November 8, 2024

Well I am proud to see that the Jamaican government has stepped forward, and allowed Aristide to stay in the Caribbean.

Last week I was in a taxi and this stupid ass woman called in to the radio station and declared that she glad Manning refused the call, and said that Aristide had no place in Trinidad.

What struck me was, that the woman offered no historical reference, cited nothing in current affairs to support her comments. In effect, what she is saying, that the inheritors of the only real fucking revolution in this region, have no place in Trinidad & Tobago.

To say that what is happening to Aristide, is not part and parcel of this inheritance, is the display of ignorance. Here what my landlord says to me, “I’m sick of these niggers that just keep holding out their hands for a handout.”
Here what these backward ass people tell me, “Haiti got themselves in this mess.”

Before anybody else says it, let me tell you: I don’t listen to talk radio of my own free will. If I get in a taxi and that is all they are listening to, I effectively have no choice. In this case, as soon as the woman had finished her ignorant, fucking sell out comment, I hopped on my soap box!

I announced to everyone in the car how mad her stupidity made me. I wonder if she knows that Trinidadian free coloureds helped to back the Toussaint and Cristophe led revolution against France? Not only that, but we cannot be complacent in the face of the shit that is continually heaped on Haiti and its people. What happens Haiti is happening in all the sovereign nations of the Caribbean, if you think it isn’t think again! Look at what is going on in Venezuela!

It turns out, the US government has been paying the opposition of Hugo Chavez’s government. When Chavez was momentarily deposed by a coup, the US government says it was “Chavez’s fault he was in that position.”

WTF! I find it quite disgusting the level of ignorance the average person in the Caribbean wears like some badge of honour. In fact, I think the way we allow the US-shaped perceptions about precisely what the fuck is going on around us, is disgusting!

The woman on the radio, was proud to say Trinidadians have nothing to do with that confusion. Me now, I know this to be erroneous, but the level of ignorance is such, that without people like me, willing to shout at the top of my lungs for truth, justice, liberty and equality… I’m willing to fight for it; without us, would the people of Haiti ever be seen as anything other than poor niggers looking for a handout, instead of being held high, and given honour for surviving the last two hundred years as the bulwark against American aggression and manipulation. We’ve sacrificed Haiti, so we can be momentarily comfortable. We cannot continue to do this! So as far as I am concerned, PJ Patterson is a man to be respected! We in the Caribbean, MUST add our voices to the protests against what is happening in Haiti, and what is still happening.

To say that this is Haiti’s fault is to ignore our debt to them. Without their refusal to be slaves anymore, and their willingness to fight for this belief, did much to convince the oligarchy of the 1800’s that slavery was not going to last for long.

The fact that their struggle for freedom, honour and self rule, has been perverted by the megalomaniacal demands of France, demanding reparation for their financial ‘losses’ after the revolution—a hypocritcal stance, after they themselves found their own revolution against serfdom. That their hypocrisy has been indulged and enforced, taxing Haiti for a hundred years, has nothing to do with the extreme poverty in Haiti, right? Right?

The hundred year-old embargo by the US — and the subsequent rape of Haiti’s natural resources, reducing most of the country to a wasteland by the US corporate entities, who entered the country at the turn of the 20th century — had nothing to do with what is going on right now, right? Right?

The thing is, the people of Haiti have paid so dearly for their freedom, and their suffering continues with the covert manipulations the US has engaged in, the oppression of Haiti in every way, since the revolution. Their ability to exercise freedoms and to grow as a nation has been purposely and cruelly suppressed by the fucked up US government, France and the complacency of the Caribbean, who has allowed it to go on.

Okay, okay, ah getting hot. Ah need fi cool down.

It is with great pride that I look at Jamaica now. I have always felt as though, the Caribbean has abdicated their responsibility to Haiti. Their revolution may have paved the way for us, but the average West Indian is so ignorant of Caribbean history, and current affairs. Right now in Trinidad, everybody cares more about the fishing drama between Barbados and Trinidad, that about Haiti.

Of course this annoys the shit out of me. My coworkers must get so sick of me; I go into these bouts of heated declarations and education of the crash kind, often getting so upset by the blank and often glazed over stares, that I have to stop and fan my hot, steaming face, and above all, tone it down.

I am sure I lived through that revolution in another life. Lived and fought through it. Even if I wasn’t there, i am deeply passionate about the history and situation in Haiti, and it amazes me how many people don’t care. I am consistently appalled by our treatment of Haiti as West Indians, and the things we say and continue to do to Haitians. I find it to be the worst kind of abdication of our responsibility to Haiti.

Everyone is so fucking ‘comfortable’. Well everyone but Jamaica. There own suffering as a people due to demands and manipulations of the IMF and the World Bank, that maybe they don’t give a fuck what the village idiots in the White House have to say about it.

I am just glad that democratically elected leader of Haiti is within 200 miles of the island. I pray that he will find his way back to Haiti. I hope one day that we can rally around the West Indies.

We cannot give up on Haiti. We cannot ignore what is going on!!

Jamaica says hosting Aristide is ‘humanitarian’

By Jane Sutton

KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) – Jamaica’s decision to host ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for a two-month visit despite objections from the new Haitian government and the United States was a just and humanitarian gesture, Jamaica’s prime minister has told Parliament.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who chairs the Caribbean Community regional group, defended the decision in a speech to lawmakers late Tuesday.

”We, and here I speak on behalf of the other Caricom heads, are convinced that our decision to receive Mr. Aristide, our former colleague, on humanitarian grounds was a just and right one, and that he will not abuse the terms on which our hospitality was granted to him,” according to a transcript released by Patterson’s office Wednesday.

Aristide left Haiti for the Central African Republic on Feb. 29 in the face of an armed revolt and U.S. pressure to quit. He later said he had been kidnapped by U.S. soldiers and forced to sign a resignation letter.

Washington called the allegations nonsense and criticized Jamaica’s decision to receive Aristide as unhelpful. Haiti’s new government called it ”an unfriendly act” and said it feared Aristide’s proximity in neighboring Jamaica would stir dissent among the former president’s supporters.

Aristide arrived on Monday in Jamaica, where he is staying in seclusion and under army guard at a government-owned guest house and awaiting the arrival of his two young daughters.

FAMILY TIME

Patterson said Aristide had not asked for permanent asylum in Jamaica.

“I anticipate that he will use his time here in Jamaica to be reunited with his family and to finalize arrangements for the relocation of his family and himself to another country which is prepared to receive him on a long-term basis,” he said.

In his speech, Patterson cited Jamaica’s close historical and cultural links with Haiti, their relationship as Caricom members, and Haiti’s status as the world’s first black republic. Haiti gained independent from France in 1804.

In the weeks leading up to Aristide’s exit, Caricom had sought to broker a power-sharing deal between Aristide and his foes that would have kept him as president for the remaining two years of his term. Aristide accepted the deal, but his political opponents did not.

After the armed rebellion against Aristide erupted in early February, the United States, along with France and Canada, pushed the Caricom plan. But after failing to get Aristide’s opponents on board, Washington and Paris changed course and started to urge Aristide to resign.

Jamaican and Caricom leaders have called for an investigation into the circumstances of Aristide’s departure from Haiti and were clearly stung by the U.S. criticism over his visit.

“I believe a sovereign country has a right to determine its guests,” the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper quoted Delano Franklyn, a junior minister in Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as telling university students at a Haiti forum on Tuesday.

Patterson said Aristide personally asked to visit Jamaica, mainly to be reunited with his children, who are in the United States.

“I made it clear to Mr. Aristide that I did not expect him to use his stay in Jamaica to engage in any political or other activities inimical to the fragile stability and order which were being re-established in Haiti,” he said.

Aristide has made no public appearances since his arrival in Jamaica. His spokesman, Huntley Medley, said Aristide “is just hoping that there is peace everywhere, in the region. He wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

Of course, some ass in the US government has this to say:

U.S. says Aristide visit to Jamaica “not helpful”

WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) – The White House said on Tuesday the presence of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in neighboring Jamaica was counterproductive.

“Our view is that it is certainly not helpful to moving forward in Haiti,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Aristide arrived in Jamaica on Monday, returning to the Caribbean just two weeks after he left Haiti for exile in Africa on Feb. 29 in the face of an armed revolt and U.S. pressure to quit.

The new Haitian government is concerned Aristide’s visit to Jamaica may stir dissent. Some Aristide followers, who see him as a champion of the poor, hope his presence just 115 miles (185 km) from Haiti’s shores may set the stage for his eventual return.

While in exile in the Central African Republic, Aristide insisted he is still the president of Haiti and said he was abducted by U.S. forces. Washington has dismissed the claim as nonsense.






Liked it? Take a second to support me on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

sungoddess

dayo's mama, writer, web developer, orisha devotee, omo yemoja, dos aguas, apple addict, obsessive reader, sci-fi fan, blog pig, trini-bajan, book slut, second life entrepreneur, combermerian, baby mama, second life, music, music, music!

View all posts

Add comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Studio Fund Updates

Support sungoddess on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

Scrobbled

Grow
Conan Gray
469 days ago

Readings