June 13, 2016
Haiti is a nation of deficiencies.
It is short of money.
It is short of food.
It is short of medical facilities.
It is short of educational facilities.
It is extremely short of Integrity.
It is short of TIME.
AND, MOST OF ALL, IT IS SHORT OF POLITICAL COMMON SENSE. THERE SEEMS TO BE NO LEARNING FROM PAST EXPERIENCE!!!
Because of the worldwide situation, in 1986, Haiti was swept up in the Anti-Dictatorship, Pro-Democracy frenzy, forgetting that Democracy is just a word and Dictatorship might not really describe what we had in place during the years leading up to 1986.
Some would wistfully look back to the Duvalier years as a mirror of what Democracy was supposed to generate, and upon the Aristide/Preval/Privert terms as what Dictatorship is.
A definition – Democracy – is just a word.
Reality is something else.
And so Marcos, in the Philippines, and Jean-Claude Duvalier, in Haiti were sent into exile, without any real idea of what would replace them.
People marched through the streets of Port-au-Prince, on February 14, 1986 chanting… “We have had Democracy for one week. Where are the jobs? Where is the food?”
Obviously, there was a major misunderstanding about what had happened to Haiti and the failure to realize – “Democracy is a philosophical concept and has no physical form. It has no calories…… It really is a shoe that does not fit all people.”
And so, Haiti has suffered the chaos created by America’s infliction of Democracy upon a people who would not even spell it, at the time, let alone realize what they were getting into.
There were elements, hovering like a circling flight of vultures, waiting to attack the vulnerable body created by Duvalier’s departure. LIBERATION THEOLOGY was one of these and soon took root in our part of the world, with a focus on Haiti.
LIBERATION THEOLOGY was a destroyer of whatever existed. It was an Anti-Concept, aimed at pulling down a society and replacing it with nothing.
So it was that Jean-Bertrand Aristide jumped onto the stage, a charismatic leader with a full bag of vague platitudes, and an empty bag of ability.
One type of avarice was replaced by another.
Members of the Duvalier team were tainted with avarice but this was also tainted with pools of ability. The Duvalier years were a productive period. The Reagan Caribbean Basin Initiative benefitted from an infrastructure created by Jean-Claude. In other countries such infrastructure did not exist. Duvalier’s government provided better educational possibilities and the overall medical conditions were on a continual upswing. We had investment and tourism. We had law-and-order – security.
We had Hope.
We also lived with the certainty that we could go to bed, owning something, and wake in the morning still owning that something.
That guarantee all disappeared down the toilet as Aristide led Lavalas to grab power in 1990 via control of our embryonic CEP. He realized that control the CEP and you do not have to worry about elections. (He would always control the CEP and works towards that in 2016.)
Aristide and his partners also realized the importance of boldness and the media. (He has remembered in 2016 and controls the media now via Privert.)
At 11 AM on Election Day December 16, 1990, an illegal radio station, on French embassy grounds, declared Aristide President and Aristide associate, Mayor Evans Paul put the Mob on the streets.
Only a fool, or a suicide victim, would have questioned this. In fact, Jimmy Carter and Robert McNamara, in Haiti for the elections, commented on this. Instantly, Evans Paul threatened them with immediate violence. This brave pair fled to the airport, and back to the States, leaving Aristide declared President with fewer than one tenth of one percent of the vote counted.
The UN would lie, ( and still lie in 2016 when they declare a 5% turnout as being 28%) but only about 300,000 voted nationwide and Aristide claimed 67% of these.
In 1992 ballot boxes in St Marc and on La Gonave were still unopened.
His 8.5 months in office were disastrous, marked by accelerating violence, the closure of most government Ministries for “Restructuring…” Members of his tame CEP were all given high level, highly paid positions. Robert Sabala, CEP President, was made Minister of Foreign Affairs. Another guy became head of an international financial institution.
In 2000 CEP President Manus would not sign off on Aristide’s fraud and was forced to run for his life. He went into exile. Aristide then had the remaining Lavalas members of the CEP declare him winner of the Presidential vote with 99% of the 20,000 who may have voted. Some suggest 200.
Exit polls in May showed Lavalas being defeated by a 2/3 majority. In 2016 we again see fraud being accepted and it is not a Martelly fraud. The fraud belongs to Privert)
Pere Lebrun – “The Necklace” kept the population frightened. He could take anyone, anytime. The screams of a man being burned alive do not leave your memory – EVER!!
Finally, like a ripe carbuncle, ready to be popped – Aristide reached society’s limit and he was sent into exile.
There was no coup.
Society said enough is enough. Even the Aristide controlled Parliament voted to leave him in exile and move with Article 149 to replace him. Had the Bush administration not derailed this concept, Aristide would have been replace during December 1991 and we would not be in this position now.
The Cedras period was not a bad one.
But Clinton would force his Financial Friend back on the Nation, using the points of 23,000 bayonets. Our salvation from the Aristide peril was ended by Clinton and we have paid for this external interference ever since.
Realists now believe Clinton and his wife made tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, from their support of Aristide/Preval/Lavalas.
With the 1991 application of Article 149 we would have actually been on the long road to Democracy.
Foreign interference stopped this.
Aristide – Preval, and now Privert have done everything possible to force Lavalas back onto an unwilling Nation. (Like a society forcing a rapist back upon his victim.)The people don’t care about Democracy. They want school for their children, work, food and perhaps medical care.
Most of all, they want Security, law-and-order.
THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY SHOULD PRIVIDE!
Instead, those claiming to be Democratic Leaders have perverted the concept, for their own benefit.
A Controlled Corruption has been replaced by Uncontrolled Pillaging of Haitian resources.
We were lucky enough to have Michel Martelly parachute onto center-stage, an accident of history. While the other animals were fighting over the target, martelly walked in from the sideline and captured the game.
Martelly provided a bridge from the poisonous Lavalas past – to a hopeful future. Of course there were problems but we had peace and security. The kidnappings, so prevalent during the Aristide/Preval period, disappeared. Street violence became a memory.
Martelly had a vision.
When he appointed his long-time friend Laurent Lamothe as Prime Minister the vision began to take shape. This Dynamic-Duo set out to accomplish things. Our international image was polished as realistic concepts were supported by realistic people.
Unfortunately, many of those involved had another vision and this focused upon their own personal bank accounts.
Many mistakes were made, but these are/were balanced by the intangibles provided our society. We were regaining some of the Duvalier infrastructure – destroyed by Lavalas – and people were beginning to take us seriously again.
The Martelly/Lamothe team benefited from many years of friendship and a business association. It was a good three years in which a great deal was accomplished, and the future looked good.
History will look at the Martelly decision to sideline Laurent Lamothe.
Many believe support of Lamothe would have seen a seamless transition from Martelly – to Lamothe – and back to Martelly in five years.
This was not to be and must remain as a speculative thesis for those many who discuss – endlessly – what could or would have been had the factors been dealt with differently.
As it was/is Martelly set to pass his banner to Jovenel Moise, a successful businessman, focused upon the revival of Haiti’s agricultural sector and salvation of the Nation’s ecology. He comes from peasant roots, so Jonevel should have widespread support from an unrepresented majority of Haiti’s 10,000,000 of which some 54% is under the age of 24.
According to international election observers the October, 2015 was a good ballot and should be accepted.
Privert was turned into an Interim President, with the sole purpose of overseeing the completion of the second round of voting, between Jovenel Moise and Jude Celestin. Celestin refused to participate, saying the vote was a fraudulent farce. Actually he realized he would be humiliated by a real ballot.
In a bizarre public comment on Radio Metropole, Jude Celestin’s spokesman, Germain, now states that Jovenel Moise received 58% of the ballot in October, 2015.
Privert has used a Benoit headed Committee of Verification to throw everything into chaos, creating a situation in which Privert has delayed elections, and set the basis for his Presidency for Life, via Aristide.
The Nation holds it breath as Privert says he will remain in power – for at least 2 years.
He should be gone by midnight June 14/15, 2016. I mention 2016 because, with Privert, that is always in doubt.
In a strange reversal of roles, we now see Evans Paul as the “Man in the White Hat,” aiming at the neutralization of Privert, “The Hero of La Scerie” at the legal, final, and legitimate end of his disastrous, failed Mandate to complete our stalled Electoral Process.
Evans Paul plans a peaceful, hopefully effective, demonstration of the publics’ disgust, fatigue, dissolution, and despair at Privert’s ruthless, honestly direct effort to revive the Lavalas Terror, along with Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
We hope that MINUSTAH and the PNH will provide a blanket of security for this peaceful manifestation of our Nation’s Will.
Privert has telegraphed his willingness to resort to any level of violence, in order to retain power.
A peaceful departure.
Or, kick the shit out of Privert at one second past midnight June 14/15, throwing his bruise and battered body from our National Palace?
CANDLE POWER!!!
I would hope that the candles will work.
But, sadly, I am not optimistic recalling the inscription on the wall of King Tut’s tomb.
I have seen yesterday.
I know tomorrow.
COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE
And now, fewer than 120 days since President Michel Martelly left us, the people would welcome his return to the National Palace.
Martelly cared about his People.
Privert cares for no one.
Martelly was a big mistake to refuse Lamothe a discharge.
We would not be in trouble now.
Viv Martelly!
Valery Numa is really a pot of feces.
He has spent time on the Vision 2000 this afternoon, trying to derail the Evans Paul candlelight demonstration, in front of the National Palace.
Where are the Patriots.
We have enough of people like Rebu and Numa.
Privert killed candlelight demonstration by barring all traffic between 6 PM on June 16 and 7 AM on the 14.