Haiti In The News...
Haiti In The News...
Junious Ricardo Stanton
We are subjected to daily propaganda, distortions of reality, out and out lies and at the very least statements totally devoid of historical context, analysis or veracity. For example we are now being bombarded with news about the collapse of law and order in Haiti without any insight into the who, what, why and hows of this situation. Nowhere in the corporate or social media do we get any background as to why Haiti is in such deplorable condition, who the actual players are who have orchestrated the collapse or who is benefiting from the situation there.
Would it surprise you to know the United States has had an antagonistic relationship with the republic of Haiti since it was founded following the first successful slave revolution in this hemisphere in 1804? When the inhabitants of that part of the island rose up and overthrow the French colonial slavocracy, the US was petrified! The Haitian Revolution was a severe blow to European slavery and African subjugation throughout the hemisphere.
The main source of labor in the early US was human in the form of servitude/enslavement and after the Haitian Revolution, the white oppressors were terrified Blacks (and whites who were in servitude) would do the same thing here. So Thomas Jefferson, a slave owning documented pedophile who was president at the time, refused to recognize the new Haitian government and subsequently placed an embargo on the island nation! Jefferson’s action began a sixty year policy of slight and enmity against Haiti and its people.
Jefferson “owned” hundreds of enslaved persons of African ancestry, he like his peers feared the enslaved here would rise up and do to them what the Africans in Haiti had done; take control of the land and resources and drive out the slavers! America’s antipathy towards Haiti never waned and in fact grew more bellicose as time passed.
To see a timeline of US policies, interventions and meddling into Haitian affairs go to: https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-14-the-united-states-and-latin-america/moments-in-u-s-latin-american- , https://haitianstudies.ku.edu/haiti-brief-history-complex-nation. https://socialistproject.ca/2021/07/haiti-neo-colonialism-to-neoliberal-brutality/ It is this backdrop and backstory of European imperial animus that frames the current situation in Haiti. Haitians are a proud people who have demonstrated they can govern themselves but the ongoing intervention of outside predatory forces have created a hell on earth for the Haitian people.
The corporate media serves the interests of it owners, the oligarchs who control and run the world. https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/06/01/these-15-billionaires-own-americas-news-media-companies/?sh=2e85a4ed660a, It is they who determine what information we get, what slant or perspective it provides and whose side they promote. What we’ve discovered since the COVID experiment is that these oligarchs will aggressively suppress and censor any information that conflicts with their narratives, interests or bottom line. https://www.tutorialspoint.com/media-and-its-role-in-creation-of-reality . These oligarchs have their own agenda and biases.
History has shown they have an anti-African bias. It wasn’t just the US government that abused the Haitian people, suppressed freedom and foisted oppression upon them it was NGOs and individuals too. For example Bill Clinton and George W. Bu$h ripped off the Haitians with their bogus flood relief scam https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/what-the-clintons-did-to-haiti
In a milieu such as this, it is incumbent upon us to: protect out minds from propaganda and deceit, search out the truth, dig deep, scour and sift the information to embrace what is in our best interests and well being. For example we need to ask who are these gang leaders, where do they get their weapons, equipment and clothing and who is supporting them? Is there any honest intel on them and who can we count on to provide accurate assessments about what is going on on the ground and in the board rooms of the oligarch’s organizations.
Why should we care about what is happening in Haiti, what does what is going on there have to do with us? Well, because our situation is very similar to theirs’. Our community is destabilized, our indigenous leadership has betrayed/failed us, all too often it has been put in place by the oppressor, just like in Haiti. We suffer from the effects of colorism and shadeism here just like Haiti. In Haiti the mulattoes form the elite strata and the sell outs working on behalf of outsiders are foisted upon the masses by outside forces much like in our communities here.
Health conditions for the masses are horrible in Haiti just like here. the Haitian economy has been deliberately devastated via disinvestment, exploitation, land use manipulation and control just like in America. Most Haitians live in poverty and are of African ancestry as are we. The Haitians are demonized and stereotyped by the media just like we are. In short we have a lot in common with the people of Haiti and it behooves us to recognize their plight and empathize with their struggle because we have the same one!
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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 11:17 AM
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