This Friday, the 29th of February, there are cross-Canada events commemorating the 4th anniversary of the coup against the elected Fanmi Lavalas government in Haiti.Most famously, this coup ended with the kidnapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But there was also destruction of civil and municipal institutions. This is extremely serious in a country like Haiti, where so much already lies so close to disaster.
Under the coup regime, a recent Lancet medical journal study estimated that thousands were killed and over 30 000 women were sexually assaulted. This finding is disputed- generally by those who are all to happy to claim that Haitians are yet unready for democracy.
I received one of the shocks of my supposedly educated life when I learned that Canada was complicit in this coup. Ironically, at least for someone who had put so much stock in the CBC, I first learned about Canada's involvement from the American media, specifically DemocracyNow.
Even now, Canada has its federal police, infamous here for tasers, corruption, collusion with American security, and the abuse of Natives, training the Haitian police.
As Afghanistan is debated here, and held up down south as the alternative to Iraq disaster by the Democratic Party, it's important to remember that the banner for Canada's anti-democratic actions in Haiti is 'peacekeeping', and the 'Responsibility to Protect'.
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Thought about this one in the shower today. I used to wonder what I would have done if I had been a US citizen when they declared war on Iraq. Would I have fled 'ailleurs' or would I have stayed in order to protest? The third option, of course, is to stay and not protest.
This is the one I've chosen as a citizen on Canada and once in a whie I'm reminded of how hypocritical and useless I am being, esp. in regards to Haiti and Afghanistan.
You humble me, sir.
Or what do you do if you think the mentally ill are being mistreated? Or indigenous people? You've been doing constructive things about this.
I guess what is important is to think about 'nation' and what that means.
What's the relation of Canada and Canadian policy to its citizen and people?
That's complicated, but as a start, there's a good argument to be made that you have to make the government stop listening to that thin strata that exists and profits from misery.
Obviously, none of us can engage in all those struggles, but it's important that we learn from each of them.
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