of Tabarre, not
far from Aristide’s home. Another street party rocked the Caridad quarter
of the capital, which, like many other neighborhoods, was festooned with
tiny flags and had newly painted murals of Haiti’s revolutionary war
heroes lining the avenue.<br><br>
In Bon Repos, just north of the capital, several hundred people gathered
around a makeshift roadside stage to listen to speeches by local leaders
and music by local bands. As midnight struck, the mountainsides around
capital erupted in dozens of firework displays.<br><br>
Stores and restaurants throughout he city were open practically all
night. Ceremonies in front of the Palace began the next morning at about
8 a.m. when the presidential couple hoisted the Haitian bicolor. In their
excitement, crowds collapsed the fence surrounding the Palace grounds as
well as a wooden viewing platform constructed for the occasion.<br><br>
“May the determination of these former slaves to forge a nation in a
world hostile to their very existence inspire us to always continue to
struggle for human dignity that is the sacred right of all people,”
Aristide declared in his speech, which outlined 21 accomplishments as
well as projects “waiting for the 21 billion.” He was referring to the
$21.7 billion in reparations which Haiti has formally demanded from
former colonizer France.<br><br>
The ceremony featured marching bands, flag displays, the sounding of
conch shells (used by Haitian maroons), and the release of doves of
peace.<br><br>
Later that afternoon, Aristide flew to Gonaïves where he delivered a
similar address underscoring that he intends to serve out his full five
year term, which ends in 2006. The opposition wants him to step down to
be replaced by a 27-member “Council of Wise Men,” which is completely
unconstitutional.<br><br>
Haitians overwhelmingly reject the opposition and their proposal. Like
those in the capital and Gonaïves, crowds along the highway between the
two cities greeted passing vehicles with an open hand, to symbolize that
Aristide should serve out his full term.<br><br>
In an attempt to disrupt the celebrations, the opposition held a march of
a few hundred in the capital on Thursday afternoon which deliberately
veered off the agreed march route. When the police blocked their advance
with tear-gas, the opposition demonstrators threw up barricades and went
on a rampage through commercial and residential districts, smashing car
windshields and storefronts, burning vehicles, throwing rocks and firing
shots.<br><br>
A similar terror assault was carried out in Gonaïves after ceremonies
were successfully concluded. In the Dekawo neighborhood, opposition
hooligans hid behind the houses lining the southern exit route from the
city to pelt buses of celebrants with rocks. One car had its back windows
shot out.<br><br>
That evening at the National Palace, government officials, diplomats and
invited guests viewed a musical and theatrical extravaganza, featuring a
host of artists including U.S. actor Danny Glover, the Cuban-Haitian
vocal group Desandan, and Haitian singers Joe Trouillot, Carole Demesmin
and Erna Letemps. Afterwards, Aristide awarded Mbeki with the “Award of
Pétion and Bolivar.”<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
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