Editorial: The Uninspiring "Dialogue" of President Preval

January 30th, 2009

By: Wadner Pierre - HaitiAnalysis.com

What kinds of words do the Haitian people need to hear from President René Préval during these hard times? Do Haitians need the hopeful discourse of US president Barack Obama?

One would think that President Préval, a man with high level government experience dating back to the Aristide administration of 1991, would know how to address the Haitian people. Honesty need not crush hope, and false hope is useless. From the time of slavery Haiti has been plagued by commissions that do nothing for the people. The reason for their failure is simple. They exclude the people who know and care the most about Haiti. Any well intentioned leader must always bear this lesson in mind and ensure that it guides his actions and his words.

On January 1, 2009 in front of the cathedral of Gonaives, Préval gave a speech to the nation to open the year – something countless Haitian presidents (most of them illegitimate unfortunately) have done. Préval gave a mundane speech that highlighted road construction and “dialogue”. When parliament opened on January 12, Preval pledged to continue with the “dialog” that he thinks has brought peace to Haitians.

However, Senator Jean Hector Anacasis from “LESPWA (hope)”, the party of President Préval, announced something more significant. He said that in April a commission would be formed to review the Haitian constitution that would include “all sectors”. However, the Préval administration has already formed commissions that exclude the largest sectors – the peasants and the urban poor.

Préval was criticized for not saying when the UN Occupation forces would leave Haiti – and for not saying when exiled President Aristide would be able to return. Aristide is currently residing in South Africa where he was welcomed by President Thabo Mbeki shortly after the coup d'état of 2004.

Through elections Haitians have already engaged in much of the “dialogue” that Préval keeps talking about. The problems of Haiti cannot be solved in a month, but Préval needs to mobilize and inspire the people who most urgently want and need to solve them. If he were to do this then progress could be made.

The exclusion of the poor must end. One sided, uninspired “dialogue” must end. Foreign troops must leave as demanded by the Haitian constitution. Criminals who run free mist be brought to justice. Our exiled leaders must return to Haiti. If their elected leaders could say these things it would give Haitians good reason to be hopeful.

Haitians Celebrated, not without pain, Day of Independence

By: Wadner Pierre - HaitiAnalysis.com

The dream of the heroic liberators is still - in many ways - far from becoming a reality - the dream that every Haitian without distinction should live comfortably and without any fear; a dream in which the father of the country, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared that no foreign soldier violate the soil of Haiti.

After defeating the largest and most powerful army at the time, the army of Napoleon, on November 18, 1803 in Cap-Haitien, Haiti became the first Independent Republic of black people and the second country in the Americas to declare its Independence. However, the powerful countries branded Haiti an outlaw nation and France extorted a payment of 90 million francs in "compensation" for its lost "property" which included 600,000 slaves.

Haitian artist and political activist Farah Juste ("La Reine Soleil") organized a concert in the Haitian community in Miami to honour those who fought to liberate the Haitians of slavery. This year (2009) marks the twentieth year of the great traditional concert.

"My brothers and sisters you represent the second largest ethnic community in Florida, you represent a force both socially and politically. We must unite" said Farah Juste. This year's concert was dedicated to the famous Haitian singer Martha Jean-Claude. Martha Jean-Claude fled from Haiti to Cuba in 1952. She incurred the wrath of Haitian president Paul Eugene Magloire for publishing a journal entitled "Avrinette".

Her son, Richard Mirabal Jean-Claude, was in attendance at the celebration. Also in attendance were various Haitian artists, politicians the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste of Saint Claire's parish of Ti Plas Kazo, well-known as the father of the Haitian community in Florida-as well as a famous political prisoner after the coup that ousted Haiti's democratically elected government in 2004 and, it is widely hoped, a future candidate in Haiti's next presidential election.

Amidst the distinctive Haitian Creole one could sometimes hear "Happy New Year" uttered happily. It seems that this date is celebrated by not only Haitians, but also by many other peoples on this earth. The great day of Haitian Independence provides just further inspiration.

"A year 2009 for a new Haiti," said Father Gérard Jean-Juste.

The Forgotten Occupation: Emmanuel Santos explains why an extended UN presence has only meant more suffering for the people of Haiti

Socialist Worker______Haitianalysis.com
Picture by
Wadner Pierre

MORE THAN 9,000 military and civilian personnel from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, by its French initials) will remain in the country until October 2009, following the UN Security Council's unanimous vote on October 15 to extend its mandate.

MINUSTAH troops have occupied Haiti since 2004 when a U.S.-backed coup overthrew democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The brutal Brazilian-led UN military occupation has resulted in the death, imprisonment or disappearance of thousands of Aristide supporters. Human rights organizations and the independent media have reported sexual assaults committed against women and children.

Brazilian leaders hope that their country's role in the occupation will lead to a future seat in the UN Security Council, where it can play a bigger political role as the region's emerging power. Other South American countries that help maintain the occupation in Haiti include Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Colombia.

On October 31, Bolivia sent a contingent of 200 troops. Israel, the main U.S. ally in the Middle East, has played a role in maintaining the occupation by flying in Jordanian troops. The U.S. also has military and civilian personnel on the ground.

The International Socialist Review has carried extensive coverage of the food crisis in Haiti and globally, including Sharon Smith's "The revolt over rising food prices."

The vote to extend the UN mandate came after warnings from the top UN envoy in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, who, according to Reuters, said that ignoring the plight of the Caribbean country and leaving its population hungry and angry could lead to a new wave of social unrest--an allusion to popular protests over rising food prices in April that ousted former Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis.

But UN concerns about political stability in Haiti are only a justification for the ongoing presence of a 9,000-strong "peacekeeping" military force that keeps the popular movement in check by targeting left-wing activists and criminalizing the poor. In fact, Brazilian military forces are carrying out counterinsurgency operations in Haiti similar to those used in Brazil to repress the poor in the favelas and activists from the Landless Peasants Movement.

MINUSTAH troops conduct raids in the poorest neighborhoods under the pretext of disarming criminal gangs. But those so-called "gangs" are ordinary Haitians who are being punished by the U.S. and its allies for daring to oppose the occupation. Thus, disarming criminal gangs serves to justify UN military presence there. Already, several massacres have been committed since its arrival.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration and its allies continue to spread anti-Aristide propaganda to deflect criticism by human rights organizations that accuse MINUSTAH of systematic human rights violations. Even Haitian-American singer Wyclef Jean justifies the UN occupation by propagating the idea that it is fighting against dangerous gangs.

In 2004, Jean supported the coup against Aristide. Jean was also executive producer of Ghost of Cité Soleil, a propaganda film that portrays Aristide supporters as ruthless gangsters. Jean's role in demonizing Aristide and his supporters legitimized the UN occupation in the eyes of some Hollywood progressives and others.

But local and international NGOs also played a role in legitimizing the occupation on the grounds that it would bring order by disarming streets gangs--in particular, Canadian NGOs, which led the charge against Aristide in the days leading to the February 2004 coup that ousted him.

Canada's involvement in Haiti is part of a commitment to serve U.S. interests, just as it has in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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A COMBATIVE grassroots movement exploded in April changing the political landscape in Haiti and weakening both President René Préval and his Lespwa (Hope) Party. Préval's coalition was suffering, as some of the 22 National Assembly members from Lespwa joined Concertation des Parlementaires Progressistes (CPP, Coalition of Progressive Parliamentarians), a new legislative bloc that rejects neoliberal policies.

After the senate rejected two of Préval's candidates for prime minister, the government was paralyzed for four months. The impasse ended in July, when the senate confirmed Michèle Pierre-Louis as prime minister. Pierre-Louis is the founder of FOKAL, an NGO funded by financial speculator George Soros.

But the confirmation of Pierre-Louis didn't represent a departure from politics as usual in Haiti.

In November, Pierre-Louis was criticized by Haitian labor activists after she made a visit to the Dominican Republic to attend a small economic summit, but didn't extend her visit to meet with Haitian immigrants after several immigrants were killed in a wave of racist attacks the month before.

Furthermore, discontent is mounting against the UN occupation and the Préval/Pierre-Louis government for failing to deliver on any of its 2006 election campaign promises.

To mark the four-year anniversary of the UN occupation, protests were held in several countries on the eve of Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva's visit to Haiti on May 28. Solidarity activists in Brazil, Mexico and the U.S. marched to demand the immediate withdrawal of MINUSTAH from Haiti. The biggest demonstrations took place in Brazil, where labor and left-wing activists marched in several cities.

The occupation of Haiti is unpopular among Brazilians. Over the past four years, Brazil has spent more than 464 million Reals ($290 million) on the occupation, a major sum for a country where more than 40 million people live below the poverty line.

Meanwhile, the movement against the high cost of living continues in Haiti. On August 25, several hundred people gathered in La Savane, a poor area in the town of Les Cayes, to demand lower food and gas prices. A rapid response by MINUSTAH forces and Haitian police dispersed the crowd with tear gas.

On October 14, several hundred people gathered in front of the Commerce and Industry Ministry to protest the high cost of living and call for an end to the MINUSTAH occupation. The protest was organized by Soleil in Action Coalition, known as Aba Satan (Down with Satan)--a key player in the events leading to the April rebellion. It plans similar actions in the future.

Meanwhile, Lavalas activists and supporters are holding weekly vigils for activists who have been jailed and disappeared since the February coup.

During Lula's visit, Haitian police from the elite CIMO unit brutally dispersed a vigil of protesters demanding a prompt investigation into the disappearance of human rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. Pierre-Antoine disappeared in 2007 after attending a meeting with human rights activists from Canada and the U.S.

Haitian activists, along with international supporters, have in the past organized successful campaigns to free human rights activists, Lavalas leaders and former Aristide collaborators. In July 2006, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune was released after spending two years in jail. In August 2006, Annette Auguste, a folk singer and activist popularly known as So Anne, was also released.

Presently, a local and international campaign is underway to free Ronald Dauphin, an Aristide supporter arrested by right-wing paramilitaries during the 2004 coup. Five years later, he has yet to be convicted for any crime.

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DESPITE THE repression carried out by MINUSTAH, Haitian National Police and right-wing death squads since 2004, ordinary people continue the fight to return the democratically elected president from his forced exile in South Africa.

While it's true that Aristide implemented neoliberal policies, he remains popular among the majority of Haitians. Four years after the coup, Fanmi Lavalas (FL or Lavalas), the center-left populist party founded by Aristide 12 years ago, is still a mass political organization. Although it is split into two different wings internally, its grassroots supporters are united in confronting the UN occupation by organizing nationwide demonstrations.

This is a testament to the determination of ordinary Haitians, who also face one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes on the planet after four hurricanes struck the country in less than two months. Soon after, the agricultural sector collapsed, depriving workers and peasants of one of their main sources of income in a country where the unemployment rate is 80 percent.

But the destructive effects of nature could have been avoided had there been more investment on infrastructure, health care and food subsidies. Haiti is more vulnerable today because the occupation has rolled back many of its democratic freedoms. During the coup, schools and hospitals were destroyed by right-wing paramilitaries, as they entered the country from neighboring Dominican Republic, where they received training and arms from the Dominican government and the U.S.

The government's response to the crisis hasn't been enough--largely due to Haiti's dependence on outside powers. In the agriculture department, for instance, some 800 NGOs control part of the budget, undermining the state's ability to deal with the crisis.

And even though Haiti is facing a crisis of indescribable proportions, it hasn't stopped paying back its foreign debt. As of this writing, Haiti's payments amount to $1 million a week. Activists worldwide are pressing the World Bank to forgive Haiti's $1.7 billion foreign debt, but so far, it has refused.

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PRIOR TO the recent devastation, independent journalists revealed a plan to demolish Cité Soleil, a poor neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, to extend the UN military base. The U.S. is funding the base extension. Haiti Liberté reporter Kim Ives explains the importance of this military base for the U.S.:

"First, as Port-au-Prince's largest, poorest and most pro-Aristide slum, it has been a hotbed of anti-occupation resistance for the past four years. Although most of the popular organizations carrying out armed struggle were dismantled in early 2007, unrest still continues there, particularly with Haiti's (and the capitalist world's) worsening economic crisis. Hence, military domination of this important northern flank of Haiti's capital is critical."

As in the past, the military occupation of Haiti is part of a larger plan to keep the region under U.S. dominion. Haiti shares the Windward Passage with Cuba, a strait that has great importance for the U.S., and the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

In the early 1990s, Haiti's election of Aristide under a populist platform gave hope to millions of people at a time when most governments in the region were implementing neoliberal policies. A series of U.S.-backed regimes and interventions to derail the movement for change followed.

The 2004 coup against Aristide and the subsequent military occupation legitimized the Bush administration's "regime change" doctrine in the region, making Venezuela and Bolivia future targets of U.S. intervention.

Solidarity with the Haitian people should be part of a broader anti-imperialism that calls for an end to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine as well as an immediate withdrawal of the UN from Haiti and elsewhere.

At the same time, activists must point out Aristide's role in accepting neoliberal policies that impoverished the poor, while supporting ordinary people's struggles to return him to complete his term. Demanding immediate cancellation of Haiti's foreign debt is also important, because it could free up needed resources to feed people.

In the long term, however, it will take the unity of workers and peasants in the entire region to free Haiti from the yoke of foreign intervention and exploitation.

From Oppression to Freedom: The People’s Responses

By Wadner Pierre-the update version
The Best Way To Respond To Violence

When I was a fourth-year high school student, my social sciences teacher used to say, “Wherever a minority group of people oppress a majority group of people, the revolution is possible.” At Saint Domingue, which is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, three groups of people lived on the Island: whites, people of color and slaves. The slaves were the largest group and the most important as a workforce, though they were the most miserable and mistreated ones. The slaves started to question why they were the largest and the most important group at Saint Domingue, and at the same time they were the most mistreated people. As a result, the slaves started rebelling against their owners: some chose to live in the mountains (the marons, or fugitive men or women), and others organized deadly plots against their masters. In the night of August 21 and 22, 1791, there was an uprising: the slaves revolted against the slavery system at Saint Domingue, many plantations were destroyed, and many lives were lost. This was the first revolt that began the Haitian revolution, and in 1804 Haiti became the first black republic in the world and the second country in the American continent to declare its independence.
As human beings, we have been born with inalienable rights. When we cannot enjoy them we do everything possible to have them, and very often we are ready to pay the price for having them. Consequently, when people need to be free or want to be independent, there is nothing they will not do, and at that time no body can stop them.
Three approaches to respond to oppression have emerged among people hundreds of years ago: free acceptance or acquiescence, physical violence and nonviolence.
Acquiescence
First, free acceptance or acquiescence is the way that people accept to suffer under their oppressors’ unjust rules without protesting. Acquiescent people are like zombies. Although these people may find a leader to help them move from the hatred system to the free system, at the end of the day, acquiescent people will prefer living in the system that builds against themselves and their freedom because they let the system dominate, or zombify them. As a result, these people become addicted to the system. In this state, it is hard and even impossible to convince them.
One example of acquiescence is featured in the Bible, when Prophet Moses led the Israelites from Egypt to the promise land, Israel. The Israelites were frightened while they saw the king’s army coming. They praised the Lord for help and they also ironically complained to Moses by saying, “Wasn’t there enough room in Egypt to bury us? Is that why you brought us out here to die in the desert? Why did you bring us out of Egypt anyway? While we were there, didn’t we tell you to leave us alone? We’d rather be slaves in Egypt than die in this desert” (Exodus 14: 10-12).
Another example can be found in the Haitian revolution. During the Haitian revolution there were slaves who did not want to leave their masters and spied on other fellow slaves, who tried to free them. Those slaves were so attached to the slavery system that they could not even think about their freedom or about being independent. Can we imagine a person, living in a system that does not guarantee his or her basic rights, who prefers to live and die in this system? Nonetheless, some people have accepted to live and die without doing anything for their own sake. The slaves whose stubborn decision slowed the Haitian revolution were those lacking of courage.
However, Booker Taliaferro Washington, an American born slave, said, “Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.” Furthermore, people who believe in non-violence as a way to respond to the oppression seem to disagree with acquiescent people. In one of his speeches about the Vietnam War called “A Time To Break Silence,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “A time comes when silence is betrayal” (Washington, James Melvin, 231). On the other hand, Malcolm X, a disbeliever in the non-violent approach, said, "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” Therefore, if you do not agree with violence and you do nothing to stop it, you betray yourself, and it seems automatically an expression of unfaithfulness. The acquiescent people have been told to defend themselves for their inalienable rights, but until today these people feel comfortable with their life style. They seem to believe in this philosophy, “I am here because God wants me to be here, and I will leave here when God wants me to leave.” By being too attached to the system, acquiescent people may live and die as slaves or unfree people. Acquiescent people are those who lack courage and faithfulness. Free acceptance is the approach of cowards, people whose ideas do not go beyond their noses.
Physical Violence
Another way people respond to their oppressors is the physical violence, or fighting violence with violence. Physical violence is also a way that people respond to the oppressors who use the oppressive system to violate the people’s natural rights for their purposes, and in order for the oppressors to enrich and to achieve their goals. People, who use physical violence as an answer to their oppressors, are less focused on mediating rather than fighting back in the same way that their opponents treat them. These people have vowed to die in order to find their freedom, perhaps to satisfy their needs. On the one hand, the violent response is the hardest because of its massive cost in lives, goods, and capital. On the other, some people believe that physical violence should apply in some situations. Despite the opposition to physical violence, it still has its believers today.
Malcolm X, an African-American who fought against the segregation of the 1950s and 1960s believed that the black folks should respond violently to the segregationist system (a supremacist system established by the extremist right-wing white folks in the United Stated such as the Ku Klux Klan group mostly in the South). Malcolm X said, “I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem just to avoid violence.” Furthermore, he said in one of his speeches, “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.” The physical approach is condemned by believers of non-violence, and also by Jesus himself in his teachings. Jesus was talking to his disciples, and He said, “You know you have been taught, “Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth,” and He emphasized, ‘But I tell you not to try to get even with a person who has done something to you’’’ (Matthew 5:38-39).
Another example was the revolt of slaves at Saint Domingue. This revolt ended up destroying plantations and killing hundreds of people. This revolt lasted for thirteen years. After this revolution, it was hard for the leaders to rebuild this ravaged country because all was gone: sugar cane plantations on which the country mostly depended at that time were destroyed, innocent and useful people were kille¬d-houses, industries and animals were gone in the fire. As a result, many years after Haiti’s independence, and even today Haitians still are paying for those damages. This revolution cost more than the leaders could have thought because of the use of violence, though violence seemed at that time as the most effective weapon to fight the slavery system at Saint Domingue.
Although the use of violence as a response to violence has been condemned by more than one, it apparently remains one of the ways that people continue to solve their conflicts. For example, the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars have been a violent response to Sadam’s regime and the Taliban’s regime by the Bush administration, and still receive support from the Obama administration. Other examples of violent response are the occupation of the Band of Gaza, Palestine by the Israeli army and the Israeli genocidal attacks against Palestinian civilians. Finally, the recent Russian attack against Georgia in 2008 was not a peaceful response, for Russia used army and caused loss of lives. Despite the disagreement with the believers of violence, followers of non-violence seem to support the idea “stand up for your right,” but in a peaceful way.
Even though Malcolm X did not share the same philosophy with Dr. King while fighting segregation in America, in a telegram sent to Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz after X was murdered, Dr. King wrote, "I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and the root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems we face as a race.” Nonetheless, Dr. King had always condemned the use of violence as a mean to stop violence. Physical violence is obviously a violent disastrous approach, and it does hurt violently.
Non-violence
Finally, non-violence is the way that people peacefully respond to oppression. In this way people disobey laws or break the laws through civil disobedience, massive, boycott and strike. Non-violence is a philosophy that has for its architect, or its father, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi. The non-violent philosophy is not made for the cowards, or people who lack courage, but for brave people. The non-violent partisans do not seek to defeat their opponents but to win their opponent’s understandings, or their willingness. Believers in non-violence stand for their rights; in contrast, believers in acquiescence stand for nothing. Non-violent believers accept to suffer in order to gain the oppressors’ willingness, whereas the believers of physical violence make the oppressors suffer in the same way that the oppressors make them suffer in order for them to force the oppressors to stop oppressing them.
However, the non-violent believers will not quit, nor will they use violence in any moment in their struggles. The non-violent followers experience love in the time of violence. These people will face and meet humiliations, tortures and all kinds of violence with love. In other words, partisans of non-violence will continue to resist, but will always avoid using violence. The non-violent protestors will continue to stand and march until they reach their goal, but will never use violence against violence. For example, a non-violent protestor will stand in the face of violence but will not return violence for violence. For a non-violent believer, non-violence does not mean to quit, but to fight back, and in a peaceful way. There is a refusal to move as well as a refusal to strike back violently.
Gandhi said, “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” Although people like Gandhi believe that non-violence is the best way to respond to violence. These people also know that non-violence is not the easiest way to pave the way of freedom. Dr. King, a fervent follower of Gandhi’s philosophy, quoted Gandhi in one of his speeches, called “An Experiment in Love.” Dr. King said, “Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight it.” Dr. King continued to say, “Non-violence was one of the most important weapons for the Negros in the struggle of freedom” (Washington, James Melvin, 16-17). People like Dr. King believe that non-violence should be the best weapon not only for Negros in America, but also for all people who struggle for a better world.
Therefore, non-violence accompanied by suffering is the most popular approach among people and has been used to bring peace where there are wars or conflicts. Non-violence represents the way where people overcome pacifically all humiliations in order to win the willingness of their opponents. Because violence begs violence and its costly outcome, the architects of the non-violent philosophy have chosen to refuse violence in order to make the world a peaceful world and a place where people can be mentally and physically free. The scars of violence remain and last for so long and even forever, and people arrive sometimes to hardly forgive each other.
The aftermath of the Haitian revolution was catastrophic because everybody agreed with the use of violence from the beginning to the end of this revolution. Once again, nobody can blame the former slaves for that because there were no such international or hemispheric organizations as United Nations or Organization of the American States that could serve as mediators between France and the slaves at Saint Domingue, as they do today in some parts in the world where there are conflicts. However, after the revolution the former slaves had to undertake the construction of forts to protect the newborn nation against its invaders although constructing schools, universities and hospitals were not the priorities of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who was the President at that time. Can Haitians blame Dessalines and other generals? No, they cannot, but 250 years later we still continue to pay the consequences of this revolution. Nonetheless, there is never freedom without a price.
Moreover, it seems when people look back to the world history and the success of non-violence across the world—the Indian Resistance against Britain’s rules, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the Chilean Resistance against the former dictator General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, the South-African Resistance against Apartheid, and the Haitian resistance for the return of constitutional order after the Haiti’s first democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted by the Haitian Army in 1991—people seem to realize that non-violence is the best way to respond to a violent system. It might be noticed that there is an ongoing non-violent resistance in Haiti for Aristide’s second return from exile in South Africa five years after he was forced to leave his country by a U.S. special force, in February 29, 2004.
The success of these peaceful revolutions or resistances in the whole world seem to make the believers of non-violence more hopeful and more confident to continue to embrace non-violence as their only and unique weapon to fight violence. In spite of humiliations and very often jail sentences that come along with the non-violent approach, it remains for people the best way to respond to violence.
Why Do I Agree With Non-violence Approach Rather than Others?
After I analyze the positive and the negative effects of the three approaches—free acceptance or acquiescence, physical violence, and non-violence—and their effects on the people’s lives, I therefore believe that non-violence is the best way to meet violence.
Free acceptance is considered as a cowardly approach. These people are not willing to do anything to get out of a system that does not guarantee their fundamental rights. So I cannot be part of this approach, nor will I personally count on it to free myself. I like freedom, and I want freedom for all. Thus, I strongly disagree with free acceptance and with those who use it to respond to violence.
Although the physical violence approach stands for the fundamental rights of people, it is a violent approach. Using violence against violence is a nightmare as an outcome, and it does not create a place for reconciliation; in other words, it is hard for people to reconcile after solving their problem. I reject the physical violence approach because of its costly outcomes, and its vulnerabilities to make peace among people post-conflict. When using violence against violence, the suffering is in both sides, and the scars remain in the both sides as well; as a result, reconciliation can be more fragile than if the victims are from one side.
Non-violence is the way that people peacefully respond to violence, and reject violence as their means in their struggles against their oppressors. However, non-violent protestors are not seeking to defeat or humiliate their opponents, and they are seeking to win their opponents’ willingness in a peaceful way. Furthermore, the victims are in one side, and they are the first ones standing for reconciliation and dialogue. In other words, it is easier to bring people together after a conflict where non-violence was the approach used than if it was physical violence, for violence begs violence.
I firmly support and strongly believe in the non-violence approach as the best way to respond to violence. Non-violence remains the best, the most intelligible and the smartest decision that someone could ever make in life. Yes, it costs, and it costs life, but I understand and I know that freedom always has a cost whatever the way that someone can choose to fight for it.
In addition, when I think about these non-violent resistances—the Indian Resistance against Britain’s rules in Indian, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States against segregation, the Chilean Resistance against the former dictator General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, the South-African Resistance against Apartheid, the Haitian resistance in 1990s for the return of constitutional order in Haiti when former Haiti’s first democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted in 1991, and the ongoing resistance in grassroots movement for Aristide’s second return from his exile in South-Africa—I have no doubt that non-violence philosophy is the best way that smart and intelligent people should and must use to overcome suffering, and to defeat any violent and oppressive system.
Conclusion
In conclusion, people have different ways to respond to violence: free acceptance, physical violence, and non-violence. However, non-violence remains the best way to respond to violence. Non-violence is one of the best philosophies that were ever taught by great philosophers before Gandhi. Non-violence is the easiest approach both illiterate and literate people learn so easily. For all of these, I am convinced that the best way to go beyond or transcend violence is non-violence, and this should be the people’s response to oppression. From Indian, Gandhi’s land to South-Africa, Nelson Mandela’s land; from Poland, Pope John II’s land to United States, Dr. King’s land; and from Chile, Salvador Allende’s land, and to Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s land, let me pay respect to those non-violent partisans whose names did not put above because I do not have enough spaces to put their names, nor do I know their names. May God bless all of them, and may He change the hearts of others who believe in acquiescence and physical approaches to overcome violence. “Keep hope alive,” stressed Rev. Jessie Jackson during his presidential campaign in 1984 (Archer, 250). “Let freedom reign, let freedom reign,” and “We shall overcome,” Dr. King used to say to his followers in the journey for freedom and equal rights for all African-Americans in the United States.

I wrote this article/analysis to pay homage to Lawyer Gandhi, Rev. Dr. King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and to my adoptive father, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a follower of Dr. King, who committed his entire life in fighting for social justice and equality for all Haitians whoever they are and wherever they are.

Notice: All opinions in this article/analysis are expressed by the author, Wadner Pierre, and are not engaged anybody else.


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Washington, Booker Taliaferro. “Booker Taliaferro Washington.Quote.” Brainy Quote.
BrainyMedia.Com, 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2009.
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2009.

The trip of Peter Phillips in the Bolivarian land

My friend Peter Phillip who is the actual President of Project Censored, a progressive group based at Sonoma State University in Sonoma County, California went to Venezuela last week. In might notice that Project Censored pays attention to the news cover by the grassroots journalist and don't tell or cover by the corporate media.
Below is Peter Phillips'report about his trip in Hugo Chavez land.

Peter

Caracas was outstanding. The Bolivarian University of Venezuela is now officially the Project Censored site for South
America. We met with the President of the University, Faculty and 200+ students for several hours on Monday. The Bolivarian University was established five years ago and is housed in the former oil company headquarters in downtown Caracas. They have 8,000 students of all ages and ethnicities and classes all over the country. The university has a full health clinic free for all students and anyone else who wants health care. There is no tuition, free food on campus, and the only cost for the students is their textbooks. High speed internet is available throughout the university. The PC site came up immediately. I promised them we would have our Spanish language page up very soon.

The trip was a non-stop the whole time. We did five radio interviews, TeleSur TV (CNN like for South America), and multiple newspaper interviews. The Censored book in spanish is selling well at the book fair. We met with the vice-minister of information to discuss PC south and visited two community TV stations in the barrios. The formal presentation of the book on sunday night drew a significant crowd, with standing room only. Lots of supportive questions, and willingness to hear what is happening in the US. The most common question was will Obama really be able to make changes? My response was that given that the military-industrial-media complex is still very much in tact, that major changes in US international policy is not likely in the short run, but that we are all hopeful.

The Bolivarian socialist revolution is moving ahead democratically in Venezuela. To counter the corporate non-stop media attacks on Chavez, they have established 30 community based TV stations and 200 radio stations run by community councils in the poorest neighborhoods all over the country. The state has just published 25 million books—classics like Cerventes as will as Cindy Sheenan's Letter to Bush. these books will be distributed to the 25,000 community council all around the county for free, and sell there after for $1.00

When I got the mail today there was notification that Project Censored will receive the 2008 PEN Censorship Award at the Josephine Miles Annual National Literary Award ceremony Dec. 6 in Oakland.
- Show quoted text -

Haiti's 200th celebration, its meanming its effect

Dear friends
It pleases me to share with you one of the best articles of John Maxell about Haiti according to my point of view, particularly the effect of the 200th celebration of Haiti's Independence in the world. I can tell you, it is one of the most important articles that I had never read before about Haiti's 200th celebration.
Please read it carefully, I wish you an Happy day under the protection of our Almighty God.
Read it on: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/johnmaxwell.html#prometheus

Haïti: Exposition sur les conséquences du coup d'état de 2004

Le photographe Montréalais Darren Ell présente sa nouvelle exposition intitulée Haïti: Rembobiner. M. Ell a créé l'expo en réponse à la politique canadienne, française et américaine en Haïti. L'expo comporte des photos, des extraits de vidéo et des textes ramassés lors de ses voyages en Haïti entre 2006 et 2008. Elle expose le rôle des puissances étrangères dans la déstabilisation et le renversement du gouvernement populaire de Jean-Bertrand Aristide en février 2004. Elle examine aussi les séquelles du renversement du gouvernement élu, un événement avec lequel les Haïtiens vivent encore aujourd'hui. M. Ell remet en question la supposée bienveillance de la présence militaire et policière des Nations-unies qui est la puissance prédominante en Haïti depuis 2004.

Les photographies et les projections de l'expo situent l'intervention étrangère dans l'histoire coloniale d'Haïti. Des photos ont été prises lors des opérations onusiennes et des manifestations contre la vie chère. Elles évoquent les tableaux des peintres français œuvrant au plus fort de la puissance impériale française, et elles rappellent le travail du peintre activiste américain Léon Golub.

La première projection combine un paysage tranquille et abandonné de Cité Soleil avec la voix du Canado-Haïtien Jean St-Vil, qui récite le témoignage de Frantz Gabriel, seul témoin de l'enlèvement de Jean-Bertrand Aristide le 29 février 2004. Gabriel fut responsable de la sécurité d'Aristide et a été lui-même enlevé. La deuxième projection montre des douzaines de noms, accompagnés de données légales, de prisonniers politiques emprisonnés pendant le coup d'état.

Haïti : Rembobiner est la troisième exposition de M. Ell en 4 ans. Twice Removed (2004) traitait de l'occupation israélienne en Palestine et Between States (2006) soulignait le sort des réfugiés au Canada. L'exposition commence le jeudi 18 septembre dans la galerie MFA à l'université Concordia à Montréal. La galerie est située au 1395 boul. René Lévesque Ouest. Elle est ouverte du lundi au samedi de 9h à 21h. Le vernissage aura lieu le vendredi 19 septembre à 19h.

Darren Ell
Haiti: Rembobiner
18 au 30 septembre, 2008
Vernissage : le 19 septembre, 19h
Galerie MFA: 1395 René Lévesque Ouest, Montréal

Gonaives four years after Hurricane Jeanne: What can the victims hope?

Time to make money or to help people?


By Wadner Pierre-haitianalysis.com


Early in September of 2004, the people of Gonaives, the “city of Independence”, located 152 kilometers north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, woke to the destruction brought by Hurricane Jeanne. Four years after Jeanne killed 3000 people, Gonaives is in agony again.

Hurricane Gustav has devastated southern Haiti: Southeast (Jacmel) department, South department (Les Cayes), Grand’Anse (Jeremie) and Nippes (Miragoane) department. Authorities do not yet have reliable numbers but early reports estimate at least 190 people dead – a death toll that will certainly rise.

Officials say 61 people were killed by Hurricane Hanna, which also just struck Haiti. Twenty one of those dead were found in Gonaives alone.

Hurricane Jeanne ravaged Haiti in 2004 only eight months after the coup that ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Gerard Latortue, head of the UN installed dictatorship and a native of Govaives, received money from all over the world to help Gonaives rebuild. Unfortunately, the victims received very little benefit from the money. Gonaives lies below sea level but levees were never built; many roads have still not been repaired. The meager results obtained with international aid money have produced a widespread belief in Gonaives that Latortue's cronies and corrupt NGOs simply pocketed the money.

In 2004 a young survivor of Hurricane Jeanne talked to a reporter and sarcastically thanked Jeanne for destroying her life by killing off her parents and countless relatives. Today many survive on the rooftops of their homes, and say that the flooding from Hannah is even worse than it was with Jeanne, which left 250,000 Gonaives resident homeless.

On Tuesday morning, the mayor of Gonaives, Mr. Stephen Moise (known by “Topa”) talked on the phone to an AP reporter. He described the situation as “extremely urgent” and appealed for help. The police chief of Gonaives, Ernst Dorfeuille described seeing dead bodies being carried away but the flood waters. After reading this report, I called my mother Andrena Pierre who lives in Govaives. She took the call on a cellphone from a neighbor's rooftop and warned that another storm was on its way.

A woman from Florida, a stranger, sent me an email after reading an alert posted on www.wadnerpierre.blogspot.com. She was worried about her boyfriend who was visiting his parents in Gonaives. She wrote

”I am writing to find out what is going to happen in Gonaives? I am so concerned for the people there. I am not Haitian but I know a lot of Haitian people and the man I am going to marry is in Gonaives....Last time I talked to him was Tuesday morning, they were on the top of the house he said he was feeling sick and his mom is not well too. I know they have nothing now, so I am so scared for them and everyone else too. I haven't been able to contact him at all in the last 24hours. I have been praying, I need information, Has anyone been able to get into Gonaives yet? How many are dead? What is happening today?”

She wrote back to me later

“I talked to my boyfriend in Haiti he is ok he said everyone is being moved and he said that so far he knows 55 people that have died and he said the water is coming down, but he doesn't have passport and ID to come home. I am glad that people are getting help now and I pray your family and others are ok too”.

I made contact with my mother's neighbor, a women of fifty, later that day:

“Everybody is being moved to the mountain,” she said “We are now in the mountain. You cannot arrive in Gonaives without a helicopter. Our situation is very complicated, It is a desperate -no hope for us in Gonaives.”

She then explained what made her feel worse than anything:

“...they won’t help us. They will take the aid money for their own businesses as they did in 2004....our situation can be better that it is now. It is worst than Jeanne.”

I was able to contact Evel Fanfan, a human rights worker in the Haitian capital.

“People in Port-au-Prince, particularly in Grande Ravine south of the capital are in a desperate situation. More than a hundred children in the Lycee of Martissant are without power, food and potable water for them to drink..” said Fanfan.

Asked what he thought of the official death tolls, he responded

“It is more than that - hundreds at least.” He pointed out that so many people have been cut off from the authorities - in the mountains, in the countryside – and that so many have basically gone into hiding. He did not accept that the government is in any position to give a credible estimate.

President Rene Preval, a native of the Artibonite department in which Gonaives is located, has appealed the international community for help. The uproar over his latest nomination for Prime Minister has ended. The Haitian Senate has just approved Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis as Prime Minister.

Aid money will arrive. The question is who will benefit from it. The people of Goaives are understandably pessimistic after their experience with Hurricane Jeanne.

Gonaives and the rest of Haiti need your help now

People everywhere in the globe, listen the voice of people in Gonaives and in the rest of Haiti. It is hard and it's really hard a sit can be for people. As a Haitian and a Gonaivian man I am very concern, I ask you my brothers and sisters in the world to help my relatives there in the way you can. Haiti is not the most hit by the hurricanes, but we are the most victimized people, cause our political leaders most of them don't care about people live. They care about themselves and they families. Those who want to improve live; they often plot against them and keep the country in perpetual instability politic, that is the way they make money. The loss of sight is more humane than the one presented by the authorities. How they can pretend determine the number of death and disappeared people while they do not have any infrastructures to reach them. After four years, which road has been rebuilt in Gonaives? Therefore, they are happy to steal the money and the aids that people deserve. Once gain, they do not put the real problem of Haiti on the table, particularly Gonaives, where the level of the ocean is higher than the land. Nobody cannot forget what happened in New Orleans in 2005, even this city was protected by levees and after the levees broke, you could see how ravaged was New Orleans by floodwater. Then Gonaives before and after Jeanne the just passed Hanna was not and is not protected by levees. And the worst is, no plan to prevent or to protect the city from another natural disaster as this of Jeanne and Hanna.

Now talking about those who called themselves Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who received the most important amount of money to rebuild Gonaives city after unforgettable hurricane Jeanne 2004 eight months after most of them in collaboration with the bourgeoisie class in Haiti worked as the representatives of their own governments to kill democracy in Haiti by overthrowing the democratially-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Political disaster, natural disaster, the funny thing is by these kinds of disasters they made or make their profits because they are not honest enough to say enough for those people, they are enough suffered, time to them relieve. Why not, they don't called themselves Mr. Mrs. disasters which is fit them.

Coming back to school this afternoon, I read a letter posted online on the web site of Partners in Health (PIH) by a famous American doctor who has been working close of people in Haiti, precisely those who live in the country side, those they often call "moun andeyò or peyizan in Creole" (people living out of city or peasants) just to marginalize them. 25 years ago, Dr. Paul Farmer, the co-founder "Zami Lasante (ZL) in Creole"(Partners In Health (PIH) in English) has been spending time with to get to know the reality of Haitian people live everyday. He gets it, and becomes one of the foreign witnesses and spokesmen in the world of them by writing books, articles and presenting speeches. I invite to read this letter on http://www.pih.org/inforesources/news/PEF_hurricane_letter.html, and you'll get it because "Dr. Polo as well-known among the Haitian peasants" says Dr. Paul visited Gonaives after the devastated tropical storm Hanna, he will tell you what he saw there. Time to act; it is also time to share to each other little that you have. Remember wherever you are now there is country needs your help, there are people live in Island who are waiting for you extraordinary supports, little it could be.

God bless Haiti, particularly Gonaives, my city.

Alert, save people life in Gonaives

Dear friends everywhere

What is happening now in Gonaives it is worst than hurricane Jeanne in 2004, Hanna is hitting Gonaives now. I talked to my mother who lives there, she said i quoted "my son it is hard for your mother and people in Gonaives, we do not know what to do. Nothing, nothing, it is raining, wind".
The situation that she explained is the same for almost people in Gonaives are living this morning. I am talking to some friends of mine on messenger, they are telling the south of Haiti "Les Cayes", cap-Haitia noth of Haiti have the same problem, houses broken by water, people disappeared, and soforth.

God bless Haiti and save people life in Gonaives, my city, Cap-Haitian, Les Cayes and the entire of our Planet .

On That day, Everybody Ate: Margaret Trost's testimony of hope for the hopeless

By: Wadner Pierre-haitianalysis.com

"On That Day, Everybody Ate: One Woman’s Story of Hope and Possibility in Haiti" is the title of Margaret Trost's newly released book about her experiences in Haiti.

After her husband's untimely death, Mrs. Margaret traveled to Haiti to heal her broken heart by serving others. She was deeply moved by the struggles of the poor and resolved to do all she could to help them. In the year 2000, she founded the What If? Foundation in collaboration with Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a prominent Haitian humanitarian, political activist, and the priest of St. Claire’s Church in Port-au-Prince. He also lived in Florida for many years where he fought for the rights of Haitian immigrants. The Foundation’s mission is to provide food and education to impoverished children in Haiti. Together, Fr. Jean-Juste and Margaret have worked to establish a food program, educational scholarships, and a summer camp for children in the Tiplas Kazo neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Members of the St. Clare’s community run these programs. The What If? Foundation provides the funding. It is an effective partnership that started small and has grown over the years. On That Day, Everybody Ate tells the story of this remarkable journey.

The What If? Foundation provided the funds to serve the first food program meal at St. Clare’s after mass on Sunday, March 19th 2000 - the day the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Joseph, patron saint of workers. Five hundred children enjoyed a meal that included rice, beans, and vegetables grown by Haitian farmers:

"I was so happy when Fr. Jean-Juste told me that his vision had become a reality and that the food program had begun. I wasn’t sure how we would find the money to keep it going, but the faith and hope of the St. Clare’s community inspired me and we took it one step at a time. " said Trost.

" Piti piti na rive" (little by little, we will arrive) is a proverb that Haitian people say when they feel overwhelmed by a problem. It is an expression of faith that God will help them survive, resist and struggle in the long run. This is one of many Haitian proverbs Fr. Jean-Juste taught Margaret and it has guided her over the last 8 ½ years of their partnership. Today, the What If? Foundation funds 6,000 meals/week (1,200 meals are served every Monday through Friday at St. Clare’s), 200 school scholarships, and a summer camp for 450 children.

HaitiAnalysis asked Margaret Trost about her years as director of the What If? Foundation.

While responding that she finds her work deeply fulfilling, she also said

"I was so sad and overwhelmed after my last visit. The number of children at the food program has increased dramatically as a result of the current food crisis. The price of rice is too high. People can’t afford to eat. Those who were hungry are now starving. I am grateful that we’ve been able to keep the food program going at its current level to provide thousands of meals each week, but so much more is needed to relieve the suffering. Of course, changes in U.S. foreign and economic policy are needed to create real change in the lives of the poor majority in Haiti. But, little by little, through our collaboration with the Sainte Claire’s community, we’re providing what Fr. Jean-Juste calls, 'an islet in the middle of the ocean.' Even through Hurricane Gustav, the cooks at St. Clare’s prepared and served meals. Their devotion and courage inspires me to do all I can on my end to raise the money needed to pay for those meals. I’m hopeful that my book will help raise awareness and inspire people to take action.”

Asked how her family regards her work with the What If? Foundation and her new book, she explains how the love from her son, Luke, and her second husband, Tom provides a foundation of support that encourages her to follow her heart:

"It was his [Tom's] idea to put my experience in a book. His faith in me helped me believe I could do it and I’m so glad I did."

Paul Farmer, a world renowned physician, cofounder of "Zanmi Lasante" (Partners In Health) who has devoted his life to providing health care to the poor, wrote the foreword for On That Day, Everybody Ate, and said that Trost's book "...should enjoy wide readership as more and more of us who do enjoy comparative privilege become aware of how much so many others struggle simply to survive."

"On That Day Everybody Ate" is available online at amazon.comand in bookstores across the country. Remember that each time you buy this book, you also help support the feeding program, educational program and summer camp for impoverished children in the St. Clare’s community of Port-au-Prince. To make a donation directly to the What If? Foundation, visit whatiffoundation.org

More about the author:

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Margaret Trost received a bachelor's degree from the Pennsylvania State University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and later received a Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin. She began her career in public television at Chicago's WTTW. One of the programs she produced – The 1990 Illinois Young Performers' Competition – won a regional Emmy. In order to stay home full-time with her infant son, Trost left the television industry and began a home-based business as a sales representative. Although she still runs her business today, the majority of her time is devoted as a volunteer to leading and developing the What If? Foundation.

New Article on Jubilee USA

Read the new HaitiAnalysis article here: Jubilee USA Demands Cancellation of Poor Country Debt.

Jubilee USA demands cancellation of Poor Country Debt

From 20 to 23 June 2008 in Columbus, Ohio group Jubilee USA organized a conference on the cancellation of the debts owed by the governments of poor countries to international lenders. The plight of poor countries across five continents were addressed at the conference. Jubilee USA seeks to eliminate the burden that large external debts place on the poorest countries. Haiti and LIberia, two of the poorest countries in the world, have external debts of $1.5 billion and $4.5 billion respectively.
read completly this article pretty soon...

Congratulations Father Jean-Juste

This new article is on HaitiAnalysis.



June 19th, 2008
Charges Finally Dropped Against Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste

HaitiAnalysis

The Court of Appeal of Port-au-Prince has announced the dismissal of all remaining charges against Father Gerard Jean-Juste. The Catholic priest is a prominent supporter of Famni Lavalas, the political party of ousted Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Jean-Juste was arrested by the de facto government of Gerard Latortue in July of 2005. His imprisonment was such a flagrant act of political repression that Amnesty International designated the priest a “Prisoner of Conscience”. After getting a vile of Jean-Juste's blood past Latortue's police, the well known doctor Paul Farmer (of Partners in Health) verified that jailed priest suffered from a form of lymphocytic leukemia that needed immediate treatment.

Under intense international pressure the Latortue regime granted Jean Juste “provisional freedom” in January of 2006 to to receive treatment for leukemia in the U.S. However, until the court's announcement of last week, Jean Juste continued to fend off charges of criminal association and illegal possession of firearms. No evidence had ever been produced to substantiate the allegations.

Father Jean Juste spoke with HaitiAnalysis by telephone from his parish in Haiti - the Church of Saint Claire – where a boisterous celebration was well underway. “I thank my Lord Jesus” he said “I believed he would not abandon me. I forgive everybody who contributed in my two illegal arrests, which could have cost me my life. I could have died in jail. Now I can continue serving the poor.”

The Catholic Church hierarchy in Haiti suspended Jean Juste for political activity rather than speak out in his support while he was imprisoned. Asked about the suspension, which has outraged his numerous supporters, Jean Juste expressed confidence that it would be lifted.

“I am not guilty and they will reject their decision to allow me to do my job at the church as Jesus did until the last minute before he betrayed and arrested”.

Parish priest like Jean Juste, and Jean Betrand Aristide formed part of the ti legliz (little church) movement. It distinguished itself by opposing the dictatorship of Jean Claude Duvalier. However the upper echelons of the Church have frequently collaborated with dictatorships in Haiti.

The Vatican recognized the military junta that deposed Aristide in 1991 at a time when world opinion was hostile to the junta. Francois Duvalier was excommunicated by the Catholic Church in 1959 because he had expelled clergymen from Haiti who had criticized his regime. However, in 1966, Pope Paul IV made an astounding capitulation to the dictator. After intense negotiations the Duvalier's expulsions remained in effect, Duvalier's excommunication was annulled, and the dictator was given considerable say over clerical appointments in Haiti.

The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), a branch of Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), run by lawyer Mario Joseph, took the lead in fighting for Jean Juste. Jean-juste has been receiving congratulatory emails and phone calls throughout the week from supporters and friends.

Marie-Célie Agnant in NYC

I have published a new article about the Haitian author Marie-Célie Agnant and her recent talk in New York City. Here is a photo of me with Marie-Celie.

J'ai publié un nouvel article sur l'auteur haïtienne Marie-Célie Agnant et son récent discours à New York.
Voici une photo de moi avec Marie-Celie..

A new philosophy to have success in your life; that is the title of my letter to my friend Jean-Claudel in Haiti

Dear friend this my message to you

I am so happy to read your message this morning. By the way, I hope you can see what you can do and what you have to do. At the time you can arrive to identify by yourself a new strategy or a new approach to save yourself and others, you will receive the light of God. God never wants to see any of his sons suffers, but people everyday make the world so hard, just to make money.
I truly believe that you will find an exit door my friend. I am now in my way, I receive my result from TOEFL, it is not so good, but I can tell you I am happy and so happy because I know what my English level is and what should be my preoccupation in the next coming years. Therefore, it was a failure, whichever never learns by his failure or his mistake won't be able to bring his own philosophy because your philosophy is your own life, your daily experience.
Furthermore, I must tell you my friend,"Never letting them rest" Gandhi. everything has its own time on this earth, Ecclasiastes. A time to follow and a time to be followed by.Booker T. Washington a famous American writer said,"Let no man pull you so low as to make you hate him", you have to know what I mean to know which door you gonna knock and will open for you. Don't believe in anybody, believe in yourself, period. I used to believe in what the older said, but now I believe first in what I can do, tell and stand up behind it.
Finally, I have to go, but you have to know something about your friend, right. Six years ago, I met ChristiD at this time she was so cute and so pretty, but she couldn't keep loving me, it doesn't matter. My education is the only support that I really count on. Now she is not my girlfriend, whereas nobody knows the future. At least, Anne-ChristeD, after six-year without talking and seeing, one week ago I found, she's not my returning girlfriend, but we can talk and exchange our ideas. After my 25th, I will tell you or if I won't be able to tell you, trust me the history will do that.

Bye, have great day.

"Don't spend your all life as a follower of a man, what is he now you can be more than that tomorrow, just go on your own way" Wadner Pierre

"Look around you and see if in this way you want to live,if it is not stand up for your right."BobandWad

Why is it important sometimes for people to break the law?

An analysis by: Wadner Pierre

Born on 12 July 1817, Henry David Thoreau a famous American author wrote this sentence, “Sometimes it is important for honest men to break the law, particularly when it is against freedom.” Moreover, the young Indian lawyer Mohandas Gandhi conceived a philosophy that is closely linked to Thoreau’s idea. This is called “Nonviolence.” Three things can be considered to fight against bad laws nonviolent Philosophy, civil disobedience and love.
Nonviolent philosophy is the first step to win the opponents without using violence as they use it, so the reason is because violence begets violence, hate begets hate and love begets love. This philosophy is physically passive, but strongly active spiritually. The nonviolence movement means “ Holding on truth or devotion to the truth, ”Truth’s disciples you cannot use violence against your opponents because you are God’ sons or God’s daughters, and the name of your God is love. This part is called ” Nonviolent Movement.”
Another step, civil disobedience, allows your opponents to see how important you are for him. For example, the salt march led by Gandhi in India shocked the British colonizers because the salt represented at that time an economic source for them, and the march allowed people to know that they could provide salt by themselves. So economically they won and the opponents had no choice but to negotiate and to give people what they asked for. This part is called “ Boycott Movement.”
Finally, love is the biggest and the most difficult part because how can you ask people to love those who hate them? Well, normally you should say it is impossible. However, it is possible for those who aspire to be free without meeting hate with hate, but rather meeting hate with love. Martin Luther King said, “ The best way to assure one-self that love is disinterested is to love the enemy-neighbor from whom you can expect no good in return, but only hostility and persecution. The struggle for freedom is a struggle between white people and black people, rather than between the force of light and the force of darkness, and if we will have a victory, it will be not a black victory, but a victory for justice and the forces of light.” This part is named ”Meet Hate with Love.”
Thus, I am convinced by Thoreau’s idea that “it is important sometimes for the honest men to break the law, when it is against freedom”, and human rights I would add if I were him.

California Educators protest State Buget Cuts

In May 15th, 2008 at Santa Rosa Sonoma county teachers, professors, students all went there to protest against the State Budget Cuts. One of the protesters said, "California is only State which doesn't take tax from the Oil Companies, and if California were a country it would be the only country in the world which does not take tax from the Oil Companies." children held the advertisements which said,"Children first", and the slogan was "No cutting Education Fund, yes fort the increasing of Education Fund."" One of the student from Santa Rosa Junior College said, " What can we be expected for the next coming years if the State cuts the fund for public school, State University. so forth. Without Education our State will not be a good State because Education is the future of our State".
Moreover, the organizations of Educators said they will keep protesting until the State will be satisfied their protests, "It not the first and either the last." according to one of the professors.
If education is a key which is opened all of the doors, the Californian people believe in that and stand for that.

Wadner Pierre

Interview on the Jean Dominique Investigation in Haiti

Here is a new interview by Jeb in the Journal of Haitian Studies with Brian Concannon and Mario Dupuy on the Jean Dominique Investigation. For anyone interested in Jean Dominique this is a very important piece to read.

Lovinsky Pierre Antoine - Still Missing After Nine Months

By: Wadner Pierre and Jean-Ristil Jean Baptiste -
HaitiAnalysis.com
Photos by: Wadner Pierre

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a prominent human rights worker and Famni Lavalas activist, has been missing since August 12, 2007. He is the founder of Trant Septanm Organizasyon (September 30 Foundation) an organization that assists victims of the coup that took place September 30th, 1991. That coup ousted Haiti's first democratically elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide only seven months after his inauguration. According to human rights groups there were five thousand people killed by the military regime of Raul Cedras. Thousands were also raped and tortured by the Cedras regime, and hundreds of thousands driven into hiding.

Pierre-Antoine worked with many national and international human rights organizations to promote the rights of all people, particularly the right to justice. The perpetrators of the 1991 coup (the Haitian elite and their ex-military allies) gradually regrouped and in 2004 managed to overthrow Aristide again - this time with the overt backing of the US, France and Canada. In October 2005, at the first “International Tribunal on Haiti” that investigated the 2004 coup, Pierre-Antoine explained to an audience of hundreds in Washington how he had been arrested, assaulted and expelled from the country by authorities at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince.

Pierre-Antoine returned to Haiti after the presidential election of February 7th, 2006, which was won by Aristide protege Rene Gracia Preval. Lovinsky Peirre-Antoine was vocal in his demands for justice for the victims of the 2004 coup and for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Shortly before his disappearance, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was scheduled to visit the south of Haiti with an international human rights delegation, Fondasyon Mapou, which is run by Eugenia Charles. Part of the visit to southern Haiti was to include a visit with then political prisoner Rene Civil. Pierre-Antoine had also just announced his intention to run as a Fanmi Lavalas candidate in the upcoming round of parliamentary elections in Haiti.

Lovinsky’s family has struggled to keep Lovinsky's case in the media spot light, but they haven't been alone. The kidnapping has rallied organizers in Haiti as well as solidarity activists abroad. In November, 2007 actor Danny Glover and other activists organized a 24-hour fast to call attention to Pierre Antoine’s disappearance. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch drew criticism from people around the world for their lethargic response to the case.

Human Rights Watch finally devoted two short sentences to the case in its 2008 World Report. Amnesty International did much better - albeit more than four months after Pierre-Antoine's disappearance. Amnesty issued a press release about the case on December 20, 2007, and also called on Haitian authorities to protect Wilson Mesilien, Pierre-Antoine's colleague at the September 30 Foundation (and also one of its founders), who had received numerous death threats. Amnesty followed up with another statement on January 10, 2008 after Mesilien and his family were driven into hiding. Haitian and UN authorities had ignored requests to protect Mesilien.

On April 6, 2008, Even Evel Fanfan, founder of the Haitian human rights group AUMOHD (Association des Unversitaires Movités pour une Haiti des Droits) was asked by Darren Ell (in an interview for HaitiAnalysis) if the case of Pierre Antoine and Wilson Mesilien indicates a new trend. Fanfan replied:

"No. This happens often is Haiti. We are however very disappointed in the case of Lovinsky. International mobilization was weak and the Government of Haiti has not taken this case seriously enough."