Djab la di l ap manje m, se pa vre: Boukman's Prayer

Haitian spiritual: "Ogou oooo, wa dèzanj, djab la di la manje mwen se pa vre. Se pa vre Timoun yo, se pa vre. Sa se blag Timoun yo, sa se jwet. Gen Bon Dye, geyen lè sen yo. Djab la di l ap manje nou, se pa vre....."

Boukman's Prayer shows Haitian Wisdom and sets the tone for why Haitians choose Africa over Europe's philosophy of God.

Vodun confronted the European colonizers with a philosophy infinitely more humanistic than theirs: rejecting slavery as immoral and evil, it chose freedom for all human beings, morality, righteousness, social cohesion and co-existence as the highest good on the planet.

Boukman's Prayer

"The God who created the earth, who created the sun that gives us light. The God who holds up the ocean, who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds, who watch us from where you are. You see all that the white has made us suffer. The white man's god asks him to commit crimes. But the God within us wants to do good. Our God, who is so good, so just, He orders us to avenge our wrongs. It's He who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It's He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the white man's god who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice for liberty that speaks in all our hearts." Boukman's Prayer at the Bwa Kayiman Vodun ceremony, the call to action that launched the Haitian Revolution, on August 14, 1791.

Liberation Theology: These Vodun words inaugurated the concept of liberation theology in Haiti. The African warriors, inspired by this Vodun prayer, became Haitian in the land of the Taino/Arawaks, leaving an indelible mark on Haiti and the entire world. Ezili Dantò, June 2006

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BOUKMAN'S PRAYER (Kreyòl)

Bon Dje ki fè la tè. Ki fè soley ki klere nou anwo. Bon Dje ki soulve lanmè. Ki fè gronde loray. Bon Dje nou ki gen zorey pou tande. Ou ki kache nan nyaj. Kap gade nou kote ou ye la. Ou wè tout sa blan fè nou sibi. Dje blan yo mande krim. Bon Dje ki nan nou an vle byen fè. Bon Dje nou an ki si bon, ki si jis, li òdone vanjans. Se li kap kondui bra nou pou nou ranpòte la viktwa. Se li kap bannou asistans. Nou tout fèt pou nou jete pòtre dje Blan yo ki swaf dlo lan zye. Koute vwa la libète k ap chante lan kè nou.

See Boukman’s prayer in the Excerpt from Ezili Danto’s Bwa Kayiman play
*****
.....If the powers that be won't let Haiti live free, Haiti, small tiny, impoverished Haiti shall show the rest of the world that nothing matters more than freedom. These discredited and greedy Neocons may repress the entire world, but Haiti shall fight against enslavement and show others, who are enchained, how it's done. Libèrte ou la mort.

That's been our legacy and we live it for humanity.

No agreement, accord, treaty or contract signed by the illegal Latortue government binds the sovereign people of Haiti, the majority of us in the Diaspora or carries any legal or moral weight. It never shall..........

Excerpt from "Can the Devil bind Gods and Goddesses?" by Ezili Dantò, Haitian Perspectives, March 7, 2006

Can the Devil bind Gods and Goddesses? by Ezili Dantò


Onè e rèpè

The people of Haiti never recognized the Latortue government as legitimate, neither did all in the "international community."

More than one third of the countries in the UN do not officially recognize the Latortue regime as the legitimate government of the people of Haiti. That is, 53 countries from Africa, CARICOM with 15 countries, Venezuela and Cuba. Please take note, neither do the majority of Haitians in the Diaspora, or the official body of the Congressional Black Caucus. Together we stand since Feb. 29, 2004, together we shall regain Haiti's sovereignty. And once the truth about the tiny criminal gangs with suits, come to fore, the world will stand with us, because we stand for democracy, the rule of law and the principles of self-determination and liberty.

We do not stand for rule by force, or the ouster of a duly elected government through the use of lies, half-truths, propaganda, or lawlessness. We do not stand for repression and tyranny or for plunder/profit over people principles. But the sacred principles of liberty and equality cherished by human beings the world over, which sacred principles are being trampled upon the world over, right now, by a small group of suited criminals, members of the Washington Consensus (neoliberalism cabal) and their stooges, who are using all their force to hurt the very peoples and constituencies they have sworn to protect, respect and represent.

Indeed, the Haitian constitution and international laws were violated to bring into power the Baco Raton regime and the people of Haiti have struggled, for two years now, to lift Gwo Jera and his Middle Eastern Haitian inbreed cabal and US/Euro settlers off their necks. The struggle continues. It's been publicly reported that Lilianne Pierre Paul and several other Group 184 Nazi fascists have said that they would see Haiti as a protectorate before letting the people's elected President, Rene Preval, take office.

The UN Security Council obviously allies with these tiny, anti-democratic Haitians and has done so, ILLEGALLY, and in contravention of the HAITIAN CONSTITUTION, the UN mandate and international laws, since Feb. 29, 2004. Nothing has changed, protectorate was their aim in 2003 when these foreign coup plotters met at Ottawa, and it is their aim now. The "Aristide card" was their ticket to confusing those who needed an excuse to sell the country.

Nonetheless, let it be known, that the people of Haiti are a sovereign people, who have been fighting for their liberty since before 1791 and Bwa Kayiman. We were the first kidnapped captives to be brought to the New World and the first and only African captives to win our independence in combat against the white settlers and Euro/US slave owning countries. The first also to actually PAY, in hard cash, to the tune of $21.7 billion dollars in today’s currency, for that independence. The final, of that slave-trade payment, made to powerful and richest, United States of America, by Haiti, in 1947.

Over and over again the Haitian poor have paid for their liberty. Most recently, from Feb. 2004 to today, in the blood of over 20,000 poor Haitians slaughtered so that Boulos, Apaid, Guy Phillip, Lilianne Pierre Paul and their foreign masters could try setting up an election to give a "democratic" veneer to their tyranny. It didn't work because the people of Haiti are the most valiant fighters for liberty on this planet, bar none.

Yet and still the Lilianne Pierre Pauls, Boulos, Apaids, Bakers, Yourie Latortues, Stanley Lucases, their Guy Philippe kidnappers, these power-grabbers who hold Haitian justice and law hostage for their own greed and personal interests and their apologists still won't admit defeat, would rather have a protectorate than let the people rule themselves and participate in the affairs of the state. To that end, they have now set about to reduce the Feb. 7, vote to merely an OPINION poll with the help of Ottawa, Washington, Paris and the U.N.

But we Haitians have fought against the U.S. ambassadors and representatives in Haiti bringing us instability, poverty, division, polarizing our society and upholding parallel governments to Haiti's elected governments. We have achieved over and over again against the most educated, most connected, richest, and most resourceful in the world, and will continue to do so because truth, decency and goodness is what we extend. Because the people of Haiti extend the God within, what they are, no weapon of evil can or shall EVER destroy us.

We Haitians, in the Diaspora, we Haitians at the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network with our true friends from all the nations, we, we Haitians who know who we are and the good that lives within us that the powerful Neocons are trying to criminalize, we shall continue to stand, as ONE voice, one PSYCHE, one POWER, with the people of Haiti, for ourselves, for what we are. For our children, for the Ancestors, (zanset yo e timoun yo), and because being "Ayisyen" is to our glory, we shall not kneel or bow to tyranny even if it is being metered out by the supposedly highest and most develop world order. Haiti was not a gift given to Haitians by the whites. It was by the blood of our ancestors that ran redder than the Atlantic Ocean is wide. No imposed Boca Raton regime can gift Haiti to the white settlers. By the blood of the African slaves, by the African holocaust, we Haitians hereby swear it shall never be so.

The white enslavers took 300 years from us and have kept us contained-in-poverty for 200 years more to pay for that independence, the last payment made, in 1947, to the very United States of America, now trying to teach Haiti about "democracy" and law and justice.

The fire of the African ancestors, who first put liberty into application, the fire in our DNA would suffocate us before allowing Haiti to be colonized and put into slavery, ever again.

NOTHING, no agreement, no contract, no treaty, no accord, no devil's pact, signed by the illegally imposed Boca Raton government (2004-2006), or any of the other Group 184 self-styled Black overseers for Haiti on behalf of the people of Haiti is legal. Moreover, no semantics, no gyration on the part of Officialdom will make it so.

In fact, no one on earth can Gede like the people of Haiti. How could the UN Security Council or Latortue's gyrations have any meaning to us? We dance to our own drums, that is the only point of reference Haitians know. And we know also, very well, the Boca Raton regime is not recognized as legitimate by the majority of the peoples of Haiti, by the Congressional Black Caucus, the African Union or Caricom.

This Feb. 22, 2006 accord is as worthless as the agreement that sent MINUSTHA to Haiti. A MINUSTHA that brings to the help of "democracy" in Haiti, soldiers from the most undemocratic countries on earth, including China and Jordan; a MINUSTHA we now hear will be sending to Haiti judges to help us "reform," heralding from all over the world, including judges to "help" Haitians from Mauritania - a place where SLAVERY is still acceptable.

Again, the struggle is for Haitian dignity, self-respect and self-determination. Our enemies know very well the people of Haiti know more about human cooperation, co-existence and simple humility than all the powers in the UN Security Council, Ottawa, Washington and France, put together, who brought us another coup d'etat. Our enemies are all those who stand with Latortue and his murderers and international criminals.

We Haitians will peacefully regain our liberty from these powers using their own murderous weight. Batay la fèk komanse - the struggle has just begun.

If the powers that be won't let Haiti live free, Haiti, small tiny, impoverished Haiti shall show the rest of the world that nothing matters more than freedom. These discredited and greedy Neocons may repress the entire world, but Haiti shall fight against enslavement and show others, who are enchained, how it's done. Libèrte ou la mort.

That's been our legacy and we live it for humanity.

No agreement, accord, treaty or contract signed by the illegal Latortue government binds the sovereign people of Haiti, the majority of us in the Diaspora or carries any legal or moral weight. It never shall.

Ezili Dantò, Esq.
Founder and President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
(Dedicated to protecting the civil, cultural and human rights of Haitians living at home and abroad and to institutionalizing the rule of law)
March 7, 2006
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Eske Lagrandyab ka Mare Lespri Zanset yo? Non
by Ezili Dantò, Esq., March 6, 2006 | Tradiksyon kreyòl la se travay pwofesè Frantz Jerome

*
Onè Respè lasosyete

Pèp Ayisyen an pa janm rekonèt gouvèlman Latorti a kòm yon gouvèlman lejitim, menm jan tout kominote entènasyonal lan pa rekonèt li tou.

Plis pase yon tyè peyi ki nan Nasyonzini yo pa ofisyèlman rekonèt rejim Latòti a kòm gouvèlman lejitim pèp Ayisyen. Kididonk 53 peyi L’Afrik, KARIKÒM ak 15 peyi, mete ak Venezwela ak Kiba pou di gouvèlman Latòti a se defakto. Note byen, ni majorite Ayisyen nan dyaspora a, ni eli Nwa Meriken nan kongrè an pa rekonèt yo non plis.

Ansanm ansanm nou kanpe janm depi 29 fevriye 2004, ansanm ansanm n ap repran soverènte peyi d’Ayiti. Epi tou, lò kakachat lan deyò sou ti gwoup gangster kriminèl ak levit yo, lemondantye ap kanpe avè n, paske nou kanpe pou demokrasi, lalwa ansanm ak prensip mèt tèt nou antan ke moun ki lib.

Nou pa kanpe sou lafòs, oubyen sou bay prezidan lejitim panzou nan makonay manti, demagoji, pwopagann ak vyolasyon lalwa. Nou pa kanpe sou represyon ak tirani oubyen sou bay pwofi louch plis valè pase prensip byen viv ak moun. Men, libète ak egalite, rèv prensip sakre moun toupatou ap dòlote, prensip sakre sa a ki jounen jodia ou ti gwoup kriminèl a levit, manm aderan Wachington (kabal neoliberal) ak vivi restavatèk yo k ap lage tout pwa yo pou pilonnen anba pye moun sa yo ki te mete yo opouvwa, e ke yo te di yap reprezante, pwoteje e respekte.

Annefè, kadejak yo fè sou knostitisyon Ayisyen an ansanm ak lwa entènasyonal yo pèmèt yo mete rejim Bokaraton lan opouvwa. Mentou, pèp Ayisyen ap goumen depi de lane pou fòse gwo jera ak gang ras kabrit Ayisyen Arab lan wete pye sou kou l. Batay la ap kontinye. Mesaj k ap sikile di Lilian Pyèpòl ansanm ak yon dividal fachis nazi group 184 lan di yo ta pito blan okipe peyi a pase yo kite prezidan pèp la eli a, Rene Preval, pran pouvwa a.

Konsèy Sekirite nasyonzini an fè yon alyans ILEGAL ak ti klik Ayisyen antidemokratik lan. Alyans sa a an kontravansyon ak manman lwa peyi d’Ayiti, manda Nasyonzini ak lwa entènasyonal yo, depi 29 fevrie 2004. Anyen pa chanje, se protektora yo tap chache an 2003 lè machand koudeta yo tap rankontre nan Otawa, epitou se objektif yo jounen jodi a. Yo te jwe “kat Aristide lan” pou vire lòlòj sa yo ki te pre pou vann peyi a.

Men tou, tout moun alawonnbade dwe konnen pèp Ayityien se granmoun lakay li, li gen tradisyon lit liberasyon depi ti konkonm tap goumen akberejenn, anvan 1791 ak Bwa Kayiman. Nou te premye Afriken blan te kidnape mennen nan kontinan sa a. E nou te premye epi anmenm tan tou, sèl, esklav Afriken ki genyen endepandans yo nan batay kont blan k te sou teren an ansanm ak peyi Eròp/Amerik ki tap kapitalize sou rejim esklavaj. Premye peyi tou ki tegen pou l peye, an lajan toutbon vre, depase 21.7 bilyon dola meriken jounen jodi a, pou endepandans yo. Dènye vèsman peman komès esklav lan, nou peye l an 1947, bay peyi ki nan moman an te gen plis lajan ak plis fòs sou tè a: Lèzetazini d’Amerik!

Vire n tounen n, sa ki pòv ann Ayiti yo pa janm sispann peye pou libète yo. Jouk lòtjou a, soti fevrie 2004 rive jounen jodi a, ak san plis pase 20,000 pòv Ayisyen, pou Boulos, Apaid, Guy Phillip, Lilianne Pierre-Paul ak bòs etranje yo seye fè eleksyon malachong, met yon vèni “demokrasi” sou tirani yo an. Sa pat mache, paske pèp Ayisyen se pèp ki pi vanyan sou planet lan, lò l ap defann koze libète.

Toujousètil, Lilianne Pierre-Paul yo, Boulos yo, Apaid yo, Baker yo, Yourie Latòti yo, Stanley Lucas-yo, kidnapè yo a ki rele Guy Philippe la, tout panzouis sa yo ki kenbe lajistis Ayisyen ak lalwa annotaj pou satisfè apeti tilolit yo ak enterè pèsonèl yo, makonnen ak moun kap fè ekskiz pou yo yo, pap janm admèt yo pèdi batay la. Yo sèmante yo pito ret ak blan, nan protektora, pase yo admèt pèp la gen dwa patisipe nan zafè peyi l. Nan objektif sa a, yap chache fè vòt pèp la vin blèm. Vire vòt 7 fevrie a an yon senp “poldopinyon”, granmèsi jarèt yo resevwa nan men Otawa, Washington, Paris ak Nasyonzini.

Men noumenm Ayisyen nou batay kont depi se anbasadè ak lòt reprezantan Meriken ann Ayiti ki vin pote instabilite, divizyon, polarizasyon nan sosyete nou an. Sila yo ki vin kore gouvèlman paralèl anfas gouvèlman pèp Ayisyen eli a. Nou toujou kanpe janm, jouk laviktwa final, kèlkeswa lè yo tounen, devan sak kwè yo pi entelijan yo, sa k gen plis koneksyon yo, sa k pi rich yo, ak sa ki monopolize plis resous lemond yo.
Nap kontinye kanpe janm, paske verite, desans ak bonte, se sa nou ofri. Paske pèp Ayisyen ofri Bondye ki andedan l lan, sa li ye a. Pa gen zam demon ki ka oubyen kap JAMEN detwi nou.

Noumenm Ayisyen nan dyaspora a, noumenm Ayisyen nan HLLN (Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network), ansanm ak vre zanmi ki sot nan tout peyi, noumenm Ayisyen ki konnen kilès nou ye epitou bon bagay kap viv andedan nou, “Neocons” toupwisan yo ap chache kriminalize, nap toujou kontinye kanpe, doubout kòm yon sèl VWA, yon sèl KONSYANS, yon sèl FÒS ak pèp Ayisyen an, ak noumenm, pou sa nou ye. Nou pap bat ba devan tirani, menm si li se granmèsi fòs ki pi rich e ki pi devlope nan “nouvèl òd” mondyal lan, pou zanset yo e timoun yo, epitou paske glwa nou se deske nou fèt Ayisyen. Ayiti pat yon kado blan te kite pou nou. Se san zansèt nou yo ki te koule pi wouj pase tout lajè Oseyan Atlantik lan. Pa gen rejim ilegal “Bokaratonn” yo fòse nan ti gòjèt nou kap vin fè kolon blan kado peyi a. Sou san esklav Afriken yo k te koule, sou mizè “holocaust” esklavaj Afriken an, noumenm Ayisyen nou sèmante swasandisèt fwa sèt fwa bagay sa a pap pase!

Kolon blan yo vòlò 300 ane nan lavi pèp nou an epi kenbe nou nan povrete pou 200 zan k sot pase la a pou n ka peye pou endepandans nou. Dènye vèsman an se an 1947 nou fè l bay peyi Meriken, li menm menm ka p pranpòz aprann nou koze demokrasi, lalwa, lajistis.

Dife zansèt nou yo, yo menm ki mete libète an aplikasyon an premye. Dife ki nan DNA nou an ta toufe n anvan l kite kolon pran Ayiti ankò, kite Ayisyen tounen nan esklavaj.

Anyen menm, okenn aranjman, okenn kontra, okenn trete, okenn akò, okenn pak ak demon, gouvèlman ilegal Boca Raton lan, sa yo te fòse nan ti gòjèt nou an, osnon kèlkeswa group 184 la ki proklame tèt li “fòmann” pou Ayiti, siyen nan non pèp Ayisyen an pa legal. Nap rapousiv al pi lwen pou n di pa gen pawòl, kèlkeswa jan yo vire dada yo pou ofisyalize koudeta a k ap pase. Ofèt, pagen yayad sou latè ki ka bat Gede pèp Ayisyen. Ki jan Konsèy Sekirite Nasyonzini oubyen Latòti ta fè konprann pèp Ayisyen ap okipe jan yap vire dada yo? Nou bat tanbou n, nou danse l. Se sèl sa ki enpòtan pou nou. Epitou, nou konnen trè bye, majorite pèp Ayisyen, “Black Caucus” Kongrè Ameriken an, Inyon Peyi Afriken yo oubyen CARICOM pa konsidere rejim Bokaratonn lan kòm gouvèlman legal.

Akò 22 Fevriye 2006 sa a pa pi enpòtan pase akò ki te voye MINUSTHA ann Ayiti a. Yon MINUSTHA ki mennen solda ki sot nan peyi ki pi pa konn sak demokrasi sou latè, ikonpri la Chin ak la Jòdani, pou vin ide “demokrasi” ann Ayiti. Yon MINUSTHA nou tande ki pwal pran jij sot toupatou sou latè, menm Mauritanie – ou peyi kote esklavaj toujou akseptab – pou vin “ide refòm” nan lajistis ann Ayiti.

Nap souliye l ankò, batay la se pou diyite, respè ak dwa granmoun Ayisyen. Lenmi nou yo konnen trè byen pèp Ayisyenn konn plis sou koze Kooperasyon, koekzistans ak imilite pase tout gwo pyisans nan Konsèy Sekirite, Ottawa, Washington ak La Frans ki te pote yon lòt koudeta bay pèp Ayisyen ann. Lenmi nou yo se tout sa yo ki kore Latòti, asasen li yo ak kriminèl entènasyonal li yo.

Noumenm pèp Ayisyen, ak metòd ki baze sou prensip lapè, nap eksplate pwa kriminèl yo pou repran libète nou. Batay la fèk komanse.

Si malfektè yo pa vle kite Ayiti viv lib, Ayiti, ti Ayiti, Ayiti pòv lan ap montre lemondantye ke pagen anyen k pi enpòtan pase libète. Gouja vagabon yo rele kolon anbachal sa yo (Neocons) gendwa toupizi lemondantye, mentou, Ayisyen ap batay kont esklavaj epi montre zòt yo ki anba chenn, jan batay liberasyon dwe fèt! Libète ou Lamò!

Se eritaj nou e nou mete l ann aplikasyon pou limanite.

Okenn nan akò, trete oubyen kontra gouvèlman illegal Latòti a siyen pa enplike pèp souvren, majorite noumenm nan dyaspora a epitou yo pa gen okenn vale legal oubyen moral. Yo pap janm genyen l.

Ezili Dantò, Esq.
Founder and President, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network ("HLLN")
(Dedicated to protecting the civil, cultural and human rights of Haitians living at home and abroad and to institutionalizing the rule of law)
March 7, 2006

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See also: We Are Not the Ones who are the Kidnappers, Site Soley wants
Peace: The whites bring war to the people of Haiti, interview direct from Haiti,
translated by Frantz Jerome, Ezili Danto Witness Project, May 22, 2006

Kreyol Audio: We Are Not the Ones who are the Kidnappers, Site Soley wants
Peace

HLLN on USAID/OTI - More Than 10 Million US Dollars spent since May 2004 to Decimate Lavalas Party in Haiti http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/
campaignone/testimonies/notkidnappers.html#traps

Report of AUMOHD's May 3, 2006 Press Conference, Partial list of
Victims, Demand Justice and Reparations for victims from Site Soley and
Pele, List of Victims Liberated by AUMODH, May 3, 2006
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/
testimonies/pressconf.html

Kreyol Audio :

Rene Preval's May 18, 2006 at Lakaye, Source: Radio Soleil
Broadcast | Ezili Danto Witness Project| May 18, 2006
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/diskoupreval18melakaye.mp3

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HLLN's Media Campaign to FREE the political prisoners in Haiti
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Join HLLN'S MEDIA Campaign to expose the corrupt role of the UN, US, Canada,
OAS, France, this international community's (the "International Community")
culpable role in keeping in office, over the OBJECTIONS of the majority of
Haiti's peoples, at home and abroad, for more than TWO years now, and
training and paying a puppet Haitian government with no popular mandate and
massive human rights abuses and political repression. Stop UN, US, OAS,
Canada, France's hypocrisy. Their authorities are the ones holding the
political prisoners in Haiti. They are coup d'etat countries with the UN as
their proxy militarizing Haiti and fleecing it dry with their IMF/World Bank
debts and foreign "free trade" multinationals exploiting Haiti's access to
the Windward Passage (Mole St Nicholas); oil (in La Gonave); uranium, iridium
and goldmines in the Northeast, gas reserves Near Aquin and our State
companies, ports and plentiful and cheap labor force. They are the RESPONDIAT
SUPERIORS, not the puppet Latortue government or its corrupt and paid-off
judges. Write to media urging them not to let the International Community
pass the blame to their very employees - the Latortue death regime and its
corrupt justice system. Demand that the mainstream media stop being false
witnesses and turning a blind eye to the truth in Haiti: to the WHO holds the
keys locking the political prisoners behind bars. It's this INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY with UN soldiers as henchmen, wielding its defacto protectorate in
Haiti, with Latortue regime, its foreign-trained Haitian technocrats as its
proxy and "black face" in Haiti

Demand that these coup d'etat implementers, FREE the people before giving
back the reigns of government illegally held by the international community's
employees in Haiti. Demand that all contracts entered into under the illegal
US regime's reign must go to a national referendum placed before the people
of Haiti and no backdoor structural adjustment economic plan be foisted on
the people of Haiti, either through the outgoing coup d'etat regime, the
contracts its illegally signed or through US/Euro false benevolence such as
"debt forgiveness."
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2006-04/msg00015.html

- 3 Sample Letters for HLLN's media campaign to protect the Feb 7th mandate,
release political prisoners, release Haiti's children from prison immediately
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2006-04/msg00002.html

- HLLN's Urgent Action Request to the UN/US/France/Canada - RELEASE THE
POLITICAL PRISONERS before ceding Haiti back to a duly elected President and
government! https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2006-04/msg00001.html

Turning Haiti into a Penal Colony: The Systemic Criminalization of Young
Black Males in Haiti by Haiti's US-imposed Miami government parallels US
habit of criminalizing Blacks in the US| Haitian Perspectives by Ezili Dantò, November 3, 2005
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/damocles.html
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HLLN'S MEDIA Campaign responding to media racism, flase witnessing and libel
against the people of Haiti and its President-elect
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See, Urgent Media Alert:

Media Disinformation Campaign Against Haiti by New York Times,
LA Times, Miami Herald, Associated Press, - the mainstream media -
EMBOLDENS the Washington Chimères and Haiti Democracy Project's coup
d'etat plans against Haiti even before Presitent-elect Renè Preval takes office!
http://www.winterludes.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=14278#14278

HLLN's Media Letter Writing Campaign: Stop Mainstream Media libelously
railroading President Preval and the people of Haiti - Keep writing,
denouncing these false accusations.
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2006-02/msg00027.html

Letter to the New York Times from Hazel Ross-Robinson office
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2006-02/msg00028.html

Why we cannot forget the past by Harry Comeau, A letter to Washington,
Ottowa, Paris and the international media from a Haitian man
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2006-03/msg00000.html

Letter's to the Media - It's the INTERNATIONAL EFFORT that has brought
Haiti where it stands today. Stop these international LIES about Haiti, stop
stealing and calling it "helping Haiti!" | Pouki sa lapres lang long fin
dechennen kont pep Ayisyen an? | Plans to make Haiti a penal colony and
officially placed under UN Protectorate proceeds.
https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/ezilidanto/2006-03/msg00002.html
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Ezili Danto's note. Stephen Lendman is a regular contributor to the Ezili Danto/HLLN listserve with several good articles on Haiti's current situation. I found the piece "Lendman's Soup" interesting and covering our global crisis, where Haiti is just one of the samples of plunder and for profit ideology that is further wrecking the lives of the "wretched of the earth." Lendman, this 72-year old white man's observations and analysis in "Lendman's Soup," combined with Africa's Cde Chen Chimutengwende's 'Black People Remain Oppressed', also in this post, make a powerful statement denying regular spins of the white saviors and their "local African quislings," (ie. Condi
Rice, Kofi Annan or Gerald Latortue, et al..), who are destroying the Southern Hemisphere of this planet for profit and plunder and calling it "humanitarian aid" or supporting "free trade" and "democracy."

Lendman's soup is seasoned with sincerity, sanity as well as lots of hope...

Hello to all -

No barbeques for me on the long holiday weekend commemorated for the wrong
reason as most of them are. It should pay tribute to all those (military and
civilian) on all sides who died in our imperial wars of conquest in service
to the giant corporations that profit from them. Fat chance that ever
happening in "the land of the free and home of the brave" where all (rich
white men only) are created equal but no one else.

I spent my weekend answering an emailer to VHeadline.com, where I'm a regular
commentator, who wasn't happy about the "Lendman soup" he emailed me about.
I decided to have some fun with him in my first paragraph, stopped laughing
and settled down to write a serious article explaining why I started writing
in the first place, and then showed the stark difference between Hugo
Chavez's Venezuela and George Bush's USA. Some difference indeed as I hope
you'll read and see - like night and day.

My editor uses his editorial license to choose titles which is fine with me. The one I chose was My Splendiferous and Serendipitous Soup. I could have used 3 or 4 others I liked as well. You can go to my home page on VHeadline.com and find an easier to read version of this article.

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend as much as I did mine.
Steve
May 29, 2006
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Bylined to: Stephen Lendman
May 29, 2006

Lendman's soup is seasoned with sincerity, sanity as well as lots of hope...

VHeadline.com commentarist Stephen Lendman writes: Despite the jaded palate
of my persistent critic whose name rhymes with phooey and hooey, I savor the
splendor of my special soup I brew with sincerity and sanity. That's quite
different from my gadfly whose comments are little more than shameless
servings of senseless and sanctimonious slobbering.

I understand his situation as so many others suffer from the same
insufferable, sorrowful and stuporous state of insensibility.

The sap has been seduced by the self-serving sickness of shallowness,
subservience and surliness from having sold out to the simpletons he sucks up
to and sanctifies. I've tried before to save the silly sucker, but he prefers
to sink in his insipid stew and stay a schlump. Such a shame.

Why an aging retired small businessman decided to write:

Living in the US for nearly 72 years, I've seen what ails our system, know
how I want to heal it, and understand we'd better get about working for it or
face a future no one will relish -- or maybe no future at all. I rail about
this all the time because our way is flawed, corrupted and based on plunder
and exploitation for profit to benefit the privileged few and no one else. It
treats people like commodities to be used and discarded like trash when no
longer needed. It allows giant predatory corporations carte blanche to
operate with no restraints on their divine right of capitalism, with no rules
except the ones benefiting them. It needs endless war on the world for new
markets, essential resources and cheap labor.

It tolerates no "outliers" like Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales who have the
temerity to think they can serve the interests of their own people above
those of their dominant Northern neighbor that always had it the other way.
It's a flat borderless world where people everywhere lose out to the
interests of power, profit and privilege. It's a world falsely extolled as
the best of all possible ones, but, in fact, is just the opposite. It's a
corrupted and failed world that can't be repaired. It's a cancer consuming us
we must expunge before it's too late. It's a world unfit to live in unless
you happen to be rich and powerful. It's a world unable to endure the abuse
inflicted on it and will one day expire from it unless stopped and reversed.
It's not the world I want, and I work every day for the one I do. I know how
daunting a task that is because too few of us understand the problem, how it
affects our own welfare, or have joined the fight to overcome it while
there's still time.

It's not easy marshalling opposition to an empire when so many living under
it are as easily seduced by its message as my gadfly. I too was once an
adherent, was weaned to be a believer in the system and remained faithful to
it much too long. It's hard feeling otherwise when the power of the message
is so great, begins early on, and never ends.

It starts in the schools where everyone is fed only acceptable doctrine up to
the highest levels. It was ingrained in me there, especially in college and
through grad school where I was taught by experts who knew why they were
there and did their job well.

The idea was and is to make us all "proper" citizens and accept without
question the notion of American "exceptionalism" and that we're blessed to
live in the best of all possible countries. It's all a myth but one easy to
sell to young minds ready to believe almost anything repeated often enough
and from sources we think we can trust: our teachers in school, our favorites
in the corporate media, the clergy, and all other institutions of power.

The reality, however, belies their false message, and the only thing holding
up their house of cards is its constant repetition backed up with invented
fears of threats that don't exist and brute force at home and abroad to show
we're fighting them. It's something Gandhi understood when he was once asked
what he thought of Western civilization and answered "I think it would be a
good idea." And he said that long before the age of George W. Bush.

It took me a while in the real world to awaken to the way things really are.
Like everyone else, I was focused on work and family and early on didn't make
the effort I should have. But once I started years ago I continued and then
couldn't stop. For me, it was a gradual awakening, and it came by reading the
works of many dozens of great social thinkers, scholars, and activists.

• They taught me what I now know and never learned at two of the most
prestigious of all institutions of higher learning including the one where I
got my MBA in 1960 before that credential got popular.

That noted university ranks at the top among the "finishing schools" that
train future corporate CEOs, some of them came from my class, and I knew a
couple when they were just classmates. I chose not to follow in its tradition
nor do I believe in its dogma that profit is "the be all and end all" and
plunder is an acceptable way to achieve it. I doubt they'd welcome me back
now, think of me as one of their own or cite me as one of their many success
stories. I preach and practice a much different philosophy than theirs.

My view of things and the kind of world I want to live in and leave for
others is one where people and their needs come first -- not the message I
got from Econ or Marketing 101. Despite my modest means, I think of myself as
one of the privileged. But I identify myself with what Martinique born
thinker, writer and activist Frantz Fanon called "The Wretched of the Earth"
(the title of his best known book which I've read and own). Fanon deplored
the horrors of colonial subjugation and championed the liberation of all
people under its oppressive yoke. I'm no Fanon, but so do I, and I recognize
and look at all people everywhere as my brothers and sisters and support them
all and their right to social equity and justice.

That's why I take on the leaders of my country, their one-sided support for
giant corporate interests and the rich, and the policies they adopt at home
and abroad to work on their behalf and against ours.

It's a tradition that goes back to our roots, born in the original sin of
slavery and white supremacy, best expressed by one of the nation's Founders
and First Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay when he said "Those who own
the country ought to govern it." That notion is more alive now than ever and
barely disguised anymore. But today is just an extension of the past in a
nation weaned on war, imperial expansion, extreme racism and classism and the
belief that all the (white only) rich and powerful were created equal but no
one else. I guess that leaves me out and most everybody else.

How Hugo Chavez treats his people compared to George Bush ... pick the Leader
you'd prefer.

Compare how things are in the US now to the way they are today under Hugo
Chavez in Venezuela.

The stark difference between them almost seems like they're happening on two
different planets. My country is the hostile planet earth of George Bush
that's indifferent to essential human needs and believes imperial oppression
is good for us. Venezuela is quite different because of Hugo Chavez'
alternate vision. It's a people-friendly one dedicated to helping all
Venezuelans (especially the most needy) by providing an array of essential
social programs and services unimaginable in the US: free universal health
and dental care for all, free education to the highest levels, food security
and clean water, micro credit and support for small business, land and home
ownership for the people, worker cooperatives and independent community radio
free from the poison spread by the corporate-owned media and much more.

• And along with all that, Chavez instituted a participatory
democracy under which ordinary people have a real say in how the country is
governed.

Can anyone imagine those things happening in the US? Impossible.
There's more, lots of it but here's just a sample ... Hugo Chavez aids his
neighbors and doesn't threaten to invade them or any others; the country has
no secret prisons; no illegal political prisoners or illegal detentions;
doesn't practice torture; doesn't ethnically cleanse its population from
neighborhoods wanted for redevelopment or entire cities like the US did to
its black population of New Orleans to turn that city into a giant theme park
for the rich and tourist trade; has never suspended constitutional law even
in the face of a coup d'etat, mass street riots and a crippling US-instigated
oil lockout and shutdown; and is working to clean up and change a legacy and
systemic climate of corruption and inefficient state bureaucracy.
Now compare that record to how the US operates...

It devotes its immense resources to plunder, slaughter and destruction and
treats ordinary people like production inputs or commodities -- to be used as
needed and dumped when they no longer are.

The Bush administration, in its infinite arrogance, claims the right to
forcibly oust any government it views as a threat to its security. It doesn't
matter if it is, just that we say it is. It sees Chavez as such a threat and
has tried and failed three times to remove him with a fourth attempt likely
well underway.

I've said before Hugo Chavez is the greatest of all threats to US hegemony
everywhere -- the threat of a good example that left in place may grow and
spread to other countries in the region and beyond.

The Bush administration won't tolerate that, and is either fomenting another
coup to oust Chavez, likely with intent to kill him so he won't rise again
from the deposed, or will go to war if that's what it takes to get the job
done.

• Should it happen, as I'm convinced it will, it will be no different
from how the US has treated its Latin American neighbors for over 150 years.
Over that time, the US invaded Mexico and stole the half of the country it
wanted. That began what became a tradition as from then until now it
continued to remove the governments of a dozen Latin American countries it
disapproved of (none of which posed a threat except to our hegemony) by coup
or armed incursion and did it four dozen different times for whatever
convenient reasons it concocted to justify its action. We even gave names to
our hostile actions using benign language Orwell would have approved of. My
favorite was Herbert Hoover's (and later Franklin Roosevelt's) Good Neighbor
Policy.

It was about as good as his economic policy at home that with lots of help
from the Federal Reserve caused The Great Depression that ravaged the country
for a decade and took the German and Japanese aggression and world war they
started (with our nudging) to pull us out of it.

War is good for business, and a big one is terrific.

Look at more examples of how different things are in Venezuela...

Hugo Chavez wants no part of the destructive neoliberal policies imposed by
the WTO, IMF and World Bank but preferred by Washington because they only
favor us. Instead he's used the nation's resources for the public good and
promoted the Bolivarian notion of Latin American integration through economic
aid and joint ventures that benefit those countries participating in them
equally. Some difference from the Washington Consensus that's a one-way
street with a dead-end for developing countries sucked into it.

Now, look at the differences between the two countries in some of their
current economic data. In Venezuela, an economic boom lifting all boats is
the result of Chavez' policies (helped by high oil prices, of course). The
economy is soaring, inflation and unemployment are down, and Chavez has
continued his policy since 2000 of raising the minimum wage each year by 20 -
30%. He just raised it again in the first quarter of 2006 by another 10%.

Data from Venezuela's National Statistics Institute show the result. The
poverty rate stood at 80% for many years before Chavez was elected. A year
before he came into office in 1997 it was an official 61%. The latest figures
available as of the end of 2005 show the rate now down to under 44%, a
dramatic change in a short time.

It was all different before Chavez' Bolivarian Revolution that began in 1998.
The country was a sham 40 year elite-controlled "democracy" (for the rich and
powerful only) with 80% of the people in desperate poverty and 75% of the
arable land owned by 5% of the population; its schools and hospitals were
crumbling and two-thirds of the people had no access to basic medical care
and most everything else; it was mostly an oil-based economy and political
system controlled by and benefiting the rich and well-off middle class only
and all under the giant shadow and dominance of the US that just cared about
it's access to and control of the nation's oil and as much other wealth as it
could suck out of the country. It took plenty.

In all of Latin American from 1990-2002, US banks and transnational
corporations earned about $1,000,000,000,000 ($1 trillion) in profits and
were the main beneficiary of nearly $180 billion of state-owned enterprises
privatized and thus expropriated from the people.

Now compare the Chavez achievements to the US under George Bush...
We're by far the richest country in the world with nearly enough resources to
be able to pave the streets with gold if they were used responsibly. The US's
2005 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was over 90 times greater than Venezuela's
with a population about 12 times greater. Here's another comparison I cited
in an earlier article on VHeadline.com. The largest US corporation in 2005,
Exxon-Mobil, alone had gross sales about 2.8 times greater than Venezuela's
total GDP.

So with all that wealth, what do the numbers show?

Over 46 million Americans have no health insurance and millions more have too
little; inner city schools are so deliberately degraded that millions of kids
in them finish up unable to read, write or do math; the official US
Department of Education illiteracy rate is about 20% compared to Venezuela
where it's virtually zero; adjusted for inflation, the average working person
in the US earns less than 30 years ago and the federal minimum wage (a paltry
$5.15 an hour) hasn't been raised since 1997; the growing wealth gap between
rich and poor has never been greater in modern times; the average CEO in 2004
earned 431 times the income of the average working person, a ten-fold
increase in the spread since 1980; the official poverty rate is 12.7% or
about 37 million people in 2005 and rising, but it's widely acknowledged the
number is rigged and true figure is much higher; the prison population is the
largest in the world and growing by 1000 new inmates a week; higher paid
manufacturing and many high-tech jobs are being exported to low wage
countries and replaced by low-paying service ones with few or no benefits;
the ranks of organized labor have dropped from about one third of all workers
in 1958 to under 13% today; and the level of racism is as great as before the
landmark civil rights legislation in the 1960s that was passed to end it.

Had enough, or can I throw in one more for good measure for those who follow
the monthly reports from the US Labor Department.

The official unemployment rate it reports is dead wrong according to some
economists willing and honest enough to speak out about it. They claim (and I
agree with them) the true current figure would be about 12% instead of the
reported 4.7% if the rate today was calculated the same way it was during The
Great Depression when it rose to a peak of 25% and the Roosevelt
administration was alarmed enough to think its consequences might cause a
Russian-style revolution. That's why we got all the great New Deal social
programs from a government that cared enough or was scared enough to give
them to us.

Now George Bush wants to end them all including our landmark Social Security
along with Medicare, Medicaid and about everything else to transfer more
wealth to the rich and fund his war machine. Bush's policies are the opposite
of Franklin Roosevelt's ... he's the greatest wrecker of social programs
since the late 19th century and age of the "robber barons" when the country
had few social gains to reverse and didn't think about adding any.

And in case any VHeadline readers need reminding: under the Bush Big Oil
administration, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the US is just
under $3 as a result of blatant market manipulation mostly at the refinery
level to deliberately keep it high. That's perfectly acceptable to the Bush
administration run by former oil men and one woman who had an oil tanker
named after her. Compare that to Venezuela where gasoline costs 12 cents a
gallon.

Anyone detect a strange odor?

It's coming from the smell of corruption from the Capitol and White House.
Anyone thinking it's about time we stopped putting up with this outrage and
began acting to take our government back. It's up to us to do it because no
one there will give it to us.

Back to my splendid soup I want to share with all!

I know why I write and hope my readers do as well. The world today is not the
one I want, and I intend to work not just to change it but to help save it
before it's too late. I agree with Noam Chomsky who fears that unless we
change course we face the possibility of one or more three unpleasant
outcomes: the real threat of passing from a republic to tyranny, a nuclear
holocaust and/or environmental destruction.

None of us would relish those alternatives ... but we'd better realize
they're real and one or more of them may happen in our lifetime or even quite
soon.
I intend to keep brewing my special soup and season it well with sincerity,
sanity as well as lots of hope and hard work for social equity and justice
for all. It's even there for the naysayers and disbelievers to sample.

They ought to try some.

They might discover a whole new flavor far better than the witch's brew they
now prefer.Stephen Lendman
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net

• Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net

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See also, HLLN on USAID/OTI - More Than 10 Million US Dollars spent since May 2004 to Decimate Lavalas Party in Haiti
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Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html
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"When you make a choice, you mobilize vast human energies and resources which otherwise go untapped...........If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want and all that is left is a compromise." Robert Fritz

Pèralte Speaks!

_______________
The
Crucifiction of Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme,
a historical
perspective

Urge the Caribbean Community to stand firm in not recognizing the illegal Latortue regime: