tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-24:119236A Story of Coincidence and ChanceBC HolmesBC Holmes2011-09-27T15:24:20Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-24:119236:692691Fondasyon Trant Septamn2011-09-27T15:24:20Z2011-09-27T15:24:20Zpublic2<p>I've mentioned before that Lovinsky was the head of a group called Fondasyon Trant Septamn (September 30th Foundation). The group, which works with victims of the 1991 coup in Haiti, was named after the date of that coup -- September 30th, 1991. On Friday, it'll be the 20th anniversary of that date.</p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=bcholmes&ditemid=692691" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-24:119236:552557I should have taken this moment to talk about this...2010-02-15T22:14:13Z2010-02-15T23:02:41Zpublic0<p>As I mentioned in my previous post, our Prime Minister went to Haiti today.
<p>There's this photo of his previous visit, in 2007. I've been sketching from it, recently. I want to use it in a cartooning assignment. But here it is:
<p><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://bcholmes.dreamwidth.org/552557.html#cutid1">This woman is my hero</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div>
<p>In this photo, Harper is in Site Soley. It's a medical clinic in Site Soley that, presumably, Canada provides aid to. In advance of this visit -- which, let's face it, was just a photo opportunity -- several political organizers were arrested. They were planning to protest Harper's visit to Site Soley and make the argument that, really, the cameras shouldn't be pointing at little medical clinics: the big emphasis on Canadian "aid" to Haiti was in the form of the Haitian National Police -- a police force that's been pretty brutal in places like Site Soley.
<p>And, of course, in an ironic twist, that same police force rounded up the leaders of the protest so that journalists wouldn't be confused about where to point their cameras. I should mention that one of the prominent community leaders who spoke out about the arrests was Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.
<p>What I admire most about the picture is the women. Particularly the woman in red. She gets what's going on. Harper is mugging for the cameras. In the presence of poor, tragic Haitians, mired in economic misery.
<p>And she doesn't even deign to notice his presence. What she's denying him is respect -- which, for Haitians, is probably the most valued thing that they have.</p></p></p></p></p></p></p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=bcholmes&ditemid=552557" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-24:119236:542570No, Mister! You Cannot Share My Pain!2010-01-21T14:36:52Z2010-01-21T14:36:52Zpublic0<blockquote><p>The bill of particulars is too long to go into here, but the destruction of the new museum of Culture, the breaking up of the medical school, the destruction of the children's television station gives you the flavour. But the essence is captured in the brutal attempt to obliterate the spirit of Haitian community; the attempt to destroy Lavalas by murdering its men and raping its women, the American-directed subversion of a real police force, the attacks on education and the obliteration of the community self-help systems which meant that when Hurricane Jeanne and all the other weather systems since have struck Haiti, many more have died than in any other country similarly stricken. In an earthquake, totally unpredictable, every bad factor is multiplied.
<p>The American blocking of international aid means that there is no modern water supply anywhere, no town planning, no safe roads, none of the ordinary infrastructure of any other Caribbean state. There are no building standards, no emergency shelters, no parks.
<p>So, when I write about mothers unwittingly walking on dead babies in the mud, when I write about people so poor they must eat patties made of clay and shortening, when I write about people with their faces 'chopped off' or about any of eight million horror stories from the crime scene that is Haiti, please don't tell me you share their pain or mine.
<p>Tell me, where is Lovinsky Pierre Antoine and ten thousand like him?
<p>If you share my pain and their pain, why don't you stop causing it? Why don't you stop the torture?
<p>— John Maxwell, <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Maxwell-Jan-17">No, Mister! You Cannot Share My Pain!</a>, <cite>Jamaica Observer</cite></p></p></p></p></p></p></blockquote>
<p>I wish it didn't take an earthquake to get to this point, but I am encouraged by all of the conversation I see linking the current disaster to the last two decades of international policy in Haiti.</p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=bcholmes&ditemid=542570" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-24:119236:525554Viktim2010-01-04T03:30:34Z2010-01-04T04:25:08Zpublic0<p>Urk. I've managed to get behind in my blogging. Bad BC. No biscuit.
<p><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://bcholmes.dreamwidth.org/525554.html#cutid1">More delegation</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div></p></p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=bcholmes&ditemid=525554" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-24:119236:495620Unworth Victims2009-08-12T22:14:10Z2009-08-12T22:14:10Zpublic0<blockquote><p>In March 2005, I was invited to Montreal and Ottawa to join a small delegation of human rights and political activists, journalists, and lawyers, to meet with students, the Haitian community, the media, and, on Parliament Hill, Liberal MP (then-special advisor to the PM on Haiti) Denis Coderre, to expose, discuss and denounce Canadian support for the coup.
<p>This would be the first and one of the only times that I met Lovinsky Pierre- Antoine, who was then in political exile. In those few short days as we travelled around from venue to venue, I was able to gain an appreciation for the respect that he commanded with his intellect, his political astuteness, and his cerebral demeanor. On only one occasion, Lovinsky stepped out of his cool mould and delivered a fiery and militant speech that electrified the Haitian community in Montreal. It would later occur to me that during that speech I observed the threat [of a good example] that Lovinsky posed to the new status quo in Haiti, especially as he would later return from exile to his country and would, apparently, entertain the possibility of running for public office.
<p>— Anthony Fenton, <a href="http://www.webofdemocracy.org/for_canada_disappeared_hait_2.html">For Canada, Disappeared Haitian Leader is an 'Unworthy Victim'</a></p></p></p></blockquote><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=bcholmes&ditemid=495620" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-24:119236:482980IADL calls for ending the MINUSTAH mission2009-06-20T12:35:50Z2009-06-20T12:38:01Zpublic0<blockquote><p>The General Assembly of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, at its 17th Congress in Hanoi, Vietnam, having considered the effects of the United Nations Mission for the Stabilisation of Haiti (MINUSTAH) on the human rights and, in particular, the economic, social and cultural rights of the overwhelming majority of people in Haiti:
<p>1. Strongly condemns the continuing use of excessive force by MINUSTAH and Haitian police, resulting most recently in at least five deaths in April 2009, in an attempt to put down justified protests against soaring rents and food prices, extreme food shortages (leading to the increased sales of cakes made of mud, oil and salt), coupled with mass unemployment;
<p>2. Expresses profound concern at reports of increased structural uncertainty resulting from abductions and summary executions, including the "disappearance" in August 2007 of Pierre-Antoine Lovinsky, coordinator of the human rights organisation, September 30th Foundation;
<p>3. Recalls that MINUSTAH, whose present mandate is due to expire in October 2009, is the only UN peace-keeping mission to be deployed in the absence of a pre-existing peace agreement, while the Haitian Constitution prohibits the presence of any foreign force on Haitian soil;
<p>4. Resolves and requests as follows:
<p>a. That MINUSTAH immediately cease and desist from all violations of the rights of the people of Haiti and provide full and fair compensation to victims and the families of those killed and injured by MINUSTAH forces;
<p>b. That the United Nations Security Council shall not renew the mandate of MINUSTAH and order the withdrawal of MINUSTAH forces so that Haiti may recover full sovereignty in accordance with its Constitution.
<p>— From the <a href="http://www.iadllaw.org/en/node/379">International Association of Democratic Lawyers</a> website</p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></blockquote><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=bcholmes&ditemid=482980" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments