Daily Archives: December 21, 2010

Dec 21 2010

MY POSITION ON THE CIPHA SOUNDS CONTROVERSY

People have been asking me to position myself on the Cipha sounds stupid and ignorant remark, where he said: “The reason I’m HIV negative is because I don’t mess with Haitian girls.” So, after thinking about it for days, I think I am ready now to come out of my silence to position myself.

It is always the same ineffective routine –getting infuriated and protesting for a few days -whenever we are being wrongly talked about, treated or discriminated against as a community. We need to change gear. We cannot be using the same ineffective approach over and over hoping to see better results.

I am not condoning the ridiculousness he had spewed out on the air last Friday about Haitian women on his show on Hot 97 WQHT, but I think, to some degree, we are allowing ourselves being distracted and not focusing on the things that really matter -the survivability and sustainability of our people.

The man had made a stupid joke, and he apologized for it. I saw the apology clip on Youtube. Without being judgmental, I think he was sincere. If he knew he was going to face so much heat for the controversial statement, I guarantee you he would have not made it.

Yes, putting pressure for him to be fired is okay, but how is that going to help cure the discriminatory disease going against us? He dropped the bomb already, and the damage has already been done. Having him fired will not take away the fact that our beloved Haiti is being constantly called the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere; having him fired is not going to efface the inhuman situations our people are living in back home; having him fired is not going to get the victims of the earthquake out of the tent cities; having him fired is not going to get Preval out of the leadership of the country; getting him fired is not going to get MINUSTAH out of the country; getting him fired is not going to address the cholera epidemic killing our people back home.  

This is a disease going against us, and Cipha’s stupid and ignorant remark is only the manifestation of that disease. Let us not get distracted by the symptoms. To cure the disease, we must use a causatic approach, not a symptomatic one. If our only focus is to take care of the symptoms while leaving the root cause of the disease untouched, we are doing nothing but cheating ourselves. In other words, we are jerking ourselves off for a quick psychological ejaculation.

The reason why he and many others before him could make those stupid, ignorant, disgusting and incendiary remarks about us is because we are a weak community, though we have potentials to be a strong one. We are not using our strengths effectively. This is the materialization of the “kabrit gade je met kay avan l rantre” philosophy.  

What we need to do now going forward is to GET THE DIASPORA ORGANIZED so that we don’t have to deal with another stupid, ignorant and ridiculous remark again from anybody. ONLY THROUGH A STRUCTURED COMMUNITY CAN WE BE STRONG, POWERFUL AND RESPECTED!!!

Dec 21 2010

PRESIDENT OBAMA SMILING FOR A COMEBACK

It seems as though President Obama has made a strong comeback, according to most polls out there. And all that is due to what he has accomplished during the lame duck session –the passing of his tax cut legislation, extension of unemployment insurance, the repeal of DADT, possibly the passing of the START treaty and the 911 Health Care bill for the 911 responders.

This lame duck session –a one-month worth of legislative work –is by far the most productive lame duck session in recent Congress history.  

President Obama has done something EXTREMELY smart -he campaigned from the left, spent the first half of his term governing from the left and got slammed and crushed for that in the midterm elections, now he is moving to the center to outperform his opponents to the finish line -November 2012.

He had to bring Bill Clinton, the best political communicator and mastermind we have in the Democratic Party, to help him make the case for his move to the center. Of course, liberals did not like and approve of it at first, but one by one, they are getting on board. According to a recent CNN poll, his approval rating among liberal democrats has dropped 8 percentage points (80% in November vs 72% in December); that is understandable.

Obama is a smart dude. He knows that no matter what he does and how he governs, his base may get infuriated, but they will never turn their backs on him. So that has given him some degree of room to maneuver and go after the independents who had flocked in record numbers. The same CNN poll I cited earlier shows that his approval rating among moderates has risen 5 percentage points (55% in November vs 60% in December). Keep in mind that independent voters always decide or sway the vote. So he is doing great thus far with the independents.

The start was tough for the president, but it seems as though he has found his mojo. In the word of Hilary Clinton, he has found his voice.

The tax cut legislation has not been in effect as of yet, but I can feel a sense of optimism in the American people. How long that is going to stay is not quite certain. However, one thing I know for sure is that David Axelrod, the president’s brain in the White House, is going to make sure that the Republican leadership in the House gets blamed for not getting things done, if nothing gets done that is, so that the American people could go against them, which tends to translate in the polls in November 2012. So I have four words to say -happy comeback, Mr. President!