[Xmca-l] Re: Haiti by the numbers, five years after

[Martin John Packer]

This was a recent attempt to explore the history of the Haitian revolution:

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lsqgs>

Martin

On Jan 16, 2015, at 6:34 AM, Dr. Paul C. Mocombe <pmocombe@mocombeian.com> wrote:

> Briefly, Haiti's problems go back to the revolution.  To use malcolm-x ' s metaphor, haiti was a successful revolution bcuz it was the first rebellion in the Americas where the house "niggers" and the field "niggers" agreed to work together to overthrow slavery.
> 
> People fail to realize that the first two presidents, Alexander petion and boyer, of the republic were mulatto elites who were sent by napoleon  to reclaim the island for France.  Dessalines met with petion (the treaty of archaie) and they agreed to work together to rid the island of the french, spanish, and british.  Following the war, dessalines crowned himself emperor and attempted a land reform program.  As a result of the program, he was assassinated by petion and christophe who sought to implement somewhat of a share cropping system on the island.  The majority of the africans, 70 percent of haiti's population was directly from africa when the revolution commences, refused to partake in anything resembling slavery and went into the mountains and the provinces, where they reproduced african village life.  The mulatto elites claimed  port-au-prince, and attempted to turn it into the Paris of the caribbean. The rest of haiti was claimed by the free black generals of the revolution.
> 
> So since 1806, the death of dessalines, there has been an internal struggle between the mulatto (merchant) elites and the free (landowning) blacks over the state and it's meager resources at the expense of the african masses.  
> 
> Guess whose side racist america has been on attempting to implement policies that favor the mulatto merchant class at the expense of the landowning blacks and the masses, who still view the world in black, white, and mulatto?  The latter two are the enemies of the poor black majority. 
> 
> Essentially, haiti has been fighting a civil war since 1806!  
> 
> 
> Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
> President
> The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc.
> www.mocombeian.com 
> www.readingroomcurriculum.com 
> www.paulcmocombe.info 
> 
> <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: rjsp2 <r.j.s.parsons@open.ac.uk> </div><div>Date:01/16/2015  5:46 AM  (GMT-05:00) </div><div>To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu> </div><div>Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Haiti by the numbers, five years after </div><div>
> </div>I know little about Haiti, apart from having seen some of the work of
> Telecoms sans Frontieres (e.g.
> http://www.unfoundation.org/assets/pdf/haiti-earthquake-tsf-emergency-response-1.pdf)
> so perhaps I am badly placed to pronounce, but I have seen this sort of
> thing before, so can I make some points based on my general experience.
> 
> First of all, doing something takes some effort. Although clicktivism is
> possible these days (a splendid example of the tool influencing the
> object), if you want to have any kind of real effect, you have to do
> some heavy lifting.
> 
> Most of us ignore Haiti, as we ignore everything else most of the time.
> There is too much stuff for us to do anything else. I have done exactly
> the same. I now have two pieces of evidence: the page Paul mentions, and
> Paul's own impassioned reaction.
> 
> From the page I glean one conclusion, which is that US action is
> directed, as it usually seems to be, primarily towards creating profit
> for US organisations, with any benefit to Haiti being a secondary
> consideration.
> 
> So it seems to me that there are two possible courses of action for a
> concerned US citizen. Both are founded on doing some legwork to find out
> more about Haiti's current position and needs, for which the internet
> will serve as the starting point.
> 
> The first course of action will be to identify NGOs which are working
> for the benefit of the people - I have no doubt there are some - and to
> support their work.
> 
> The second is to use whatever means are at your disposal to influence
> your local congress and senate representatives to redirect US policy so
> that Haiti's needs become the first priority, not the second. You will
> be going up against an immovable object. But nobody ever went into
> politics for the short haul.
> 
> No doubt many people here will have radically different views of the
> position, and you are welcome to shoot me down.
> 
> Rob
> 
> On 16/01/2015 01:51, Dr. Paul C. Mocombe wrote:
>> There are too many hands in the pot in haiti...NGOs, foreign governments, protestant evangelists, and the Catholic Church once again...we ask the good people of the west to tell their governments to get out of the country!  Use your democratic powers to control your governments!
>> 
>> 
>> Dr. Paul C. Mocombe
>> President
>> The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc.
>> www.mocombeian.com
>> www.readingroomcurriculum.com
>> www.paulcmocombe.info
>> 
>> <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> </div><div>Date:01/15/2015  8:41 PM  (GMT-05:00) </div><div>To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu> </div><div>Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Haiti by the numbers, five years after </div><div>
>> </div>Hi Paul,
>> 
>> Well... thanks for calling the tool a fracking shovel. :)
>> 
>> It doesn't mean that there are people, regardless of the Christian quotient, feel troubled by Haiti.
>> 
>> If there were something to do that could really make a difference, we would, wouldn't we?  If doing nothing is the better thing to do, OK. I was doing that already! :)
>> 
>> Could it also be that people do not know what is happening on the ground? Is it possible to become more equitably informed? Without butting in?
>> 
>> Looking at facts and figures don't contribute the gasoline to a theory of change, do they?
>> 
>> I really don't know how to talk about it, but I am making an effort, even if it is awkward.
>> 
>> Kind regards,
>> 
>> Annalisa
>> 
>> 
> 
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>