The U.S. & America
Sunday, February 20, 2005


Anticipating January 1, 2009

Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice were disastrous for the poorer citizens of Latin America (Colombia, Haiti, Cuba, come to mind) though Cuba and Venezuela managed to defy the servile terms U.S. imperialism sought to impose on the entire region. How long will this last? Castro has been in power for 46 years and should he manage to see another four, he would celebrate a half-century of socialist revolution on January 1, 2009 just as the current U.S. President, the 10th on Castro's watch (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Papa Bush, Clinton, Baby Bush), would be departing the White House (as the U.S. will have a new president on January 20, 2009, whether he is elected or selected, and whether or not he is still another member of the Bush family).

January 1, 2009 for the Cubans in History would be highly comparable to January 1, 2004 for the Haitians. We all know what has happened to Haiti on the way to the bicentennial of its independence. Now think about how Bush and the neo-conservatives in the State Department under Rice feel about the eventual celebration (in your face, so to speak) of the half-centennial of the Cuban Revolution. To add insult to injury, this celebration would happen at a time when George Bush, as a lame president, could not do a thing about it. Think about this, and perhaps you'll get a preview of things to come, in regards to Cuban-American relations in the next four years.

Will Fidel Castro be the next Jean-Bertrand Aristide? (Not bloody likely, will you say, but do not underestimate Bush and Rice's reach. The only think we can say with confidence is that Fidel Castro would rather die fighting.

Will Fidel Castro live to see an 11th U.S. President? That's an open question, but there are some enormous interests at play seeking to influence the outcome.

Second-term U.S. Presidents have always had a special interest in embellishing their place in the History books. To leave with a celebratory repudiation of one's policies is the last thing one would want to happen. If there is humiliation to be dished out, think of who would rather serve it.

The above predicament is not unlike that of France, which ¿helped? Haitians commemorate their military victory against Napoleonic troops, by re-dispatching French military boots to trample on Haitian soil once more, but in 2004!

If you think that's a mere coincidence, I have a bridge in Haiti to sell you.

Certainly, there were other interests, such as this matter of 21 billion dollars Jean-Bertrand Aristide kept pestering them with. Soon after his installation as Prime Minister of the Occupation, Gérard Latortue visited his counterpart in France, and slavishly pronounced with a wave of the hand that this matter of France's obligation to return the monies she extorted from her former colony as Haiti's debt for her independence is "classée" (dealt with, finished). But, incredibly, he added that France still had a moral obligation to help Haiti. What a reptilian show that was!

And there was also the matter of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's political ineptitude to manage the matter of the May 2000 elections, the full and proper investigation into Jean Dominique's assassination (let the chips fall where they may!), the handling of the U.S./France financed local opposition, the administrative corruption (of the police force, in particular) sustained by a thriving drug trade, the reining in of some unruly and tyrannical popular organizations (which came to give the entire populist movement in Haiti a bad name). All matters which could have, should have, been addressed adequately by a leader who would have appealed to the better instincts of his people and been resolute in dealing with the inimical influence of outsiders, be they as powerful as the U.S. Government, or insiders such as our mentally challenged and terminally ill politico-intellectual elites.

An effective leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was not, though he is still constitutionally the President of Haiti and will be so until February 6, 2006, when it is to be hoped that the last of our current "de facto" will have returned to private practice and serve Haiti in non-political positions, if they are not themselves investigated and found guilty of gross criminal misbehavior.

An effective leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was not, but it is to be considered that the United States government has sworn to eradicate such leaders in Latin America.

An effective leader is what seems increasingly the Impossible Dream for Haiti.

The very last place one could expect to find such a leader would be from the sideshow of elections that the U.S. is orchestrating for Haiti in October and November of this year. However, this does not mean that the Haitian people should let the U.S. have its way entirely. Democratic elections they want, democratic elections they should have, or be forced to unmask themselves in front of the whole world. We should ruin their masquerade party, not by abstaining from voting, but by voting en masse, in my humble opinion. Voting for whom we want, though not necessarily for the leadership that we want, as it is nowhere to be seen at this time. We should make it a point of voting not for their candidates, but for our candidates (whoever they should be), not for candidates of the past, but candidates of the future. A future that will see a loosening of the grip of the mighty anti-democratic forces that are rampant in the current government of the United States of America.

I personally believe in a better Haiti and in a better United States of America. I am Haitian and I am American. As the latter, I dedicate myself to pave the way, in whatever measure I can, to a future in which the U.S. will live up to its own revolutionary ideals of Justice for ALL. True, their independence did not at that time include the Blacks in America and it was only forty years ago that segregation came to be formally rejected, but the U.S. represents a vast field of experimentation for mankind, and this is where important new battles will have to be won. We simply cannot give in to the anti-democratic forces ruling the day. The benefits of true democracy, not George Bush's style, should be extended to all of AMERICA, and this means that it should be done in partnership with all the countries in AMERICA, and not in master-slave like fashion, which is the current mold of U.S.-Haiti relations.

With respect to Latin America, I do not expect good intentions from the stewardship of Condoleezza Rice. Some had refused to condemn Powell and Rice early on, because they were Black. But the politics of color are played even more expertly in the United States as they ever were in Haiti. I got wise to them when George HW Bush appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court to replace another African-American (but truly an American Giant), the late Thurgood Marshall. I knew then that any other Bush appointment of a minority person should sound the alarm bell loud and clear. And we certainly have not seen the likes of Thurgood Marshall again in any of the Bush administrations, father's or son's.

So, Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela are bound to receive some hostile attention from the Rice State Department. But all of Latin America, really, and the Caribbean countries should brace themselves for a turbulent ride in the next four years, as the United States tries mightily to extricate itself from the Iraqi mess that it has created and to salvage a non-deserving government's place in History.

Guy S. Antoine
Windows on Haiti
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