Editorials / Columns
Playing the Blues---Haitian Style!
By Keenan Singleton
Mar 4, 2004, 20:52

Here’s to hoping that ousted Haitian PresidentJean-Bertrand Aristide knows how to play the blues.

Solo.

Aristide, who, according to his bio on haiti.com, is an accomplished musician, lost his homeland and his power when an uprising of rebel forces overthrew his regime, forcing the 50-year-old president to seek refuse.

Aristide has already played to this sad, sad song.

He was exiled in 1991 by the Haitian military, but was reinstated by the U.S. in 1994.

While Aristide takes residence in the French-speaking Central African Republic; the United States, France, the elite of Haiti and the 15-nation Caribbean Community will decide the fate and future of this tiny island.

Supporters and detractors of Aristide’s regime did agree on one thing, if Haiti’s first-ever democratically elected president was to continue making music, he’d have to leave the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

Two papers from across the pond, Britain’s the Independent and the Guardian, try to let their readers hear the sour notes coming from the Bush Administration.

Whether the story is Beethoven or Vanilla Ice to your ears depends on what side of the pond you reside on -- the States or Britain.

The British papers tend to hang the crux of their stories on the uncertainty of the last days of Aristide--on whether or not he voluntarily surrendered his post or if he was forced out by the Bush Administration.

In the United States, the commercial media have simply praised the efforts of the Bush Administration and the U.S. Marines. They say both parties have attempted to restore order and democracy to the embattled former French colony.

In "Aristide Waits for News of his Future" by Associated Press writer Angela Doland in the Houston Chronicle on March 4, the story makes little mention of Aristide’s allegation’s against the U.S. and the little it does mention is buried in the eighth paragraph of a 13-paragraph story.

Paisley Dodds and Michelle Faul, both reporters from the Associated Press, take a different angle. The central issue in the Guardian’s "Supporters Question Aristide Letter" is whether or not Aristide’s ouster was voluntary or forced? Was it fake or genuine?

Another Associated Press writer, George Gedda, talks prominently about Aristide’s controversial departure in "U.S. Says Aristide Rescued From Violence." In the second paragraph, Gedda explores Aristide’s last days in office.

Is it merely coincidence that American newspapers, under the umbrella of bottom-line corporations (President Bush’s favorite voting block) focus on the positives of Bush’s support of the removal of Aristide?

I think not.

It is obvious someone is lying, either Aristide’s camp or Bush’s.

And we all know what happened with the Weapons of Mass Destruction….......

May I ask where they are? Whoops, I may want to be silent or risk being locked up as a terrorist or be termed unamerican.

Instead of listening to the pleas of Haiti’s poor (the bulk of Aristide’s supporters), the President has stuck both index fingers into his ears and refused to hear the music.

As if this is a big surprise for the middle and lower classes of America.

Now, the poor people of Haiti and their disposed leader are singing the blues.

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