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Sunday, 27 February 2011
West up to its old tricks in Haiti
Well its been over a year since that terrible Earthquake wrecked the most vulnerable nation in the Caribbean and sadly it appears that despite shaking the foundations of the nations houses the countries just as rotten political house seems to have been untouched and is set to receive a fresh coat of paint in the form of a sham election. Now the North American members of the organisation of American States (plus France for some reason) interfering in the internal politics of Haiti is not surprising to those who've studied its almost non stop history of abuse at the hands of the dominant colonial/imperial powers at the given time. What makes this latest development so galling is that its happening at a time when much more attention is being directed at the nation, before shady business deals and exploitation could be carried out with impunity as few were paying attention and the Caribbean nations were to poor to get there plight across to the world community effectively.
Ultimately though it does not matter who wins the elections in Haiti, ever since Aristide was kicked out and his party Fanmi Lavalas was banned the electoral process in Haiti has become a sham. Fanmi Lavalas is the largest party in Haiti and its deposed President(who might be coming back) the only one with genuine popular support of a kind different from the lesser evil, or better the devil you know school of thought.
Banning the largest political party from standing for election is in effect an affront to the democratic ideal which lets remind ourselves is the power of the people to decide there fates, and an blatant admittance of systematic fraud.
But is this a surprise? I like to believe that there's a little bit of good in everyone, but it's been proven time and time again that Haiti is more crooked than crooked. It doesn't even matter who is behind what, the people that are running the show are worse.
ReplyDeleteWhen Canada and the US started sending aim int he form of money after the earthquake, I thought, oh, yeah, like that's going to reach the people. And my sentiments were proven correct.
Yes, the U.S. has proven to be one of the greatest interferences to smaller/weaker/less developed nations gaining a foothold to greatness - Augusto Pinochet, Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein and Adolph Hitler and are but a few examples of the kind of puppets they either put into power or aid in getting there.
But it takes two to tango. These guys don't have the chutzpah to flip the U.S. off, which makes them just as culpable.
"to flip the U.S. off," The last time they "flipped the US off" was under Aristide, he was President twice, both terms ended with a coup. The last he was actually kidnapped and stuck on a plane heading to South Africa.
ReplyDelete"which makes them just as culpable". The Haitian "elite" clearly have no problem with the state of affairs, as evidenced by there continued banning of Fami Lavalas and the turning to the folks up north to overturn there elections when the Haitian people get stubborn true.
But its worth remembering that there are and have been a lot of resistance by the Haitian people over the years its just that when these revolts start to gain momentum their corrupt "leaders" turn to the west for "aide".
Yeah, but again, that culpability comes down to the other corrupt individuals getting in on it. Someone says to you - after being stripped of what you feel is yours - and says, "hey, you want it all back? Tell ya what...", most people are going to jump on it, it's human nature. And the dirtier they are, the faster they'll jump.
ReplyDeleteI mean, when you come into power with that kind of opposition, you have to fight fire with fire; at least until the snake's head has been cut off.
If he had had the remaining Tonton Macoute thugs rounded up and executed, if he had summarily executed the army chief, no one would have stood to oppose him and the U.S. would not have had anyone to help stage a coup.
At that point, the people respect you because they know that you'll protect them and the dirtbags will not oppose you. Well, ideally.
While honey will lure bees, it won't quiet wasps; you'll have to exterminate them at some point. Even India eventually went to war against the English.
While I agree with you that corrupt elites are necessary for Imperialism (how else could the relatively sparsely populated north take over all that territory) I'm afraid I find your assertion that all Aristide (or some other incorruptible fellow) had to do was kill his potential enemies a bit simplistic. First given the extent of the corruption who would be trusted to carry out such acts? second that would just give the Americans and the French who have had a negative role in Haiti since before the slave revolts, an excuse to smear Haiti and strangle it economically, after Papa and Baby Doc decimated the nations agriculture and business Haiti has been dependent on the outside world either through trade or aide.
ReplyDeleteThird that would not prevent them from finding some puppet to leave the doors unlocked, in Burkina Faso the French got rid of Sankara by using his best friend Blaze whom before that lived like a good revolutionary.
And fourth in the 20th century the US has shown itself to be perfectly to enact a coup all by themselves, Aristide is convinced it was US personnel that put him on that plane.
"Even India eventually went to war against the English." and lost pretty badly.