Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Springtime for Haiti
This morning I went out walking. The weather seems to have finally turned. While walking I was thinking about this Haiti deal. I had decided I was not going to write about it, since, frankly, I know little about it; but something was bothering me. Almost every report contains information about the "thousands" cheering Aristide's ouster. And that's when I remembered the Panama invasion in 1989 and the way the media showered the public with the cheering crowds. Those cheering crowds were generally the upper middle class who were being squeezed by Noriega's populist policies, not the poor nor their neighborhoods. We never saw the bodies.
Likewise in Haiti, I keep wondering where are the bodies? Who are these people cheering?
I want to trust that our government had no complicity in the "kidnapping", but we don't have the best track record. The Panama Deception chronicles our love affair with Noriega; Pinochet was our guy; the Pentagon Papers highlight a number of planned scenario's under which we could "legitimately" invade Cuba; and we're not too keen on Chavez (he thinks that we are undermining his presidency).
I'm trying to keep up with all this and sort things out, but if you have insight or info, let me know.
UPDATE: The Guardian has an editorial that may put things in some sort of context.
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Likewise in Haiti, I keep wondering where are the bodies? Who are these people cheering?
I want to trust that our government had no complicity in the "kidnapping", but we don't have the best track record. The Panama Deception chronicles our love affair with Noriega; Pinochet was our guy; the Pentagon Papers highlight a number of planned scenario's under which we could "legitimately" invade Cuba; and we're not too keen on Chavez (he thinks that we are undermining his presidency).
I'm trying to keep up with all this and sort things out, but if you have insight or info, let me know.
UPDATE: The Guardian has an editorial that may put things in some sort of context.
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