Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner August 26, 2008
Posted by jmakala in : immigration, strategy tuesdays, us politics , 4commentsThe surprise guest is not Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE). Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) announced at 3:00 AM on Saturday that he had picked his colleague as his traveling companion, aka Vice-Presidential nominee. They will be hitting the road together when the Democratic Convention ends on Thursday August 28 hoping to convince voters come November that the presidency of the United States should switch hands and not remain firmly in the Republican Party’s corner. They will be eating plenty of dinners together.
According to news reports and analysis, Obama settled on Biden because of his grasp and knowledge of foreign policy, given the 30 years he has spent on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, some of it as its Chairman. Leslie Gelb, of the Council on Foreign Relations calls him “quintessential pragmatic centrist realist,” according to politico.com.
I take away from reading up on Biden that he will be tough on the McCain ticket, compete with them on which team, Democrats or Republicans, can be tough on Russia, look into Russian Prime Minister Putin’s eyes and not blink first, challenge or tamper China’s rise to the top, mobilize troops if necessary to protect the United States’ strategic interests and wage the so-called war on terrorism. In short, Biden brings experience and continuity in dealing with emerging and decadent superpowers, major allies and foes.
He appears to bring less knowledge and experience in dealing with the developing world. For example, I could find little of substance with respect to Biden’s take on Haiti when in 1994 President Clinton decided to back with military might President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s determination to return to the office that was usurped by Haiti’s tin-can soldiers three years before. Neither could I detect much of an involvement nor a pronouncement beyond common rhetoric when President George Bush thought in 2004 that he could not appear to cave in to President Aristide’s threat of a surge in boat people and decided to remove him militarily from office.
Yet, beyond managing superpower issues, dealing successfully with the developing world may just be the bellwether of “change that we can believe in.” Which brings me to my initial question: Guess who’s coming to dinner?
Coming to terms with child slavery in Haiti August 12, 2008
Posted by jmakala in : restavek, strategy tuesdays , 1 comment so farBest intentions are not enough…
After ABC News Nightline broadcast its recent special on child slavery in Haiti (How to Buy a Child in Ten Hours), several well-meaning colleagues admitted that they felt ill-at-ease with the claim made in the televised broadcast. One challenged the very notion that Haitian children could be bought and sold for cold cash. Another said that this was a made-for-TV –ratings setup. Yet another claimed that exposing the ease with which a child could be procured in Haiti would boost the child trafficking industry, and that potential buyers would flock to Haiti in search of children to own knowing that they could get away with it.
I disagreed with all of them. I experienced neither malaise nor offense when I watched the special report. The ABC News exposé had struck the right note, entirely in line with my understanding and knowledge of child trafficking in Haiti.
Had they complained about a UN-sponsored radio spot on the matter which features Haitian-American Hip Hop star Wyclef Jean, I would have probably joined their chorus. The spot, which can be found on the web site of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), has reportedly played on Haitian radio and reached hundreds of thousands. It is unfortunately misleading and offensive.
Restavèk: Slavery No Matter How You Slice It August 12, 2008
Posted by Tammi in : restavek, strategy tuesdays , 1 comment so far
More than once I have heard the restavèk system defended as a part of Haitian culture. Comments posted after ABC News Nightline aired “How to Buy a Child in Ten Hours” include: “It’s very easy to judge not being acquainted with Haitian customs … The practice of ‘lending’ a child away to go and live with well-off families for their sake is a practice very old in Haiti.” So let’s take a closer look at the way things have been done in Haiti for a very long time.
Throughout Haiti’s history power has been concentrated in the hands of a few, and exercised not at the service or benefit of the Haitian people, but at their expense. Moun andeyo, literally “people outside,” while used to describe those who live in the Haitian countryside, is an apt term to describe most people in Haiti: people on the outside of political and economic power. The exclusivity of power has always been an issue in Haiti, as well as pre-Haiti, i.e., Saint-Domingue, where the whites were the owners, the blacks the owned, and the mulattoes a combination of the two. Slave labor generated enormous wealth for France, earning the colony the distinctive title “Pearl of the Antilles.” But the name came at the expense of the slaves, many of whom were literally worked to death, provoking history’s only successful slave revolt.
Free the Child, Emancipate the Mind August 11, 2008
Posted by jmakala in : musings, restavek , add a comment
Step 1
Several months ago, in support of efforts to bring pressure to bear on Haitian government authorities and their allies to end child slavery in Haiti for good, my colleague Tamara Thompson set up an online petition, setting a modest goal of 1,000 signatures. To date, about 690 people have signed up.
I say: we can do better than that! Yes, let’s get a thousand signatories, but let’s shoot for 10,000. And why not a million: 1,000,000 signatures from all over the world to match what can be achieved in Haiti itself with the appropriate strategy and resources?
All it takes is 5 minutes of your time:
- 1 minute to sign the petition
- 4 minutes to forward the petition to your friends, colleagues and relatives, and urge them to follow your example.
Brother, sister, father, mother, son, daughter: can you spare 5 minutes? You can sign on to the petition that is at the sidebar at JMC STRATEGIES.
You can spread the petition to your email contacts and post it to social networking web sites like facebook, stumble upon, linkedin, your own website, or one of your other favorite internet haunts.
You can also download the petition, make copies, solicit signatures through your school, church, association and snail mail. Then you can send it to me directly.
Step 2
The mind is a terrible thing to waste, trumpeted the United Negro College Fund in an ad campaign designed to solicit funds for the benefit of higher education institutions that offered African-Americans a college education and experience.
This is indeed true, for the human mind is far superior to the fastest supercomputer ever produced by men and women on earth. Don’t believe me? Check out this video lecture.
Then imagine the wonders that can be produced by the mind of an emancipated child in Haiti… Rwanda… Kenya… Ethiopia… the USA…
What if Haitian Athletes Defected in China? August 11, 2008
Posted by jmakala in : musings, restavek , 9commentsTen Haitians or persons competing under the Haitian flag are competing in the Beijing Olympics which started on Friday August 8. However one would be hard pressed to find them on the official Olympics Committee site. The site is poorly structured and it does not seem to allow a search for individual athletes by just using the country for which they are competing as the keyword search term. Using bits of information culled from the official site and other sites, I have done the homework for you. At the end of the article, you will see the official information.
If there are indeed Haitian athletes in Beijing who decide to defect, I could not blame them. In the last 60 years, China has gone from a hardly developing country to a superpower which holds the fate of the United States in its hands. Modern cities, endowed with spectacular architectural and engineering achievements have sprung all over China while the country has spread its influence over the developed and developing world.
Let’s Really Put a Stop to Child Slavery in Haiti! August 5, 2008
Posted by Tammi in : haitian politics, restavek, strategy tuesdays , 1 comment so far
August 23rd marks the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. We observe it on this date, because in 1791 slaves in the French colony of St-Domingue rose up and threw off the shackles of their enslavement. In 1804, they triumphed, making Haiti the first nation in the world founded on the abolishment of slavery.
Recently, many were shocked to learn as they watched ABC News Nightline’s “How to Buy a Child in Ten Hours,” that today child slavery flourishes in Haiti in the form of domestic servitude commonly known as the restavèk practice (from the French rester avec, to stay with). Just an hour and a half from Disney World, tens of thousands of children lose their labor, their childhoods, and their sense of humanity working day and night as “stay withs,” as house slaves.
Child slavery in Haiti may be the ultimate symbol of a state that has failed its most vulnerable members. It lays bare the appalling lack of access to basic goods and services. It also brings into sharp focus the reality that most parents in Haiti lack the fundamental tools to demand that local and national government ensure a level playing field so that they can build a decent future for themselves and their children.
Haiti: Act III, Scene 1? Check! Scene 2? Still in Development July 29, 2008
Posted by jmakala in : haitian politics, strategy tuesdays , 2commentsWe last reported that we had no idea how Act III of Haitian Politics 101 was going to develop. Haitian Politics 101 refers to the absence of government leadership since parliament sent the government of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis packing more than three months ago (see this story for a refresher on political developments in Haiti since June).
Act III naturally follows Act I and Act II, which featured the Haitian parliament giving a resounding nyet to the two nominees that President René Préval had put to the consideration of the illustrious (sic) body. Act III began at least three weeks ago with the emergence of Ms. Michèle Pierre-Louis, Executive Director of a prominent non-profit, FOKAL, as the President’s last best option. But an interesting thing happened on the way to consideration of the nomination: it appeared stuck in a debate over Pierre-Louis’ moral fitness for the position (for a recap, click here).
“Who would have thunk it?” as some Haitian-Americans who are deeply immersed in American slang would say. Here was a lady who had distinguished herself in the last 13 years (since 1995) with running a foundation that, among other things, promoted grassroots efforts to stimulate economic opportunities, and learning, education and healthy debates among young Haitian minds. A lady whose credentials had thus far not been the subject of derision. Here was that lady being told that she held to standards of behavior that were deemed inappropriate for the office that she would direct in Port-au-Prince if she got the legislator’s nod.
Ira Gollobin: Mentor and Friend July 22, 2008
Posted by jmakala in : haitian politics, immigration, strategy tuesdays, us politics , add a commentIra Kurzban
Miami, FL
[Remarks made at memorial service for Ira and Ruth Gollobin, July 19, 2008. For more testimonials from Ira's friends, relatives and colleagues, please visit http://gollobin.org]
Ira Gollobin was a remarkable lawyer, a brilliant strategist, and a superb mentor and teacher. He did it all with deep humility that arose, not from false modesty, but from a profound understanding of a lawyer’s role in the political arena.
Ira was not humble because he was afraid. He had a healthy respect for the awesome power of a federal government gone astray as in the Palmer raids, or in the treatment of Haitian refugees, or today, in the treatment of the foreign born from the Middle East. And he knew that bravado alone was not enough to fight such an implacable foe. But he also knew, and encouraged all of us to recognize, that by coordinating excellent legal work with a deft political strategy, we could uplift the poor and disenfranchised, and support if not win, their political objectives.
He also took the long view. He knew we were in a struggle that went beyond the individual crisis of the moment and invoked a class struggle that used and reused the foreign born for economic objectives. Because his perspective was so broad, he wisely counseled us to be patient and to not indulge in the delusion that we, as lawyers or as organizers, would have some final, definitive victory for immigrants and refugees. We all wanted to be dragon-slayers in our youth and Ira taught us in middle-age to be fisherman who patiently prepare and wait for the appropriate opportunity.
DBR: The Haitian-American Music Sensation You Never Heard of July 17, 2008
Posted by jmakala in : musings, tidbit fridays , 1 comment so far
I confess: I had not heard of him either. Until last year when a dear friend steered my attention his way, so that I could in turn steer my daughter Leyla’s attention in the same direction. Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a composer and violonist who seems determined to create new sounds and harmonies by mixing classical with hip hop and other musical genres, all heavily laced with Haitian rhythms. Interesting mix it is. Rather than having me expound on his achievements, hear him tell it to you in his own voice. You can learn all about DBR by visiting his web site dbrmusic.com. You can view videos, read reviews, listen to the music and purchase some of the CDs that are on sale. Or check the schedule of performances and make it a point to pencil it in your calendar of must-see entertainment.
Leyla is a cellist, graduated in 2007 from New York University’s School of Education with a B.A. in the Performing Arts. Since Leyla emerged from NYU with a degree in hand, she’s been slowly dealing with the realities of post-college adult free
doms and obligations while remaining dedicated to making a living as a musician. So far, things seem to be slowly moving in the right direction. About a year ago, we found her on stage at Town Hall in New York, performing at a concert conceived as a “tribute to the teachers of America” by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary fame). The Concert was broadcast on PBS television stations around the country. Last March 2008, she played in the Peru International Jazz Festival. Most recently, Leyla performed at Carnegie Hall with Mos Def and Gill Scott Heron (The revolution will not be televised). She filled in as a member of a 23-piece band that featured an all-female string section. For a review of the concert, please click this link. Leyla plays occasionally with Amayo’s Fu Ar-kist-ra, an afro-beat band that is musically inspired by Fela. Last June, she performed with her own band, Medicine Woman, as artists in residence at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY.
Unique Art Exhibit in Brooklyn, NY July 17, 2008
Posted by jmakala in : musings, tidbit fridays , add a commentIf you have visited this site before or picked up an email from me, you probably know that I think highly of Raphael Denis, whose paintings rank among some of the best that I know. You probably missed the art exhibit that I steered your attention to a few months ago. Remember the one that was held in South Orange, NJ? Today, you get a second chance. Raphael will be exhibiting on August 2 and 3 at Emma’s Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibit will also feature works by one of his proteges, Jocelyne Telson.
Emma’s Gallery is located at 579 Lenox Road in Brooklyn, NY. Join the artists at the opening reception on August 2, from 4pm to 8pm. For further information, call 718-604-1765. Tell them JMC STRATEGIES sent you.
Loading ...