[A-List] POLITICS OF THE EARTHQUAKE

[james daly]

This from the Haiti Action Committee in California.


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 Aristide’s 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 disaster—just 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
www.haitiaction.net

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