Another Haitian independence day under occupation | Kenbe la fre e se mwen, pa lage
Ezili Danto’s Note: I first wrote this piece on December 31, 2005. It’s in our archives at
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2005-12/msg00009.html
Today, December 31, 2007, I see no need to completely rewrite this New Years/Independence Day Haiti message. We are still spending another Haitian independence day under occupation. The December 31, 2005 essay is as applicable for January 1, 2008, as it was for January 1, 2006. Different Haitians are dying, in jail and being abused, raped and slaughtered. We are now under UN occupation instead of little Bush’s imposed Boca Raton regime and this past year the anti-Aristide film, Ghost of Site Soley made it to major theaters, blockbusters and the internet (Youtube) and thus must be countered. Other than this, the changes made for this essay to fit the current situation in Haiti on January 1, 2008 are minimal. I hope next year not to find this essay still an applicable template. Happy Birthday Haiti (January 1, 1804 to January 1, 2008). We shall fight from one generation to the next.
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January 1, 2008 – Another Haitian independence day under occupation
Back on January 1, 1804 Euro/US barbarity and savagery received its greatest blow in the Western Hemisphere. Haitians have been stigmatized and forced to pay with their life and freedom for that achievement ever since.
Tomorrow, January 1, 2008, marks Haiti’s freedom day.
Oceans of our blood has poured and watered the soil to nourish civilized co-existence on this planet earth and continues, this very minute, to soak the earth needlessly simply because Haitians were the first to counter, in combat, Euro/US biological fatalism, destroy its myth of white superiority, and to do what even Spartacus could not.
How should Haitians mark this anniversary?
Who should we confer with about our awesome burden, our plight, our long struggle to be treated as human beings by the Euro/US settlers?
Who should we approach about the 110 UN soldiers from Sri Lanka caught sexually abusing and raping under age Haitian children and turning Haiti into a brothel for foreign officialdom’s gleeful perversions? Who should we approach about this International occupation holding our people hostage. About the UN soldiers’ massacres, rapes of our women and repression of Haiti’s defenseless poor? About the lies of the mainstream media and awful anti-Aristide propaganda in so-called ‘documentaries’ like the Ghost of Site Soley?
In this documentary, Eleonore “Lele” Senlis, there in Haiti, like the UN Sri Lankan soldiers to offer ‘humanitarian’ assistance and ‘relief,’ has herself filmed, lustfully leering at not one naked young Haitian male, but two Haitian brothers. Her cameraman pans to them, each in turn, washing their genitalia sections in preparation to sexually service this so-called ‘relief’ worker. In the case of the brother 2Pac, he is filmed entirely naked. Then the camera, – the so-called “documentary camera” – pans to the Frenchwoman lurking behind a door, fully dressed in white privilege and a lecherous grin. Both brothers, 2Pac and Bily are now dead. Bily was disappeared on December 1, 2005 as the anti-Aristide Boca Raton regime shot 107 prisoners point blank while still in their cells at the UN-”guarded” Haitian National Penitentiary. The brothers small children have been left, as most of the 2004 coup detat victims, penniless and fatherless. But France, like Canada and the US are happy with Haiti now. The Frenchwoman, Enlenore Senlis moves on. Perhaps next to sell her wares and add more Black scalps to her belt in some poor country in Africa? No?
How do we get justice? Who do we tell about the 107 poor Haitian prison detainees shot dead by Boniface/Latortue prison guards, some while still in their jail cells back in 2005; the Site Soley massacres, the IOM/USAID soccer match massacres, the Machete Army slaughters, the imprisonment of Haiti’s children, just because they are homeless, live in poor neighborhoods or upset some big-men wearing French boots on Dessaline’s soil; their tiny souls just yearning to be set free, to see their mothers, to eat a decent meal instead of enduring soul disfigurement by being locked up for just existing? How should we Haitians, who still live and breathe free, fight on for ourselves, our children, for those who don’t?
In the book, Two Thousand Seasons, Ayi Kwei Armah writes:
“…. How have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilations? For whom do we aspire to reflect our people’s death? For whose entertainment shall we sing our agony? In what hopes? That the destroyers, aspiring to extinguish us, will suffer conciliatory remorse at the sight of their own fantastic success? The last imbecile to dream such dreams is dead, killed by the saviors of his dreams….”
And so, it is an exercise in futility to go to the perpetrators and executors of human rights crimes in Haiti in hopes of getting justice for our people. Those who oustered the constitutional government of Haiti and rendered the Preval/Alexi government mere puppets of these international profiteers; the UN who acts as proxy to maintain this international crime, the Haitian lackeys and their State Department masters, are dead inside and cannot hear the cries of the Haitian masses. It’s not their mission or mandate. For, they don’t represent life, liberty, democracy, development and decency, but its opposite. This Officialdom, this authority rains death, despotism, destruction, cruelty, inhumanity, injustice and represent all that civilized peoples worldwide struggle to overcome. They write laws, but are too “high tech” to live them. They mouth words of “justice” and fairness but their words are DEAD. To further quote Ghanaian writer, Ayi Kwei Armah:
“….Those utterly dead, never again to awake, such is their muttering.”
See, for yourself, my people, Canada’s recent mutterings on the state of affairs in Haiti:
“The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement offering the best wishes of the Government and people of Canada to the people of Haiti as they mark their country’s Independence Day on January 1.
“As Haiti celebrates its national day, we are reminded of the progress the country has made, particularly in terms of security and in the political arena. Institutions at all levels are led by elected officials dedicated to rebuilding their country on the foundations of good governance and the rule of law.
“Canada’s efforts in Haiti are a compelling example of how we can work in our own neighborhood, the Americas, to help countries struggling to make a better life for their people. We are proud to maintain a close relationship with the Haitian government and to provide the resources the country needs to continue implementing an effective and transparent machinery of government. This in turn helps foster economic opportunity, improve security and advance our fundamental values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
“It is against this backdrop of optimism that Canada warmly welcomes the strong partnership that has developed between our two countries—a partnership we look forward to continuing.” (See, Canada Congratulates the People of Haiti on the Occasion of their Independence Day, December 31, 2007, No. 188
news.gc.ca/web/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=370759&categoryid=16).
But as you read Canada’s bare-faced, immoral lies masking the truth, recall that in 2003, another Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs hosted a secret meeting in Ottawa, where Canada joined in with the US, France, OAS and the Roger Noreiga-ilks of this world to plan the destruction of Haiti’s democracy, security and its entire political landscape, committing to replace it militarily with what we have in Haiti today, a Western-run UN protectorate. (See The Ottawa Initiative: Canadian Officials Initiate Planning for Military Ouster of Aristide –
www.margueritelaurent.com/law/ottawai.html).
Such a ‘neighborly’ Canadian effort, resulted in the slaughter of more than 10,000 Haitians between 2004 and 2006, the imprisonment of over 4,000, the hunting down of hundreds of thousands of Lavalas pro-democracy partisans in Haiti and the forceful deportation/exiling of over 20,000 Haitians, including Haiti’s duly elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide. This ‘neighborly’ Canada, like the rest of the Euro/US world are countries that REFUSED to celebrate Haiti’s bicentennial and independence and wouldn’t deign to formally wish a FREE HAITI good wishes back on January 1, 2004, on the occasion of Haiti’s 200th-year anniversary. But this year, in 2008, when Haiti is under occupation and with the successful implementation of Canada’s Ottawa Initiative, this is when Canada wishes Haiti “Happy independence day” with a straight face! (See, Canada Congratulates the People of Haiti on the Occasion of their Independence Day, December 31, 2007 –
news.gc.ca/web/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=370759&categoryid=16)
Go to our website for entire essay:
Haitian Lawyers Leadeship Network