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mardi 23 août 2016

As the UN Finally Admits Role in Haiti Cholera Outbreak, Here Is How Victims Must Be Compensated

Tuesday, 23 August 2016 00:00
By Nicolas Lemay-Hébert and Rosa Freedman, The Conversation | Op-Ed
The United Nations has, at long last, accepted some responsibility that it played a part in a cholera epidemic that broke out in Haiti in 2010 and has since killed at least 9,200 people and infected nearly a million people.
This is the first time that the UN has acknowledged that it bears a duty towards the victims. It is a significant step forward in the quest for accountability and justice.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. It is frequently devastated by disasters -- both natural and man-made. Yet cholera was not one of its problems before 2010. Then a group of UN peacekeepers was sent to help after an earthquake.
The UN did not screen its peacekeepers for cholera, nor did it build adequate toilet facilities in its peacekeeping camps. As a result, wastewater carrying cholera flowed directly into a tributary that feeds Haiti's main river. Given that vast numbers of the population rely on the Artibonite river for washing, cooking, cleaning and drinking, cholera quickly spread around many parts of the country. The disease is now endemic within the country. People continue to die at an alarming rate by this preventable and treatable disease.
The UN has also refused to provide a mechanism through which victims can seek remedies. Peacekeeping missions are legally bound to set up claims boards for victims of civil wrongs, but this has not occurred in Haiti. A class action suit has been brought to New York district and appellate courts, but the UN has refused to appear before those courts and has hidden behind the shield of immunity from the jurisdiction of national courts. Advocacy groups have lobbied the UN and member states to provide political resolution, but none has been forthcoming.
Accepting Guilt
Now, with Ban Ki-Moon's tenure nearly finished, and with the Haiti situation remaining a stain on the UN's reputation, it seems as though the five-year impasse may be coming to an end.
The New York Times has reported that a spokesperson for the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, whose tenure is nearly finished, wrote in a leaked email: "Over the past year, the UN has become convinced that it needs to do much more regarding its own involvement in the initial outbreak and the suffering of those affected by cholera." He added that a "new response" would be made public in the coming months after it had been "agreed with the Haitian authorities."
There have been many efforts to encourage resolution, including from UN independent experts on human rights, former UN officials and from some member states. Many of the candidates to become the next UN secretary-general have pledged to address the issue if appointed to that job.
There have been public calls for Ban Ki-Moon to move away from his position. There needs to be a concerted effort to ensure that any resolution package, should one be agreed, meets the needs of the cholera victims -- given the political instability in Haiti.
Making Amends
Experts, academics, ambassadors to the UN and former UN officials have long discussed what a political resolution to this situation might look like. We believe there are three crucial aspects to any resolution package. There must be financial compensation, efforts to prevent the spread of the disease and a public apology.
In situations of mass harm, compensation is usually awarded through a lump sum payment or trust fund and a similar model could be used to compensate cholera victims in this case. Haiti does not have national laws and standards on compensation, but at the very least, financial compensation must be made available for the dependants of those who died from cholera and some form of remedies made available for those infected with the disease.
A strong cholera elimination plan is already in place in Haiti, focusing on water and sanitation, health, and preventing further infections. But it is woefully underfunded, which means that water treatment plants that have been built do not have sufficient electricity to run. Any resolution package must include support for this kind of work.
Finally, the cholera epidemic has significantly undermined the relationship between the UN and locals. An apology would be a starting point to rebuild the UN's credibility in Haiti. Apologies after Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Sri Lanka played a significant role in the healing process for the people affected by UN mistakes.
The Haiti cholera epidemic remains a blight on the reputation of the UN and its peacekeeping missions. That will only change with a resolution package. Whatever form that package takes, it must be decided transparently. It must be victim-centred and ensure that justice is done and is seen to be done. The leaked UN email demonstrates that there is some momentum brewing. It is crucial that is capitalised upon in a transparent, fair and just manner.
Rosa Freedman has received funding from AHRC, British Academiy, ESRC, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, and Society of Legal Scholars.
Nicolas Lemay-Hébert receives funding from Marie Curie, ESRC, AHRC and the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, and Society of Legal Scholars.

JE SUIS DE CETTE RACE D'HOMMES QUI ONT DIT NON!

« JOYEUX 23 AOUT, JOURNEE INTERNATIONALE DU SOUVENIR DE LA TRAITE NEGRIERE ET DE SON ABOLITION » CHER COMPATRIOTES !
Saviez-vous qu’en 1998 l’UNESCO a adopté le 23 août comme "la Journée internationale du souvenir de la traite négrière et de son abolition".
Cette date a été retenue pour marquer le rôle déterminant de la révolte initiée en 1791 par les esclaves de Saint Domingue, futurs citoyens d’Haïti, huit jours après la cérémonie du bois Caïman, dans l'abolition de la traite négrière transatlantique et de l’esclavage?
Vous risquez de ne pas trop en entendre parler.
C’est un sujet épineux qui chatouille les consciences et divise encore en 2016.
Sans doute, il n’y aura pas de célébration officielle en Haïti où les priorités seront toujours autres surtout pour ceux qui ont eu l’intelligence indécente de cacher derrière leurs intérêts mesquins en 2004, la célébration du bicentenaire de notre indépendance et de la création de la première République noire du monde.
Je suis désolé pour les porteurs du révisionnisme et du négationnisme, dans un monde où l’on célèbre et vénère en 2016, le premier président noir des Etats Unis d’Amérique, dans un monde où l’on idolâtre des hommes pour leurs exploits sportifs, ma tête, mon corps et mon esprit regorgent de cette fierté de se dire que je suis héritier de cette « race » d’hommes qui ont dit NON en 1791 !
JE SUIS DE CETTE RACE D’HOMMES QUI ONT DIT NON !
Jonas Jolivert 23/08/2017

mardi 16 août 2016

28%? PAS SI MAL!

« Comme un coup de tonnerre dans un ciel serein » la nouvelle est tombée : il y a un vrai problème dans le système éducatif haïtien. Tout le monde le savait. Les vrais éducateurs n’ont jamais cessé d’en parler et de tirer la sonnette d’alarme. Mais la vie continuait. Le problème alimentait des débats intentionnés, intéressants et rangés mais sans jamais dégager une volonté officielle ou sectorielle pour apporter une vraie solution à un problème qui conduira irrémédiablement à la disparition du pays.
Haïti a perdu plusieurs batailles depuis la tentative de sa création il y a deux siècles. Depuis quelques années en Haïti il n’y a plus d’éducation supérieure. L’université d’état d’Haïti, un temps fermée élitiste et exclusive est restée unique, ouverte et démocratique a perdu son superbe par un processus de nivellement par le bas, corollaire de cette ouverture au peuple. Aujourd’hui plus de 25.000 bacheliers dépensent près de 9.000.000 d’euros par an, dans les universités de la République Dominicaine.
Après la bataille des infrastructures, après la bataille de l’alimentation, après la bataille de l’éducation supérieure, toutes des batailles perdues, nous voilà sur le point de perdre celle du niveau secondaire. Les conséquences sont toujours les mêmes. L’exclusion, l'hypothèque systématique de l’avenir, touchent toujours les mêmes. Et ceci, dans l’aveuglement candide de ceux qui ont cru à un moment donné être le centre de la préoccupation d’une frange du secteur politique.
La nouvelle est donc tombée. Les résultats des examens de fin d’études secondaires sont sans équivoque et sans appel surtout pour le département de l’ouest qui regroupe à lui seul la grande majorité des écoles du pays : 28% de réussite et plus de 45.000 jeunes éliminés.
Les autorités actuelles auront eu le mérite de ne pas cacher le soleil avec un doigt en soumettant des épreuves non revues à la baisse pour ne pas les placer au niveau réel des élèves. En dehors de l’écho de certains bacheliers échoués qui se demandent quel chemin emprunté, il n’y a que quelques-uns des vrais éducateurs qui semblent concernés et voient encore une fois la magnitude colossale d’un problème qui ne provoque indignation, ni soulèvement, ni engagement.
Il n’y a que les projets des responsables haïtiens et de ceux de a société civile qui ne contemplent pas un système éducatif fort et en accord avec les besoins de développement du pays.
Haïti restera la nation des résilients par excellence. Nous venons de montrer que l’on peut vivre sans médecin et sans hôpital comme on peut survivre aussi dans un environnement insalubre.
Haïti survivra aussi comme une nation avec une jeunesse éduquée en Haïti et pour Haïti
28% de réussite aux examens de fin d’études secondaires ce n’est pas une catastrophe capable d’intéresser les médias ou d’interpeller les pouvoirs publics.
La passivité avec laquelle cette tragédie est acceptée et intégrée comme une autre fatalité explique pourquoi le bal continue entre les victimes et les bourreaux tandis que les vrais responsables s’affairent ailleurs là où il existe encore des parts à prendre.
Qui plus est, les responsables ne sont pas trop concernés. Il suffit de demander aux membres du gouvernement ou se trouvent leurs enfants pour comprendre ce que veut dire diriger un pays dans lequel on y croit pas du tout. L’élite bourgeoise avait assumé ce choix depuis bien longtemps.
On observe ces jeunes qui pleurent et ces parents qui lèvent les bras au ciel. Après des années de sacrifices, leurs efforts ont été bafoués avec la complicité des responsables et la duplicité des chercheurs d’or dans le désert des besoins qui ont compris qu’il fallait créer des établissements scolaires du style Collège Pratique Julius Joxibrin !
Devant cette catastrophe dont les médias en parlent peu, il n’y a pas réellement de victimes sinon des coupables et des complices.
On est coupable.
On est complice mais jamais victime !

dimanche 7 août 2016

CHIMEN TI BOUTON…CHIMEN MALING

Li difisil pou leve you maten pou pa jwen you bagay pou di sou Ayiti. Chak maten depim leve mwen kouri pran nouvel poum konnen ki kote gen moun ki mouri. Eske se aksidan ? Eske se atanta ? Eske se you moun fou ki rantre nan you kote moun rasanble vide moun atè ak zam fanfwa ?
Pi souvan gen you pawol sou Ayiti ki fè tout plim sou dom leve e bagay saa telman dominem ke mwen paka pa dechaje konsyans mwen pandan ke map ekri refleksyon sa yo.
Ampli fwa nou tande moun ap repete ke Ayiti se you peyi kote tout bagay dwe fèt paske anyen poko fèt ladann.
Gen menm etranje ki pa tranble pou yo di ke peyi-a a vyèj. Nan sans saa, gen moun ki soti nan lot peyi ki te vinn swadizan bannou kout men apre goudou 12 janvye lane 2010 ki tou rete paske yo jwenn okazyon pou yo viv miyò ke lakay pa yo epi yo tou rete.
Mòd kooperan sa yo analize tout sa ki pap mache byen lakay pou yo itilize fay sa yo pou fè lajan. Mwen gen kek ekzanp men mwen pito kite sijè saa pou you lot fwa.
Sa ki enteresem nan moman saa se rekonèt ke menm jan yo di saa nan lang blan franse, « en Haïti , tout reste à faire » map mande tèt mwen kisa ki anpeche nou fè you seri de ti bagay byen senp ki ta ka montre ke gen moun ki soti pou yo travay vre san entere pèsonèl pa yo.
Mwen pap pale de moun ou tande ki fè you fondayon kap potekole ak kèk moun pou pita ou tande yo bezwen majistra, depite, senatè oubyen prezidan. Map pale de moun ki vle regle you pwoblem lan katye yo, nan kominote yo, nan depatman yo oubyen kareman nan peyi yo.
Laprev se ke siw mande dènye moun ki te sou pouvwa oubyen nan administrasyon peyi saa pou yo montrew kisa yo te fè pou fè Peyi-a avanse, yo gen pou yo rete bèbè. Saa gen pou diw li te konstwi ayewopor entènasyonal la oubyen baraj pelig , you lot gen poul diw li konstwi wout ak lekol e latriye men lew gade tan yo fè sou pouvwa, lew konte konbyen lajan ki depanse , lew fè you ralemennenvini sou richès pèsonèl ke yo ramase tout moun ap dakò pou yo di ke tout moun sa yo pa fè anyen vre .
Poutan gen you seri de pwoblem senp ki koze anpil depans ak anpil dega nan fonksyonman sosyete a ki sanble fasil pou rezoud men pèsonn pa fè anyen paske se pa priyorite pa yo. Bagay sa se you chimen tibouton ki vinn tounnen maling. E si anyen pa fèt pou geri maling lan li gen poul tounnen java e java saa ka touye sosyete a net.
Avan yo mwen tap li you atik kitap denonse ke yo vòlò tout pano solè ak batri ki bay ayewopor Cap Haïtien an elektrisite. Laprès pale sou sa tankou you fè divè. Moun babye pandan kek jou epi anyen pa fèt .ayewopor saa ke peyi venezyela fè Ayiti kado a ki, sanl poko fini gentan gen you paket gwo pwoblem konstrikyon gen poul disparèt moso pa moso.
Fonksyonè kap travay andedan batiman saa ki telman enpotan pou rejyon an gentan konnen ki moso yap pran. Kouvèti twalèt, pat, fenèt elatriye tout gen pou disparèt. Moun okap pap di anyen. Majistra okap pap di anyen, senatè depatman ne pap di anyen. Kite mele bounda prezidan ak bagay konsa ?
Nan atitid lese grennen nan konpotman manfouben nou paka kanpe sou tisa nou genyen déjà pou nou fè plis.
Sinon nou Kite sa nou genyen yo ale e nou sètoblije ap mande pou nou rekomanse toutan.
Jounen jodian lew pran you pwoblem tankou dlo kap anvyi anpil vil nan peyi-a nou gendwa di ke se you pwoblem ki pa gen solisyon paske bagay yo vinn twò grav. Se you makonn ak you pakèt ti pwoblem ki mete yo ansanm ki vinn tounnen you maswife pou Peyi-a. Sistem drenaj ak kanalizasyon pa efikaz kote yo ekziste paske moun jete fatra nan lari, kote ki te gen twou rego lontan moun vòlò Kouvèti an feray egou yo epi yal vann li.
Ayisyen vinn tounnen maton nan zafè vol you bagay dans epi apre ya deside kisa pou yo fè avel . Nan sans saa gen you sikwi ki ap demantibile Peyi-a, ap koze gwo nwizans ak tout sosyete a pandan ke kek moun ap fè degoud ki pap menm pèmèt yo achte you chen janbe pou twonpe grangou nan vant yo pou you jounen.
Lotre jou gen you pon ki te tonbe paske moun te vòlè boulon ki te mare pon saa. Mwen pa kwe ke gen you lot peyi sou latè kote you moun ka wè you seri de bagay konsa.
Anfrans gen you mafya kap volè kab ki genle gen plon ladan yo. Men moun sa yo fè bagay yo an kachèt yo veye lè pou yo fèl.
Gen you lè mwen te kay you zanmim Thomassin, gran jounen gen you neg ki monte devan jem sou you poto ekektrik epi li koupe gwo fil kouran yo epi lap rale fil yo fè you makonn. Lèm konprann sa misye tap fè a mal poze misye kesyon. Mwen te al pale ak misye paske se pase mtap pase. Neg la pa tap jwenn mwen poum ta touyem lèl ta rankontre ak mwen .
Misye dim : Met la se lavi map chèche.
Mwen di misye sil pa pè poul pran nan kouran .
Li dim ke nan katye a EDH preske pa janm bay kouran . Tout moun zòn nan se en vite ke yo genyen kidonk fil kouran yo pa itil anyen. Anplis li dim si yo aretel yap lagel touswit paske manke plas nan prizon pou moun kap touye moun. Se pa limenm yo ta kenbe pou you tifil kouran.
Moun ap vòlè you paket bagay konsa ke nou pa menm ka imajine ki sa yo itil you lot moun. Palefèt ke pèsonn pa di anyen sa vinn rantre nan konpòtman moun lan sanl pa reflechi sou dega sa pwovoke sou you sosyete.
Leta oblije fè you jan pou mete you fren nan bagay sa yo. You moun ki ap vann fil kouran nan lari-a dwe kapab montre kotel jwenn li. Si paka montre sa li an kontravansyon ak la lwa. Moun kap vann boulon dwe pwouve kotel jwenn boulon yo. Sinon la lwa dwe anafè avek.
Magazen kap vann pano solè dwe montre kotel jwenn yo. You moun kap enstale pano solè lakay li dwe gen you kontwol sou kote pano solè saa soti pouka dekouraje moun ka vòlò bagay sa yo .
Swa Lapolis, oubyen meri yo, yo bezwen gen you seri de polisye ki tap nan you depatman ki ta reprezante you « Brigade des mœurs » ki pou tap jere enfraksyon sa yo paske se vil yo ki subi anpil dega ak ti vol sa yo .
Bagay leta se pa bagay ki pa gen mèt m’en se bagay ke leta mete a la dispozisyon de tout moun.
Mwen sonje ke kek tan apre linogirasyon wout Jacmel la tout ti panno ki te konn klere selman lé you limyè machin te pase pre yo, tout te disparèt. Jiska prezan mwen poko janm konnen kisa moun ki te vòlè yo a kisa te fè ak yo .
Pou depite ak senatè onorab kap domi nan mitan seyans yo paske yo pa gen anyen pou yo fè, men you poul mwen ba nou sou you pwojè lwa ki ka koumanse mete bagay yo nan plas yo .
Nou nan nivo zewo bare nan anpil bagay. Men nou ka desann pi ba toujou. An nou kenbe sa nou genyen yo pou nou ka remonte. Majistra delma koumanse ap reflechi sou listwa machann ki pran lari a.
Majistra okay la aktif anpil nan chanje figi vil la An nou tout nou sipote efò fonksyonè sa yo ki vle fè bagay yo mache you lot jan pou ti bouton an pa tounen you gwo maling.
Dr Jonas Jolivert

samedi 6 août 2016

Les citoyens haïtiens en provenance du Brésil accentuent la crise des immigrants en Colombie

L’office des Migrations de Colombie a déclaré que, depuis le début de l'année Les Haïtiens ont commencé un exode du Brésil un impact en Colombie.
L'arrivée des Haïtiens en Colombie du Brésil accentue la problématique des immigrés clandestins que confronte le pays ce moment le pays, en particulier avec la présence de près de 1.300 Cubains qui sont parqués dans une cave dans la municipalité de Turbo, a déclaré à l'agence EFE une source officielle.
Le directeur régional du bureau régional de l'Ouest de l'office de Migration de Colombie, Darío Fernando Daza, a déclaré que depuis le début de l'année les Haïtiens ont commencé un exode du Brésil "qui a provoqué un vrai impact" en Colombie qui représente l'un des couloirs qu'ils doivent emprunter pour atteindre les États-Unis. "Après le tremblement de terre en Haïti en 2010, environ 45.000 personnes ont été accueillis au Brésil où ils avaient des incitations pour accéder à l'emploi et rester dans ce pays. La période de l'assistance arrive à sa fin au début de cette année et depuis ils ne cessent d'être des victimes des trafiquant de personnes" a expliqué Daza.
Une autre raison pour laquelle la Colombie a vu augmenter les flux migratoires, alimentés particulièrement par les cubains, sont les élections présidentielles américaines, qui se tiendront le 8 Novembre prochain.
"Ces citoyens avaient la prétention d'atteindre les USA avant qu'une nouvelle élection présidentielle ne puisse changer les conditions d'entrée ", a-t-il dit. En se référant aux immigrants illégaux les autorités colombiennes font une distinction entre ceux qu'elles considèrent comme des victimes et ceux qui sont des immigrants volontaires.
"Les migrants irréguliers que nous accueillons peuvent se retrouver dans des conditions des victimes lorsque nous arrivons à conclure qu'ils ont été victimes de la traite de personne (...) Mais il y a aussi une migration volontaire, qui peut être exercée par tout citoyen du monde dans le but de passer d'un pays à l'autre ", a-t-il ajouté.
Au cours des deux derniers jours l'office de Migration de la Colombie a logé 169 victimes de la traite des êtres humains dans le département de Valle del Cauca (sud-ouest).
L'institution a également expulsé 360 immigrés clandestins sans papiers, la plupart d'entre eux de nationalité haïtienne, qui ont été découverts par les autorités dans sept départements du pays.
Ce groupe était aussi constitué 13 Cubains et trois Indiens ont été découverts par les autorités dans un hôtel de Turbo, le principal port de la région des Caraïbes d'Urabá, en bordure du Panama.
Cependant, ces étrangers ne font pas partie des 1.300 immigrants cubains sont entassés dans une cave de ce port depuis plus de deux mois.
La situation devient plus tendue jour après l'annonce Turbo gouvernement colombien que, à cause de la fermeture de la frontière avec le Panama pour les sans-papiers, les cubains seront expulsés vers leur pays ou vers l'Equateur, par où ils sont rentrés en Colombie.
Source:http://www.wradio.com.co/noticias/actualidad/haitianos-procedentes-de-brasil-acentuan-crisis-de-inmigrantes-en-colombia/20160806/nota/3209222.aspx
Traduction: Dr Jonas Jolivert

vendredi 5 août 2016

REPONSABLITE PAM, RESPONSABLITE PAW, RESPONSABILITE NOU TOUT…ECHEK PAM, ECHEK PAW, ECHEK NOU TOUT

Si ayisyen vòlò boulon ki kenbe gwo pon kote pou moun ak machin pase.
Si ayisyen vóló ti panno fosforesan ke yo te mete sou de bó wout de lamitye ke blan franse te fè Peyi-a a kado. Wout ki pèmet moun ale Jakmel
Si ayisyen te konn al vóló woch nan palè sansousi e nan tirès palè 365 pót se pa pano solè ak batri yo pap vóló.
Si Henri Christophe pat bati citadelle, si François Duvalier pat bati ayewopor patap rete tras ke moun rele sivilizasyon lakay pa nou.
Nan listwa kreyasyon you sosyete , nan listwa kreyasyon you pwojè nasyon 212 lane se pa anyen.
Konbyen ane sivilizasyon peyi ewop yo te pran pou yo rive nan pwen kote yo rive jodi-an ? Malgré sa gade tout tray yo pase ou kontinan saa!
Konbyen tan konstrikyon sosyete peyi blan meriken te pran ? Gade jiska prezan pwoblem entegrasyon ak lot ankor Poko janm regle.
You pwojè fè you peyi kote ansyen zesklav te ka leve tèt yo e di ke yo se moun menm jan ak tout moun alos ke zot te di ke se zanmimo nou ye, se pa you ti kal pwoje.
Nou te manke résous ak jaret pou nou te kenbe devan tout lot nasyon ki te la deja yo e ki te semante set fwa swasantdisèt fwa sèt fwa di neg paka lot bagay ke esklav.
Yo fè tout sa yo kapab pou nou te ka echwe.
E nou echwe vre.
Te gen dezoutwa neg ki te fè rèv sa yo rele AYITI a ; yo fè konplo sou do yo. Lenmi andedan ak Lenmi andeyò mare sosis yo ansanm pou you toupizi pwoje saa.
Yo te vle demontre ke ti neg paka fè anyen serye. Ti neg paka fè you kokenn chenn reyalizasyon konsa.
Degren chef ki te pote rev saa sou do yo se te Toussaint Louverture ak Jean Jacques Dessalines. Neg sa yo te wè you limyè ke yo menm sel te wè. Yo te kwè nan you bagay ke pèsonn lot pat kwè.
Nan jounen ki te 17 oktob 1806, you ti kras plis ke 2 rekòt kafe selman apre yo te kreye peyi saa key o rele Ayiti a, fòs fènwa te ranpòte laviktwa sou ti limyè ki te fenk ap eseye klere.
Depi jou saa nou nan fènwa.
Anyen pa fèt kom sa dwa pou reyalize rev saa. Pèsonn pa sou bò rèv saa ankò. Ayiti vinn tounen you savann kote tout moun ap viv you sitiyasyon chen manje chen. Tout moun ap jwe you jwèt lanmó kote tout koukouy klere pou degrenn je pa yo ak je fanmi yo.
Tout ayisyen lage tankou bèt sovaj ap defann teritwa pa yo.
Pèson pa pran angajman pou eksplike ki règ ki dwe aplike pou fè you sosyete mache. Pèson pa pran responsablite pou montre sou ki fos you peyi kanpe. Jodia nou rive nan leta ke nap viv laa.
You espas kote you paket tinèg ap viv pi mal ke zannimo.
Generasyon pa nou an pa responsab tout sa nap gade jounen jodian. Menm jan ke jenerasyon ki te vini anvan nou yo pa responsab sa ke yo te jwenn nan.
Men nou tout responsab, tout jenerasyon responsab paske yo kite tout bann ak pakèt gwo okazyon pase pou yo korije sa ki te fèt kwochi, sa ki te fèt miwo miba sa ki te fèt ak fos kote.
Nou tout kontinye ap repwodi menm vye aksyon, menm vye konpotman ki bay menm vye rezilta.
Echek PWOJÈ AYITI se echèk tout ayisyen tout kote, se echèk ayisyen tout jenerasyon.
Maladi a nan you stad avanse anpil sou malad la, men ti souf li ap bat toujou. Tout bagay poko pèdi nèt. Li ka chape toujou. Nou nan lane 2016. La syans ak lamedsin mete tèt yo ansanm pou di nou kijan pou nou edel sove.
Fok you doktè ka di de ki maladi li soufri. Fok tout espesyalis mete yo ansanm pou bay bon laswenyay.
Pou you sosyete byen mache, pou you peyi avanse fok chak grenn sitwayen konnen ke li enpotan. Fok li santi ke li ladann tou.
Fók li dakò e konprann ke li ladann e ke li dwe respekte règ jwet la.
Li gen poul fè devwal pandan ke lap ekzèse dwa pal.
Men fomil majik la.
San fós kote, dwa ak devwa dwe mare sosis yo ansanm.
Siw lage you timoun sou you bisiklèt sanl poko aprann monte, li gen poul tonbe e toutan ke li poko aprann monte bisiklèt la li ka fè tèt li ditó, li ka komèt ti dega e li pap janm ale lwen.
Lèl resi fin konn monte bisiklèt la byen, li ka kouri anpil kilomèt sans kè sote. Li ka fè lakilbit. Men sa pap vle di ke li ka monte sou volan you machin poul kondwil tou. Fok li aprann kondwi machinn lan menm jan li te aprann monte bisiklèt la. Sinon lap fè pi gwo dega.
Nou ka di menm bagay la pou you kamyon, pou you tren, you avyon ak you bato kom you avyon oubyen you fize, you peyi.
Paka gen enpwovizasyon nan jere you peyi. You peyi se pa you ti jwèt kote ou ka pèdi epi ou bay boudaw de tap ou ale fè wout ou. Chak move zak ke ou poze nan you peyi se you pakèt reta ou bay peyi-a ak sosyete a.
Toutan ke nou paka chita e reflechi ansanm e korekteman, jenerasyon gen pou vini jenerasyon gen pou ale, men listwa gen pou rekonèt nou tout tankou you seri de moun ki te gen chans pou yo patisipe nan konstrikyon you gwo zèv men nou te kite chans saa pase. Nou pat gen ase entelijans pou nou te fè zèv saa.
Memwa listwa pap janm padone nou pou sa !
Doc Jopi
06/08/2016

jeudi 4 août 2016

JOCELERME PRIVERT ET JEAN BERTRAND ARISTIDE

Haïti se rappellera pendant longtemps ce 14 février 2016.
Cette date ne sera plus uniquement cette journée dédiée à l’amour et aux amoureux. Elle restera dans les anales la date des élections indirectes pour combler une vacance présidentielle de fin de mandat. Une situation inédite donc sans provision dans les pages de la Constitution. Le récit serait trop long pour expliquer comment on a pu aboutir à une pareille situation.
Ceux qui suivent avec assiduité l’actualité haïtienne se passeront de cette introduction. Pour ceux qui se trouvent entrain de lire ce texte sans avoir été intéressé par Haïti, je ferai un résumé le plus succinct possible. Ce qui est déjà assez compliqué dans le cas d’Haïti car chaque fois qu’il est nécessaire de remonter à la genèse d’un problème il semble qu’il faut aller à la genèse de cette nation en faillite.
En fait le président dont le mandat a pris fin le 7 Février dernier avec une exigence de passer la main à un autre président élu démocratiquement à l’issue des élections présidentielles libres, crédibles , inclusives et transparentes dont il avait la responsabilité. Mais avant les joutes présidentielles, d’autres échéances électorales prévues pendant le quinquennat ont été carrément oubliées. Michel Martelly n’en n’a organisé aucune.
Avec un parlement caduc il a pris son pied à gouverner par décret. Il comptait sur les élections présidentielles et législatives de cette année, avec la bénédiction/indifférence de la communauté internationale pour choisir son successeur à qui il passerait la bande présidentielle.
Ce qu’il n’avait pas prévu arriva. Malgré une insistance téméraire et menaçante de la communauté internationale, l’opposition rendit impossible la poursuite et la conclusion du processus électoral.
Les forces démocratiques venaient de gifler de plein fouet l’ensemble de la communauté internationale pour qui stabilité rime avec passation de pouvoir entre un président élu à un autre. Peu importe dans quelles conditions. Les standards sont tellement rabaissés en Haïti que ce qui est inacceptable ailleurs est célébré en Haïti avec Caviar et Champagne !
Toujours est-il que le 7 Février arriva sans président élu. Et il fallait bien trouver une solution car la gestion d’un pays est constante et permanente. Le quinquennat de Martelly s’est écoulé sans que son administration n’ait pensé à aucune institution.
On sait bien qu’en théorie le pouvoir exécutif s’exerce par une structure triangulaire composée du pouvoir exécutif personnifié dans le binôme présidé de la République /Premier Ministre, le pouvoir législatif et le pouvoir judiciaire.
Au sept février 2016, aucun de ces trois pouvoirs jouissait d’un fonctionnement normal capable de lui accréditer une légitimité pour prendre le contrôle de la nation.
En fait Monsieur Evans Paul premier ministre est considéré comme un premier ministre de facto car il a été nommé comme premier ministre d’un faux consensus ou de connivence pour une énième sortie de crise.
Le pouvoir législatif venait à peine de se reconstituer dans une ultime démarche du gouvernement pour valider les résultats des élections contestées alimentant la grogne d’une grande partie de la population.
Le pouvoir judiciaire est lui aussi bancal et peu fonctionnel car Martelly n’avait pas procédé à des nominations surtout au niveau de la Cour de cassation. Quand il a fallu trouver une solution de sortie de crise, le parlement récemment intronisé devint l’institution regroupant plusieurs identités et sensibilités politiques, se vit attribuer une étiquette de représentativité.
Le Parlement ne demandait pas mieux car certains élus sont contestés et pensent se mettre à l’abri ou en position pour négocier, avec cette prise de pouvoir. A partir de ce moment, comme l’avait fait les Forces Armées d’Haïti au départ de Jean-Claude Duvalier, cette prise de pouvoir s’est assimilée à un coup d’état dans la mesure où on peut considérer qu’il s’est accaparé du pouvoir de façon absolue et exclusive, sans tenir compte des forces politiques ni de la population qui ont fait échec au plan de Martelly et poussé à l’annulation du processus électoral.
Dans des circonstances particulières Monsieur Jocelerme Privert président du sénat haïtien se porta candidat au poste de Président Provisoire et se fit élire le 14 Février 2016. Cet ancien fonctionnaire de l’administration lavalas de Jean Bertrand Aristide qui, à la chute de ce dernier fit de la prison, scelle avec cette élection non seulement une victoire personnelle et individuelle mais aussi marque le retour de Lavalas au palais national onze ans plus tard.
Comme preuve infaillible circule une jolie photo de famille avec l’ex première dame de la République Madame Mildred Trouillot Aristide et Madame Maryse Narcisse candidate du parti aux élections inachevées.
Ce retour de Lavalas claironne à raison par divers secteurs et acteurs de la vie politique haïtienne a permis des scénarios des plus improbables dont une action de l’actuel Président qui viserait un retour de Jean Bertrand Aristide au pouvoir avec: - Le renvoi du parlement Création d’un CEP lavalaso-compatible
- Des élections parlementaires qu’emporterait avec une majorité absolue la mouvance Lavalas
- Modification de la Constitution
- Nouvelles élections avec Aristide comme candidat
Prise de but en blanc, on serait tenté de qualifier cette réflexion d’utopie caractérisée.
Cependant j’ai l’habitude de dire qu’en Haïti et l’imaginable comme l’inimaginable peuvent devenir réels. Tout dépend en effet de celui qui imagine ou cesserait d’imaginer !Il est vrai que l’aboutissement d’un tel projet relève d’une prouesse d’une envergure telle qu’elle ferait intervenir des actions et des comportements aujourd’hui difficilement acceptables.
Ma réflexion sur ce scénario se porte sur les deux protagonistes : JOCELERME PRIVERT ET JEAN BERTRAND ARISTIDE… (A SUIVRE)
Dr Jonas Jolivert

L’ILLUSIONISME DÉMOCRATIQUE EN DEDANS ET EN DEHORS DU LAND OF FREE

La démocratie se définit en fonction des systèmes et des individus. C’est justement mon approche personnelle de ce concept puisque j’ai fait le choix délibéré se ne pas recourir aux définitions classiques des dictionnaires et des encyclopédies.
Je refuse aussi de faire usage d’une citation quelconque prêtée à ce sujet de peur de ne pas la plaquer sans tenir compte du contexte de sa genèse.
Partant de ce principe on peut admettre que les systèmes démocratiques présentent des variantes dont il faut tenir compte si on se jugeait apte à les jauger ou les qualifier.
J’ai toujours en tête cet épisode de l’histoire cachée d’Haïti révélée sournoisement dans la collection du bicentenaire de notre indépendance par le professeur Jean Julien en rapport avec l’élection de François Duvalier.
D'après le chercheur, François Duvalier aurait appelé aux comices pour renouveler le parlement haïtien. Chaque bulletin de vote portait en bas de page en guise de signature un « François Duvalier Président de la République ». Après le vote, lors de la diffusion des résultats de ces élections législatives, le pays a été surpris par la proclamation de François Duvalier plébiscité comme président de la République avec cent pour cent des votes. A un journaliste français qui lui posa quelques temps après des questions sur cette façon erronée de se faire élire il eut à dire qu’il a été élu démocratiquement à l’haïtienne et qu’il ne fallait pas confondre cette démocratie avec la version occidentale.
Considérée de façon simple et sommaire la démocratie s’oppose à la dictature.
A un moment de la durée, alors que le communisme s’opposait au capitalisme, les américains assuraient la promotion de la démocratie comme le système capable de garantir les libertés. Et cette rhétorique se répandit en Amérique avec la prolifération de dictatures militaires chapeautées et choyées par les américains au nom de cette liberté. La formule paraissait simple : Passer par les dictatures (militaires) pour accéder à la démocratie ensuite. Nous vivions donc l’époque des coups d’état financés ou supportés ou acceptés si et seulement si la menace communiste pouvait être suggérée.
La configuration politique du monde suivait ce même courant avec l’émergence des blocs des pour des contre et des non-alignés.
Avec l’effondrement du bloc soviétique et de la chute du mur de Berlin comme étendard de victoire de la guerre froide ressentie comme celle du « Good over Evil », l’installation progressive de régimes civils en Amérique, la démocratie à l’américaine avait vaincu. Elle pouvait maintenant s’exporter vers l'Afrique ou vers l’orient où les européens font figures de petits bras.
Tout allait bien .Tout va bien. On est la seule grande et première puissance du monde.
Peu de gens s’accordent le temps de regarder ce qui se passe au sein même de la société américaine qui célèbre de grands noms et de grandes avancées. On ne se demande pas pourquoi quelqu’un qui naît Cassius Clay pense à se convertir et se faire appeler Mohamed Ali. Pourquoi on se convertit à l’islam pour retrouver une certaine identité et se retrouver ; pourquoi au lieu de John ou Johnson on se fait appeler Tupac Shakur …
Il a fallu les secousses du 11 septembre pour un semblant de réveil mais là encore l’Amérique est partie en guerre contre ses ennemis de l’extérieur en négligeant ses vieux démons, ses pires ennemis qui sont et qui ont toujours été de l’intérieur.
Leurs nouvelles croisades se sont soldées par l’élimination physique de ces individus étiquetés comme symboles du mal à l’américaine alors qu’ils demeurent aveuglés par leurs incapacités de reconnaître en cette pieuvre multi-céphale à tentacules profondes et nombreuses se reproduisant sous leurs nez.
La réalité de cette société malade mise à une à travers de multiples manifestations est encore faussement interprétée poussée par la volonté immuable du stablishment qui œuvre et qui ne jure que pour perpétuer le statut quo. Quand il laisse transparaître un essai ressemblant à un « jeter du leste », ça correspond plutôt à faire pousser un ou deux arbres ayant la vertu et la mission de plutôt cacher la forêt.
Mais les griffes du système restent aussi acérées prêtes à reprendre le peu de privilège concédé.
Ainsi les batailles restent toujours d’actualité malgré les victoires sournoises et souvent surévaluées.
D’où la nécessité d’un « black lives matter » après Black Power, Malcom X, Martin Luther King et Rosa Parks. Ou la justification d’un « Blue lives matter » malgré un Obama.
Pendant ce temps sur le plan politique il y a de quoi perdre son latin. La plus grande nation du monde avec son bipartisme a récemment aligné des présidents de légende surtout issus dans le camp conservateur avec en tête de liste et le recul, Ronald Reagan ce piètre acteur devenu grand Président et un Bush fils se passant de présentation.
De mon poste d’observateur désintéressé, je ne voudrais pas me lancer dans une évaluation des présidences démocrates ou républicaines. Toujours est-il que les pays développés sont assimilables à un train en marche dans lequel un conducteur monte à bord pour rassurer les gens qui auraient peur de savoir que le contrôle est assuré par un système de pilotage automatique et que le chef d’état fait plutôt office de figurant.
Je ne suis pas sûr qu’un américain puisse établir les différences perçues dans sa vie pendant l’administration Obama et pendant celle de Bush fils.
Le pilotage systématique est représenté par ce stablishment dont l’état d’âme est assujetti à des intérêts très puissants.
A force de ne pas voir en intramuros, l’Amérique est entrain d’offrir au monde un spectacle hideux, et affolant pour certain dans ces élections mettant face à face deux candidats impopulaires issus de deux partis politiques qui ne répondent plus à la réalité du pays.
Le parti Républicain, une institution détentrice d’une certaine vision des USA, s’est fait démembré par un individu digne des shows de téléréalité dont le seul mérité est d’être considéré comme quelqu’un d’important là où l’importance se calcule en millions de dollars.
Les choses ne sont pas plus nettes dans l’autre camp qui a ouvert son show avec l’étalage de pratiques douteuses ayant porté préjudice à un candidat qui semblait vouloir se dresser contre le stablishment et le statu quo. Résultat des courses le choix se porte sur Clinton tandis que la fraction représentée par l’autre candidat à l’investiture du parti refuse de reverser les votes dans l’escarcelle de la fille cooptée par le système.
En fin de compte, les américains ont eu droit à deux semaines de shows grandioses du style NBA All-Star Game ou Super Ball pendant lesquels les deux camps se sont arrangés les uns par le franc parler conservateur les autres par la bonhommie caractéristique des beau parleurs pour laisser comme tache à l’opinion publique de déterminer lequel des deux candidats serait le moins pire.
Ce que je n’ai su que ce matin c’est qu’il existe un troisième candidat sérieux marginalisé comme une fatalité par la polarisation abusive de l’activité politique à qui un sondage aurait attribué 12% des intentions de vote. Devant tout ça, au moment où le monde devient de moins en moins sécurisé avec la montée en puissance d’inadaptés et de non intégrés qui ont perdu même l’instinct de conservation, quand on considère que l’un des deux sera à la tête de la plus grande puissance de la terre, il est logique de perdre son optimisme et de se dire que la démocratie à l’américaine longtemps présentée comme l’objectif à atteindre s’est transformée en illusionnisme démocratique.
Et que le très haut ait pitié des terriens !
Jonas Jolivert 04/08/2016

Haitian-American Romantic Comedy FOREVER YOURS Screens Tonight in Newark

Haitian-American director Patrick Ulysse / UNIMIX Films 2015 feature release "Forever Yours" will be honored and screened at two separate events in Newark, New Jersey tonight, August 3, 2016.
The romantic comedy will first receive the "Honorable Mention - Long Form Narrative" Paul Robeson Award from the recent Newark Black Film Festival (NBFF) at a presentation at the Newark Museum (49 Washington Street ) at 4:30pm. A screening of the 105-minute film - along with the other NBFF Robeson award winners - will then take place at 7:30pm at CityPlex 12, (360 Springfield Ave.) in Newark.
Both events are free to the public but pre-registration is required for the reception. To register, call 973.596.6544, or email at rsvp@newarkmuseum.org.
http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Haitian-American-Romantic-Comedy-FOREVER-YOURS-Screens-Tonight-in-Newark-20160803

Ex Haiti leader won’t cooperate with Dominican Republic ‘Felix-gate’ probe

Santo Domingo.- Former Haiti president Michel Martelly has rejected a request by Haiti Senate president Ronald Larèche to provide information "deemed useful" to the ongoing investigation over the use of Petrocaribe funds and from other foreign sources, including Dominican senator Felix Bautista.
In a missive from aides, Martelly strong rejects the request and protests alleged "insinuations" in the letter sent July 28, on funds received of any amount, from entities or persons at some point. "We must remember that the rules dictated by the Constitution don’t give the President any allocation in the management of State funds."
"He denies that attempt at accusations against Martelly personality and reputation and reserves his rights," the missive says, and adds that the Senate probe "needs to be placed above partisan motivations."
The investigation also includes reported deposits of millions of dollars by Bautista for Martelly’s bid for the presidency, who once elected, secured lucrative public works contracts for the lawmaker’s companies.
http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2016/8/3/60195/Ex-Haiti-leader-wont-cooperate-with-Dominican-Republic-Felix-gate-probe

It Is Not “Ridiculous” To Reject Hillary; It Is Not Undemocratic To Disrupt The DNC

in World — by Kieran Kelly — August 4, 2016
In a post on Aotearoa’s The Daily Blog, a supposedly “leftist” blogger, Chris Trotter, took “Bernie’s die-hard supporters” to task for being “ridiculous”. He was endorsing Sarah Silverman’s words, but after some inconsequential waffle, he took it a bit further: “That makes the ‘Bernie or Bust’ crowd something much more than ridiculous, Sarah, it makes them dangerous.”
Trotter is not alone in this sentiment, but it is highly arrogant to presume to criticise without showing any insight or seeming to know much about the subject at all. Not only is the disruption and protest valid, the circumstances that lead them to it have a significance even broader than this US general election. Trump v. Clinton is the Alien vs. Predator election. Those who refuse to reject the two-party system agree that they prefer Predator, but they disagree about which candidate that is. Meanwhile a growing number of people, with varying levels of politeness, are trying to get them to realise that Alien and Predator are both aliens and both predators. But this predicament facing US voters is to some extent faced everywhere that neoliberalism holds sway, it is just more scary and funny when you put it in the deranged context of US electoral politics.
In my country, as fellow Kiwi Patrick Gower explained to Democracy Now!, we have a “morbid fascination” with the political rise of Donald Trump, but our media have been much kinder to Hillary Clinton. I can only liken the phenomenon to US news media reporting on Israel which is far more obsequious and uncritical than Israel’s own media. I don’t know why our media gloss over the faults, weaknesses, scandals and crimes of Clinton, but they do. They also followed a script in which Bernie Sanders was a wannabe spoiler, threatening to hand the USA over to Trump by prolonging his primary campaign and splitting the Democrats (a narrative similar to that in which Nader is blamed for giving the 2000 election to Bush).
In reality, if you look for them even from half a world away, there are clear reasons why Clinton is so unpopular with the people of the USA. In fact, she and Trump currently have equal pegging in dislike with both having “unfavourable” responses of 58% according to Gallup. No past Democrat or Republican candidate “comes close to Clinton, and especially Trump, in terms of engendering strong dislike.” In ordinary circumstances neither Clinton nor Trump would be electable with that level of public disdain. The very fact that either could become POTUS is purely because they face each other.
These are strange times. We should reflect on the fact that each party can afford to put forward such a loser of a candidate only because both parties are doing so at the same time. Polls clearly showed that Bernie Sanders would have been able to beat Trump overwhelmingly in the popular vote (despite the vagaries of the electoral college system, this is historically reliable as an indicator of who will win ). Even though they come many months before the election these polls are not just an irrelevance and they probably even understate the advantage Sanders would have had over Trump. Like Clinton, and unlike Sanders, Trump is embroiled in ongoing scandals (over taxes, business practices and child rape allegations) that would in ordinary circumstances have made a presidential campaign highly problematic. Moreover, his campaigning style is key to his base of supporters, but the same theatrics and incendiary rhetoric inevitably make most people dislike him all the more. The only thing that keeps Trump in the race is Clinton, and vice versa.
Instead of feeling entitled to lecture and scold from afar, Chris Trotter should have taken the time to engage with the substance behind the discontent of Sanders delegates (not to mention the masses of protesters on the streets of Philadelphia, far greater in number than those protesting the RNC in Cleveland). To be “ridiculous” or even “dangerous”, as Trotter claims, the dissident Democrats would have to have no grounds to contest the legitimacy of Clinton’s selection as Democratic presidential candidate, no grounds to contest the legitimacy of the dominance of the two main parties in the electoral process, and no grounds to reject Clinton as morally unacceptable and insupportable as an elected representative. On all three counts those who refuse to accept Clinton have very safe and justifiable grounds
. Clinton’s selection as candidate has been far from democratic. She did not, as Trotter claims, win “fair and square”. There is evidence of systematic fraud in the Democratic primaries (the source is not a peer-reviewed paper, but this Snopes article confirms that there is substance to the claims). Similar findings come from a more recent non-partisan report (written in collaboration with Fritz Scheuren, former President of the American Statistical Association). In addition there has been voter suppression, most significantly in the psychologically and politically important states of California and New York. Then there is the media bias against Sanders (not to mention CNN dramatically biasing the electorate on the eve of the California primary).
Moreover leaked DNC emails clearly show that the primary process was unfair. DNC officials on DNC time were conspiring against a candidate and, by extension, the democratic process itself. How could anyone in good conscience simply brush this off as unworthy of examination? How much these DNC officials biased the process may be up for debate, but the fact that they did cannot be questioned. They were acting in bad faith all along, and decisions such as when and where to debate seemed to favour the Clinton campaign throughout. Politifact fatuously claims that there is no evidence in the DNC emails that they set out to rig the debates, but it is clear that important DNC staffers were willing and able to work to get Clinton the nomination, and her weakness as an orator is well recognised. To ignore these impacts also reeks of bad faith.
Perhaps we should also consider the fact that one of the leaks from Guccifer 2.0 showed that DNC staffers were planning Clinton’s strategy against the GOP “field” of candidates in May of 2015. This means that as far as they were concerned Clinton was already the anointed presidential candidate of their party. They were right: even though Clinton is highly unpopular; had to fight off a Sanders insurgency; and has been plagued by scandals about DNC emails, her own emails, and an FBI investigation, they were right to presume that she would get the nomination. The implications of this are that democracy is not really a factor in Democratic primaries and that insiders do not expect it to be.
And then there is the role of money in US politics. In simple terms, Clinton was given a lot more money than Sanders. According to the BBC in March, Sanders had received large numbers of small donations, but Clinton’s money was mostly from large donations with the finance industry being a crucial source. I would call that undemocratic whichever way you cut it, and while money is so crucial to the US electoral process, it can never ever be called “fair and square”.
Even if the #NeverHillary people did not have every right to reject the Democratic primary process in itself, they would still have grounds to reject it as part of a greater undemocratic system that maintains a duopoly of political power. Third parties are systematically excluded from publicly visible politics by the corporate news media. Social media has allowed third parties make a small amount of headway, just as soapboxes and pamphlets once did for Populists and Socialists, but now, as then, it is far from a level playing field. There is a media “blackout” of third parties. This became an issue in 2012, and it will be an even bigger issue this time. Not only are they quantitatively biased, but there is a qualitative bias in the news media with mentions of third parties being dismissive, mocking or negative. If Trump wins, for example, you can be certain that they will use the spoiler argument about Jill Stein, even though the most clear and direct cause will be the alienation of voters by the DNC’s decision to put forward a right-wing corporate-linked hawkish Clinton-Kaine ticket. And then there is the money thing, because the big corporate interests and billionaire donors have a huge sway in US elections (because of “Citizens United”) and they don’t like independent parties.
Yet the two-party system has never looked more undemocratic, more ridiculous, nor more fragile. The Republican primaries have become some sort of freak show and the party itself seems to teeter on the edge of a descent into a comical mash-up where crass aspirational consumer capitalism collides with Fascism and Torquemada’s Spanish Inquisition. The Democrats, meanwhile, continue a process that dates back to 1968 (though it has changed somewhat) of carefully canvassing their support base to find who would best represent everything that epitomises Democrat ideals, and then trying their best to paint their pro-corporate elitist neoliberal candidate as being something like that person.
The chaos in both parties shows that the chronic malaise of democratic deficit that has been eating away at the US for decades, has entered a terminal phase. Chris Hedges, prophet of doom and hope par excellence, has changed his metaphorical placard by crossing out “The End is Nigh!” and replacing it with “Told You So!”.
People have every right to reject Clinton’s selection and to disrupt this burlesque parody of a democratic process because it is demonstrably undemocratic and because their rights are being violated, but they also have a clear moral claim to reject and disrupt as a matter of conscience. Make no mistake that among other things Clinton is a grade A war criminal with the blood of thousands on her hands. Even as First Lady she took a key role in Operation Desert Fox (an air war, justified with blatant lies, which killed thousands of Iraqis). She was a key exponent of the Libya intervention which, after securing UNSC approval, immediately (and with clear premeditation) exceeded its legal mandate and became a regime change operation. That is the crime of waging aggressive war, the greatest war crime that there is. Libya has been turned into a nightmare that quite literally makes Ghadafi’s period of rule seem like a Golden Age of freedom and prosperity. As Eric Draitser reports, we can now confirm that accusations of atrocities against the Ghadafi regime were lies; that the US intent was always regime change; and that Libya is now a festering sore of instability, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, militia violence, political repression and economic disintegration.
Libya has also been used to ship arms and fighters to Syria, fuelling a civil war which has caused 250,000 deaths. Not only do these arms go to some very brutal people in their own right (from the FSA leader who bit into a dead enemy’s heart or lung in 2013 to the US-backed Islamists who posted video of themselves beheading a 12 year-old boy last week) but, predictably, they have also been a major source of arms for the self-proclaimed “Islamic State”. As for Clinton’s part, Jeffrey Sachs writes that “In 2012, Clinton was the obstacle, not the solution, to a ceasefire being negotiated by UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan. It was US intransigence – Clinton’s intransigence – that led to the failure of Annan’s peace efforts in the spring of 2012….” She supports current US airstrikes in Syria, such as that killed at least 28 civilians just this Thursday (only a week after a nearby strike killed at least 74 civilians). Because the Syrian government has not given permission, these airstrikes are themselves war crimes. Not only are acts such as this crimes, threatening such acts is itself a war crime. Therefore Clinton, who advocates imposing a no-fly zone on Syria, is both advocating and arguably committing a war crime as a central plank of her campaign. Given that military and diplomatic officials reject the plan as unworkable and irrational this is Clinton’s equivalent of Trumps’ wall except that it is also a war crime. She even has a bizarre “Mexico will pay” twist in that she has proposed “sharing” the no-fly zone with Russia. She should be pilloried, but she gets a free pass because people don’t understand what a no-fly zone is. This, in turn, is because they have intentionally been left in the dark in order that they think of a no-fly zone as a passive act, rather than what it is: a violent form of aggressive warfare that requires the destruction of all air defences on the ground as well as the destruction of aircraft.
Another country that owes much suffering and loss of life to Clinton is Honduras. After a coup there, as Adam Johnson of FAIR writes: “Fifteen House Democrats joined in, sending a letter to the Obama White House insisting that the State Department ‘fully acknowledge that a military coup has taken place and…follow through with the total suspension of non-humanitarian aid, as required by law.’ But Clinton’s State Department staunchly refused to do so, bucking the international community and implicitly recognizing the military takeover. Emails revealed last year by the State Department show that Clinton knew very well there was a military coup, but rejected cries by the international community to condemn it.”
Post-coup Honduras has seen the return of right-wing death squads and political murders such as that of Berta Caceres, an activist who, before her death, had herself singled out Clinton as responsible for the coup. Ironically, Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine frequently refers to his time in Honduras in 1980, decrying the dictatorship without ever acknowledging that it was installed and supported by the US, and showing no shame over sharing a podium with someone who helped destroy democracy and unleash violence there 3 decades later.
But if there is a people that has suffered most at the hands of Hillary Rodham Clinton, it may actually be the people of Haiti. In January of 2011 Hillary Clinton flew into Port-au-Prince to resolve an electoral dispute in this manner: the person who came third in the first round of Presidential elections should be bumped up to 2nd place because the US thinks he should and he should then compete in the run-off election. That is how Michel Martelly came to be President of Haiti. After 3 years the terms of the parliament’s deputies all ended, with Martelly refusing to hold elections. He ruled for a year by decree (without the international news media seeming to care in the slightest) before holding elections that were so fraudulent that they were scrapped after 8 months (in June). New elections are set for October of this year.
All of this was happening in a country tortured by an earthquake in 2010 that killed 220,000; a UN “stabilisation” mission, MINUSTAH, that acts more like a hostile violent occupying force; a cholera epidemic brought by MINUSTAH that has killed thousands; rampant corruption; and brutal political violence against the poor and the left. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton was put in charge of a much of the overseas construction funds and Hillary announced that they would test “new approaches to development that could be applied more broadly around the world.”
Instead of rebuilding Haiti it was decided to “rebrand” Haiti. After 5 years $13.5 billion of aid had been spent with little or no assistance being given to those affected. The money is systematically disbursed in ways that make the poor poorer and the rich richer. It goes to line the pockets of US contractors. It maintains a privileged class of NGO executives who wield regnal rights (those usually reserved for the sovereign) as if they were feudal lords. It goes on constructing enterprises that destroy farms and small enterprises to return only a pittance in slave wages (incidentally, during Clinton’s time heading the State Department, US embassy staff opposed a minimum wage rise and cables released by Wikileaks in 2011 show that they helped block a law passed unanimously in Haiti’s parliament raising minimum wage from $US0.24 to $US0.61).
“Reconstruction” money also gets spent on luxury facilities for the rich on the theory (or rather the pretext) that poor homeless people will be able to get jobs. The US Red Cross raised $500 million for Haiti and only built 6 permanent houses, (note: this is not the International Red Cross, but rather the US organisation which also gained notoriety and condemnation for their response to Hurricane Sandy).
Meanwhile connected people from the US have found that Haiti is “open for business” (the actual slogan promoted by Clinton), with natural wealth to plunder and cheap labour to exploit. Among them is Hillary Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham, whose company scored a “sweetheart” concession to mine gold that had not been given for 50 years. The mining threatens to inflict severe environmental and humanitarian consequences. So when Clinton castigates Trump for ripping-off small businesses and workers, as she did in her acceptance speech, just bear in mind that her corruption hits people who are even more vulnerable. Like the no-fly zone issue she gets away with it because nobody knows about Haiti.
These are just some of the moral grounds on which people can legitimately refuse to support Hillary Clinton. Others have been highlighted by Black Lives Matter, often dating back to Bill Clinton’s terms as President. She was supportive of welfare reform, the drug war, and justice reform which all led to the current neoliberal security state. Complementing this are her ties to Wall Street, her immense wealth, her obscene speaking fees, and her clear political expediency and flexibility on issues that should be matters of conscience. Any real leftist should loathe Clinton in the same way that they would loathe Tony Blair and George Bush. They are a new aristocracy that have proven that they will steal and kill. These are all warmongering neoliberal neoconservative neofeudalist neofascists and it is time we finally understood that none of those labels is in conflict with any other of those labels. People like Trotter have an authoritarian streak that makes him far more offended by those who try to make themselves heard by disruption from below, then he does by a stinkingly corrupt decadent system that is far more offensive. His tone suggests that he views himself as being well above the ill-behaved rabble as if, despite his evidently ignorant and vulgar apprehension of the issues, he has some paternal wisdom. It is not a good look, but he is hardly the only example of his species abroad. He also has prior form: in 2007 when armed police terrorised an entire rural community with “anti-terror” raids on Māori and anarchist activists, he wrote “it wasn’t the actions of the police that provoked my fury, but of those who’d forced their hand.”
And yet, Hillary Clinton and the undemocratic behaviour of the “Democratic” party are not the only things that make disobedience and disruption a legitimate response. The Democratic National Convention showed extremely disturbing signs of militarist nationalism and fanatical fervour. Eddie Glaude described it as “retooling Ronald Reagan’s morning in America, the shining city on the hill”. That day a 4-star General marched out to a military drum-roll proclaiming Clinton’s credentials as a war leader. He scowled and yelled, probably trying to look like Churchill, but actually ending up looking more authentically Mussoliniesque than Trump: “To our enemies; we will pursue you as only America can. You will fear us!”.
And then there was the unforgettable end of Joe Biden’s speech. Long considered a non-entity only distinguished by his blinding teeth, Biden became a man possessed: a fist-pumping spittle-flecked vessel for the spirit of GI Joe and John Wayne: “We are America! Second to none. And we own the finish line. Don’t forget it! God bless you all, and may god protect our troops. Come on. We’re America! Thank you.”
Most significant of all was the moment that many considered the highlight of the entire conference. The crowd erupted when Khizr Khan, the father of a GI who died in the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq, rhetorically asked Trump: “Have you even read the US constitution?” And then proffered his own copy from the left-hand shirt pocket (next to the heart).
Judging from the response on twitter Khan’s act was adored by nearly everyone, and that itself should be frightening because the moment carried many implications, and not one of them is good. Firstly we need to recognise that this is a ritual gesture popularised by the nationalistic right-wing Tea Party movement and linked in the public mind to that ideology. Secondly, as the US-Iraqi activist and writer Dahlia Wasfi commented: “the message that a ‘good Muslim’ is one who kills for US empire, oil, and Israel is no less offensive to me than whatever Trump has to say about Muslims or Islam.” Thirdly this is a type of disingenuous appropriation of Islam equivalent to greenwashing, pinkwashing or femiwashing. Even Piers Morgan tweeted: “Something very distasteful about Hillary using Khans as political pawns vs Trump given she’s partly responsible for their son’s death”. Fourthly it signifies that in the space of just 8 years, the Democratic Party has gone from viewing the Iraq War as a “war of choice” (which has connotations, if noticeably inexplicit ones, of immorality and illegality) to viewing the Iraq War as a fight to protect US freedoms.
The entire DNC was so nationalistic and militaristic that the actor and activist Margot Kidder was evidently driven to publish a cri de coeur in Counterpunch: she begins “the words are gagging my throat and my stomach is twisted and sick and I have to vomit this out”, and ends: “And there you all are tonight, glued to your TVs and your computers, your hearts swelled with pride because you belong to the strongest country on Earth, cheering on your Murderer President. Ignorant of the entire world’s repulsion. You kill and you kill and you kill, and still you remain proud.” My question is this: if Margot Kidder can see this clearly from within the belly of the beast (well, Montana), how can Chris Trotter, an Aotearoan and putative leftist, be such a blithe apologist for a mass-murderer like Hillary Clinton.
In all I have written I have focussed on morals and reasons of principle. They alone should make it clear that only thing that is “ridiculous” is the conceit of loftily condemning those who refuse to be drawn by fear into supporting the insupportable. I am aware, however, that there are many practical issues I have not dealt with. I am aware that some people will think that US voters, facing the possibility of Trump, do not have the luxury of rejecting Clinton. These are very important issues, because time and again even those who refuse to be chained to the “lesser-of-two-evils” cede the realist high-ground to intellectually and morally compromised dullards; dullards who insist, like broken records stuck in the era of vinyl, that we must play the game and change it from the inside. I do not intend to leave such claims unchallenged, so check back here for Part 2 of this article in which, amongst other things, I will test how strong “chains of rhetorical steel” are (hint: about as strong as chains of rhetorical butter).
Kieran Kelly blogs at On Genocide.
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/04/it-is-not-ridiculous-to-reject-hillary-it-is-not-undemocratic-to-disrupt-the-dnc/

Haitian Mothers of Children Abandoned by UN Peacekeepers Initiate Paternity and Child Support Claims

Press Contact:
Mario Joseph, Av., Managing Attorney, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), Mario@ijdh.org, +011 509 2943 2106/07 (Haiti) (speaks French and Kreyol)
Nicole Phillips, Staff Attorney, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Nicole@ijdh.org, +1 510 715 2855 (United States) (speaks English, French and Spanish)
Port-au-Prince, August 3, 2016 – Today, human rights law firm Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) initiated paternity claims to nine United Nations peacekeepers from Uruguay, Argentina and Sri Lanka on behalf of nine Haitian mothers who were forced to take sole responsibility of the child(ren) after being abandoned by the soldiers who fathered them. One of the mothers was 17 years old when she gave birth, which amounts to statutory rape under Haitian law. The mothers ask that the biological fathers assume legal and financial responsibility per a Haitian Decree of September 14, 1983 that authorizes child support claims.
The mothers also served notices on Sandra Honoré, the head of UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti (known by its French acronym “MINUSTAH”), and Pierrot Delienne, Haiti’s Minister of Foreign and Religious Affairs, requesting their cooperation with the paternity claims, including identifying the defendants and releasing DNA tests.
According to Mario Joseph, BAI managing attorney who represents the mothers, “The UN Secretary General adopted an official ‘zero tolerance’ policy in 2003 that prohibits sexual relations between peacekeepers and recipients of UN assistance, as well as the abandonment of children born out of these sexual relationships. Nonetheless, the UN has not taken sufficient measures to assist victims and children or maintain accountability for those who break these rules.”
The paternity claims come on the heels of increasing reports of UN sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers in Haiti and other countries, as well as lack of accountability for their acts. The UN has also refused to accept responsibility for injuries MINUSTAH peacekeepers caused by contaminating the water supply in Haiti with cholera, which has so far resulted in 800,000 reported illnesses and over 9000 deaths.
Nicole Phillips, staff attorney with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti says she hopes these paternity claims will “challenge the UN to comply with its own principles and its promises to better address sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers in Haiti and around the world.”
Joseph cautions that if the peacekeepers responsible, Ms. Honoré and Minister Delienne do not respond within 30 days, the mothers will take legal action in a Haitian court.
Haitian Mothers of Children Abandoned by UN Peacekeepers Initiate Paternity and Child Support Claims

Can Haiti win a medal for the first time since 1928?

Thursday, August 04 2016 by SNTV
Frantz Mike Itelord Dorsainvil is aiming to secure Haiti's first Olympic medal since the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.
It's been nearly 90 years since Haiti earned a medal at the Olympic Games, but swimmer Frantz Mike Itelord Dorsainvil is aiming to break that dry spell.
Haiti's last medal was at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam when Silvio Cator claimed a silver in the men's long jump.
The 25-year-old swimmer who only began to swim competitively six years ago is arguably the most unlikely Olympian on Haiti's small team.
The swimmer, who has never lived abroad unlike many athletes who typically represent the impoverished Caribbean country, trains in an 18-metre pool, instead of an Olympic-sized pool which is 50 metres.
SOUNDBITE: (Creole) Frantz Mike Itelord Dorsainvil, Haitian swimmer going to the Rio Olympics:
"One of the difficulties that I have, is we don't have a Olympic size pool to train for the competitions. I'm training for the 50 and 100 metres but I train in a pool that is 18 metres. This is a huge difficulty."
Swimming barely exists as a sport in Haiti, where there are few pools but Dorsainvil is hoping to change all that.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Frantz Mike Itelord Dorsainvil, Haitian swimmer going to the Rio Olympics:
"That's the dream of all Olympians, is to go to win. I am ready to go win. I'm ready to fly the flag for our country everywhere we go."
http://www.7msport.com/video/20160804/29091.shtml

mercredi 3 août 2016

Beatrice Lindstrom: Human Rights Lawyer Fighting for Accountability for Cholera in Haiti

“Immunity does not mean impunity,” argued social justice lawyer Beatrice Lindstrom before a packed courtroom to three judges of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Lindstrom, a 2010 graduate of NYU Law School, has spent most of her career fighting for human rights for and with the people of Haiti. She appeared before the court as a lawyer with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI). She argued that the United Nations (UN) must be held accountable for its personnel introducing and spreading cholera in Haiti which has killed more than 9,000 and infected another 800,000 to date. While there is little question that UN personnel brought and spread cholera to Haiti, the UN continues to argue it is immune from suit. The court has not yet decided whether the victims are going to get their day in court or not.
Beginnings
 Lindstrom, who speaks, to varying extents, English, Swedish, Korean, French and Haitian Creole, has always had a global vision. She grew up in Sweden and Korea, “two of the least diverse countries in the world, and always felt like somewhat of an outsider. In Korea especially, the national identity doesn’t include a space for biracial people, and so I was often treated like a foreigner by default. Because of this, I’ve always defined my community and interests as more global than local, and I think that may also be what draws me particularly to accountability for powerful international actors.
“My mother was a leader in the student democratization movement in South Korea, and moved to Sweden to study democracy. She’s always been a vocal leader for progressive issues in ways big and small, whether through her career or in dinner table conversations, and that’s shaped both my worldview and my personal life view. My mom has always been a role model for me. She responds to every injustice she sees with righteous anger and doesn’t hesitate to be a force for social change.
Lindstrom’s path towards justice work started while she was studying political science and economics at Emory University.
When the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami hit, “I found myself crushed by the images of the disaster streaming in on my TV. I organized a huge fundraising campaign for tsunami relief. It was my first time really stepping into the shoes of an activist on my own initiative.
“I then spent the summer teaching English in a village on the Southeast coast of Thailand during the week and working alongside a community trying to rebuild their homes and lives on the weekends. The devastation was still unspeakable five months later, but I was particularly struck by the extent to which the international community engaged with tsunami-affected regions as if they were a blank slate. They acted as if there weren’t communities with lives, cultures and histories that were rooted there and whose voices mattered. That was a wake-up call and made me look deeper at the structural injustices that are at the root of disasters and how we respond to them.
Law School “I didn’t think I wanted to be a lawyer, because it seemed like a profession removed from the type of vast social change I wanted to see in the world.
“I went to NYU School of Law partly because I wanted to learn how the frame of human rights could transform the ideals I believed in into something enforceable. Human rights language was always in the background of a lot of the issues I cared about (like economic and social justice), and I grew curious about what was meant about those rights. If they weren’t backed up by law, it just seemed like a glorified principle. So I wanted to understand how those pieces fit together, and to what extent we give human rights substance through national and international laws. Thailand brought that into focus as I became aware of the fights over land rights between the pre-existing communities and the government and companies that wanted to come in and build up the coastal areas.
“Law school can be a suffocating place for social justice lawyers, but it also forced me to defend the principles we stand for through a different lens. Our classroom discussions focused a lot of why the law is what it is, and what it should be, and thinking through both of those things is often so much more important than just understanding what the law is. I was also fortunate to find a really fabulous community in law school that included my now-husband and many of my closest friends. I was really taken by NYU’s commitment to public interest and human rights. In retrospect it was the perfect place for me and I still find myself very much plugged into the NYU law community.
“I didn’t think I’d take the bar exam, but the more time I spent in law school, the more interested I became in the idea of litigation as a complementary tool to other types of social justice work.
Haiti While Lindstrom was still in law school, Haiti was struck by an earthquake, which killed 300,000, and injured 300,000, left over 1.5 million homeless and fueled a surge in human rights violations against women, prisoners and the poor.
“When the earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, the images of devastation reminded me of what I had witnessed in Thailand. The injustices in Haiti drew me to become engaged. I applied for a fellowship from NYU to spend a year in Haiti to support a human rights-based approach to rebuilding Haiti. I wanted to work with the one that would place Haitian voices at the forefront, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port au Prince. The BAI is Haiti’s oldest public interest law firm, and one of the only organizations that exist to defend and enforce the legal rights of the poor and marginalized in Haiti.”
BAI is a grassroots legal organization that uses a combination of litigation, advocacy and community organizing to pursue justice in some of Haiti’s largest human rights causes.
Lindstrom moved to Port au Prince and joined renowned human rights advocate Mario Joseph at BAI working on issues of health, prisons, housing and women’s rights.
“I had only been in Haiti a few weeks when cholera broke out. Thousands of people were showing up at hospitals and collapsing from uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea. In the first month, 1,000 people died. It was one of the worst public health disasters of our time, but because it was Haiti, and because it happened on top of so much other suffering, the world seemed to not pay attention in the way one would expect.
“Within weeks of the outbreak, evidence emerged that UN peacekeepers were responsible for the outbreak. Journalists exposed the fact that a UN base was leaking foul-smelling sewage directly into a tributary to the river that tens of thousands of Haitians rely on as their primary water source. Later investigations revealed that the soldiers on the base had recently arrived from Nepal, where cholera is endemic, and that the base had broken pipes and disposed of human waste from the camp toilets into open-air pits dug directly into the ground at the top of a hill, which overflowed into the river when it rained.
“The UN’s fault and causation was so clear, it seemed inconceivable at first that an organization like the UN, whose raison d’etre is promotion of human rights wouldn’t take its responsibility seriously and respond justly. But then study after study came out establishing its responsibility, and the official response was just to deny and marginalize the voices of Haitians calling for justice. That’s when our legal team at BAI and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) got involved.
Lindstrom was tasked with developing a legal strategy by Mario Joseph of BAI, Brian Concannon of IJDH, and Ira Kurzban of Miami.
“My first reaction, after researching the issue, was that there was nothing we could do. The UN has broad immunity from suit in national court, but it has international treaty obligations to establish alternative mechanisms to adjudicate and remedy individuals who are harmed by UN operations. Courts seemed to take the UN’s immunity very seriously, and we learned that the claims commission that was supposed to exists to decide claims in the place of courts had never been established.
“When I spoke to the team they reminded me that we couldn’t let the state of a law be a deterrent to seeking justice. So I went back to the drawing board.
“We decided to try to hold the UN to its obligations by filing claims in 2011 directly with the organization, and demanding the establishment of a claims commission.
“We worked with victims in rural Haiti to file 5,000 claims with the UN seeking compensation, a public apology, and investment in water and sanitation infrastructure.
“Over a year later, the UN rejected the claims without providing much of an explanation. That effectively left victims without any forum to get a fair hearing on their claims and seek remedies. It caused a huge uproar because everyone who looked at their response could tell they were just trying to avoid responsibility. To me this issue is such a deep betrayal of the UN’s own basic principle that human rights apply equally to all.
“Since it was clear that the UN had breached their obligations under treaties, we decided to file suit in 2013 in U.S. District Court in New York. The District Court dismissed the suit in 2015 on the grounds that the UN had immunity based on the treaties that created it. We then appealed to the US Court of Appeal. I’m really fortunate to get to work on this case and to get to have so much responsibility. When the case went to court, the team entrusted me to argue on the plaintiffs’ behalf.
“Over the past five years, I’ve been managing a campaign that brings together litigation and advocacy to secure justice and accountability from the United Nations. Our team works on many different levels at once to challenge the notion that the UN can hold itself above the law, using a range of strategies from organizing in Haiti to the halls of power in New York.
“There is no doubt in my mind that had the UN in New York contaminated the East River with cholera, the UN would immediately have owned up to it and done everything in its power to make it right. The fact that there is not a just response in Haiti, even after 10,000 deaths and the epidemic going into its six year, is unacceptable.
“I refuse to accept a world in which we have dual standards of justice based on the race, wealth, and political power.
”Of course, this is a problem that exists in the U.S. as well, and is why I’m also so inspired by movements like Black Lives Matter. But I feel that we should be able to demand more of the organization we’ve created to promote human rights, and will keep fighting for justice until the UN shifts course.
How Justice Happens “Litigation can be an important tool to obtain remedies, and also to put pressure on decision makers and keep an issue in the spotlight. But it’s an imperfect tool, and there is no way the issue would be where it is now if it wasn’t for all the movement building and advocacy that is happening simultaneously.
“Effective movement lawyering requires effective use of a lot of non-legal tools. Language skills, social media skills, and willingness to bring excellence to non-legal work are all really critical to effective social change.” “I believe that successful justice movements always start with and put the victims themselves at the forefront. Law and lawyers can play an important part in achieving justice, even when the system is stacked against it. Sometimes the act of bringing a lawsuit can be an equalizer and shift the narrative of an issue into one that’s viewed from a justice lens.
“For example, with the cholera case, the media at first treated Haitians calling for justice from the UN as ungrateful recipients of aid. There were a lot of headlines at the time along the lines of “angry Haitians blame benevolent aid organizations for their misery.” The lawsuit didn’t fix that overnight, but it did cause people to start opening their eyes to the facts that Haitian victims have rights and are entitled to demand respect for those rights.
“My legal career has been at BAI and IJDH, and the organizations’ philosophies have very much shaped and reinforced my own view on how to best affect change. IJDH is uncompromising in its commitment to social justice and unafraid to be disruptive, but also emphasizes movement building and strategies that will bring in new allies. I think that combination is both effective and important and informs my model of social change as requiring participation of all kinds of actors. The IJDH team is also constantly self-critical and reflective of what the appropriate role is for lawyers working for social change in a community that isn’t ours (as non-Haitians working in Haiti). We are constantly engaging in conversation about our privilege and how to better put our partners and clients at the forefront.
“I’ve also had the opportunity to partner with some terrific social justice organizations like the Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International, both of which are at the forefront of undertaking impact litigation in a way that stays true to the people they support and puts them at the center.
Role Models “In addition to my mom, I’m endlessly inspired by the women in Haiti who are leading social justice movements in the face of so much structural injustice.
“Two of the lawyers I work with are role models for me. Mario Joseph, his courage and commitment to principles is unyielding and he uses that in service of the poor and marginalized. It’s a privilege to support his vision for a more just world. Brian Concannon always manages to strike a perfect balance between being unyielding in his principles and being accessible to everyone around him. He’s fostered an incredible community around our work, and empowers others to lead in a way that I strive, often unsuccessfully, to emulate. I’m also constantly inspired and empowered by the young women lawyers on our team.
Satisfaction and Challenges “I draw so much satisfaction from working within a team of dedicated, brilliant, hilarious, and compassionate people. I think when you’re up against difficult odds, which is almost always the case in social justice work; you have to make sure to celebrate the small victories.
I find it challenging when people don’t bring the same compassion that we bring to our work and to our relationships with each other. And when I realize that I am guilty of the same thing. Also, we’re such a small team that sometimes it gets overwhelming and can be hard to find balance between doing more and taking time for other parts of life.
Advice to Students
“Be close to people. Bryan Stevenson talks about the importance of proximity to people. I think it’s critical to pursue opportunities to immerse yourself with the communities we work with. This also ensures that lawyers aren’t pursuing agendas that aren’t people-centered.
“Law school has a tendency to emphasize the need to pursue very strict paths, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. So much of my path has been a combination of conviction and chance. I can tell you how I got from point A to point B, but the reality is that very little of that path was due to my own intentional planning.
There are three books people interested in this work might read. How Human Rights Can Build Haiti by Fran Quigley, Success Without Victory by Jules Lobel, and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.
In addition to everything else, Lindstrom makes time to write about Haitian human rights for the popular press and for law reviews , speaks about Haiti to national and international media and law schools and volunteers with several human rights organizations.
Sustaining “I sustain myself mostly through good people and good food. I draw strength from spending time with my partner and connecting and laughing with friends and family over a good meal. I enjoy being out in nature and yoga, but I don’t do either as much as I should.
“Sometimes it’s hard to balance personal life with work, but these are all pieces that make me whole. I try to bring my whole person into my work, and my passions for justice into my life. I find that to be sustaining, even if it doesn’t always answer the very practical question of how to devote enough time to any one part.
“Joia Mukherjee, who is the Chief Medical Officer for Partners in Health recently said in a speech “Live with the radical notion that your life is of one piece. That family, friends, your children, your vocation, and your joy are of one piece.” That is what I strive for.
Join the debate on Facebook
Bill Quigley teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/02/beatrice-lindstrom-human-rights-lawyer-fighting-for-accountability-for-cholera-in-haiti/

PARTIS ET ORGANISATIONS POLITIQUES A LA SAUCE HAITIENNE

A force de faire les choses toujours de la même manière, on finit par s'attribuer une façon propre à soi de fonctionner. Dans un sens où dans l'autre, l'exercice dévient un élément identitaire.
Dernièrement, je suis heureusement tombé sur un article écrit par la blogueuse politique la plus suivie et la plus radicale des réseaux sociaux d’Haïti dans lequel, dans son style caractéristique, elle faisait un plaidoyer en faveur des partis politiques haïtiens tout en fustigeant une mesure du gouvernement provisoire qui suspendrait le financement des partis politiques.
Le financement des partis politiques en Haiti est devenu un sujet de réflexion que j'ai rangé avec bien d'autres dans le tiroir où l'on entrepose les choses qu'avec le temps, finissent par devenir secondaires avant d'être carrément oubliées dans une dynamique des priorités que nous contrôlons de moins en moins.
L'accès à ces informations officielles constitue souvent un élément dissuasif très puissant.
La lecture de cet article m'avait appris par exemple que Michel Martelly aurait modifié la loi régissant la création d'un parti en exigeant un nombre de membres égal à quarante plus un (40 +1).
On comprend donc mieux pourquoi il y a eu plus de 200 partis et regroupements politiques inscrits dans les archives du Conseil Électoral Provisoire (CEP). De la même manière et pour les mêmes raisons, on peut remercier Dieu que l'on n’ait eu à compter que 200.
Le grand public n'est pas informé sur les modalités du financement des partis politiques mais lors des dernières élections, quelques bribes de nouvelles ont circulé à ce sujet accompagnant des scandales et des discrépances musclées entre chefs de partis et candidats autour de l'utilisation des sous alloués pour financer leurs participations aux joutes électorales.
En cette occasion, j'ai su que les candidats à la présidence par exemple avaient reçu 20.000 (?) dollars américains pour financer leurs campagnes électorales. Ceci pouvant constituer la motivation de plusieurs des 56 candidats dont pour un nombre non négligeable, on ne voyait pas une seule affiche dans les rues.
Devant un tel constat et dans un contexte de ressources économiques diminuées, beaucoup de voix se sont élevées pour dénoncer cette pratique quelque peu pernicieuse, qui ne fait qu'entraver le processus électoral dans sa partie logistique sans apporter un plus à notre démocratie.
Ces voix ont suggéré d'autres modalités de financement calquées sur ce qui se fait ailleurs.
La blogueuse en question considère que c'est non seulement une erreur stratégique de l'exécutif que de ne plus financer les partis politiques et le fait d’assujettir ce financement au pourcentage de votes reçu lors des élections serait improductif dans la mesure ou cette option pourrait censurer un « bon parti politique » qui aurait malheureusement réalisé un score médiocre.
Le critère de « bon » ou « mauvais » parti politique reste un critère très subjectif en dehors de cet élément clé qui est le nombre de personnes se retrouvant dans les idées et la vision de société que promeut ce groupe. Un nombre restreint d'adhérents présuppose une mauvaise réception du message véhiculé si on n'admet qu'un parti politique est une institution se donnant pour tache transformer une société moyennant une vision nette et claire de cette société récipiendaire.
Si cette adhésion ne se structure pas c'est qu'il y a un travail à effectuer pour mieux présenter le projet. Le gouvernement ne devrait pas avoir à financer directement ce travail.
L'appréciation d'un mouvement politique par un individu dépend de la vision de cet individu. Le parti démocrate est un aussi bon parti pour un démocrate que le parti républicain l'est pour un républicain.
Les courants extrémistes sont bien vus par des conservateurs qui se sentent mieux représentés à travers ce courant d'idées.
Un autre argument soulevé par la blogueuse est le risque que l’activité des partis politiques soit contrôlée par les marchands de drogues en assurant leurs financements.
Cet argument tient très peu la route en Haiti.
En effet les sommes allouées aux partis politiques sont insignifiantes par rapport au coût d'une campagne électorale bien menée. Cela veut dire qu'il sera très difficile à un leader de parti de refuser cette manne financière indispensable pour attirer des sympathisants et des militants. Faut-il admettre et reconnaître que la volonté d'exercer un monitoring sérieux sur l’activité politique n'est pas à l'ordre du jour en Haiti.
Dans l'évaluation d'un parti ou regroupement politique, j'accorde une attention certaine à ce que je considère comme la dynamique interne du mouvement. Plus particulièrement au rapport entre les membres appelés à porter au plus haut niveau décisionnel la vision du parti et le parti per se comme institution.
L’hyper mobilité des leaders pour certains ou l'attitude caméléon des aspirants pour d'autres demeure un critère suffisant pour identifier le déséquilibre entre un chef qui se place avec ses intérêts, au dessus du parti et de son projet politique qui dans la pratique a la vocation de changer la société pour apporter des réponses aux grands défis que confrontent ses membres.
La facilité avec laquelle un cadre de parti épouse, poussé dans le sens de ses intérêts personnels, la cause et l'idéologie du camp adverse est une preuve de la faiblesse de l’institution politique exploitée par des mercenaires se vendant aux plus offrants.
Nos sphères décisionnelles regorgent d'exemples de ces individus qui, au lieu de contribuer à une élévation du débat politique et à l'atteinte des objectifs y attenant, participent comme des fossoyeurs aguerris à y jeter l'opprobre et le discrédit.
Comme illustration et afin de leur garder leur place entre les pages sombres et peu glorieuses de notre histoire nous citons le cas de Monsieur Hériveaux qui est passé de sénateur influent du courant lavalas à suppôt et supporteur inconditionnel du PHTK et idolâtre du Martellisme primaire.
Cet « illustrement » sombre personnage de la vie politique haïtienne ne détient certes pas le monopole de l'instabilité, ni à lui seul les clés de ce véhicule toujours prêt à se diriger kote dlo a koule pi fre.
Au niveau du parlement, endroit par excellence du marchandising politique, pullulent ces élus porteurs de vestes multicolores en prévision de cette pratique de changer de couleur au gré des jeux et des enjeux.
On passe sans état d'âme du mouvement Unité au parti PHTK que l'on abandonne pour rejoindre la plateforme Vérité que l'on délaisse ensuite pour rejoindre les listes de Lapeh.
Cette trajectoire symbolise le parcours d'un individu dont le seul intérêt est celui de rester en poste comme député ou sénateur pour jouir des prérogatives matérielles qui font de cette fonction le premier objectif individuel national.
Ce serait une injustice flagrante et délibérée que de voir le problème comme une monnaie à face unique. C'est-à-dire de jeter la pierre à ces politiciens hyperactifs dans leurs capacités de mobilité sans inclure dans l'approche du problème les partis qui les regardent partir ou ceux qui accueillent les déserteurs qui rejoignent les rangs pour déserter à la prochaine occasion.
En effet l'individu se sentant, pour des raisons très claires, supérieur - donc placé au-dessus du mouvement politique - joue sa carte en se faisant voir comme un atout gagnant et surtout une bonne affaire pour le parti politique.
Le politicien possède tout ce dont un candidat a besoin pour gagner des élections : des hommes de main pour intimider jusqu'à l'agression physique les adversaires, une certaine popularité dans la circonscription convoitée soit par sa profession, soit par un clientélisme soutenu à base de petits projets insignifiants, des ressources financières pour acheter des votes et sans doute pour rendre heureux les cadres du parti.
Ces atouts suffisent largement pour assurer la victoire aux joutes quand ils sont favorisés par le désintéressement endémique de la société à la chose politique en général et aux élections en particulier.
Un exemple pour corroborer cette attitude qui constitue un vrai fléau, un vrai acte antipatriotique délétère au développement national c'est de se dire que celui qui a été sacré Maire de la capitale haïtienne, une mégapole surpeuplée de plus de 2.000.000 d'habitants dont la moitié serait en âge de voter (?), n'a bénéficié que du vote d'un peu plus de 20.000 personnes.
Ces mouvements d'un élu d'un parti à l'autre provoque un déplacement massif comme par effet de chute de dominos vers d'autres partis disposés à accepter pour les mêmes raisons les militants aspirants déçus.
Aujourd'hui une chose est nette et claire comme le nez au milieu de la figure, les partis politiques ne servent à rien !
On peut toujours épiloguer comme ceux qui pensent trouver, à travers des discussions interminables et des arguments peu solides, la quadrature du cercle, pour déterminer si l'arrêt des financements systématiques de tous les partis politiques ne contribuera pas à les rendre encore plus inutiles.
Cependant il est clair que la conceptualisation du parti politique chez nous n'augure pas une participation au développement du pays même avec ce système de financement sans condition.
Les conjonctures mondiales financières et économiques invitent plutôt à l'austérité et la diminution des dépenses publiques. Et ce, au niveau des nations beaucoup mieux loties que nous.
Notre actualité particulière greffant de surcroît notre crise électorale mettant en lumière notre perte honteuse de souveraineté politique, exige des sacrifices à tous les patriotes pour autofinancer les élections. Puisqu'il faut réduire les coûts, l'arrêt jusqu'à nouvel ordre, du financement des partis politiques reste et demeure une mesure cohérente et logique.
Aux prochaines autorités de revoir le problème et surtout aux législateurs de chez nous qui s'adonnent à toute sorte de taches sauf à celle qui est inhérente et définit leurs fonctions c'est-à-dire de légiférer, de reconstituer un cadre légal conforme à nos moyens pour le financement des partis politiques.
Docteur Jonas Jolivert 03/08/2016

mardi 2 août 2016

EN ATTENDANT NEOT

Qu’il est bien loin ce temps où l’on se croyait concerné par ce qu’il se passait dans ce monde dont on se sentait bondé de cette puissante légitimité qui poussait à exclamer haut et fort que l’on était fier d’être citoyen de ce monde.
On le trouvait parfois drôle, souvent cruel et toujours injuste. On arrivait à se convaincre que pourtant tout y était prévu pour le bonheur de tous :
- la rosée du matin perlant un rhododendron d’un vert apaisant
- une vague qui s'épuise en écume et murmures sur du sable blanc et fin
- un clair de lune resplendissant une nuit étoilée
- un coucher de soleil de printemps sur les tropiques
- … Cependant il suffit de sortir de ce rêve pour se retrouver pieds et mains liés, les yeux écarquillés de l’incertitude et de l’incompréhension nous extirpant avec violence de notre contemplation candide.
Le monde est en effet ébullition et chaos capables de broyer idées et volontés.
Et submergé dans sa structure labyrinthique et pyramidale on prend conscience de son rôle d’acteur vecteur de changement.
Les appels viennent de partout. De la gauche comme de la droite des flèches de plus en plus acérées invitent à l’engagement car on a tous une partition à jouer. Avec le temps et la réalité des moyens devant cet imposant obstacle on essaie tout. On est prêcheur de bonnes nouvelles puis révolutionnaire théoricien sans moyen, radical supportant toute une gamme de préfixes.
Un jour on fait le constat amer d’avoir lâché prise. Et que l’on a perdu ses cheveux comme on a perdu l’envie et le désir de changement. Nos causes dans leurs diversités se rangent avec nos armes et nos bâtons de pèlerins là où l’on range regrets et remords et trophées insignifiants.
Le temps se fait promontoire de recul, l’âge belvédère pour observer s’agiter avec une fougue scintillant le regard ceux qui auront notre âge dans trente ans et qui brandissent l’étendard des causes qui se sont brisées en éclat devant la toute puissance du monde.
Ainsi va la vie et les gens avec …
Doc JOPI 2/08/2016