Beating back the elite’s rabid rage: Against all odds Aristide returns to Haiti
Aristide Returns to Haiti, March 18, 2011 | Photo credit:Alexandre Meneghini / AP
Aristide returned to Haiti today. I’ve not seen such genuine happiness on the faces of Haiti’s poor in over seven years.
Welcome President Jean Bertrand Aristide and family. Today is a good day for the poorest of the poor in the Western Hemisphere. Their struggle and unimaginable sacrifices and sufferings bore fruit and it makes them smile. We thank the universal good for this moment. Blessed be the endless Haiti revolution against the organized tyranny of the “civilized” and “schooled” peoples.
Today, HLLN re-members the blessed Haiti revolution, Janjak Desalin and the indigenous Haiti army of today and yesterday.
On this day of the return, HLLN re-members the sacrifice of the warriors of Site Soley, Bel Air, Solino, Martissant who took up arms in self-defense against the occupation and coup d’etat. We re-MEMBER the most hunted Black man in the Western Hemisphere, who, alone, fought the most powerful armies on earth for two long years before he was assassinated by UN bullets, we remember the lynching and crucifixion of Dred Wilmè.
“On July 6, 2005, Dred Wilmè in his family where assassinated in cold blood by 1,440 heavily armed UN/US troops. With their tanks, helicopters and advanced weapons, 440 UN/US soldiers entered Site Soley in the dead of night (3am) while the community was asleep. One thousand (1000) other UN/US soldiers surrounded Site Soley to make sure no one could leave. Bombs where reported unleashed and dropped on the unarmed civilian community.
According to The Site Soley Massacre Declassification Project the UN fired over 22,000 rounds of ammunition into this thin-shacked, cardboard-house, poverty-stricken Black community of about 450,000 Haitians, most having been forced off their safer rural lands by US/USAID/WB/IMF policies in the 80s and 90s.”
All human beings have the right to life and to self-defense, including the poor in Haiti.
Today, we remember and say honor and respect to our fallen and faceless warriors- the beleaguered poor in Site Soley, Solino, Martissant, Bel-Air, Gran Ravine, et al… – ravaged by exclusion and color-coded NGO charitable distribution and allotments that slews human dignity, brings perpetual dependency. We recall the 20,000 slaughtered by the imposed Bush Boca Raton regime from 2004 to 2006, slaughtered with the complicity of UN/US firepower.
We pay tribute to Father Gerard Jean Juste, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine and all those who gave their life for this day of return of the people’s voice. We pay tribute to the ten thousands unknown Haitians, in Haiti and in the Diaspora, who never wavered.
We lift up Hazel and Randall Robinson for staying true throughout this long road and always, always supporting justice for the people of Haiti against all the odds. We lift up Minister Louis Farrakhan and Danny Glover who stood with the poor majority in Haiti and advocated for the return of Aristide in Haiti when most of the U.S. Black intelligentsia turned away.
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We thank all those folks, from all the races and religions, who signed letters and advocated for this return. We pay tribute to all the small Haiti radio programs abroad and in Haiti who stood for justice, Mary at SF Bayview for standing firm and resolute. We remember the unknown fanm vanyans, Haitian women like Alina Sixto who sacrificed so much, for so long without accolades and recognition and who never wavered.
We share this day by lifting up the work and life of our beloved John Maxwell. We pay tribute to the Africans, in Jamaica, in South Africa who stood in solidarity with the people of Haiti despite threats of repercussions from powerful international forces, those who even this week ignored the frantic calls from Barack Obama and the UN’s Ban-Ki Moon to again delay and destroy the will of the people of Haiti. Thank you.
This historic returns belongs to the poor suffering warriors of Haiti and to bless the spirits of those who perished too soon. Indeed it belongs to Haitian men like father Gerard Jean Juste, to all the women community leaders who where singled out and massacred at the USAID/IOM “Summer for Peace” soccer gathering on August 20 and Aug. 21st where Haitian youths were lured to their slaughter while attending a soccer game sponsored by USAID. Haiti’s young were brutally chopped up by UN/US-sanctioned coup detat police squads, working with their Lame Ti Manchet thugs and mercenaries.
This return belongs to Esterne Bruner, assassinated, Sept. 21, 2006 by members of the coup d”etat enforcers, Lame Timanchèt.
Before his death, the courageous Esterne Bruner provide Ezili’s HLLN with the names of the members who committed the Gran Ravine/USAID-soccer -for-peace massacres, the names of the death squad of Lame Ti Manchet. None of these pro-coup detat enforcers have been brought to justice in UN occupied Haiti because they helped demobilize the pro-democracy Lavalas movement.
This return that eases the insult of the bicentennial coup d”etat belongs to the hundreds of Haitians, sealed in containers and dumped off the Coast of Cap Haitian to drown, as US-supported thugs, still roaming Haiti free behind UN protection today, took over the North. It belongs to those forced onto mysterious U.S. ships, off the shores of Haiti, held and tortured in secrecy, some for two years, because they voted Lavalas or held positions in the popular government of President Aristide.
It belongs to Haitian men like Emmanuel Dred Wilmè who never left his people, never even left his neighborhood, he never attacked anyone, he simply defended his community from attack from the coup detat overseers, from UN and US guns and sycophants who hired thugs, like Labanye, to kill innocent civilians simply because they voted for Jean Bertrand Aristide and advocated for their country’s own domestic interests as opposed to the interests of the internationals, their Haiti billionaire oligarchy and poverty pimping USAID-NGO subcontractors.
Most of all today, we say honor and respect to the Ezili HLLNetwork members, of all the races and nationalities, a 10 thousand strong network against the profit-over-people folks, reaching three million per post, and on our blogs, who stood with the voiceless and disenfranchised in Haiti for these last seven years against all the odds, against all the naysayers.
This historic moment belongs to all of you who stood with the indigenous Haitians at HLLN who work to make a space for Haiti’s authentic voices without Officialdom’s approval. It’s a harsh journey.
It could have been a six-hour trip to Brazil and then just a few hours to Haiti. But it took 18 hours because the “benevolent internationals” interested in our “democracy and stability” wouldn”t allow former president Aristide, the symbol of the poor’s empowerment in Black Haiti, to travel through their territories.
It took 18 hours for Aristide to reach Haiti. Going from South Africa to Northern Africa in Senegal took 10 hours, while from Senegal to Haiti took another eight hours. I hear England wouldn”t allow a landing either.
That long, long road is symbolic of the Haitian struggle. That long road Ezili’s HLLN has shared with you and with your support and forbearance. Unlike colonial celebritism with Sean Penn, no one will give us accolades for a mere six months journey in Haiti. Ours is a centuries-long journey. We overstand. The struggle continues.
A new era begins for us here at HLLN. We ask you help us define it. For we know the empire will strike back. We expect it and thus avoid the surprise blow. As usual, we shall take the road less traveled towards healing Haiti’s poor majority with dignity, human rights, self-sufficiency, justice and inclusion. We won”t sell out. Haiti and indigenous Haitians want justice not charity, not Clinton/Farmer UN/US paternalism. It’s a desperately humiliating, bumpy, wholly disemboweling, wholly healing and fulfilling ride. Against all odds, Ginen poze. Kenbe la – hold on. (See, Don’t be distracted by Aristide in Haiti by Ezili Dantò and Avatar Haiti.)
Pierre Labossierre, Alina Sixto, Lavarice Gaudin, Jafrikayiti, Guy Antoine, Harry Fouche, Fritz Pean, Yves Point Du Jour, Jean Ristil Jean Baptise and too many others to name, congratulations on this day. Only we know what we’ve withstood in helping to overcome not one but two Bush coup d”etats on the poor majority in Haiti.
Sometimes the fierce guilt of surviving, the endless stretch ahead, the soul and psychic wounds wrought on by the shame and humiliation of powerlessness and lack of material resources to do more, are too heavy a load. It’s too ugly and desperate to articulate the bullying and blows metered out by the most educated, most wealthy and most powerful on the most defenseless and non-violent people on earth.
Their collective suffering and deaths shall not be in vain. Justice will prevail, beauty will win, eventually. If not in our lifetime, then in the next. We are the Haitians, the indigenous Haitians. From generation to generation, from the womb to the tomb, our lives are about struggle. Today, for a moment, we”ll smile through the sorrow because in this shining and eternal moment that must see us through what will come at us next, we anti-Duvalierist-Haitians managed to survive whole with dignity and to witness that against all odds, we beat back the elite’s rabid rage.
Ayibobo!
The Haitian resistance against the Western bicentennial re-colonization of Haiti lives on.
Ezili Dantò
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN)
March 18, 2011
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Forwarded by Ezili’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN)
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Don”t be distracted by Aristide in Haiti: Demand Justice not Gestures
Video: Aristide Returning Speech In Haiti
3/18/2011
Aljazeera Video: Aristide returns to Haiti
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Zili
Hello beautiful, thank you so much for recognizing my mom for her helping Haiti. You are a sister to me and Chantal as well, please know that you are in my prayers in your continued fight for the betterment of Haiti. We are proud to have you in our corner, so that we may receive the respect and honor our people deserve. We have not come this far to let America see us sleeping in tents, degraded/humiliated as a nation. I will be praying for our fight to reclaim our honor and respect and richness as a whole. We had it once and we WILL reclaim it again, to God be the glory! Martine
I, like most Haitians, am so very happy that Titid is back. However, the question is: now what? What can be done to throw back the U.S./U.N. imposed (s)elections? What can be done so that the MINUSTAH soldiers can go home? What can be done so that the NGOs can be drastically cut down and put under the control of a now non-existent Haitian State? What can we do so that the U.S. can reconstitute a new repressive Haitian Army. Titid is back, that is true, but now what are we to do? We must have a plan of positive action or else.
excuse me, I meant, so that the U.S. CANNOT reconstitute a new repressive Haitian Army
Now, as always, is to bring forth the dawn. The sacrifices of Site Soley, Bel Air, Solino, call to us to continue forward. Janjak, Cecile, Boukman, Dred Wilmè point us towards the rising sun. Therefore, our task is to keep our eyes on the mission and for our life’s purpose, and not fail to serve others or fail to teach. For in that service and those teachings and the work, struggle and institution building this requires, bridges of systematic domination, deprivation, and degradation be crossed, and the liberation and good life we long for and deserve are ultimately and definitely achieved.
WELCOME HOME, Baba, WELCOME HOME!!
against all odds, we will win!!
I’m anxious to know what’ll happen now. Will the loyal pèp Ayisyen boycott today’s selections or will it not matter to some cause they still feel entitled to vote? Can’t wait for an update. Hope our people stand up for what’s right and justice is served in the end.
Ezili,
Aibobo for your spirit of perseverance. It is very interesting to see how Aristide’s return received very little media coverage and attention, as opposed to Duvalier’s return. It’s also interesting to know that Obama made a phone call to South Africa in an attempt to block him. Now, I am not a partisan of anybody, but it is interesting to see that the world hasn’t changed. Likewise. the 1804 revolution received little attention and media coverage from you know who, and Toussaint was kept out by you know who. I am glad to see that the eyes of the Africans are wide open, instead of wide shut by the policies of you know who.
Aibobo pou ou
Kenbe la.
> To: ezilidanto@lists.riseup.net
From: erzilidanto@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 09:27:50 -0700
Subject: [ezilidanto] Aristide’s triumphant return to a celebrity welcome (Aljazeera video)
Ezili Dantò’ Note:
Aristide’s triumphant return to a celebrity welcome
(Aljazeera video scroll down to the end, http://bit.ly/giJowf )
At HLLN we make a point to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, AP and Miami Herald with this Aljazeera video. These mainstream papers especially, with the help of Amy Wilenz and Michael Deibert, have, these last seven years, harped on the lack of popularity of Jean Bertrand Aristide and how he was a criminal. The damage and carnage caused to Haitians by these folks is immeasurable. We circle out of this bunch Jonathan Katz, whose AP articles did not parrot the State Department/USAID propaganda as ânews.â Al Jazeera, since it came on the scene after the earthquake with its Haiti correspondent, Sebastian Walker, has led the way for Haitiâs real voice to be heard.
HLLN is most grateful to Walker, Katz and France 24 for being the first foreign news outlets to videotape the U.N. soldiers who brought cholera to Haiti. They were the first whose work forced powerful forces to acknowledge and believe the accusations made by the people of Mirebalais and who went there to film the Nepalese base oozing its cholera-stained feces into Haitiâs waterways.
This Al Jazeera video also tells a story you wonât read in the mainstream. It shows the reason why President Aristide is beloved by the poor majority in Haiti. Heâs not AFRAID of his own people. He knows who they are, their hearts of hearts.
They would not scale the walls of the National Palace or of any of the current presidential candidatesâ residences to hear them speak. No. Only for Aristide. The day of the return, 5,000 to 10,000 Haitians scaled the walls of Aristideâs residence, while tens of thousands more gathered around outside, yearning to see and hear him speak to them and for them to the world as he did at the airport.
When Aristide did not come out, they eventually quietly left. This is the reality the U.S., U.N., France, Canada, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama did not want you to see: the discipline and peacefulness of the people of Haiti when they are not being attacked and forced to defend themselves by the coup dâetat enforcers and their U.N./U.S. tanks and guns.
We post this video of the return for the mainstream media mentioned herein, for the New York Times especially, which wrote during the bicentennial that Aristide could command only a âsmall crowd.â Explain, New York Times, how seven years later this scene could happen?
Itâs very telling how little mainstream media coverage and attention there is to Aristideâs return and the huge celebrity welcome he received from the people of Haiti. In contrast to the almost complete news blackout about Aristideâs force and power in Haiti, the bloody dictator, Baby Doc Duvalier, got much coverage and massive print and spin, misleading readers to think Haitiâs poor majority want bygones to be bygones because theyâre âtoo young and donât remember Duvalierâs atrocitiesâ!
Itâs also telling to know that the presidents of the U.S. and France and the secretary general of the U.N. made phone calls to South Africa in an attempt to block Aristideâs return to Haiti, despite the welcome you see and that they knew he would receive. In contrast, France allowed bloody dictator, Baby Doc Duvalier, to return to Haiti without any problems. Obama and Ban Ki-moon made no phone calls to stop it. In fact, the U.N. provided security for the brutal Duvalier from the airport to his luxurious Haiti hotel.
You will see in the video, the U.N. soldiers are nowhere visible on the trip home from the airport with Haitiâs first democratically elected president! These powerful but brutally warmongering forces are only exposing their own indefensibility as representatives of civilized peoples of the world. The worldâs eyes are wide open.
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Forwarded by Ezili’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
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I have no words to describe my contentment. Against all odds, our beloved Titide has returned home. Right now, we are in ecstacy, however, I want to tell the Haitian people that, they need to be vigilant; the neocolonialism is revenchist and its lackey won’t hesitate to do whatever it takes to make the Haitian people pay for their conviction, stubbornness, most of all, their refusal to live under the dominance of the imperialism. Once again, the Haitians have shown to the world that they know what they want and no superpower would dictate them otherwise. Thank you so much,Zil, my dear sister for being a Marie-Jeanne of the modern time.
Comment pouvons nous expliquer la victoire aujourd’hui de Michel Martelly, comment le peuple a pu vote ce matin 90% pour Repons Payzan ou Michel Martelly qui leur a vexe hier au sujet de leur maman et de celle d”Aristide et durant les elections, ce peuple a ete aux urnes pour voter Martelly. Ecoutez les resultats sur Signal FM Manigat a seulement un 15% des votes et Martelly 85%. Comment Aristide vat’il pouvoir fonctionner dans un scenario Martelly President.
To our Ancestors and our Deities I bring my libation of wine and food for Aristide’s safe return to Ayiti – his earth. My knees will never kneel to a european conception of a supreme Deity they call God/jeus. I kneel only to our Ancestors and Deities, including the Supreme One; and to THEM I kneel and pray and praise for this and all other days. Beautiful one Ezili the blessings on our Ancestors, our Deities and of the Supreme are with you.
May all black people be blessed, who feel there are enough Sankofa-resources in the Ancestral reservoir of Mackandal, Boukman, General Dessalines, Toussaint, and others known and unknown. And may all who have labored against incredible demonic odds for the manifestation of Aristide’s return be blessed by our Deities and Ancestors. I continue to fight, kneel and provide libation (food and wine) to our Ancestors and Deities.
Padiowei