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Books on the Caribbean
Hubert Cole. Christophe: King of Haiti. New
York: The Viking Press, 1967.
C.L.R. James.
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
(1938)
Edourad Gissant.
Caribbean Doscourse (2004)
/ Barbara Harlow.
Resistance Literature (1987)
Josaphat B. Kubayanda.
The Poet's Africa: Africanness in the Poetry of Nicolas Guillen and Aime
Cesaire
(1990)
Paul Laraque and Jack Hirschman.
Open
Gate An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry
(2001)
David P. Geggus, ed.
The Impact of the
Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World.
University of South Carolina Press, 2001.
Jean-Bertand Aristide.
Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a
Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization
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Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is
a
Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of
Hispaniola, in the
Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the
Dominican Republic. Ayiti (land of high mountains) was the indigenous
Taíno or
Amerindian name for the island. The country's highest point is
Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft). The total area of Haiti is 27,750
square kilometres (10,714 sq mi) and its capital is
Port-au-Prince.
Haitian Creole and French are the official languages.
Haiti's regional, historical, and
ethno-linguistic position is unique for several reasons. It was the first
independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the first
black-led republic in the world, and the second republic in the Americas
when it gained independence in 1804 as part of a successful
slave revolution lasting nearly a decade. In 2012, Haiti announced its
intention to seek associate membership status in the
African Union. Haiti is the only predominantly
Francophone independent nation in the Americas. It is one of only two
independent nations in the Americas (along with Canada) to designate French as
an
official language; the other French-speaking areas are all
overseas
départements, or
collectivités, of France.—Haiti
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President Aristide had raised, more than
doubled the minimum wage in Haiti, not once but twice. The first time in 1995 he
raised it from 18 gourdes to 36 gourdes per day for an 8-hour day. And, in 2003
he again doubled the minimum wage from 36 to 70 gourdes (or about $1.60) a day,
despite the strong disapproval of Haiti’s business elites and their US
contractors. Because of inflation, the $1.60 a day, was lower than what the
minimum wage had been 10 years earlier. When the Latortue defacto government
took power in 2004 they cut the minimum wage in half back to 36gourds.About two
years ago the Haiti Parliament tried to raise it to what would be the equivalent
of $5US dollar per day. Bill Clinton and US State dept had President Preval veto
the parliamentary raise and compromise, cut it back to the equivalent of $3 per
day. Today the Haiti minimum wage is $3 per day (really $3.25 per day depending
on the exchange rate) for assembly plant workers and $5 for all other workers. I
hope that's helpful.—margueritelaurent
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Bio- Sketch
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Toussaint L'Ouverture (c.1744-1803),
Haitian patriot and martyr. A self-educated slave freed shortly
before the uprising in 1791, he joined the black rebellion to
liberate the slaves and became its organizational genius.
Rapidly rising in power, Toussaint joined forces for a brief
period in 1793 with the Spanish of Santo Domingo and in a series
of fast-moving campaigns became known as L'Ouverture [the
opening], a name he adopted. Although he professed allegiance to
France, first to the Republic and then to Napoleon, he was
singleheartedly devoted to the cause of his own people and
advocated it in his talks with French commissioners. Late in
1793 the British occupied all of Haiti's coastal cities and
allied themselves with the Spanish in the eastern part of the
island.
Toussaint was the acknowledged leader against
them and, with the generals Dessalines and Christophe, recaptured
(1798) several towns from the British and secured their complete
withdrawal. In 1799 the mulatto general André Rigaud enlisted the aid of
Alexandre Pétion and Jean Pierre
Boyer, asserted mulatto supremacy, and launched a revolt against
Toussaint; the uprising was quelled when Pétion lost the
southern port of Jacmel.
In 1801, Toussaint conquered Santo Domingo, which
had been ceded by Spain to France in 1795, and thus he governed
the whole island. By then professing only nominal allegiance to
France, he reorganized the government and instituted public
improvements. Napoleon sent (1802) a large force under General
Leclerc to subdue Toussaint,
who had become a major obstacle to French colonial ambitions in
the Western Hemisphere; the Haitians, however, offered stubborn
resistance, and a peace treaty was drawn.
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Toussaint himself was treacherously seized and
sent to France, where he died in a dungeon at Fort-de-Joux, in
the French Jura. His valiant life and tragic death made him a
symbol of the fight for liberty, and he is celebrated in one of
Wordsworth's finest sonnets and in a dramatic poem by Lamartine.
Bibliography
C.
L. R. James,
The Black Jacobins (1938, 2d ed. 1963)
Audio CD Version
C.
Moran, Black Triumvirate: A Study of L'Ouverture, Dessalines,
Christophe (1957);
A. M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., Toussaint
L'Ouverture: Haitian Liberator (1989).
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Haiti's Declaration of Independence /
Obama, Bush and Clinton launch Haiti aid appeal
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Until She Spoke
Excerpt of
“Lecture on Haiti”
By Frederick Douglass
Until she spoke, no Christian nation had abolished Negro slavery.
Until she spoke, no Christian nation had given to the world an
organized effort
to abolish slavery.
Until she spoke, the slave ship, followed by hungry sharks, greedy
to devour
the dead and dying slaves flung overboard to feed them, ploughed in
peace the
South Atlantic, painting the sea with the Negro’s blood.
Until she spoke, the slave trade was sanctioned by all the Christian
nations of
the world, and our land of liberty and light included.
Men made fortunes by this infernal traffic, and were esteemed as
good
Christians, and the standing types and representations of the Savior
of the
World.
Until Haiti spoke, the church was silent, and the pulpit was dumb.
Slave-traders lived and slave-traders died.
Funeral sermons were preached over them, and of them it was said
that they died
in the triumphs of the Christian faith and went to heaven among the
just
Source:
The Louverture Project |
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Latest Update
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Haiti human rights icon and
leader, father
Gerald Jean
Juste illegally incarcerated in Haiti under the US regime change
twice, eventually dying of blood disease, stress and he says a
"mysterious itching white powder: he was infected with while in
prison behind UN guns. Many Haiti youths, without Father Jean
Juste's international reputation still remain behind bars since the
2004 US regime change behind UN guns, indefinitely detained
political prisoners charged with only "association with wrongdoers"
meaning generally they come from extremely poor areas and are
suspected of voting or sympathizing with Aristide's Lavalas party in
Haiti. At the time of the earthquake there were 8,000 detained
without charge, without trial, without conviction. Many died in jail
during the earthquake, some fled when the prison walls crumbled,
others have been return to jail after and still await conviction
under US occupied Haiti.— in
Haiti. |
Modern-day Conquistadors
Video: Canada (Majescon
Newmont Mining) drilling for gold in Haiti
Newmont Mining which is drilling Haiti's gold gave $1 million cash contribution
to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund. No quid pro quo intended of course,
Clinton and Bush are great Haiti
humanitarians, right?
Haiti's Road to Hope
History of Mining in Haiti
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Poison Seeds, Herbicides, Pushed Again on Haitian Farmers in Spring 2012—If
you have not figured this out by now from observing the outcome of the aid to
Haiti, I’ll say it again. Aid from the U.S. to Haiti in particular, and the
Third World in general, is a way of laundering government paybacks to industry,
with USAID usually serving as the intermediary. The aid is not intended to help
the recipient but to assist U.S. companies that cannot sell their goods.
Examples include pharmaceutical companies that cannot sell their mercury-tainted
vaccines, or large agricultural concerns whose seeds have been banned throughout
the world.
Instead of burning these harmful products,
which would be the appropriate course of action, the manufacturers “donate” them
to needy countries, for a generous price from USAID: no bidding necessary. In
June 2010, thousands of Haitian farmers burned their gift of Monsanto seeds, but
over one hundred more tons have arrived, along with the pesticides, herbicides
and fertilizers. With Haiti’s ministry of agriculture currently being headed by
a former rice importer, this is hardly surprising. Yes, it is definitely true
that these people never give up. And neither should we. Not ever.—Dady
Chery, Editor, Haiti Chery
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Table
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Napoléon Bonaparte Proclamation on Saint-Domingue
(1799)—The same day as this proclamation (December 25,
1799), Bonaparte issued a decree saying that the words
“Remember, brave blacks, that the French people alone recognize your
freedom and the equality of your rights” should be inscribed in gold
letters on all the flags of the battalions of the National Guard of
the colony of
Saint Domingue.
Toussaint Louverture refused to follow this order, saying: “It
is not a circumstantial freedom conceded to ourselves alone that we
want. It is the absolute adoption of the principle that any man born
red, black or white cannot be the property of his like. We are free
today because we are the stronger party. The Consul
1 maintains
slavery in Martinique and Bourbon; we will thus be slaves when
he will be the stronger.”
Napoléon Bonaparte would soon show that he in fact had no regard
for people of African ancestry in the colonies. Just about two years
later, in
1802 he would send troops, commanded by his brother in-law
General Leclerc, to re-establish slavery in France's greatest
source of wealth: the colony of Saint-Domingue.—TheLouvertureProject
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My decision to destroy the authority of the
Blacks in Saint Dominque (Haiti) is not so much based on considerations of
commerce and money, as on the need to block for ever the march of the blacks in
the world.—Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon wasn't the last. The US did not
recognize Haiti until after the Civil War because it would have weakened the
oppression of black slaves. Ever since, America has intervened to prevent the
development of a genuinely independent Haiti. In 2004, Navy Seals kidnapped
elected President Aristide and deported him to Africa. Last Year America tried
to block his return to his homeland. The earthquake provided the opportunity to
resume total foreign corporate control over the island.—Richard
M Peery
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Never
again shall a Colonist or a European set his foot upon this
territory with the title of master or proprietor. This resolution
shall henceforward form the fundamental basis of our constitution.
Should other chiefs, after me, by pursuing a conduct diametrically
opposite to mine, dig their own graves and those of their species.
May my successors follow the path I shall traced out for them! It is
the system best adapted for consolidating their power. It is the
highest homage they can render to my memory.—Jean
Jacques Dessalines, April 28, 1804, Head quarters at Cape Haitian,
First year of independence.
"The European and colonist didn’t come back to Haiti as just master
or proprietor. No sireeee. He/she came back as GOD!"—Paul
Farmer, the UN Deputy envoy to Haiti is not a God but the face of
the UN/USAID/World Bank by Ezili Dantò, HLLN
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“October is not too far away,
and those Haitians who are not slaves know only one God beneath the
almighty Bondye. The spirit of all omnipresent good and beauty is
neither Paul Farmer, Bill Clinton, nor cholera—MINUSTAH.”—Ezili
Dantò of HLLN, August 27, 20
Is this Minustah's 'Abu Ghraib moment' in Haiti?
A Particular Account of the Insurrection of the Negroes of St.
Domingo, Begun in August, 1791 (1792) * * *
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Even on these ashes, we
will continue to fight for freedom
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I only want the brave to stay
with me. Those who wish to become once again French slaves can make
their way out of this fort. Those on the contrary who wish to die as
free men may take their place around me.—Jean
Jacques Dessalines, Haiti's founding father, speaking at
Crête-à-Pierrot, March 11, 1802.
The Story of Janjak |
When Napoleon's general Leclerc ordered Henri Christophe of Haiti to surrender
Cap Haitian. General Christophe, following the orders of Toussaint declared: "We
will not surrender until it is reduced to ashes and even on the ashes, we will
continue to fight." The Haitians did not surrender. They faced down a European
armada- 50,000 French soldiers with US support, arms, an embargo and navy
blockade against them. Today, the sell-out Haiti Diaspora, like those who came
in the warships with Leclerc's army, are at the UN or with the NGOs, the
Oligarchy and the technocrats. Two million people are living homeless on the
ashes of Port au Prince. Clinton has so many titles in Haiti no one can keep up.
But still, we will not surrender. Even on these ashes, we continue to fight for
freedom.
Right now we're at
Crête-à-Pierrot.
The indigenous soldiers of Haiti, at home and abroad are outgunned and
outnumbered. You know how the story ends! Before
Dessalines had returned with reinforcements, the indigenous soldiers, led by
husband and wife -Mari-Jann and Commander Lamartinière, running out of water,
food and supplies, made a way out of no way to escape to safety by one the most
brilliant military maneuvering acts of courage during the struggle for freedom
and independence by the people of Ayiti.
Are you brave enough to stand with the indigenous of Haiti? How deep is your
rage? Shall we eternally be the history of
rape on this planet? Or, continue to fight, even on these ashes?
Ezili Dantò of HLLN
24 September 2010
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CrossTalk on Haiti: Year of Agony
Haiti is a farming nation on a tiny Island—70
to 80% of Haitians are small farmers and entrepreneurs—who
could live in peace and prosperity if Haiti was allowed to use the assets of its
own nation for the public health and nation building of its own people. Not to
feed US-Euro oligarchs’ market and narcissistic needs, or Wal-Mart, JC Penny
profit margins or the arrogance, security paranoia of the racist and fearful
interested in PROFIT at all cost.
HELP for Haiti would be authentic IF the
bankers would help to maximize the use of the nearly $2.5billion per year of
direct aid the Haitian Diaspora sends to Haiti. If the politicos, world bankers,
Haiti Oligarchy and Western Union financing houses would stop tapping into it.
Allow a Haiti development bank from these remittances the collateral credit from
these yearly remittances—perhaps
$1billion dollars for Haitians to build water and sanitation infrastructure,
rebuild roads and agricultural self-sufficiency. That would take out the need
for MOST of Paul Farmers’ pharmaceuticals and supplements and oral vaccines
being washed down with foul or foreign-bought purification tablets, chlorinated
water to be swallowed on empty Haitian stomachs.
Next, change the US predatory trade
policies, stop dumping Clinton’s Arkansas rice, Monsanto hybrid seeds and don’t
block the Haiti Diaspora from investing in the Haiti farmers—providing
help with modern tractors and equipment to produce and regain Haiti’s food
sovereignty.—Ezili
Dantò
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What Color is Haitian Jesus?—17
October 2011—When it comes to Jesus, however, it seems everyone else
is Black, leaving Jesus to standout more than what would be normally
expected in a religious painting. My favorite example of this in
the gallery is a depiction of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. The
scene contains onlookers in the foreground, all Black, as well as
John the Baptist, also Black, baptizing Jesus, white. The message is
uncanny, but the true gravity of the piece takes a moment to sink
in. Finally, it hits: you mean even in a Black country where the
people and important figures in religious history are depicted as
Black, Jesus still has to be white? For any Christian painting, I
imagine the image of Jesus would figure prominently. Yet, this
painting has added an extra layer of “heavenliness, ” by depicting
Jesus as white amidst a sea of Black followers and a Black baptist.
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In another painting, depicting the
miraculous catch of fish from the book of Luke, Jesus and the disciples are
painted white, though admittedly the fish are a variety of colors. And, after
further scrutiny, perhaps Jesus isn’t white exactly? After all, Haiti does boast
a sizable and influential Libyan population. Perhaps the images in this painting
bear homage to middle eastern influence?—SakpaseDiplomacy
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Douglas Perlitz sentenced to nearly 20 years for sex abuse in Haiti
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge
Janet Bond Arterton wrote another one—on justice—sentencing
Douglas Perlitz, the humanitarian turned sex predator, to 19
years and seven months in federal prison for his systematic and
prolonged abuse of at least 16 homeless boys in a program he created
to shelter, feed and educate them in Haiti.
"Our country places a
high value on defending citizens' individual dignity and protecting
every child," Arterton told Perlitz, 40,
Fairfield University's 2002 commencement speaker. "This was a
horrific crime . . . In a country that's very hard to live in; he
took away the childhood they were never able to have. . . ."
But Arterton didn't stop there.
Stamford lawyer
Ezili Dantò, President of the Haitian Legal Leadership Network,
talks to the media about early Haitian leader Pierre Toussaint, whom
Doug Perlitz named his school after. |
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She looked directly at Perlitz and told
him: "Survivors of sexual abuse have unique, long-lasting permanent
injuries—for these boys that's on top of being poor, hungry and homeless in
Haiti. Now they have fingers pointed at them in derision."—Salon
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My Haitian brothers and
sisters, we need to step up. All of us as one! Haiti is now
overrun with foreigners who are telling us that they are more
Haitian than we are, that Haiti needs to be occupied militarily
FOREVER. Furthermore, they are telling us that somehow we are
ungrateful whenever we protest against the wanton killings in
the slums of Port-au-Prince, the boy hung inside a MINUSTHA base
in Cap-Haïtien, the 17-year-old boy gang-raped in Port-Salut,
the 6,000 people dead from the UN-imported strain of the cholera
virus, the nearly half a million people who have been infected
with the same virus, and the minors whom they have been raping
and impregnating.
At each and every turn, it
seems, we need to say: "Thank you, nice people, for the security
you are providing to our country. Thank you with a smile. You
are our protectors. You are our gods, because we are worthless."
Is that what we as a people have been reduced to?
Hell No, we will not shut up just to please you. Nor
shall we submit to your attempts at inducing an inferiority
complex in Haitians.
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Other countries in the Americas have seen far higher
levels of violence than Haiti. Why do they persist in portraying Haiti as the
most hopeless country in the continent? Of course, we reject Haitian-on-Haitian
violence. However, does the threat of Haitian-on-Haitian violence justify the
indefinite presence of a foreign military on Haitian soil? Would they also
occupy all other countries with higher levels of violence, such as Jamaica and
Mexico? Why hasn't the UN spent their allocated Haiti funds to support a State
of Law in Haiti run by Haitians? In any case, Haitians should be FREE to protest
ALL HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES without getting shamed for saying: "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. DO
GOOD OR DEPART!"—Guy
S. Antoine, Sept. 19, 2011
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Why does Pres. Obama
denounce the Burma unfair election process but not Haiti
upcoming unfair elections?—By Dan Beeton—Haiti is scheduled
to hold elections on Nov. 28, and nothing —neither the cholera
outbreak that has killed more than 1,000 people nor the fact
that more than 1 million earthquake survivors remain
homeless—seems likely to convince the Haitian government or its
international backers that the vote should be postponed. It
should be. Why? The electoral process is rigged.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration seems happy to
go along with the charade. . . .In Haiti, as in Burma, several
parties, including the most popular, Fanmi Lavalas, are being kept off
the ballot in an overtly anti-democratic move. Fanmi Lavalas has won
every election it has participated in, and
authorities seem determined to prevent that from
happening again. |
In Haiti, as in Burma, a council
handpicked and controlled by the government is overseeing the electoral
process. And in Haiti, as in Burma, the popular party's leader is kept
from rallying supporters.—LaTimes
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Cholera in Haiti Matches Strains Seen in
South Asia, U.S. Says—1 November 2010—A
cholera outbreak that has killed more than 300 people in
Haiti matches strains commonly found in South Asia, the United States
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. Researchers
identified the strain by analyzing DNA patterns that can be compared with those
from other regions of the world, according to Dr. Christopher Braden, a C.D.C.
epidemiologist. The finding does not identify the source, nor does it explain
how cholera—a disease never confirmed to have existed in Haiti—suddenly
erupted in the vulnerable country’s rural center. But it eliminates some
possibilities, including any connection to a 1990s South American outbreak. The
finding also intensifies the scrutiny of a
United Nations base built on a tributary to the Artibonite River. Cholera
has been detected in the waterway, and most of the cases have been among people
who live downriver and drank from the Artibonite.Speculation among Haitians has
increasingly focused on the base and troops there from Nepal, where cholera is
endemic and which saw outbreaks this summer before the current contingent of
troops arrived in Haiti. Most people infected by the microbe never develop
symptoms but can still pass on
the disease.—NYTimes
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Is Haiti's deadly cholera outbreak an imported disease?
by Ezili Dantò—A chilling video
testimony of brackish Red Cross water in Haiti—Cholera
confirmed in Haiti capital. For another compelling
testimony on Red Cross delivering filthy water to Haiti
victims since the earthquake, view also:
How did the Red Cross spend $106 Million Dollars in
Haiti: (Ezili Dantò's note: Amongst some of the
testimonies that's not clearly translated in this most
valuable video: a woman standing next to a small
child repeating "no, no, no," points to a water drum
with a "Red Cross" sign on it and says that even the
water they give is not treated. She explains that she
drinks it because she has no money to buy good drinkable
water but suffers right now from a stomach ache from
drinking the Red Cross' polluted water.)
Here's an example of
help Haiti could use that is beyond Clinton/CocaCola/Sweatshops/Monsanto
hybrid seeds/unregulated gold/copper and other foreign mining, and more
foreign toxins that further pollutes Haiti's ground water:
Communication, Water purifier, electricity and environmentally
conscious, all in one—
http://bit.ly/dn0wQn
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Guards cash in on smuggling
Haitian children—By Gerardo Reyes and Jacqueline Charles—Oct. 26,
2010—Since the earthquake, more than 7,300 boys and girls have
been smuggled into the Dominican Republic by traffickers profiting
on the hunger and desperation of Haitian children and their
families. In 2009, the figure was 950, according to one human rights
group that monitors child trafficking at 10 border points.
The
busiest of all border points is the Massacre River Bridge, linking Ouanaminthe in Haiti with Dajabón—also home to the Dajabón market,
which provides cover for traffickers, especially on Fridays and
Mondays when Dominican authorities open the iron gate in the middle
of the bridge and thousands of merchants and buyers pour in. . . . |
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On the Haitian side of the bridge, the
smugglers cut deals inside makeshift huts. Just outside on a mud-laden field,
Dominican and Haitian motorcyclists offer to cross anyone for a fee, no papers
needed; others offer children. Standing on a bridge, Alix offers to sell a
Herald reporter a 15-year-old girl. He gives no price, but said the girl
previously lived with a Dominican doctor and his Haitian wife in Santo Domingo,
and they had bought the teenager for $5,000 Haitian gourdes or $125. . . .``At
night, the moans of pleasure mingle with the cries of children,'' said a
neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous because he lives by the shanty. ``It is
very sad not to know what is happening with these children, whether or not they
are with their parents.'' After midnight, motorcycles and buses park, lights
off, on the dark street outside the shanties. The children are led out. Some
motorcyclists carry two or three children sandwiched between the driver and an
adult. From there, they speed down the main highway to Santiago de los
Caballeros and Santo Domingo.—MiamiHerald
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Ezili Dantò is
an award winning playwright, a performance poet, author and human
rights attorney. She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised
in the USA. She holds a BA from Boston College, a JD from the
University of Connecticut School of law. She is a human rights
lawyer, cultural and political activist and the founder and
president of the Ezili’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN).
She runs the Haitian
Perspectives on-line journal and the Ezili Dantò Newsletter. Ezili’s
HLLN is the recognized leading and most trustworthy international
voice in Haiti advocacy, human rights work, Haiti news and Haiti
news analysis. HLLN’s work is central to those concerned with the
welfare of the people of Haiti, Haiti capacity building,
sovereignty, institutionalization of the rule of law, and justice
and peace without occupation or militarization. |
Ezili Dantò is also an educator who
specializes in teaching about the light and beauty of Haitian culture; the
Symbolic and Archetypal Nature of Haitian Vodun; the illegality and immorality
of forcing neoliberal policies on Haiti and the developing world . . . For more
go to the Ezili Danto/HLLN website at
http://www.ezilidanto.com
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Not
just "gang leaders" in Haiti fought for Aristide to finish his
five-year term. The demonstrators are lifting up their hands to
indicate, five years, five years, five years—senk an, senk an, senk
an. No Bush regime change in Haiti! Most of the Haitian mothers you
see in this video, who were lucky enough to have survived the
2004-2006 Lavalas witch-hunt and US/UN guns from the 2004 Bush
regime change in Haiti, are suffering unbearable, some from grief,
humiliation,
Clorox hunger, or worst, some on top of all this, from
traumatic rape and sexual abuse by the "peacekeepers," US/NGO/IFI
"saviors," and their Haitian mercenary arms, or as a direct result
of the opportunistic anarchy that landed in Haiti after this video
was taken. |
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Six months after earthquake, Haiti
ill-served by aid—Ezili Dantò, July 28, 2010—The “new Haiti” after the
earthquake is not much different from the old Haiti the United States has been
attempting to bring forth for two centuries: a place governed by
business-oriented Haitian technocrats who take their marching orders from
Washington.
Clinton and others in the international aid
community opine that the slow disbursement of funds and rebuilding of the
country is the fault of Haiti’s weak government. Ironically, it was the Bush
administration that rendered Haiti weak by overthrowing in 2004 the elected
government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Members of the aid community also say Haiti
doesn’t have the capacity to absorb the aid. But it was the World Bank and U.S.
policies that destroyed Haiti’s food sovereignty, forced the government
industries to privatize, and left basic services like education, water,
sanitation and health care to the free market, which did not deliver.—Progressive
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Haitian quake survivors to
arrive in Senegal—Dakar, Senegal—Senegal's president says he's
honoring a promise to offer a home to Haitians recovering from
January's catastrophic earthquake. The West African nation has
chartered a special flight to bring 160 Haitian students to Senegal
on Tuesday. The students will finish their studies in Senegal.
President Abdoulaye Wade says he'll greet them at the airport.
Wade
offered free land to Haitians after the Jan. 12 earthquake that
killed tens of thousands of people. Haiti and Senegal were both
French colonies, and Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of
Africa. Senegal's GDP per capita is only marginally higher than
Haiti's, and the country is plagued by massive unemployment. Every
year thousands of Senegalese men risk their lives trying to reach
Europe in flimsy boats.—Google
AP |
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Bill Clinton Gives 500,000
to Sean Penn for Haiti—By Mary Green—Sean Penn just got the
ultimate seal of approval: President Clinton announced his support
of Penn's ongoing work in Haiti with a half a million-dollar
donation. The Clinton Foundation donated $500,000 to Penn's charity,
J/P Haitian Relief Organization. The money will provide for bridge
funding for a camp in Petionville, which is run by the group. . . .
President Clinton said. "In the interim, our commitment to the
Petionville camp, managed by J/P HRO, will ensure the 55,000 people
living there, including many children, can access health care,
education, and job training services until families are able to move
into more permanent homes."
"The support of President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation is an
extraordinary boost in our organization's ability to continue its
work in Haiti," Penn told PEOPLE. "From the beginning the Clinton
Foundation staff and leadership have generously shared expertise and
essential logistical support."—People |
* * *
* *
Haiti: Coping with the aftermath
* * *
* *
Haiti's Enduring Creativity (video)
* * *
* *
Haiti Earthquake: The
Hidden Holocaust (video)
Video Description:
"Since Haiti's devastating earthquake, there has been a steady stream of
religious cults who have swarmed down on the countryside under the guise of
offering humanitarian assistance. Beneath their altruistic cloak, rests a more
ominous hidden agenda. Namely, to blackmail, coerce and manipulate the suffering
Haitians into converting to their brand of Christian faith. When they refused,
food and medicine is withheld from them. When this does not work, these cults
resort to instigating violence amongst the already shelled-shocked Haitians."
* * *
* *
|
Wyclef Jean can't run for
president— August 20, 2010—Council spokesman Richard Dumel said
election officials have accepted 19 candidacies and rejected 15
others. The Haitian-born singer’s candidacy was turned down because
he did not meet the residency requirement of having lived in Haiti
for five years before the Nov. 28 election.
Jean, whose parents brought him
to the United States as a child, has lived off and on in Haiti in
recent years. In 2007 he was named roving ambassador to Haiti by
President Rene Preval, an appointment he had argued qualified him to
run for president of the country.
The 40-year-old former Fugees
frontman was ensconced in a hotel not far from where the electoral
council was deliberating. About an hour before the candidate list
was announced, Jean and his entourage left the hotel without
speaking to the press. . . . |
 |
The devastation from the earthquake,
coupled with frustration over a weak government response, have created an
opening for a messianic outsider like Jean, said Robert Fatton Jr., a Haiti
expert at the University of Virginia. “The very fact that he is taken seriously
when, in fact, he has no preparation to be president is an indication that the
whole country, in particular the youth, looks at the typical Haitian population
as a bankrupt kind of species,” Fatton said.—RGI
* * *
* *
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
said the US was "playing God" by testing devices capable of creating eco-type
catastrophes, the Spanish newspaper ABC quoted him as saying. A 7.0-magnitude
quake rattled the desperately poor country on January 12, killing an estimated
100,000 to 200,000 people. As Haiti looks to the world for basic sustenance, the
authorities say the biggest dangers facing survivors are untreated wounds and
rising disease.
Following the quake, appeals for humanitarian aid were responded to globally.
However, the nation is struggling with violence and looting as aid is still not
enough for the tens of thousands left homeless and injured. Chavez said the
killer earthquake followed a test of "weapon of earthquakes" just offshore from
Haiti. He did not elaborate on the source of his claim. The outspoken leader had
earlier accused the US of occupying Haiti "under the guise of the natural
disaster." At least 11,000 US troops have been dispatched to the country to
provide security for aid distribution efforts.
Venezuelan media have reported that the earthquake "may be associated with the
project called HAARP, a system that can generate violent and unexpected changes
in climate." HAARP, the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a
study run in Alaska directed at the occasional reconfiguration of the properties
of the Earth's ionosphere to improve satellite communications. Former US
Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 1997 expressed concerns over countries
engaging "in eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off
earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves."
PressTV
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* *
Quake Accentuated Chasm That Has Defined Haiti—This
is the
Pétionville district of Port-au-Prince, a hillside bastion of
Haiti’s well-heeled where a mangled sense of normalcy has taken hold after
the earthquake in January. Business is bustling at the lavish boutiques,
restaurants and nightclubs that have reopened in the breezy hills above the
capital, while thousands of homeless and hungry people camp in the streets
around them, sometimes literally on their doorstep.
“The rich people sometimes need to
step over us to get inside,” said Judith Pierre, 28, a maid who has lived for
weeks in a tent with her two daughters in front of Magdoos, a chic Lebanese
restaurant where diners relax in a garden and smoke flavored tobacco from
hookahs. Chauffeurs for some of the customers inside lined up sport utility
vehicles next to Ms. Pierre’s tent on the sidewalk near the entrance.
NYTimes
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The Haitian Revolution, 1791 to 1804: Or, Side Lights On the French
Revolution
By Theophilus Gould Steward
This
is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may
have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor
pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original
artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe
this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections,
have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing
commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We
appreciate your understanding of the imperfections
in the
preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.—Amazon.com |
 |
The Haitian Revolution, 1791 to 1804. By T. G. Steward. Thomas Y. Crowell
Company, New York, 1915. 292 pages. $1.25.
Reviewed by J.R. Fauset. The Journal of Negro
History. Vol. I., No. 1,
January. 1916.
In the days when the internal
dissensions of Haiti are again thrusting her into the limelight such a book
as this of Mr. Steward assumes a peculiar importance. It combines the
unusual advantage of being both very readable and at the same time
historically dependable. At the outset the author gives a brief sketch of
the early settlement of Haiti, followed by a short account of her
development along commercial and racial lines up to the Revolution of 1791.
The story of this upheaval, of course, forms the basis of the book and is
indissolubly connected with the story of Toussaint L'Overture. To most
Americans this hero is known only as the subject of Wendell Phillips's
stirring eulogy. As delineated by Mr. Steward, he becomes a more human
creature, who performs exploits, that are nothing short of marvelous. Other
men who have seemed to many of us merely names—Rigaud,
Le Clerc, Desalines, and the like--are also fully discussed.
Although most of the book is naturally
concerned with the revolutionary period, the author brings his account up to
date by giving a very brief resumé of the history of Haiti from 1804 to the
present time. This history is marked by the frequent occurrence of
assassinations and revolutions, but the reader will not allow himself to be
affected by disgust or prejudice at these facts particularly when he is
reminded, as Mr. Steward says, "that the political history of Haiti does not
differ greatly from that of the majority of South American Republics, nor does
it differ widely even from that of France."
The book lacks a topical index, somewhat to
its own disadvantage, but it contains a map of Haiti, a rather confusing
appendix, a list of the Presidents of Haiti from 1804 to 1906 and a list of the
names and works of the more noted Haitian authors. The author does not give a
complete bibliography. He simply mentions in the beginning the names of a few
authorities consulted.— J. R. Fauset.
* * * * *
|
Davasting Earthquake in
Haiti
Hundreds of thousands
expected killed
The Caribbean nation of
nine million is the
poorest country in the
Americas with an annual
per-capita income of
$560. It ranks 146th out
of 177 countries on the
UNDP Human Development
Index. More than half
the population lives on
less than $1 a day and
78 per cent on less than
$2. There is a high
infant mortality rate
and the prevalence of
HIV among those between
ages 15 and 49 is 2.2
per cent. Haiti's
infrastructure is close
to total collapse and
severe deforestation has
left only two per cent
of forest cover. About
9,000 UN police and
troops are stationed in
the country to maintain
order
Latest updates on the
Haiti earthquake /
Why the Haiti earthquake
was so devastating /
Video:
Haiti beset by natural
disasters |
 |
* * *
* *
Haiti's Billion Dollar Debt Cancelled
WASHINGTON, Jul 9 (OneWorld.net) - The recent cancellation
of Haiti's $1.2 billion debt is a huge victory for the impoverished country,
which will now have greater resources to invest in "desperately needed relief"
for its people, says a coalition of groups fighting poverty worldwide.
Debt cancellation will allow Haiti -- the poorest nation
in the Western Hemisphere -- to redirect significant resources to poverty
alleviation efforts and desperately needed public services such as education and
health care, notes Jubilee USA.
Oneworld
* * *
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Fr. Jean-Juste, spiritual
leader of Haitian Americans, dies—Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste, the
Roman Catholic priest whose passionate, relentless, 30-year
human-rights crusade on behalf of his fellow Haitians cast him as
their spiritual and political leader in South Florida, has died.
Jean-Juste was a liberation theologist, controversial in both the
United States and his homeland, battled the unequal treatment of
Haitian refugees in the federal courts, in Miami's streets and in
the media.
He suffered a stroke recently, according to Ira Kurzban, the Miami
attorney who represented Jean-Juste's Haitian Refugee Center in
several lawsuits against the U.S. government, and died Wednesday at
Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was 62. His death apparently was
unrelated to the leukemia that Jackson doctors treated three years
ago. |
''The Haitian-American community has lost a visionary and a
central figure who helped to establish the Haitian community in South Florida,''
Kurzban said. ``They lost a. . .friend whose arms and heart were always open.''
MiamiHerald (28 May 2009)
* * *
* *
Ezili's HLLN honors Father Gerard Jean Juste
|
I had thought after living through two US-sponsored Coup D’etats
in Haiti, their death squads’ persecution of the Haitian populace;
after hitting our heads against the wall of media lies and State
Department spins on the second foreign-ouster of President Jean
Bertrand Aristide; after advocating for the many still languishing
in UN-occupied-Haiti jails since the 2004 Bush Haiti Regime Change,
and meagerly comforting those in exile without papers, giving voice
to the hurt and humiliation of the Haitian struggle, enduring the
vilifications of the rich, pretentious but ignorant, the charity of
the so-called “well-intentioned” and after living through decades
upon decades of helplessly watching Haitians capsized on overloaded
boats in shark-infested waters, asylum, equal treatment and
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) still denied, I had thought, after
all this, we-Haitians have surely exhausted all tears.
But the circumstances that herald the death
of Father Gerard Jean Juste’s death prove there are still some tears left. From
Miami, to Canada, to New York, to Haiti, the sorrow flows. |
 |
And I cannot, right
now, on the day after his death, put the right words together that would make
sense of the senseless - the heart-wrenching persecution and coup d’etat
imprisonments that led to the deterioration of his health, subsequent
hospitalizations and then his death. How do we tell the world about Father Jean
Juste? How do I tell of his kindness to a young Haitian-American lawyer,
fourteen years ago, in Haiti, who knew nothing about the journey she was about
to undertake, but which he had already mastered. How do we give meaning to his
life and works? His tireless advocacy for immigration rights for over 30-years
in Miami before he left to return to Haiti and to endure with the people of
Haiti, two post-Duvalier coup d'etat persecutions. Perhaps it’s just as well
that I simply sank my head in my hands, let the headache pounding in my skull
rage on and the tears fall. They killed him. I’m so tired for us all.
Open Salon
* * *
* *
Haitian Government Raises Minimum Wage to $5.50 per day—Haitian
labor activists applauded the Preval administration's decision to raise the
minimum wage in Haiti from 70 to 200 gourdes ($5.50 USD) per day. However, the
increase has been strongly opposed by Haitian industrialists. Georges Sassine,
president of ADIH (an association of Haitian industrialists) warned that the
wage increase would cost tens of thousands of jobs. He claimed that similar
minimum wage increases in Cambodia have proven disastrous.
HaitiAnalysis asked Jose Cordero, an economist with Center
for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), to respond to the arguments that
Georges Sassine and other businessmen have made against the increase. Cordero
said ”In the case of Cambodia, I am not sure what disaster they are talking
about, but I know that between 2004 and 2007 the country grew at about 11% per
year. When inflation rose in 2008, and real wages declined, many factory workers
left their jobs to go back to the country or to other informal activities which
provide them more revenue than their work at a factory."
Cordero also pointed out that "Workers (especially those
making only the minimum wage) have a higher propensity to consume than higher
paid workers or company owners. They also have a lower propensity to import.
These mean that a higher wage will likely increase aggregate spending, which
could stimulate local production, and employment."
Haitianalysis
* * *
* *
 |
Lavalas flexes its muscles in Haiti
By Kevin Pina
April
21, 2009
Haiti's Lavalas movement effectively destroyed the
credibility of yesterday's Senate election through a
successful boycott campaign called Operation Closed Door.
Even the most generous electoral count puts participation at
less than 10% in the capital of Port-au-Prince while the
actual figure may be as low as 3% nationwide.
more |
 |
* * *
* *
The Haitian People Need
a Lobbyist—What it all comes down to is: "Who's representing the Haitian
people"? I know who's representing the business elite and the three to five
percent of the population that they encompass, but the country has between 8 and
10 million people. The busses of tourists coming over from the DR aren't going
to help the Haitian people. That C2 money is going to be divided up in some
office before the project gets off the ground. The HOPE 2 bill which is supposed
to provide between 10 and fifty thousand "treading water" jobs, will attract
people from the countryside into a city that has no infrastructure to support
them. Does anyone care? Lobbying must to be a great business in Haiti. Too bad
the Haitian masses don't have a lobbyist.
Counterpunch
* * *
* *
UN in Haiti accused of second massacre: More than
three hours of video footage and a large selection of
digital photos, illustrate more than words ever could
what the UN is doing in Haiti. The wounded and dying on
the video tape all express horror and confusion at the
reasons UN forces shot at them. A 16 year-old young man
asks why UN forces shot him as he clearly realizes he is
going to die. Less than an hour later we see his
lifeless corpse replace what once was an animated and
articulate young man. HIP Founding Editor Kevin Pina
commented, "It is clear that this represents an act of
terror against the community. This video evidence shows
clearly that the UN stands accused, once again, of
targeting unarmed civilians in Cite Soleil.
Haiti Action News
21 January 2007
* * *
* *
For Haitians, vodou is not just the stuff
of dolls with pins stuck in their eyes or zombies wandering in the forest. The
centuries-old religion has permeated Haiti for generations, after it was carried
by slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean starting in the 1700s. On the island
of Hispaniola, which includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic, those
transplanted Africans mingled with the Taino Indians, who were also persecuted
by European occupiers. Vodou evolved from the three cultures and played a huge
role in Haiti's liberation from France. In 1751, a houngan named François
Mackandal organized other slaves to raid sugar and coffee plantations. The
French burned him at the stake. Another former slave and vodou practitioner
replaced him at the helm of the liberation movement: Toussaint L'Ouverture,
whose efforts helped Haiti win its independence in 1804.
Tamara Lush, Vodou Child.
* * *
* *
A call to halt deportations—Haiti's
President René Préval asked the U.S. government to stop deporting undocumented
Haitians and instead grant them temporary protected status—After refusing
for two years to ask for a U.S. halt in deportations of undocumented Haitians,
Haiti's President René Préval has asked President Bush to grant them temporary
protected status. . . . In a two-page letter to Bush dated Feb. 7, Préval wrote
that while he had apprehensions about seeking the TPS designation in the past,
the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Noel in October has changed his mind. .
. . Local immigration advocates and South Florida elected officials have long
advocated TPS for the 20,000 Haitians they believe are living in the United
States illegally. TPS would entitle them to temporary residency and work permits
for up to 18 months. In Miami, those advocates applauded Préval's request and
urged Bush to approve it.—MiamiHerald
* * *
* *
* * *
* *
* * *
* *
* * *
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|
Damming
the Flood
Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment London
(Verso, 2007)
By
Peter Hallward
Peter Hallward is a philosopher who has thought about the
question of solidarity across the divisions that structure
domination with a rare combination of subtlety and militancy.
The themes that link his work on contemporary post-colonial
theory, French philosophy and Haitian politics include a
consistent stress on the fact that everyone thinks and that
thought is the subjective confrontation with specific objective
situations. |
 |
Hallward
affirms the specificity of particular situations and affirms the
subjectivity with which they are confronted and thereby ‘maintains the
relation between In other words he proposes a politics of popular
self-emancipation organised around popular intellectual work and
consensual disciplined commitment. From the beginning his work has taken
the view that, following Paulo Freire, ‘true generosity consists in
fighting to destroy the causes which lead to false charity.’ subjective
and objective (and between subjects) as a relation in the strict sense.’
Hallward
is committed to a prescriptive politics. He argues that genuinely
political actions must elaborate universal principles (principles that
hold for everyone), that for these principles to be meaningful they must
be adhered to directly and immediately, that adhering to them is
necessarily divisive and requires collective unity and a willingness to
confront domination. In other words he proposes a politics of popular
self-emancipation organised around popular intellectual work and
consensual disciplined commitment. From the beginning his work has taken
the view that, following Paulo Freire, ‘true generosity consists in
fighting to destroy the causes which lead to false charity.’
Hallward is committed to a
prescriptive politics. He argues that genuinely political actions must
elaborate universal principles (principles that hold for everyone), that
for these principles to be meaningful they must be adhered to directly
and immediately, that adhering to them is necessarily divisive and
requires collective unity and a willingness to confront domination. In
other words he proposes a politics of popular self-emancipation
organised around popular intellectual work and consensual disciplined
commitment. From the beginning his work has taken the view that,
following Paulo Freire, ‘true generosity consists in fighting to destroy
the causes which lead to false charity.’
Damming the Flood is a richly detailed account of the popular
Haitian movement Lavalas (the flood) in and out of power. There is a
focus on how the movement was vilified and its president, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, removed from office by the American military with considerable
support from global civil society. . . .
MetaMute
* * *
* *
 |
Voltaire Hector.
Declaration of Jean Bertrand Aristide in South Africa April
9, 2005. 2005
Voltaire Hector.
Burning the market "Tet Boeuf" an anti-government
demonstration May 31, 2005. 2005 |
 |
* *
* * *
* * *
* *
* * *
* *
French
Generals in the Saint-Domingue
Field
Toussaint
L'Ouverture,
François Dominique, c.1744–1803, Haitian patriot and martyr.
A self-educated slave freed shortly before the uprising in 1791,
he joined the black rebellion to liberate the slaves and became
its organizational genius. Rapidly rising in power, Toussaint
joined forces for a brief period in 1793 with the Spanish of
Santo Domingo and in a series of fast-moving campaigns became
known as L'Ouverture [the opening], a name he adopted. Although
he professed allegiance to France, first to the republic and
then to Napoleon, he was singleheartedly devoted to the cause of
his own people and advocated it in his talks with French
commissioners.
Late
in 1793 the British occupied all of Haiti's coastal cities and
allied themselves with the Spanish in the eastern part of the
island. Toussaint was the acknowledged leader against them and,
with the generals Dessalines and Christophe, recaptured (1798)
several towns from the British and secured their complete
withdrawal. In 1799 the mulatto general André Rigaud enlisted
the aid of Alexandre Pétion and Jean Pierre Boyer, asserted
mulatto supremacy, and launched a revolt against Toussaint; the
uprising was quelled when Pétion lost the southern port of
Jacmel.
In
1801, Toussaint conquered Santo Domingo, which had been ceded by
Spain to France in 1795, and thus he governed the whole island.
By then professing only nominal allegiance to France, he
reorganized the government and instituted public improvements.
Napoleon sent (1802) a large force under General Leclerc
to subdue Toussaint, who had become a major obstacle to French
colonial ambitions in the Western Hemisphere; the Haitians,
however, offered stubborn resistance, and a peace treaty was
drawn. Toussaint himself was treacherously seized and sent to
France, where he died in a dungeon at Fort-de-Joux, in the
French Jura. His valiant life and tragic death made him a symbol
of the fight for liberty, and he is celebrated in one of
Wordsworth's finest sonnets and in a dramatic poem by Lamartine.
*
* *
Rigaud,
André,
1761–1811, Haitian mulatto general in the wars that liberated
Haiti. Educated, but vain, he believed in the superiority of
mulattoes. He sought (1798–1800) unsuccessfully to wrest the
leadership from Toussaint L'Ouverture. In 1802 he went to
France, returned with General Leclerc, and was sent back again
as a prisoner. In 1810, once again on Haitian soil, he tried to
overthrow Alexandre Pétion
in
the south. Defeated, he died, presumably by starving himself to
death.
Pétion,
Alexandre,
1770–1818, Haitian revolutionist. After taking part in the
expulsion (1798) of the English from Haiti, he joined (1799)
André Rigaud against Toussaint L'Ouverture and
commanded the heroic but tragic defense of Jacmel, a southern
port. Exiled, he returned with the French army under Leclerc in
1802. Rejoining the patriots because he feared the
reestablishment of slavery, Pétion, after the death of Dessalines,
engaged in a fierce but inconclusive struggle with Henri Christophe
for
control of Haiti. In 1807 he was chosen president for life of
the republic in S Haiti. He confiscated the great French
plantations, divided the land among the peasants, and gave his
people unprecedented freedom. In 1816 he welcomed the exiled
Spanish American revolutionist Simón Bolívar and provided him
with military assistance. Nevertheless, his administration was
tainted with waste and corruption. Pétion was succeeded by Jean
Pierre Boyer
Christophe,
Henri,
1767–1820, Haitian revolutionary leader. A freed black slave,
he aided Toussaint L'Ouverture in the liberation of Haiti
and was army chief under Dessalines.
When the latter declared himself emperor, Christophe took part
(1806) in a successful plot against his life and was elected
president of the republic. Christophe, a pure-blooded black,
then waged a savage and inconclusive struggle with Alexandre
Pétion,
the champion of mulatto supremacy, who retained control of S
Haiti. In 1811, entrenching himself in N Haiti, Christophe
declared himself king as Henri I and entered upon an energetic
but tyrannical reign. He created an autocracy patterned after
the absolute monarchies of Europe. Compulsory labor enriched his
fiefdom. Christophe surrounded himself with lavish, and
sometimes ludicrous, magnificence; the pomp and splendor of his
reign are still shown by the ruins of the citadel of La
Ferrière,
a formidable fortress on top of a mountain, surrounded by
precipitous cliffs, and of the fabulous palace of Sans Souci, at
Cap Haïtien, his capital. In 1820, when he was suffering from
partial paralysis, revolts broke out. In despair, Christophe
committed suicide.
Boyer,
Jean Pierre,
1776–1850, president of Haiti (1818–43). A free mulatto, he
fought under Toussaint L'Ouverture and then joined André
Rigaud,
also a mulatto, in the latter's abortive insurrection against
Toussaint. He returned in 1802 with the French army of Charles Leclerc
but
later joined the patriots under Alexandre Pétion,
who chose him as his successor. He united N and S Haiti after
the suicide of Henri Christophe (1820),
and in 1822, taking advantage of the weakness of Spanish Santo
Domingo, he took control of the whole island. Compulsory labor
was instituted. In 1825 a French fleet forced Boyer to pay an
exorbitant indemnity in return for French losses; France then
recognized Haitian independence. Financial embarrassment,
combined with the labor policy and the devastation of an
earthquake in 1843, brought about Boyer's overthrow and
permanent exile.
Leclerc,
Charles Victor Emmanuel, 1772–1802, French general. He served under Napoleon Bonaparte
in the Italian campaign, married (1797) Pauline Bonaparte, and
took part in Napoleon's coup of 18 Brumaire (1799). In 1801 he
commanded the French expedition to Portugal. He then headed the
force sent to subdue Haiti, where François Dominique Toussaint
L'Ouverture had established a virtually autonomous state.
The French won several victories after severe fighting, and an
agreement was reached. This was broken by Leclerc, who, acting
on Napoleon's secret instructions, had Toussaint seized by
trickery and deported to France. The natives, led by Jean
Jacques Dessalines and Henri
Christophe, rose in revolt and expelled the French, who were weakened by an
epidemic of yellow fever. Leclerc died of the fever.
Sources:
See
C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins (1938,2d ed. 1963); C. Moran, Black
Triumvirate: A Study of L'Ouverture, Dessalines, Christophe (1957);
A. M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., Toussaint L'Ouverture: Haitian Liberator
(1989). *
* * * *
Haiti—An unwelcome Katrina Redux
Cynthia McKinney /
Globalresearch
* * *
* *
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|
Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist
at Work
By Edwidge Danticat
Create Dangerously
is an eloquent and moving expression of
Danticat's belief that immigrant artists
are obliged to bear witness when their
countries of origin are suffering from
violence, oppression, poverty, and
tragedy.
In this deeply personal book, the
celebrated Haitian-American writer
Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and
exile, examining what it means to be an
immigrant artist from a country in
crisis. Inspired by Albert Camus'
lecture, "Create Dangerously," and
combining memoir and essay, Danticat
tells the stories of artists, including
herself, who create despite, or because
of, the horrors that drove them from
their homelands and that continue to
haunt them. Danticat eulogizes an aunt
who guarded her family's homestead in
the Haitian countryside, a cousin who
died of AIDS while living in Miami as an
undocumented alien, and a renowned
Haitian radio journalist whose political
assassination shocked the world. |
 |
Danticat writes about the Haitian novelists she
first read as a girl at the Brooklyn Public Library,
a woman mutilated in a machete attack who became a
public witness against torture, and the work of
Jean-Michel Basquiat and other artists of Haitian
descent. Danticat also suggests that the aftermaths
of natural disasters in Haiti and the United States
reveal that the countries are not as different as
many Americans might like to believe..— CaribbeanLiterarySalon
/
Review and Interview by Kam Williams
* * * * *
 |
Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
* *
* * *
ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update
3 April 2012
|
