15038: Karshan: Let Haiti Live! (San Francisco Bay View) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

San Francisco Bay View [National Black Newspaper of the
Year]

Let Haiti Live! Kite Ayiti Viv! - Haiti in the Bay Area this weekend
by Wanda Sabir

When one thinks of the first independent African nation in the
Western Hemisphere, Ayiti, or Haiti, the  vision is that of
individuals who believed in justice and human rights at the
cost of death, which is why,  in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte and
his forces surrendered the island, then known as Saint
Domingue,  to the people.

Frederick Douglass, first ambassador to the country in 1862,
said that Haiti “advanced the cause of  liberty and human
equality throughout the world,” this despite America’s
reluctance to recognize a  country whose African population
helped it win its own independence against Britain in the
Battle of  Savannah (1778).

It’s criminal that the richest nation in this hemisphere
continues to undermine the economic well being  of its
neighbor to the south, but such has been the case throughout
Haiti’s 199-year history. This  relationship has had a dire
impact on Haiti’s regional political stability, as the United
States continually  supported corrupt regimes that allowed
U.S. economic interests to flourish.

This all came to a halt when a parish priest, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, was elected overwhelmingly in  1991 to the
presidency. This was the first democratic election in Haiti’s
history. In a speech, Aristide  says that the church should be a
tool for justice, equality and freedom. “It’s hypocritical,” he
states,  “for the pastor to feed the peasant’s children with free
foreign rice that is being sold on the market for  less than the
farmer’s own produce.”

Aristide changed all that. Not only did he set a minimum wage
for employment, he also began  micro-lending programs to
help his citizens become entrepreneurs. During the two
Lavalas  administrations, Aristide (1991, 1994-6) and Rene
Preval (1996-2001), the government began  building schools,
clinics and housing that is developing the infrastructure. This
was also the first  peaceful transition of power in Haiti’s
history.

Pierre LaBossiere, longtime Haitian activist and founder of the
Haiti Action Committee, spoke of  Aristide, liberation
theology and the current embargo against the poorest nation in
this hemisphere at  the first annual symposium on African
Spirituality and Activism sponsored by the All-African
People’s  Revolutionary Party and African Awareness Month
Planning Committee at San Jose State University  on
Saturday.

LaBossiere recalled his early protests as a teen in New York
once his family moved from the south of  Haiti, Les Cayes.
While in Les Cayes, LaBossiere worked with the church youth
movement, but  because it was during the Duvalier regime
(1957-1986), he had to be careful. People were killed for
speaking against the government.

“To even talk about literacy or anything meaningful
independent of the government could get you into  a lot of
trouble … similar to the way the antebellum slave owners
would keep people from teaching  the slaves to read and write,
only in the case of Papa Doc (François Duvalier), it was black
people  oppressing black people,” he said.

“The difference was the same kind of elitist thinking. They
didn’t want people to think their own  independent thoughts,
and it has an economic basis to it. When the peasants come to
sell their  products, they need to know how to read and write;
otherwise they could be lied to about the weight  of their
product. The other thing is, when they’d get their bills, they
couldn’t contest any errors. After  they’d signed, they’d find
out that they’d signed their life away. To this day, that’s why
literacy and  health are top priorities in this administration.”

When Aristide was elected, and later displaced by a coup in
‘91, LaBossiere mobilized his resources  once again to restore
the “people’s choice for president,” Aristide, back to power
once more.

“I’ll tell you,” LaBossiere said of the president’s homecoming
in 1994, “I’ve never lived through such  a good experience. At
first people couldn’t believe it, that he actually was back. But
people slowly  started coming out of their homes, and the
streets were teaming with people waving … The crowd  when
President Aristide appeared and people saw him for the first
time - the roar from the crowd - it  was tremendous.”

“One military guy said that for Aristide to come back it would
be like a egg going back inside a  chicken. So what the people
of Haiti did, when Aristide came back, was to draw a big
mural of an  egg going back inside the chicken … to show that
miracles did occur.”

The United States has blatantly undermined Aristide’s
leadership by imposing economic embargoes as  well as by
harboring known terrorists. This is evident in its blockage of
the Inter-American  Development Bank loan of $146 million
approved two years ago to assist the Haitian government in
building schools, healthcare centers and roads and providing
drinking water in the rural areas of Haiti,  where there is much
poverty and poverty-related disease.

The “Let Haiti Live Campaign” (www.haitireborn.org), a
broad-based coalition, is supporting  legislation such as the
Haiti Bill 2003, yet to be introduced by Congresswoman
Barbara Lee, that calls  for an end to economic sanctions
against Haiti.

This Friday in San Rafael and Saturday in San Francisco, the
Haiti Action Committee and the Marin  Interfaith Taskforce
are hosting “Let Haiti Live! Kite Ayiti Viv!” an evening of
live music, good food  and incredible speakers from Haiti,
including Pierre-Antoine Lovinsky, Loune Viaud, Ricot  Jean-
Pierre, Ti Jean, Marlene Bastien and Father Ronel Charelus,
who will bring people up to date  about what’s going on there.

On Friday, the program will begin at 6 p.m. at the First United
Methodist Church, 9 Ross Valley  Drive, San Rafael, (415)
924-3227. The time and place on Saturday is 7:30 p.m. at New
College,  766 Valencia, San Francisco, (510) 483-7481. A
small donation of $5-$10 on a sliding scale is  requested. The
facilities are wheelchair accessible.