the insurgents are promising an imminent attack on the capital and i believe them. so i thought an abrupt edification on Haiti would be good when mass slaughter seems to be the imminent destiny.

Quick Facts

believe it or not Haiti is shrouded by a glorious history.

-former slave colony
-french speaking, france’s colony
-richest colony in the america's
-british desired it on many occasions
-during french revolution, Haitians led the first and only slave rebellion (1804 Haitian Revolution)
-encouraged by feudal Loyalists to agitate the bourgeoisie in France who had a vested interest in free labour (symbiosis between happenings of the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution)
-second revolution on this side of the Atlantic, first is of course is the American Revolution

i don't categorize the "american revolution" as an authentic revolution since in revolution the power structure needs to revolve from bottom to top. like in the cuban revolution where peasants with left wing radicals replaced the fascist Bautista government (incidentally the Bautista government was backed by the US). therefore, america's first revolutionaries are a bunch of black guys that u never heard of

-one of the intrinsically contentious features of Haiti is that it shares the same land with another nation, the Dominican Republic (spanish speaking)
-besides the language dichotomy, the Dominican Republic was annexed by the british (I think, not sure) so i guess these 2 peoples have hated each other since the 1800's
-fast forward 200 years or so and the Haitians built a functioning democracy (championed by many left leaning, anti-american imperialist scholars like Edward Said and Noam Chomsky)
-in 1991, the Haitians rejected US sponsored candidates and elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide
-Aristide represented the Lavalas Movement-meaning The Flood, a hybrid of peasants and the petit bourgeoisie
-Aristide was a nationalist, populist (the americans hate those) and liberation theologian
-numerous coup d’etat have marked the history of Haiti since Aristide's democratic victory
-most anti-aristide opposition are on the CIA payroll, no disputing that
-the US has historically intervened military and politically for a long time, most notable of which is Clinton's military intervention in 1994

THE CRISIS

i took a course in first year called "Politics, Corruption and Violence" which should be really titled the "Third World Story". politics, corruption and violence mars most third world states. two definitions are compulsory when studying a political matters, politics and power. power is defined as the ability for others to do your bidding. for politics, i like to use Laswell's definition which is "who gets what, when and how" which highlights the economic instrumentality of politics.

one of the themes explored in the class is the modern crisis of collapsed states, which entails the lose of central authority. best case of that today is Karzai (sp.) in Afghanistan who i guess is the president but only enjoys the authority of the mayor of Kabul. likewise, aristide today is the mayor of Port-au-Prince insulated by burning barricades (have u seen that?). also, certain territories are designated "under control" by rebels like in the case of Columbia where FARC controls parts of it, legally i believe.

getting back to the definitions, the crisis of collapsed states is intensified by competing interests that often only have sole military wings with a de facto political reason for being. Haiti fits into my analysis with three competing groups.

-formal opposition, the of Group of 184, conglomeration of political as well as social coalitions (many of them are non-violent and madeup of disillusioned students and concerned citizens)
-the army organized by Metayer assisted by paramilitaries (i think these mutherfuckers are bankrolled by the americans)
-pro-Aristide townspeople and the gangs that he has assembled

after all of the years of fragility exacerbated by external influences, Aristide has got incredibly paranoid. his leadership mirrors more of a latin american despot than a populist liberator like Patrice Lumumba (btw, lumumba was assassinated by the CIA). however, Aristide's lawyers have charged the Americans on February 26 for directly being involved in the military coup.

American Reasons for Fucking Around in Haiti

-haiti is plentiful in natural resources so a pro free trade (euphemism for extractive trade benefiting the rich) leader would help the americans
-the america's free trade zone is good for Bush's cohorts
-furthermore, 15% of the clandestine narco trafficking between columbia and miami takes places in Haiti
-the drug czar wants to crackdown on that

Why the Invasion of Iraq complicates Haiti

-Colin Powell ( u know the dude that has put black people back 100 years) admitted recently that the US troops are overstretched so they can't do any peacekeeping
-which is sad for the world's remaining superpower who can't even keep the peace even on their own hemisphere
-also, the US military is designed for offensive missions not defensive oriented stuff like Europe or Canada’s
-that probably accounts for why they have failed miserably in occupying Iraq

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fast forward 200 years or so and the Haitians built a functioning democracy (championed by many left leaning, anti-american imperialist scholars like Edward Said and Noam Chomsky)

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Really? I thought they were just starting to build one when the military took over the country.

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Aristide's voluntary departure ...

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I am not certain that his departure was voluntary.

Some questions about Aristide:

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Aristide's voluntary departure was the best option in this dilemma. Now the international community needs to step up to the plate and send in peacekeepers.

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Again, where was the international community when Aristide was begging, begging the "democratic" wealthy nation to come to the aid of a fellow democracy?

Exactly where they wanted to be: behind the coup.