Democracy Haitian Style
Clinton wanted to go into Haiti to re-establish democracy in that country even though it never really was all that established. Later on the US looked the other way or encouraged the overthrow of Aristide - the guy we put in place to re-establish democracy. Now Haiti is getting ready to hold elections and to put it mildly they aren't going to be pretty. The prefered candidate from Aristide's Lavalas Family party was not allowed to run. The most popular pres of the past 20 years also opted not to run. Then again that popular pres, the former President for Life "Baby Doc" Duvalier would probably get killed on the tarmac if he opted to return and honestly he should be. Through it all Haiti remains the poorest country in the hemisphere:
Close to 80 percent of the population lives on less than two dollars a day, and 42 percent of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition, according to the UN's World FoodProgram.
Haiti's national budget of $300 million is less than the budgets of many large US school districts. Sewage flows freely through the streets, there is often no electricity, and only one traffic light in the whole capital is functioning.
Worse yet, there is a near absence of law enforcement here, according to Amnesty International, which reports that "politically motivated arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians, rape, death threats and intimidation are routine and are perpetrated with impunity."Violence has claimed almost 800 lives since September 2004 and some parts of the capital remain no-go areas even for the UN troops. In May, the US embassy ordered nonemergency staff to leave Haiti along with their families.
Aren't we glad that the Haitians have the right to vote? Haiti is Exhibit A that democracy is not a cure all for a nation's problems.
posted by theCardinal @ 9:40 PM
2 Comments:
With due respect, the problem is not democracy. The problem is lack thereof. When you see your President, the first to be elected twice and represent the poor slums, be kidnapped and flown away by by the US, the words about democracy building ring hollow. Haitians also remember Clinton not giving a rats ass about Aristide's first overthrow until a hunger strike by prominent citizens like Catherine Dunham formed him to rethink.
They know the US helped the terrorist rebels, who are now able to stand for election, while their Priest leader Mr. Gilles is unable to run on a technicality. They see their other leader Mr. Neptune in jail without charge for years. The corrupt business elite and rebel leaders are doing everything to keep Lavalas from winning, which they surely would without interference.
The people understand what is going on and are not going to take it. That is reasonable. But the US will portray the inevitable uptick in violence as the result of "thugs" and "slum dwellers." Its a sad situation, but true democracy is the answer not the problem.
On one thing we can agree the current Haitian elections are a sham. The exclusion of the prominent Lavalas Family leaders makes a farce of the entire excercise.
Yet even a Lavalas victory would prove meaningless. Given the opportunity they proved to be less murderous but equally incompetent and corrupt. What Haiti needs is the rule of law and stability. It will never get itself off the ground without both. Unfortunately as thing stand I just don't see it happening any time soon.
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