HLLN currently campaigns and is mobilizing
legislative and international support for Haitian-American foreign
policy concerns:
Haitian-Americans
ask the next US president and Congress to....end the UN occupation;
stop unequal immigration treatment of Haitian refugees and asylum
seekers; cancel, without condition, Haiti's debt to international
financial institutions; void unfair trade laws, start reciprocal trade,
restrict free trade so not to dump food and other imports into Haiti
that eviscerate Haiti's domestic growth and by also calibrating Haiti's
domestic needs for agricultural expansion, public works, job creation,
health care, schools, sanitation, infrastructure, and by adding enforceable
human rights, labor, environmental rights provisions in US trade laws;
permanently stop all deportations to Haiti, grant TPS; stop trading
for Haiti with USAID, demand new foreign aid guidelines and oversight
of USAID in Haiti. Investigate the role of US in the 2004 coup d'etat
where US Special forces forcibly exiled President Jean Bertrand Aristide
via an unmarked plane used for renditions.
- U.S. good governance and democratic enhancement policies administered
by USAID should result in maximizing, not depleting or obliterating
the Haitian Diaspora's $2Billion annual remittances and investments
in Haiti; the next US
Congress and President should implement new US foreign assistance
regulations, guidelines and oversight to ensure foreign aid administered
by USAID actually reaches the people in need, doesn't stay in Washington
and is not primarily used for USAID's political benefactors, NGOs
and non-profit's administrative, salary or shipping/transportation
fees. (For complete details, go to: What
Haitian Americans Ask of the New US Congress and President)
********
Who is to tell me when
To celebrate my history?
Who is to tell me
When to dress my wounds
And to reminisce
My trials, my sorrow
When to shed tears
Over my brave children
And to glorify their names?
They suffered and died
Every bloody month
Of the bloody year.
I was born
Of abject inhumanity
With the noble destiny
Of carrying the sword
Of precious humanity
In a New World
Cursed by the West Storm
And raped by the powers
Of greed, wickedness, and death.
I am the mother of martyrs
Of survivors and overcomers.
Alone, I faced the wrath
Of this world's powers
In March of 1802.
Their mighty venom
Could not cripple me.
I stepped on the snakes head
In May of 1803
And created for ever
The symbol of my pride.
How many now really know
My history?
How many care?
Alone, with my hurting hands
I broke the first link
Of the mighty chain
Of human curse
Called slavery.
Alone on the traitorous hill
Of the New World
I carried the cross of a race
Into this century
Of furious revolution
And industrialization
Refusing to get crucified.
I've been chained
I've been robbed
I've been raped and stabbed
And I have fought back
Fearlessly, continuously.
Alone I have paid and paid.
I have paid the senseless price
I have paid the endless price
For my vital exploits.
Humanity at large
Enjoys the benefits
Gratelessly, pompously.
Every bloody month
Of every bloody year
I have fought constantly
With a burning spear
Stuck in my chest.
Sometimes it weakens me
But I always rise
High above the pain
And the wickedness
Of powerful forces
From near and far
To claim my dignity.
I have friends
Who suck up my blood
When tired I fall asleep.
They set my house ablaze
To scare my children away
From my wounded heart.
Though today I choose to stand
And stand in pride and love
With my dear family
To celebrate in harmony
Our common history
In the month of February
I was alone when in Vertières
I rose to face the Devil
When hell broke loose
Unleashing its fire storm
With waves of flame rushing
To engulf me whole...
Alone in the vast universe
I froze hell over
And walked on its ashes
To create my own history.
Nobody stood by my side.
I alone remember.
It was the eighteenth day
Of a month called
November.
*****************
On this November
18, 2008, Haitians, currently under Euro-US-led UN occupation,
remember the heroes of the Haitian revolution. Remember Kapwa
Lamò, Jean Jacques Dessalines, all the Maroons, Mari Jann at
Crete-a-Pierrot and how the Haitian identity and indomitable courage
was forged out of the fiery crucible of war against white terror,
tyranny and
enslavement.
*** Jafrikayiti's
LAFIMEN: Listwa Pèp Ayisyen Depi nan Ginen!
