Posted September 30, 2002                                                                                                                                                      U.S. Blame in Haiti

September 30, 2002                                                                                                                                                                                     Washington deserves a great share of the blame for Haiti's poverty crisis. Last year the International Republican Institute gathered the myriad Haitian political parties (some call them particles) into a coalition named Democratic Convergence.

But when the Convergence formed its own parallel government, Washington rewarded that coalition by treating those law breakers as equal to the Haiti's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Can we imagine Al Gore forming his own government because he did not like the result of the 2000 presidential election?

The Bush administration's policy on Haiti, led at the State Department by the archconservative Otto Reich, has been a failure thus far because it is based on a fundamental dislike of Mr. Aristide rather than on the interest of stability in the region.                                                                                                                                                                                           JEAN JEAN-PIERRE                                                                                                                                                        Spring Valley, N.Y., Sept. 25, 2002

                                                                                                                                                                                        Posted September 20, 2002

I certainly do not comprehend what exactly you mean by "the gorillas speak French". Certainly, many irresponsible Haitian governments have enriched themselves and do or next to nothing to improve the quality of life in the Caribbean (quasi) island nation of Haiti. Their misdeeds have caused Haiti to figure among one of the poorest nations in the world. However, the so-called leaders' unacceptable behavior is not an indication that many Haitians (college professors, medical doctors, etc.) can be reduced to the level of a gorilla by a person of your caliber, a person who appears not to have the authority (academic) to pronounce himself on such an issue (complex) of international significance.

I'm Haitian. In addition to French I speak Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and English. I read and write Latin and Greek (classic). Will your next piece or verbiage read as follows: "The Gorilla speaks English, Portuguese and Italian?" So, too, will your piece of the same nature read "the gorilla speaks "Latin and Greek". I hope not.

A few lines from you, clarifying yourself will be greatly appreciated.

Prof. Yves A. Isidor, executive editor of wehaitians.com

Sorry about the delay in responding to you. It appears that you have not read the article in question and/or were not at the meeting. At any rate you have taken my story way out of context. The story in question was an observation of what occurred at a particular meeting on a particular night. The reference to a Gorilla was to the size of the crowd of people who all spoke with French accents, who happen to be Haitian. That crowd got to the meeting early and sat anywhere they wanted to. That same crowd changed the stated purpose of the meeting from a discussion of what the Neighborhood Advisory Committee had come to an agreement on, to a demand for two family housing, not affordable housing, TWO FAMILY HOUSING. The first 16 people that spoke repeated the same thing. And when an elderly woman talked about her fear of increased crime in the neighborhood, she was rudely shouted down. The majority of Haitian people were not at that meeting, and I was not speaking about the Haitian people in General. In fact my comments were not meant to describe any single person at the meeting. As for internation significance, again, my story was about a neighborhood meeting. I'm not a doctor, a laeyer or a professor, I'm just a man who likes to write, and whos interested in preserving neighborhood's unique characture. Those people that ate driving this development do not live in my community. They don't pay taxes in my community and they shouldn'd have a right to determine how my community gets developed. I hope this clarifies what was meant and said in The Gorilla Speaks French. if not please respond with your telephone number and I'll be happy to discuss it with you personally.

                                                                                                                                                                                      Posted Sepetember 18, 2002

The "Ligue des Jeunes Cadres Haitiens d'Outre-Mer pour la Sauvegarde des Droits et Libertés" strongly denounces and condemns the wave of repression perpetrated against a student movement fighting for the autonomy of the State University of Haiti (SUH), and the protection of their rights and liberties, during a peaceful student demonstration organized on August 22, 2002, at the main campus of the Ecole Nationale Superieure.

The Ligue would like to attract the attention of the international community and democratic institutions around the world, so that such practices are banished for good, therefore allowing the freedom of expression to triumph. The

Ligue takes advantage of this opportunity to express its solidarity with the Haitian student movement and promises its support so that the Democratic Charter adopted on September 11, 2001, in Lima, Peru, by the regional organization (O.A.S) be applied with all its strength, each time it is violated by a member state.

In that aspect, we wish that the next mobilization scheduled for September 19, 2002, by the students of the SUH, takes place peacefully and without violent perturbations wherever they might come from. We then, call on the Haitian authorities to respect and protect the rights of all citizens to express themselves freely, as both the Haitian Constitution and the Democratic Charter of the OAS mandate.

François Guillaume, Jr. (fguillaume@lijech.com) Executive Director

Patrick Augustin (paugustin@lijech.com) Deputy Executive Director