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Well, we'll go back to Ali Lutz after this conversation.
But just before the program, I spoke with Randall
Robinson. He's the founder and past president of
TransAfrica. He's currently a visiting law professor at
Pennsylvania State University, though he goes home
to Saint Kitts tomorrow, where he lives. His most
recent book is An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President.
I began by just asking for his thoughts about the
crisis right now in Haiti.
RANDALL ROBINSON: It's important, in trying to find
ways to help, to be generous and to give, and to give
generously. I would like to commend President Obama for his strong and fast response of
a commitment of $100 million. Operations are
already underway. I think the world is being incredibly
generous, as I understand the pace of things to be at
this point, the pace of giving. But, of course, as many
lives as can possibly be salvaged need to be salvaged
as quickly as possible, and I have every reason to
believe that the administration and others are doing
the very best that they can. As a private citizen, it's
my responsibility, and our general responsibility, to
support every effort that's being made to save lives
in Haiti. AMY GOODMAN: Word is now President Préval
has said they've just burned-buried 7,000 bodies
in a mass grave, but the most important thing right
now is the search equipment, to go in and to save
people who are just hanging on, perhaps who have
been crushed, who are hidden in the rubble. And
yet, that has yet to come. Some word is there's a lot
of aid at the airport not able to get through, and then
other aid just hasn't come.
RANDALL ROBINSON: Well, that's not surprising. It's
hard for things to function when virtually all of the
infrastructure has been destroyed. The Haitian government is unable to function, I would
imagine, because it's under the same burden that all
Haitians are under. The President's home has been destroyed.
It's hard to get from point A to point B, because the
roads are blocked, petrol is not available. Heavy
equipment is not yet available. But in the spirit of konbit, the Haitian Creole
word for "collaboration and cooperation," Haitians
are doing everything they can. They are resilient, industrious,
courageous people. They're doing everything they
can to save the lives of their fellows, and they're
doing it, thus far, with very little, because it's taking a
while for that kind of assistance to materialize. AMY GOODMAN: President Obama has tapped
President Clinton and former President George W.
Bush to coordinate the aid relief to Haiti. I was
wondering your thoughts on that. RANDALL ROBINSON: Well, Amy, I'm, of course,
troubled by that. I don't think this is the time-
neither the time nor the place to discuss those things
that have troubled me for a long time in the history
of American policy towards Haiti. Now the focus
must be upon the rescue efforts that are underway to save lives.
But I hope that this experience, this disaster, causes
American media to take a keener look at Haiti, at the
Haitian people, at their wonderful creativity, at their
art, at their culture, and what they've had to bear. It
has been described to the American people as a
problem of their own making. Well, that's simply not
the case. Haiti has been, of course, put upon by
outside powers for its whole post-slavery history,
from 1804 up until the present. Of course, President Bush was responsible
for destroying Haitian democracy in 2004, when
he and American forces abducted President Aristide
and his wife, taking them off to Africa, and they
are now in South Africa. President Clinton has largely
sponsored a program of economic development that supports
the idea of sweatshops. Haitians in Haiti today make
38 cents an hour. They don't make a high enough wage to pay for their lunch and transportation
to and from work. But this is the kind of economic
program that President Clinton has supported. I think
that is sad, that these two should be joined in this
kind of effort. It sends, I think, the wrong kind
of signal. But that is not what we should focus on now. We
should focus on saving lives.
But in the last analysis, I hope that American media
will not just continue to-the refrain of Haiti being
the poorest country in the western hemisphere, but
will come to ask the question, why? What distinguishes Haiti from the rest of the Caribbean?
Why are the other countries, like the country in
which I live, Saint Kitts, middle-income and successful
countries, and Haiti is mired in economic despair?
What happened? And who's had a hand in it? If Haiti
has been under a series of serial dictatorship, who
armed the dictators? There are other hands in Haiti's
problem. Of course Haiti is responsible for some of
its own failures, but probably not principally responsible. We need to know that. We need
to be told the whole story of these wonderful, resilient,
courageous and industrious people. And we have not
been told that. I would hope that this would be an
opportunity for doing so. AMY GOODMAN: In talking about President Bush,
while most people may not know the role the US
played in the ouster of President Aristide February
29th, 2004, probably what would come to mind when
there's any discussion of relief efforts is Katrina.
RANDALL ROBINSON: Yes. The problem of what happened in February 2004 continues. We had
democracy in Haiti, and that democracy was blighted
by the Bush administration. And now President Aristide's party is prohibited from participating
in the electoral process. His party is the largest
party in Haiti. And why should we be so afraid to let
his party participate? If Haitian people don't want
them, they won't vote for them. That is the very essence
of democracy, that people get a chance to stand
for election, and the electorate gets a chance
to make a decision. But we have obstructed that process
in Haiti. We have done that under the Clinton
administration, under the Bush administration, and
that continues under the Obama administration. And
that is indeed unfortunate. I am imploring American
media to examine this in whole part, in ways that
media have failed to do so up until now. AMY GOODMAN: This history, the two crises,
the natural catastrophe that is the earthquake,
that the Red Cross is now saying they believe perhaps
up to 50,000 people have died-and we're not talking
about, you know, just what has happened in the past,
but what is currently happening. Who was just quoted? Lieutenant General Russel Honoré,
the retired general who took charge of relief
efforts in New Orleans, said that aid should have arrived,
that said the US military should have arrived in
earthquake-devastated Haiti twenty-four hours earlier. Of course, as we know, people trapped
under rubble, every minute counts.
RANDALL ROBINSON: Well, I'm not in a position to
comment on that. I simply can't make an assessment of how fast or how slowly they arrived or
how soon they should have arrived. And so, I will withhold
comment on that. AMY GOODMAN: Does it make you nervous to hear
about US soldiers on Haitian soil? If you can share a
little more of the history of the United States and
Haiti-or do you think this isn't the time to talk, for
example, about 1915 to 1934, the first US Marine
occupation, and then-
RANDALL ROBINSON: Well, I should think it would-I
should think, Amy, it would make Haitians nervous
under these circumstances. Of course, I'm sure that
they are, understandably, quite happy to see assistance from any quarter.
But it was in 1915 that Woodrow Wilson, of course,
with a force of American Marines, invaded and
occupied Haiti until 1934. They seized land, redistributed it to American corporations,
took control of the country, ran the country, collected
customs duties for that period of time, and ran the
country as if it were an American possession. But this has marked the relationship since
Toussaint Louverture and an army of ex-slaves overthrew
French rule in 1804. The French exacted, of course,
reparations from the new free black republic of Haiti,
bankrupting the country. The Vatican didn't recognize Haiti until the 1860s. The Western
nations of the world, responding to a call for isolation
and embargo from Thomas Jefferson, imposed sanctions
on Haiti that lasted until the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States, of course
followed in the twentieth century by President Wilson's occupation and then by the dictatorial
blight of Duvaliers, Papa and son, and all of the
other military generals that, of course, were armed
by the United States.
And so, Haiti's plight up until this point has been, in
some significant way, attributable to bad and painful
American, French and Western policy that some believe is caused or described, motivated
by Toussaint Louverture's victory over Napoleon.
The French have never forgiven the Haitian people
for this.
AMY GOODMAN: Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said he's ready to return to help
rebuild his country in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
Why can't he just return?