Comments on: Podcast: Protests over wages in Haiti ignored in questioning of new U.N. envoy Clinton

By: john a carroll, md

john a carroll, md — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:42:57 +0000

Ansel,

The article translated above is very accurate in describing the tragic events that took place after Father Jean-Juste’s funeral Mass in Port-au-Prince.

John

By: Ansel

Ansel — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:01:18 +0000

Thanks to David for sending in a translation of this article:

Haiti : Un mort par balle lors de troubles à Port-au-Prince

One person shot to death during disturbances in Port-au-Prince

Port-au-Prince, June 18 — One person has been shot to death during disturbances that broke out in the capital during the morning of June 18.

The incident occurred after funeral services in the Cathedral of Port-au-Prince for Father Gérard Jean Juste, a figure well known in the Catholic Church and in social and political circles.

The crowd that had attended the religious services, which consisted mostly of supporters of the Lavalas movement, was swept by a wave of panic as they were leaving.

Brazilian soldiers belonging to the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH), who were standing guard, began firing shots into the air. Conflicting accounts of the motives for their acts have been offered.

The crowd became enraged when they discovered the body of an unidentified young man lying in a pool of his own blood. A violent demonstration followed. The windshields of a number of cars were smashed as the demonstrators carried the young man’s body to the presidential palace.

A tense calm returned to downtown by early afternoon, although tires continued to burn not far from the presidential palace.

This violent morning in the center of the capital follows several violent incidents in the past few weeks involving student mobilizations favoring a law to set the minimum wage at 200 gourdes.

President René Préval officially opposed passage of the law, proposing instead a minimum wage of 125 gourdes.

The students have announced they will continue their agitation to force the president to accept a minimum wage of 200 gourdes.

This social unrest makes quesionable the holding of the second round of partial senatorial elections on June 21 to fill 12 of the 30 seats.

By: Matt Anderson

Matt Anderson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:30:44 +0000

There is really only one comment to be made: The United States government has twice in the past 20 years overthrown the legitimately (and overwhelmingly) elected government of Haiti. How does it happen that this “inconvenient truth” is kept from the American public? And on what basis do Haiti’s zanmi intenasyonal (international friends) speak of Haiti as a failed State when they have done their best to thwart Haitian development and democracy?

Are they hungry in Haiti? “Let them sew baseballs.”

By: David

David — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:36:38 +0000

“All I want to do is help the Haitians take over their own destiny,” Clinton says, so I figure he’ll be scratching his head trying to figure out why nobody in Haiti believes a word he says and only a few, those who will toast him with champagne, even pretend to. He says he wants to help in “re-constructing the agricultural capacity of the country,” an especially galling statement since our own country is more responsible than any other for destroying Haiti’s agricultural system in recent years by flooding their markets with highly subsidized U.S. food products. He wants to help the Haitians “escape the darker parts of their past” but avoids any hint that our own government, like that of France, is unpardonably complicit in creating that dark past.

Clinton will help the Haitians to the same degree that those other UN representatives, the MINUSTAH troops, have brought them peace.

Good job, Ansel. Thanks.