Tag Archives: Haiti

Jul 11 2011

THE HAITIAN LEGISLATURE: A CASE STUDY FOR ALL POLITICAL JUNKIES

I understand democracy can be hard, but it is poised to get harder when you have people in political positions with no clue whatsoever of how democracy works and what it means to be public servant.

As we speak, we have a serious crisis in Haiti, and it has nothing to do with our democratic experience; rather, it has to do with the people we have in our political institutions, especially the legislature, to represent us. So solving this crisis requires that we take bolt and unpopular measures.

I strongly believe we need to find a way to get rid of this legislature we currently have in Haiti and start over with a new and functional body –if we really aspire to a new and better Haiti.

This Congress, it is sad to say, is bringing nothing but shame and deception to the land of Dessalines, Toussaint, Christophe and Petion. So, by any means necessary, democratic or otherwise, we need to retire it urgently before it is too late. Retiring this Congress is just as urgent as unclogging a clogged artery so that the tissues of a specific organ it is there to irrigate can be perfused before the undesirable occurs.

These two chambers of the legislative branch of our government are instruments put in place by ARISTIDE and PREVAL to destroy the country. They are saturated with their vassals -criminals, drug dealers, thieves, crooks, ignorant and unqualified heads, etc. Their only qualification to accede to these respectable chambers was to pledge allegiance to their bosses, ARISTIDE and PREVAL, not to the republic and the people that elected them.

So basically, These two LAVALAS guys, ARISTIDE and PREVAL, during their twenty years in power, have done to the country the same thing they had been blaming the Duvaliers for, which is vasalizing all the institutions. That’s why they do not have the moral authority and political leverage to take legal actions against Jean Claude Duvalier curently living peacefully in his country. To prosecute Duvalier is to prosecute the two of them.

Institutions are made of people, and they are the reflection of the people inside them. A better way to look at it is like this: Tell me who you have to body your institutions, I will tell you how effective and functional they are.

Some of these people in our legislature can barely read, let alone comprehending the wording of and logic embedded in the articles of the Constitution, how can you expect them to legislate in total knowledge of the law? Haitians, seriously, are these folks the best you have to offer? Where are the highly qualified and honest Haitians? How did we end up with these guys as our representatives?

Well, I don’t know. Maybe I am expecting too much from a group of people for whom the mess seems to be working and to whom the filth seems to be beneficial.

It is not my fault that I am holding these guys to such higher standards; it is that the little bit I know in politics, I have acquired that in the United States. In other words, the only model I have of how government institutions work and are structured and staffed, I have obtained that in the country where everything seems to be working for its people, and that is the United States of America.

The lesson all political junkies like myself have to learn from observing the Haitian legislature is this: When you have crooks, thieves, drug dealers and politically illiterate folks in your political institutions, you have the Haitian model, you have what is happening now in Haiti -a case study of a politically, economically and socially dead country due to its lifeless institutions.

Jul 7 2011

WE DO NOT NEED A PRIME MINISTER IN HAITI

This article 137 of the Haitian Constitution of 1987 is an article of political crisis. It stipulates:

“The President of the Republic shall choose a Prime Minister from among the members of the majority party of the Parliament. In the absence of such a majority, the President of the Republic shall choose his Prime Minister in consultation with the President of the Senate and the President of the House of Deputies.”

Who are the geniuses that crafted this article? I would love to meet them simply to shake their hands for such a job well done. They really know how to mess things up for the country.

I want someone to answer me this question: Why do we even have a Prime Minister when we have a head of state elected by the people through a national election?

Listen to this idiocy: the Prime Minister, after being ratified by the Parliament, must receive an up or down vote in a joint session of Congress, depending on his or her declaration of “politique generale.”

How do we vote the president in Haiti, folks? Don’t we vote him or her based on his or her political agenda or “politique generale?” If so, what sense does it make to have a Prime Minister repeat the same process before the members of Congress?

The way it is now, this article 137 is a Constitutional provision for these thieves, drug dealers, crooks, birdbrained, traitors sitting in the Parliament to take the country in hostage, making it extremely difficult for President Martelly to get started with solving the people’s problems. Logically, these guys are getting paid to worsen every single day that goes by the situation of the country.

I said it before and I am going it again: we do not need a Prime Minister in Haiti. It is a waste of time.

The Prime Minister position is one created to get one more corrupted person in the government of the country to steal and further perpetuate the system of corruption.

We need a President and a Vice President on a ticket together -just like it is done here in the States. When the people vote, they vote the ticket containing the President and the Vice President. Like that, you will only have the different ministers, chosen by the President (after they have been vetted, of course), to be approved by the members of Congress. It makes more sense to me like that.

Jun 30 2011

A POLITICAL CESAREAN SECTION INEVITABLE IN HAITI

In obstetrics, a Cesarean Section is viewed as an extreme or last resort measure to safely deliver a fetus whose life is in peril and still save the mother’s life.

In politics, depending on the situation, we have to go against our political goodwill to take such route and save a multitude or a republic in peril.

So PRESIDENT MARTELLY may have to fortify his testicles and proceed with a POLITICAL CESAREAN SECTION by:

1. destroying the legislature;

2. voting a new Constitution -one free of Constitutional deadlocks;

3. organizing a new legislative election to put in place a new parliament to get this country to breathe again

The full implementation of such procedure should not take more than a year.

This may not be, of course, a popular measure but one worth taking. Leaders don’t do what’s popular; they do, rather, what is right.

A POLITICAL CESAREAN SECTION is not a measure I would have supported if one were to talk to me about it last week. But when I take a closer look at the political landscape, this is what President Martelly is gonna have to do IF he wants to be a successful president for his people.

This Constitution and this legislature are instruments of deadlock to literally kill Haiti. Something must be done, and that something must be done now. It is that urgent.

Haiti has been in labor for a quarter of a century; her chance of surviving a normal delivery is dangerously slim. The only way to spare her life and that of the fetus is to proceed with a POLITICAL CESAREAN SECTION by doing the three things proposed above. Other than that, all of us need to get ourselves mentally and physically prepared for death management.

Jun 13 2011

POLITICIANS ARE BEHIND THE INSECURITY IN HAITI

I am going to say again what I have been saying for the longest: the situation of insecurity plaguing our beloved Haiti has become very structured, institutionalized and politicized. I hope you are able to see now what I have been seeing for some time now.

The assassination cases of such high profile personalities as Antoine Izméry, Jean Dominique, Guiteau Toussaint and others are not isolated; they are remotely controlled by politicians. Politicians are behind these terrorist acts. I hope you can convince me to believe otherwise.

As you can observe, the investigations to find the authors of these assassination cases can never reach an official conclusion; it has been years since we know these cases have been investigated.

This is common practice in Haiti. There is a reason why these investigations seem to always be and stay endless. The reason is simple: they never end because they have never started.

Now, we have a choice to make: either we are going to allow these terrorists to take the country hostage or we must take matters into our own hands if the state is declared weak and not strong enough to protect us.

We cannot afford to sit idle while these terrorists are terrorizing the population. We must do something NOW; the situation is that urgent.

I do strongly believe that “Pè Lebren” or DEATH BY FIRE for these terrorists is the only recourse. How many Izmérys, Dominiques and Toussaints must be cowardly assassinated before we do something?

I propose that -when we catch and find these terrorists guilty of the crimes they are accused of -we do not waste the people’s time and resources keeping them alive in jail; we BURN THEM TO DEATH. Until we do that, they will always be more Toussaints, Izmérys and Dominiques to cowardly go down; the situation of the country will get even worse than it is now.

Jun 3 2011

PRESIDENT MARTELLY: KEEP THE CHURCH & THE STATE SEPARATED

President Martelly of Haiti

President Martelly of Haiti

In this article entitled “Attention Danger!!!” published yesterday, Thursday, June 02, 2011 on the Radio Kiskeya website, the author, Lyonel Trouillot, did a tremendous job calling President Martelly out on his issuance of the executive order making Ascension (a Catholic Holiday) a National Holiday. http://www.radiokiskeya.com/spip.php?article7793

The issuance of that executive order was a reckless and miscalculated move on the part of the president. Doing so, he opens the door for people (friends and foes) to question his motives. Many, myself included, tend to assume that, by that decision, he is favoring the Catholic Church over the other religious conglomerates.

There is no question that the president was ill-advised. Whoever advised him to issue that executive order making Ascension a National Holiday has shown lack of democratic judgment; therefore, he or she has no place in the president’s team of advisers. Such decision is an embarrassment, and it is making the president look very bad. What has happened of the basic democratic concept of separation of church and state?

The democratic concept of separation of church and state demands that the state be kept away from matters of faith. As Mr. Trouillot eloquently stated in the piece in corroboration of the aforementioned notion, “The duty of the state and the government is to assure free exercise of religion and atheism by the citizens in their private domains.”

During and after the campaign, Candidate and President-elect Martelly had met many times with many leaders from the Protestant and Catholic communities; not even once, as far as I can recall, has he met with Max Beauvoir, the Ati or Supreme Chief of the Vodou religion. I was very bothered by that. This is suspicious on his part, and he needs to come clean on that.

Vodou, as a religion, had suffered in the past many atrocities from many of our political and Catholic and Protestant leaders. Today, we will not stand by anyone’s action sought purposely or otherwise to ostracize or treat it as a second class religion.

If the president claims to be of a certain faith, that is his business, not that of the state. Therefore, regardless what that faith is, in the exercise of his presidential duty, he needs to separate it from his handling of the affairs of the state.

Haiti is not a theocracy; it is a democracy. So we are calling on President Martelly and his advisers to keep in mind that this executive order has set a bad precedent for our democracy. Please, Mr. President, for the sake of our democracy, keep the state out of matters having to do with faith. This is not what we are paying you for.

May 26 2011

DANIEL ROUZIER: THE CHOICE FOR THE FUTURE

Daniel Gerard Rouzier

I don’t mind playing politics, for politics itself is a tricky game of chess. What I cannot stand, though, is when politicians are playing backyard politics with something that could best serve the common interests of all the citizens of a nation.

I could not believe my ears when I heard on the news that some of these so-called politicians in Haiti were putting people on the trail protesting the nomination of Daniel Gerard ROUZIER as Prime Minister -an honest, decent, proven, competent and qualified Haitian man.

Some of his detractors or so-called opponents have gone as far as calling him a racist mulatto only in their attempts to dive in their class warfare or race politics which has gotten us in the quagmire we find ourselves today. This is the kind of divisive, close-minded and obsolete politics we do not need and are running away from.

No one Haitian should be submitted to a race or identity test in order to occupy a political or elected position in Haiti. I, a dark-skinned Haitian, cannot claim being more Haitian or loving Haiti more than Rouzier, a light-skinned Haitian. This is a stupid and silly argument which I am not going to lose my valuable time to get into. I leave that to these stupid and retarded Haitian politicians; stupid heads make stupid arguments.

When will these “ratdokale” politicians ever get it? We the people have spoken loud and clear (with 67+% in the last presidential election) that we don’t need you people anywhere near our political turf. Please go away! Find other hobbies to occupy your time; politics is not your forte. In fact, the accession of President Martelly to the highest office of the land can attest to that. Such choice symbolizes a solid line drawn in the sand between the past and the future.

I have seen in ROUZIER exactly what I have ever wanted to see in a Prime Minister  -youth, competence, freshness of ideas, leadership, visionary, compassion, love for Haiti and its people, discipline, toughness, a man/woman of principle, knowledge (in terms of how capitalism and the global economy work).

He is a great choice for the country -one that shows you exactly where President Martelly wants to take the country in this 21st century, in the post-Preval-Aristide era.

We -the new generation Haitians -will not sit idly letting these bozos mess up the country any further. Time has changed, so must be our politics.

I am calling on Senator Joazile, the big man running the nomination process in the legislature, to use his sense of political cleverness and astuteness and not let partisan politics blind him.

So assuming that everything is legit with ROUZIER in terms of the constitutional recommendations, for the betterment of our beloved country, he must be ratified. Politics should NOT stop him, not this time. I am urging Senator Joazile to get his troops on board and ratify the president’s choice. ROUZIER is the choice for the future.

May 22 2011

MY WORD OF ADVICE TO PRESIDENT MARTELLY

President Michel J. Martelly

I am going to go straight in this to tell you to stop playing games with these politicians in the legislature. Most of these guys do not have the people’s best interest at heart; they are driven by partisan politics.

As you can see, they are out to control several key ministries –agriculture, education, interior, justice, etc… -representing the pillars of your agenda.

You campaigned on reforming the education system, restoring the authority of the state, strengthening our economy through a total reform of our agriculture, reforming our justice system, etc… If you let them gain control of these key agencies, you are doomed.

This is your first political clash with that body; you’ve got to win to show these vultures in the Senate and the House of Deputies that you can pull some muscles. This is a psychological warfare, which you must win by any means necessary.

If anything, follow Obama’s footsteps. You cannot go wrong if you do. Here is what David Axelrod had President Obama do (By the way, he is President Obama’s top political strategist): To get the health care bill ratified in both chambers of Congress, he, after realizing that the Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats were playing politics with the bill, had the president traveled across the country on campaign mode to promote the bill and thereby got the people to rally behind him. Had he not done so, the bill would have not passed.

That’s exactly what you ought to be doing. Don’t forget that politics is a weight game. Don’t be too quick to negotiate, for it is very unwise to negotiate in a position of weakness. You don’t have any political base in the legislature. Your strength is in/with the people; therefore, reach out to them to put pressure on the parliament to have the choice of ROUZIER approved. You’ve got to win this.

May 5 2011

WAGING WAR ON DOMESTIC TERRORISM IN HAITI

Kidnapping and planned homicide in any country are acts of specialized terrorism. In Haiti, such acts have become common practice. Almost every single day you wake up, you hear on the news that someone gets executed point-blank or kidnapped, creating a situation of constant fear in the population. Something must be done and must be done NOW to secure the nation so that investments (foreign and national) can start pouring in the country.

These criminals -kidnappers and murderers -in Haiti are domestic terrorists; we need to call them what they are. Therefore, dealing with them requires bold actions which must be part of a national security strategy apparatus.

Let us be clear on one thing: President Martelly campaigned on the urgency to revamp our agonizing economy by encouraging investments and creating jobs, which is awesome. But, sorry to say it, that will not happen if we cannot secure the country. Investments and criminal activities do not mingle or cohabit. Whenever crimes become a matter of normalcy within any territorial space, investments flee. That is just the way it is. So to attract and keep investments within our borders, we have got to win the war on crimes.

President Martelly must develop a comprehensive strategy to fight domestic terrorism and attract and prevent investments from fleeing to other countries competing against us for cheap labor. What must he do to address this national security issue which is poised to be one of the most pressing challenges of his administration?

To address this national security issue, President Martelly must:

1. ask the help of the international community to train a National Security Force (NSF) with the objective to dismantle the criminal cells and capture the criminals dead or alive.

a. Such specialized elite force will be composed of 500 or 1000 well trained and equipped military personnel.

b. The force will have an Intelligence Unit to infiltrate the criminal cells and collect pertinent intel in terms of their locations and their activities so they can be stopped before they hit their high value targets.

c. To lower the cost of training this force, they could proceed with the recruitment of Haitian citizens who had served in foreign militaries.

2. restructure the Interior Ministry and refocus its mission  to respond to all threats with the potency to compromise or endanger our national security -fighting drug trafficking, kidnapping, organized crimes and secure the nation.

a. The National Security Force should fall under this agency, which should be run by people with expertise in intelligence and national security. These people will constitute the team to advice the president on issues pertaining to national security.

In conclusion, candidate Martelly promised during the campaign to revamp our economy by encouraging investments (foreign and national) and creating jobs. There is no way such promise could become a matter of reality if he does not develop and implement a national security strategy to dismantle the terrorist cells, capture these terrorists dead or alive and secure the country. We cannot let these terrorists control the country and terrorize the population. Fighting terrorist activities is not the job of a police force, especially not of one as limited, ill-trained and ill-equipped as the one we have. Stopping or killing these terrorists requires that we place ourselves ahead of them, and such must be the president’s biggest national security priority. You do not play with terrorists; you capture them either dead or alive.

Apr 23 2011

NO GOD IS PUNISHING HAITI

There is no God punishing Haiti. Anybody, and I don’t give a damn if that person is Jesus Christ, feeding you with this nonsense is contributing to the misfortunate situation you are living as a people. And anybody who wants to contribute to your pains and sufferings is your enemy.

We have a bunch of stupid characters (Haitians and non-Haitians) in the religious circles on the ground in Haiti polluting the minds of the people in such a way to pacify and make them accept their fates as a matter of divine punishment. In their blame game, of course, they have got to go after Vodou to make it their most convenient scapegoat for every bad situation we have lived and are experiencing as a people. 

You have been brainwashed to believe that your own culture, beliefs and value system all contribute to the degrading and inhumane situations you are living. Most of these Haitian religious leaders are a bunch of modern slaves who are on the payrolls of these big Western corporate churches run by guys such as Pat Robertson and company. 

They are not telling you how we got to where we are today because they do not care to know; they do not give a damn. As long as they have you to bring them your hard earned income and they have a US visa to vacation with their families every year in the US paid for by their masters, they are living on earth “le paradis terrestre.”  They are not telling you that we are made victims of outrageous policies from the United States and all these major international financial institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, etc…

No God was behind the destruction of the Haitian rice industry, making us today the third largest US rice importer in the world with only a population of roughly 10 million people. You know damn well who was behind that and why.

No God was behind the decision to kill the country’s domestic Creole pigs, the rural economy’s second most important economic component, which has destroyed the entire socioeconomic system of the country. You know damn well who was behind that and why.

Because of the destruction of the rural economy, the economic base of the country, the peasants are/were forced out of their fertile and agricultural lands to migrate to the nearby cities to live in newly erected slums and work as domestic workers (restavèk, jeranlakou and bòn) at people’s houses.

Do not blame God for the political instable environment we have been living in ever since the creation of the Haitian state. You know damn well the people who have been behind all that and why. If this God has to be so against us, why befriending Him/Her/It then?  

Haiti’s tribulations are manmade. Of course, they have to tell you that God has cursed and is chastising us so that you can accept the abject poverty you are living in as a matter of destiny and do not do anything to change its course. And when that happens, it is benefiting them because they control you.

That is what they need to tell you; unfortunately, they are not. There is no excuse for being blind and stupid. Open your eyes and ask questions. That is why you were blessed with the capacity to reason and make sense of events.

So I hope now you have a clear sense as to what the deal is about. Next time these religious slaves come to you trying to convince you to believe that God is punishing Haiti, you need to spit in their faces, and that is if you cannot slap the hell out of them. They are your enemies; therefore, you need to beware of them.

Apr 19 2011

RECONCILIATION: MICKY & TITID SHOULD MEET

President-elect Martelly

I believe there have been sentiments of discord and strife between President-elect Martelly and former President Aristide. This is now the time for a cease fire to be called between the two men to reconcile the nation with itself. I am glad President-elect Martelly is taking the lead on the reconciliation mantra.

In an interview to La Press, published yesterday, Monday, April 18, 2011, President-elect Martelly, talking on the fate of the two former presidents -Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and Jean Bertrand Aristide –said in French:

I would simply said that we will be able to eventually look at amnesty only if those who had been hurt in the past understand the necessity for the nation to reconcile with itself. Before we could get to that, we need to try to place ourselves in the victims’ shoes to understand them and respect their sentiments.

So we are not rushing into taking any decisions, though public opinion wants that I stand on the side of amnesty and clemency, a way to focus on the future, not the past. But we must always keep the past in our minds so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.

I think President-elect Martelly, in his effort to bring the country together, needs to be the bigger person to hand to the former president an olive branch; he needs to make peace with him.

Former President Aristide

Former President Aristide is a resourceful person whom President-elect Martelly could use in many capacities to help rebuild the country. We find strength only in unity, not in division and bickering.

The former priest’s rhetoric may have been too inflammatory during his tenure as president, but he could be a great asset to be put to good use if he is really honest about his ambition to serve the people and help move the country forward.

If his rhetoric and policies were being viewed as too far to the left, it was because he was in a position for whatever he said and did to matter much. He is not in that position anymore, President-elect Martelly is. In other words, Martelly is the coach to call the play now, not Aristide.

President-elect Martelly must not let these vultures, those who have never acted in the best interest of Haiti, dictate him who amongst us he should befriend and who he should ostracize. He is now the president of every single Haitian; therefore, he must act in such manner.

Now that he is elected president, in his post-election consultations, he should ask to meet with all the former presidents currently living in Haiti, including former President Aristide. That should take place prior to his inauguration ceremony, which all of them will be invited to attend.

It would be preposterous to think that a man in the caliber of Aristide could be pushed to the side. He can still be useful to Haiti so long as he is willing to play by the rules.

While I am for reconciliation between the two men, only for the sake of bringing all the sons and daughters of Haiti together to do what needs to get done, I am also urging President-elect Martelly to not be naive and let Aristide loose; he needs to be kept on check. I am sure Mr. Martelly will keep him in a tight and short leash. So I am not going to even worry about him acting up.