HERBERT GOLD CHARGES in the san francisco chronicle:
After Cocaine ,
Haiti
Herbert Gold, San Francisco Chronicle, 2004-04-26
Haiti
Democracy Project web page item #2191 (http://www.haitipolicy.org)
(San Francisco Chronicle, 11 April 04)
After cocaine,
By Herbert Gold
Knees that jerk also have the gift of speech; here's what
they say about
president of
Wrong.
There was no conceivable benefit to Bush or the
already sent, or the increased military forces which will need to
be sent. There are no natural resources
(this time no oil, folks) in
labor is economically useless in a society sunk into violent anarchy;
businesses won't take the chance of investment.
At one time Aristide was overwhelmingly popular, called "The
Messiah" by a desperate population. After the coup which deposed him, he was brought
back
in
1994 by over 20,000 American troops ( Times change. Last week,
At the celebratory Mass in the
brutal Haitian army. He agreed
to privatize the corrupt state enterprises, run and bled by the MCE's, the Morally Corrupt Elite. He accepted these
conditions in return for substantial aid.
Back in office, he violated his agreements; the foreign aid
was suspended. For the corrupt and
brutal Haitian army, he substituted his personal gangs,
thugs called "Chimeres" or
the "Cannibal Army," who had licenses to deal drugs, extort and
murder rivals to Aristide's one-party reign. During my
three trips to
In the town of
day
a local journalist was slaughtered with machetes in the street. Many witnesses, no one arrested. I asked if anybody would be charged. The answer
was
a shrug and a finger to the mouth and advice not to bother my head with further
silly questions.
Recently on KPFA radio I heard an American from the
head, to the plane that carried him into exile. ("This is Kevin Pina,
special correspondent for
The corruption watch group, Transparency International, only
ranked Jean-Claude (a.k.a. Baby Doc or Furniture Face) Duvalier
sixth on its list of heads of state who have stolen the most money, between
Milosovic of Yugoslavia ($1 billion) and Fujimori of Peru ($600 million). We should be forgiving about his weak standing,
estimated at a take of between a mere $300 and $800 million dollars. His country was a poor one; hard to compete. He did the best he could, but as luck would
have it, his family, friends, and ex-wife carried off most of his booty, properly
stolen by him, so now he can't even pay the gardener to mow the lawn at his
villa in southern
Recently, Baby Doc, slimmed down somewhat by this gardening travails, was sighted in
several hundred thousand dollars was found in Aristide's mansion
when he hurriedly departed. As Haitians
say, in their country there are mountains
beyond the mountains and, for presidents, money tomorrow beyond
the few dollars trickling today into the national treasury.
Which brings us to the role of the Congressional
Black Caucus, the well-worn New and Less New Left, and the knee-jerk street
political thinkers,
their bullhorns still warm from yesterday's rally. Aristide always seemed to have plenty of money
for his propagandists, importing allies for care
and
feeding, paying lawyers and lobbyists to represent him abroad, sweet-talking
folks hypnotized by his pious demeanor, his reiteration of
"l'amour, la paix," -- peace, love -- as if pronouncing these words
with eyes raised to heaven could somehow bring peace and love to
these followers the Bon Ton Macoutes;
call them the Coalition of the Willing to Be Manipulated.
A declaration from a group of Haitian feminist organizations,
the National Coordination for Advocacy of Women's Rights, expresses "shock
and outrage"
at
their "dear Sisters of the
free elections, drug dealing, stagnation and profiteering at the expense of
the Haitian people. It begs the "dear
Sisters" to pay attention to the dear
facts. Aristide, brought back with so much hope, plus his guitar,
turned out to be a predator in his own unctuous way as so many other Haitian
leaders. One long day at the
Doc scattered coins to the mob, "Titid"
strummed his guitar and sang folk songs.
At a rally on
OF
"I don't know" is a good answer to questions about
the salvation of
Randall Robinson, and the leaflet-scattering
crowds at
Poor
JESSICA LEIGHT RESPONDS:
To
the editor:
Herbert Gold’s urbane
but outrageously self-indulgent attack on “
The lethal strategy
of this elite was to block a peaceful settlement
with Aristide, and throw the country into turmoil, a maneuver executed with
the full support of Secretary of State Powell.
Nor does Gold discuss
the nature of the rebellion that ousted Aristide, spearheaded by a
who’s-who of prime human rights abusers, many of them convicted murderers
from the military regime of 1991-4. He should have told us that all of
A reader may be left
wondering over the ultimate make-up of a post-Aristide regime—presumably to
be led by the likes of millionaire Andy Apaid, a Haitian businessman who unctuously speaks of his
faithful textile workers, but forces thousands of them to work in sweatshop
conditions, while marching union activists off his property at gunpoint. Such figures also call for a reconstituted Haitian
army, which no doubt will include many of the most brutal members of the old
army, which terrorized Haitians for decades before Aristide finally dismantled
it. As for the new U.S.-chosen prime
minister, the average Haitian has very little in common with that chic
Aristide’s administration
certainly did not lack for flaws, and those call for criticism.
But Gold’s blatant one-sided mauling of a democratically-elected president
does his Haitian bona fides little credit.
Jessica
Leight,
Research
Fellow, Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
Daytime phone (203) 988-6741 or (202) 216-9261