The Haitian Revolution was the worse nightmare of colonial powers with possessions in the Caribbean - the ghost of Saint-Domingue disturbed the sleep of slave holders for years

Cuba, Haiti, the Helms-Burton and the crime of insubordination

Empires never forgive rebels; an insubordinate rebel plants a seed that can sprout many generations later

By Raúl Antonio Capote

The Haitian Revolution was a breeding ground of revolutions

Haiti was the first free nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, the first nation in the modern world emerging from a slave revolt, and the second most long-standing republic in the Western Hemisphere.  The Haitian people overthrew the French colonialists in 1804, abolished slavery, and declared independence.

Their revolution was worse nightmare of colonial powers with possessions in the Caribbean - the ghost of Saint-Domingue disturbed the sleep of slave holders for years.

The imperial powers imposed a rigorous cultural, economic and political blockade on the new Haiti, to prevent the extension of its example.

Two decades after independence was proclaimed, in 1825, French warships returned, blockaded the young nation and issued an ultimatum: pay compensation or prepare for war.

An emissary from King Charles X delivered the message.  France demanded payment for properties confiscated by the Haitian Revolution: 150 million gold francs, some 21 billion dollars today, payable in five installments.

According to the colonial empire, the young nation was obliged to compensate French planters for the property and slaves they had lost.

On April 17, 1825, Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer signed the Royal Decree presented by Charles X, who promised French diplomatic recognition in exchange for a 50% reduction of tariffs on French imports and the outrageous compensation.

For Haiti the figure was impossible to pay, given the conditions of its economy, ravaged by the French naval blockade and a devastating war, but the "generous" colonialists made a proposal "they couldn’t turn down."

A group of French banks offered Haiti a loan to cover the compensation, resulting in a double debt that, along with the interest, bled the small country to death, over the course of the 122 years required to pay off its "independence debt."

What’s more, The New York Times recounts in a recent five-part series of articles, when the U.S. army invaded Haiti in the summer of 1915, a group of Marines entered the national bank and stole some 500,000 dollars in gold, that days later made its way to a Wall Street bank vault.

The United States, using the financial and political chaos the island was experiencing as a pretext, occupied the country militarily, continuing its longstanding policy in the region.  Haiti was to be governed by a U.S. military proconsul.

For more than ten years, a quarter of all Haitian income went to pay off debts to the National City Bank, incurred by the country to cover the expense of "assistance from the U.S. government," according to The Times.

ANOTHER ISLAND DARES TO CHALLENGE THE EMPIRE

In January 1959, another small Caribbean island, Cuba, defying U.S. imperial power, declared itself the first free territory of the Americas and dared to announce its decision to build the first socialist nation in the hemisphere.

The "crime of insubordination" committed required immediate action by the "superpower.”  Since then, all variants of war have been waged against the rebel island, including the economic, without success.

As an essential part of the plan to break the soul and subsequent extermination of the Cuban people, a monstrosity known as the Law for Cuban Democratic Freedom and Solidarity was concocted.

What similarities can be seen between this legal atrocity and the one foisted on Haiti by the French empire? 

Let's skip some frightening sections of the Helms-Burton Act, as it is also known, and consider the plan it envisions.

Let’s imagine two hypothetical scenarios, totally impossible for those of us who have confidence in the capacity for resistance and courage of our people.

First: The imperialist enemy and his allies, making use of their military power, would manage to occupy most of the country and establish a transitional government, after proclaiming the end of the Revolution.  Second: Division, deception, and discouragement sown by the enemy would lead to betrayal, another Baraguá, and we would “let the sword fall,” as in 1878.

Would we then have "free and democratic" elections?  No, the transitional government, handpicked by the occupying forces, would not call elections until the United States Congress approved such a move.  

The U.S. President or his proconsul, appointed for this purpose, would prepare a report to Congress every six months outlining progress being made in the transition process on the occupied island.

How long would this process supposedly last, if they are requiring a report every six months?  How long would Yankee troops remain in Cuba?

The answer to both questions is “Who knows?” (Reading the Bush Plan is recommended.)

Finally, after who knows how many years, the U.S. Congress would approve elections.  

What about the economic, commercial and financial blockade?  Would it be lifted when the end of the Revolution was proclaimed?

No, this is not part of the plan; the blockade is to remain intact during the transition, as an ironclad mechanism to apply pressure.

Once the elections were held in U.S. occupied Cuba, with the Revolution removed from power, we would have a president and government, in the style of the imperialists and to their liking.

Insistent questions remain: Would the blockade be lifted?  Would the economic war end?  The answer is no, that's not what the Helms Burton proposes.

The new Cuban "president" would verify to Congress that all U.S. citizens who were “former owners” had been compensated with the full value of all properties nationalized or confiscated in accordance with revolutionary laws and in line with international law, including those Cubans who, after 1959, became “Cuban-Americans.”

The “indemnity” or “compensation,” according to U.S. experts in 1997, would have an approximate value of 100 billion dollars.

The empire has a solution that would allow the Cuban government to pay for the legal procedures, compensation and debt: loans from U.S. banks, the IMF, etc., which would generate ever-increasing interest payments and create an endless spiral of plunder.

Cubans, like Haitians years ago, would spend decades paying off a practically impossible debt.  How could a country devastated, depleted, impoverished by war and occupation, a country that had lost a good part of its population of working and productive age, afford to do so? 

It must be clear that they could never occupy our island, without defeating a Cuban people determined to defend every inch of our homeland.

We would be left in the hands of our hangmen, ready and willing to drain every last drop of our national wealth.

Thomas Piketty, one of the economists consulted by The New York Times, in his work on Haiti, referred to this policy as "neo-colonialism by debt."

The "crime of insubordination" is the greatest "sin" that a people can commit.  Empires never forgive rebels. 

An insubordinate rebel plants a seed that can sprout many generations later.

The Haitian Revolution was a breeding ground of revolutions.  The punishment, the viciousness of the colonial master, could not erase its example. Inspired, Our America rose up to fight for its independence, again and again, as tireless as the courageous Haitians who defeated Napoleon’s best generals, in the first years of the19th century.

Source

Anatomy of slavery and reparations

By Franklin JOHNSTON

One author says slavery as an institution was an assault on the African male’s role of husband and father

IT is time to deconstruct slavery. We must peel the onion layer by layer and examine each without the hype and emotion.

New World slavery was the first global, cutting-edge enterprise — Europe's banking, manufacture, finance, insurance, shipbuilding. Yet men were sold as slaves in Africa and Jamaica, not Europe. Slavery was the model for commodities trading — buy and sell by specs, divert cargo on the high seas, no need to see the goods. A lot of evil was done, but to personalise slavery as "race hate" perverts history and blurs our insight. The enterprise spanned four continents, major nations, and here — the 17th century New World Logistics Hub under Henry Morgan — was the 19th century node of a global triangular trade. The slave trade was risky, exciting, but did not get you entry to exclusive club "Boodles"; owning a plantation did. Reparations came to mind when I examined MSS in the Public Records Office.

I learnt about slavery beyond the insipid local armed struggle and Wilberforce's crafting a weak political solution. I was flippin' angry that Africans traded my Dad for "brass bands, tobacco and beads" — what? Coloured beads? Not even a rifle? An outrage! Sue them! Life is still cheap there. The slave trade was distinct from slavery; both began randomly for Europe, but were a way of life in Africa. We do not have the nous to move slavery from tearful diatribe to cogent analysis, despite Eric Williams' Capitalism and Slavery. Today, barbarity reigns in Jamaica. They rape kids, slash throats, gut women, and hack men into pieces. This makes slavery look good. So weep for yourself, not your ancestors. The slavery chronicles need scholarship as Africa has not told its side of the story.

New World slavery was not social, political, tribal or God punishing black people, it was business. Europe and Africa did not invest to watch men squirm. Europeans worked Tainos to extinction and, while Africa was not their first choice, they found men with a devalued sense of self as substitutes. Europe could not buy men in China or India, but in Africa men were on sale. Slavery went viral when cane farmers' demand for workers exceeded the normal supply of men; prices rocketed. Caboceers — native slave traders — made super margins, so "let's trawl the next village and steal some men!" The rest is history. The slave trade and slavery had different investor profiles. Let's unbundle them.

Trade is a willing buyer engaging a willing seller. The English buyer and African seller were not slavers per se, they were traders; they sold anything. The slave trade was high risk-high gain; an adrenalin rush to some investors. Slaves were a premium — a poor risk profile, short shelf life, disease, injury, robbers; A rapid stock turn given the time value of money. Who in Europe bought goods to trade in Africa? Who in Africa traded people for goods? Who were the investors in Africa and England? Sea captains were fast-talking men who attracted rabid investors. Royals were involved, merchants, MPs, captains and crew, even widows. Just as today's stock market, no investor saw product or factory (did you visit the Salada factory before you bought shares yesterday?), the deal was the thing. The slave trader was a seaman adventurer doing business with likeminded land-based Africans. The captain and the caboceer were united in cash. Ponzi schemes existed long before Carlo Pietro Ponzi and captains exaggerated profits and oversold to entice investors. Will Africans tell us caboceers did the same thing to fund raids on villages? Write the history damn you!

The English slave trader was usually a seafarer and entrepreneur using leased ships and investor's cash. The captain risked his life — ocean, pirates, disease, mutinous crew. In Africa he bought broken people; the French or Spanish might steal his cargo at sea; some died; others were decanted overboard to escape pirates. Caboceers caught or bought people to fill the warehouses. Do you worry that the elephants in the z oo are not happy? Same difference! The trade in fabrics, beads, guns, ammunition, animals, salt, metals, cotton, pots, pans, and people was good. The seafarer made big profit, big loss and some died — high risk. Caboceers profited and lost lives too? What of slavery?

New World slavery was to farm sugar cane. The farming was tedious, the factories cutting-edge; sugar and rum had strong demand, but you could lose given the long wait for a crop. Farming and manufacture is not trade. Farm work varies for planting, crop care, reaping, and despite slave theory, no one cuts cane all year. Reaping and factoring time was short, intense; planting relaxed; crop care easier. In Europe many fought slavery by writing, protest and in Parliament. Will they be excluded from reparations? As today, there was no such activism against slavery in Africa. Why not? Should all Africa pay reparations?

I once thought reparations meant those paid should return their immoral gains. Who should pay? Should those who paid Africa cash for a man pay again? Is the original sinner the African who caught your ancestor? The captain who sold him to a cane farmer within six weeks? The investor (English and African), who sought profit? The cane farmer who used slaves for years? One prime target should be Africans who caught our ancestors and abridged their freedom. This is original sin! Repent! I don't want money, but may accept "mea culpas". Their kids must know truth. The second target is the English trader — his Christian faith condemns him — he knew it was morally wrong. Every English ship's flag to fly at half-staff; a major monument to Africans lost at sea in Bristol, London, every slave port and on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square. Or will you trade a race's dignity for cash? Do not allow them to say, "Shut up nigger you took the cash in 2015!" I want slavery seared into Europe's conscience like the Holocaust numbers; monuments down Pall Mall, Buckingham Palace, stately homes "to the nameless Africans who built this land!" Selah!

We need economic scholarship to deconstruct slavery and its the bleeding heart history — slaves in chains and on auction blocks. Don't screw up your kids. Invent a cathartic video game "Ultimate Slave Trader" with ships, lazer spears and have fun. Don't let history freak you out; make money from it, innovate! No European said, "let's invest cash, go to Africa to jerk-up a few black people". Caboceers chasing men for sale through the jungle were not having fun. Africa was the epicentre of slavery — trans-Sahara, Indian Ocean, trans-Atlantic, and their domestic type; up to today! Why Africa? God only knows!

We need research to fathom slavery, but the Africans say nothing so we should help them. UWI needs a Chair in Slavery and Diaspora Studies (African, Chinese, Indian, Jamaican); professors from business, not bleeding hearts. I am all cried out. What's Africa's take on slavery, reparations? Can their oil tycoons, rich entertainers, the diaspora endow a Chair? Most African historians are white; no black writes Europe's history; go figure! "Up you mighty race!" Stay conscious, my friend!

Dr Franklin Johnston is a strategist, project manager and advises the minister of education. Comments: franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com

March 28, 2014

Jamaica Observer

The Bahamas National Reparations Committee has been established to prepare a legal claim ...to present to the International Court of Justice (ICOJ) ...for reparations for the infliction of slavery on Caribbean colonies ...by certain former European colonisers

 Govt Forms Reparation Committee

By Jones Bahamas:

The government has established The Bahamas National Reparations Committee and its members were revealed yesterday.

The committee will be responsible for preparing a legal claim to present to the International Court of Justice (ICOJ) for reparations for the infliction of slavery on Caribbean colonies by certain former European colonisers.

The committee will also be responsible for an educational campaign and invoking dialogue on the issue which Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell said is in the best interest of the country.

“The government thinks that this is in the best interest of the country to have research done,” he said during a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Goodman’s Bay Corporate Centre. “What often happens with these things is as [they] unfold people will tend to accept that it is the right thing to do.”

“As I tried to indicate in as gentle way as I can, those of us who came up in the 60s and 70s are astounded at how polite a society we have become on this subject which still resonates throughout all of the things that we do.”

Reparations is the process of repairing the consequences of crimes committed and the attempt to reasonably remove debilitating effects of such crimes upon victims and their descendants.

National Reparation Committees have been established on the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

In preparation for a legal claim, each National Reparation Commission is to gather information pertaining to each claimant state; illustrate the link between historic discrimination and present day racial discrimination; outline modern racial discrimination resulting from slavery in areas of health.

In addition, illustrate the link between, socio-economic deprivation and social disadvantage, education, living conditions, property and land ownership, employment participation in public life and migration and identity policies of the United Kingdom, which have perpetuated the discriminatory effects of slavery in The Bahamas.

Minster Mitchell said the committee is expected to have a legal claim developed by this June.

Recently, CARICOM leaders unanimously adopted a 10-point plan for reparations during the first day of heads of government meetings in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The 10-point plan includes calling for a formal apology for slavery and debt cancellation from former colonisers such as Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands and reparation payments to repair the persisting “psychological trauma.”

Former parliamentarians, Alfred Sears and Philip Smith serve as chair and co-chair of the committee.

Additionally, there are 22 committee members who include, Dr. Chris Curry, Dr. Gail Saunders, Fr. Dacid Cooper, Rev. Williams Higgs, Ms. Marion Bethel, Rev. Timothy Stewart, Ms. Keisha Ellis, Mr. Pedro Rolle, Ms. Theresa Moxey-Ingraham, Dr. Niambi Hall-Campbell, Mr. Michael Symonette, Mr. Michael Stevenson, Ms. Elaine Toote, Ms. Kim Outten-Stubbs, Dr. Tracy Thompson, Mr. Whitman McKinney, Mr. Elsworth Johnson, Mr. Bianca Beneby, Ms. Alesha Hart, Mr. Travis Cartwright, Mr. Cecil Thompson and an attorney from the Office of the Attorney General.

According to Minister Mitchell, the members were chosen because of their broad expertise and their representation of the Bahamian Society.

March 25, 2014

The Bahama Journal

...reparations for Caribbean slavery and native genocide

Payback for slavery's terror

By Omar Ryan, Guest columnist:



Over the past few weeks, the matter of reparations for Caribbean slavery and native genocide has become very topical, and rightly so, because of the developments in CARICOM and the active media discussions carried out by ourown National Commission on Reparations (NCR).

Despite the NCR's efforts to educate our people about these historical injustices, the sufferings of their ancestors and the contemporary implications of past atrocities, the ignorance, self-denial, even self-hate are still apparent among our people trapped in colonial-style education and historical amnesia.

I was appalled by the view expressed in your Letter of the Day of August 9, 2013 titled 'Stop flogging reparations', in which the writer said advocates for reparations are wasting their time, and even quoted the Bible justifying slavery.

I want us not to forget that the enslavers and colonialists were armed with the Bible while they took away Africans and brought them to the Americas to be treated less than humans. I believe that the voices of the naysayers, the non-interest and apathy with regard to the issue of reparations are mental attitudes resulting from our people not being fully aware of what justice means.

There appears to be a willed ignorance that a great injustice was carried out against their own people.
The fact was that Africans were forcibly taken away from their continent, exploited and enslaved for almost four hundred years, and upon the ending of bondage, the enslavers were paid twenty million pounds for loss of 'property' (enslaved Africans), not land. Hitherto, no compensation has been paid to the victims.

Against slavery

It must be noted that Africans, from the outset, were against the forcible taking away of their people from the continent. One African, King Nzinga Mbemba, wrote to the king of Portugal in a letter dated October 18, 1526 outlining the ramifications of the kidnapping of Africans and his opposition to it.
However, the opposition of the Africans was no match for the military and naval power of the mighty Europeans.

Well over 100 claims for compensation were filed by members of the Church. One such example was the Rev Charles William Davy, who filed six claims for 661 enslaved Africans on properties in Trelawny and who received £12,641 in compensation).

Among the recipients were educators like the Rev Thomas Pierce Williams, principal of Wolmer's, 1813-14, who received £7,054 for 356 enslaved in the parish of Manchester.

They and others amassed wealth that set the catalyst for the economic prosperity we now see countries of especially Western Europe reaping.

It must be known that one Hermann J. Abs, a German Jew, helped to finance the Auschwitz concentration camp where thousands of Jews met their demise. As a Jew, he played a role in the terrible crime against fellow Jews, and it never stopped the Jews from getting reparations from the German State. And it was the offspring of the victims that were compensated, not the victims themselves.

So it must be understood that a crime was committed against Africans and native peoples of the Americas (Caribbean), and no compensation was paid.

Within a world where we hope to move forward as peaceful beings, reparations must be paid to the descendants of the victims who are living with the scars and ills transmitted through generations from slavery.

The NCR urges people to rid themselves of that mental slavery that continues to trap them in a cycle of ignorance, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Such attitudes as displayed in The Gleaner's Letter of the Day and the responses to it remind us that "Aluta continua!"

Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and omaryan@live.com.

August 12, 2013

Jamaica Gleaner

Bahamas Blog International

Back Pay For Slavery

Carolyn Cooper, Contributor

jamaica-gleaner



THE PRINCIPLE of reparations was established long ago in the 1833 Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British colonies. But there was a catch to the act - not much different in essence from the original sin of catching Africans for enslavement in the Americas. Reparations were to be made to the perpetrators of human trafficking, not to the victims.

This is how the act opens: "Whereas divers persons are holden (held) in slavery within divers of His Majesty's colonies, and it is just and expedient that all such persons should be manumitted and set free, and that a reasonable compensation should be made to the persons hitherto entitled to the services of such slaves for the loss which they will incur by being deprived of their right to such services ... ," etc.

This is a classic example of the diabolical mindset of 'wicked white people'. Slaveholders were legally entitled to the services of their slaves and therefore had a right to 'reasonable compensation' for loss of service. The enslaved had no such rights or entitlements. They were freed with nothing in their two long hands; just like that rather sad-looking couple standing in a basin of water in New Kingston's 'Emancipation Park'.

When I talk about 'wicked white people' I don't mean specific individuals who have done me personal wrong. I'm not speaking about singular acts of evil. It's a far bigger issue. What concerns me is the collective crimes against humanity committed by gravalicious people who consider themselves absolutely entitled by God and nature to dominate the world. In many instances, these self-proclaimed rulers just happen to be white.

In the age of colonial conquest, 'wicked white people' as a special interest group committed crimes of unapologetic horror. They ravaged other people's bodies, souls, lands and histories; they vandalised sacred objects and then locked them away in 'museums' - those cemeteries of other people's culture. 'Wicked white people' invading and stealing, stealing, stealing without conscience.

I know I'm going to be accused of racism for exposing 'wicked white people' to public scrutiny in this way. But that's just another ploy of 'wicked white people' and their collaborators to perpetuate mental slavery. It's racism to talk about racist behaviour. But actual racist behaviour is not racism. It's just human nature. What an irony!

Justice versus expediency

So let's say instead that 'nice and decent' white people agreed that it was "just and expedient" to set the enslaved free. But the yoking of justice and expedience in the Act for the Abolition of Slavery reveals the central philosophical and practical dilemma at the heart of the emancipation enterprise.

Justice seemingly puts emancipation on solid moral ground. Expedience erodes all claims to moral authority. It was expedient to emancipate enslaved Africans because plantation slavery had become an expensive proposition. The substitution of beet for cane turned West Indian sugar into a rather sour deal.

After centuries of mostly verbal outrage - incessant talk, talk, talk about 'wicked white people' - we, the collective victims of transatlantic slavery, must finally decide to take legal action in the largest class-action suit in the history of the world. This is a truly wonderful idea. Not the wishy-washy, everyday sense of 'wonderful', meaning simply 'great'; it's the mind-blowing, original meaning of the word: full of wonder.

Five hundred years after the rape of the body and land of the original inhabitants of this part of the world; 500 years after the violent uprooting and enslavement of millions of Africans, we, their descendants, both native and immigrant, must lay claim to rights of reparation.

In the sweet by and by

For many Africans in the diaspora, it is in religion that we find hope for reparations. The Christian religion seems to recommend long-term investment in the celestial stock market. The concept of reparations has best been expressed in pious hymns like this: "In the sweet by and by I'll have a mansion so bright and so fair, won't it be glorious when I get there in the sweet by and by?" God will repair the breach. God is the ultimate human rights arbitrator.

Then we have those Africans who want hard cold cash in the here and now. Think of the title song from the movie The Harder They Come: "They tell me bout the pie up in the sky waiting for me when I die. But between the day you born and when you die, they never seem to hear even your cry. So as long as the sun will shine, I'm gonna get my share, what's mine. The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all."

That's an excellent anthem for the Reparations Movement, the Garveyism of our times. It's the same kind of daring that made Marcus Garvey conceive the Universal Negro Improvement Association and Communities League: a global movement of African peoples who see themselves as having a shared history and a common destiny.

And don't think it's a joke. With derisive laughter cynics like to say, 'when you get the money you can check me.' But the Jews got compensation from the Germans; Japanese-Americans got compensation for the atrocities committed against them. Why not Africans? I'd like to know what, exactly, our National Commission on Reparations is doing about it.

If you think that after 500 years it's now too late for reparations, just remember Psalm 90:4 in which David, himself a Jew, converses with the Supreme Arbitrator: "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past." Come to think of it, all we're really talking about is half a day's back pay.

August 7, 2011

jamaica-gleaner

Bahamas Blog International

The observance of Emancipation Day is not merely intended to create another public holiday, but rather to inject in the consciousness of our people a deep appreciation of the process of liberation from British colonial exploitation to the achievement of nationhood, the suffering endured, the human cost (lives lost), the sacrifices made, and the hopes and aspirations of those engaged in the struggle

Emancipation and the Emancipated

By Howard Gregory



jamaicaobserver




THE nation will be celebrating a significant milestone in its life tomorrow, namely, emancipation from chattel slavery. The observance of Emancipation Day is not merely intended to create another public holiday, but rather to inject in the consciousness of our people a deep appreciation of the process of liberation from British colonial exploitation to the achievement of nationhood, the suffering endured, the human cost (lives lost), the sacrifices made, and the hopes and aspirations of those engaged in the struggle.

In this regard I am always drawn to a perspective on emancipation attributed to Karl Marx, as the enjoyment of equal status of individual citizens in relation to the state equality before the law, regardless of religion, property, or other "private" characteristics of individual people. In short, it is about being acknowledged as a human being of equal worth and value as any other, and, therefore, deserving of social justice, rights, and respect, within the community of persons.

While there remains a significant number of persons in the society who question the value of such an observance, it is clear that the generations who are the beneficiaries of the legacy of emancipation run the risk of seeing themselves as the emancipated. They tend to forget that emancipation is not an achieved status, but rather a process of becoming in a national and global context which could enslave the unsuspecting, the powerless, the indifferent, and the naïve. To that extent, it must be affirmed that while Emancipation as an official and formal declaration became effective on August 1, 1838, we are still on the emancipation pilgrimage.

Occasions that require us to remember our history are often met with cynicism and hostility by various segments of our society. They who keep insisting that we must forget our past and move on. While we cannot live in the past, it is fallacious to suggest that recalling the past is to live in the past. It is definitely a necessary component of a sense of one's roots and sense of identity as individuals and as part of a community and nation. It also helps to inform the vision of the people and their faithfulness to the story of the struggles of the ancestors throughout the ages.

One of the distortions present in a simplistic recall of our history is seeing it in terms of its violent dimensions, especially the violence involved in revolts and rebellion, while suggesting that this can only stir animosity within the contemporary context. Certainly there was violence, a violence inherent in the system, and which could only be defeated by a violent response in part. Beyond that, however, those enslaved ancestors were men and women who had a sense of identity and worth, and a vision for their brothers and sisters that involved shedding the constraints of their time and place and, with courage and confidence, imagine a world of freedom.

The very word emancipation, by any definition, speaks of moral categories of realignment of relationships between those who wield power and constitute the status quo and those who are its victims. It also speaks of a new status for the victims that finds expression in a range of cognate terms that speak of justice and freedom, and the affirmation of the humanity of those who were previously treated as less than human. The question that this raises for us is to what extent did our enslaved ancestors see this as something which was achievable in and for their time, or whether this constituted the story of their lives. Was it supposed to be for subsequent generations the inspiration to community building, unconstrained by the boundaries of the present, but which is built on a moral vision?

It would appear that there are many from our generation who see the legacy of emancipation in an individualistic manner, and who arrogate to themselves every right and freedom of which emancipation is deemed to speak, but without any sense of moral and social responsibility and accountability to the community, or even a sense of respect for the freedom and rights of others. One often hears this expressed in the popular phrase "man free". This attitude stands in stark contrast to that great icon of the global struggle for emancipation, Nelson Mandela, who said: "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

Those who dare to challenge any expression of anti-social behaviour on the roads and in public places run the risk of being abused or, worse yet, having their lives threatened. It does not matter whether one is the contractor general trying to investigate a case of corruption, or the young man from August Town who dares to claim the right not to join a gang and literally loses his head. No one must stand in the way of these persons. Being emancipated and free can only be defined in terms of perceived personal desires and ambitions, and is unrelated to and lacking in respect for the rights and freedom of others.

The situation is being complicated by the culture of moral pluralism which has had an impact on us in the developed world through the Internet, cable television, and the ease of travel across national boundaries, and has become yet another manifestation of the disintegration of social values which are constitutive of a humane and civilised society. Up to recent years ours has been a fairly traditional society guided by religious and social values that have deep roots in the Christian faith and some of our African culture. The problem seems to be that we have not focused on what aspects of our traditional cultural and social values we should preserve. We have neither had the kind of discourse and dialogue that can provide our people with a framework for processing all that is impacting our lives in terms of values, and which reflects faithfulness to our history and the struggles which we have overcome.

While emancipation speaks to moral categories at a fundamental level, it has to do with all areas of life, and therefore, there was much more to the hopes and aspiration of those involved in the emancipation struggle. Subsequent uprisings in the decades following Emancipation point to the incomplete nature of the process to secure things which make for human dignity and development. Hence, the movement away from the sugar estates and the establishment of free villages gave expression to the desire for independence and control over one's life and livelihood. In the same breath, the uprising in Morant Bay points to the struggle for legal and social justice, while the Frome uprising points to the struggle for better wages and working conditions.

The spirit of emancipation which was nurtured in our ancestors' struggle for liberation and their vision for their people, has been railroaded and compromised. Today, the legacy of emancipation has been taken to mean justification for anti-social and criminal behaviour. It seems that no one is to be called to account for indiscipline and downright criminal behaviour, which manifests itself in the response one receives from indisciplined motorists, and the "informa fi dead" philosophy. This freedom is also being used to justify every anti-social and criminal way of "making a bread". Scamming is justified by many, uncontrolled vending in public spaces is an untouchable activity, and an industry that has been thriving on the theft of metal objects from private enterprises, public utilities, from places of worship, and graves, is supposed to be untouchable because of its employment and income-generating capacity.

A people on a path toward emancipation are a people of hope. Notwithstanding the violent and oppressive nature of the system of slavery, our ancestors nourished a hope that one day the shackles of slavery would be thrown off. Hope is based not on the current dynamic of history and the constraints of a particular time and space, but on the conviction that, in holding fast as the people of God, the fulfilment of the hope that is nurtured within will be realised. For people of faith, hope is inherent in their life because, they are invited to be in God's pilgrimage. For the Christian faith community, to which many of our ancestors and leaders in the movement toward emancipation belonged, the primary paradigm of emancipation is that of the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. As one commentator pointed out while speaking about the prophetic message of Isaiah and others to a people still on the path of emancipation: "Hope is the decision to which God invites Israel, a decision against despair, against permanent consignment to chaos, oppression, barrenness, and exile."

Recent and current developments in our society point to a lack of hope, resignation by citizens, and the railroading of the process of national emancipation. During the past year the nation has had to come face to face with the issue of the alliance of our politicians with criminality through the kind of political culture that has been fostered since Independence. Like other issues in our national life, the question of morality takes second place to our political loyalties. This dynamic serves to perpetuate corruption and the criminality that often provides the structural support for the maintenance of corruption within the system of governance and in the local communities. Now the society is at a place where the connection between politics and criminality is evident, and as a consequence there are serious questions in the minds of citizens concerning trust, integrity and credibility. More and more citizens are losing hope in the political process to bring about the fulfilment of the hopes of our ancestors and are withdrawing from participation in the political life of the nation.

We in Jamaica have seen daily the way in which human life is being treated as an expendable commodity. The killing of 17-year-old Khajeel Mais, allegedly by the driver of a black BMW X6 sport utility vehicle, is a despicable and reprehensible act. But we must ask ourselves whether this is just a matter of a criminal act, or whether there are serious ethical issues which the incident raises for us concerning materialism and the value of human life?

We cannot overlook the fact that a number of young children have lost their lives through criminal activity in recent months, as they are treated as part of the collateral damage in disputes or in reprisals. A week ago, the Sunday Gleaner began a lead story with the following comment:

"CRIMINALS IN Jamaica have ruthlessly murdered more than 1,500 children and teenagers since the turn of the 21st century."

Many Jamaicans need to wake up to the fact that the community protection which area leaders offer, the extortion racket from which many of them benefit, and the drug culture which others support as an innocent way to earn "a bread", each has a modus operandi which sees the violence directed at children, as one way of teaching a lesson to those who would "mess" with them and their income. In a real sense, it is true to say that for them "money run things". The primary value in determining human life is then materialistic.

Emancipation has to do with the physical and external circumstances under which persons live, but it also speaks in a more profound way of internal/intrapersonal transformation at a spiritual level. There is a sense in which there is an interplay of the internal and external (physical) dimensions required for dealing with the experience of enslavement at a spiritual and psychological level, if there is to be healing, wholeness and liberation from one generation to another.

Let us then be aware that the declaration of Emancipation of 1838 is history, but the real task of emancipation continues as a life-long pilgrimage for individuals and the nation. We must be constantly vigilant in looking out for those forces which would seek to continue to enslave and threaten the lives of our people and our freedom in our time. But ultimately, we must seek to protect and build on the legacy which is ours, and not seek to betray the struggle and the achievements by distorted and corrupt notions of emancipation at the individual and communal levels.


Sunday, July 31, 2011

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

Jamaica: Pope Benedict, the church, Brady bunch, PNP audit

Pope Benedict, the church, Brady bunch, PNP audit
BY FRANKLIN JOHNSTON



ALL churches in Jamaica owe their origins to the Pope and the trend to abuse by some -- from Rasta to revivalist is disrespectful and ignorant. As 3,000 local church leaders meet for a talkfest, this fragile 83-year-old head of the Vatican state and the Catholic Church visits the UK. His job is serving God and man. To some he is "antichrist", to most a lighthouse. His shock and sadness at the crimes of some priests, and his soft rant at "militant secularism" pushing good values to the margins resonate with us too. His trip is the second to the UK by a Pope in 600 years and the first State visit. He gave the Queen lost gospels from 500 CE. I would like "a read"! The Pope is first among equals as our conduit for the Bible. The British church fought the slave trade and slavery; yet after 178 years our churches make no progress on "mental slavery". Whether by illiteracy or denial we make up a past and they approve our fictions being princes and queens in Africa, exiled and so we will not toil. Some form a group of 89 members and say it's the true church.

They speak in tongues; say they have visions of some deacons lusting, hell fire and lottery numbers, yet none of martyrs or thinkers of the global church; all are limited by the little they know. Ask your pastor about the church in 1962, 1862 and 1000? What says he? The Pope is an affront to ignorance as he embodies 2,000 years of faith with archives to show good and bad, crusades and Inquisition! Your pastor got a Bible, a vision to start a church; a penchant for fine robes, titles, ham and eggs prayer breakfasts, but no vision to tackle state corruption or a mission to subdue the land, produce and live in love — imagine that! The riches of many new churches are an affront to poverty. Are some pastors in the pocket of politicians? Who is using whom? They stipple our landscape with tasteless buildings paid for by the poor; they get honours, land and permits — a sop for keeping us quiet! British churches delivered for us! These have not! Foreign missions acted and removed our chains. For 30 years Wilberforce was dedicated to freedom for blacks he didn't know! Our churches collude in keeping us in mental slavery! Is corruption on their agenda? No! New MPs for old? No! I went to Westminster Cathedral and lit a candle for my sins, my friends and my nation -- anything for JA! The Pope is our link to 2,000 years of Christ's blood, guts and glory! Pastors cannot ignore politics, they were born in it. The Pope called Henry VIII to account, so the king beheaded Sir Thomas! Our bishops "see an' blin', 'ear an deaf". Who will say "Bruce, enough!"

The Pope's armour-plated Benz M class Popemobile is as incongruous as his elite Swiss Guard and his retro-red shoes - emblem of blood of martyrs. Let us "hail the man" as the patriarch of all Christians in the West and invite him to JA. Sir Thomas Moore, the Pope's envoy, refused to annul King Henry's marriage. The king executed him in 1535, took England out of the Catholic (universal) church and had royal sex with Anne Boleyn. This break-up was not the Pope's doing, and now for the first time a Pope visits Lambeth Palace and Westminster Abbey, the Anglican power base. All churches derive from one man who could not keep his pants on! What a bam-bam! Anglican, Adventist, Baptist, Rasta, Church of God, all exist because the king desired a woman, the Pope said, "No, stay with your flippin' wife", and lust tore apart the global church! Even today new churches are born of lust and sex. The Pope just visited Westminster Cathedral and love flowed; brown faces of Eastern Catholic priests in mufti and British youth of all colours testify that faith is strong! Our churches want "repentance healing, renewal", why not protest and action? They have the numbers. Prayer is OK, but why not call out members to picket Gordon House and demand good government? Is there a Daniel?

The Bruce, Brady, Manatt debacle is in a primal twist --the don, JLP hacks, suborned writers and civil servants, now a heavyweight! Bruce disowns Brady! Adopt him, Portia! The man "gie weh 'im fren Dudus an now 'im fren Harold". Who next? Brady is credible in and out of the JLP and knows if we follow the money we find truth. No lawyer goes abroad with US$50k, no contacts, no client and no brief. Bruce is playing "business as usual" but is seen by many as damaged goods, a weak heir, disloyal, indecisive, power-hungry, he "sang sankey" and many in the JLP rejoice at his misery! Revenge is better cold! It is as Seaga left it; autocratic, arthritic, no one dares open his mouth! Bruce is no match for Brady; can he buy him off by retraction, apology or rewards? The executive must regret not taking his resignation and they will not fight Brady as he can exhume bodies and make the Dudus episode seem a tea party. I fear for his safety. The spotlight moves to donors, so watch things escalate. What can good JLP donors do now? The donor of the US$50k is the key. If he comes out freely, he clears his name and sanitises all honest donors! He runs a private firm; gets legal permits, contracts and deposits; is an old friend of the JLP; affects the Abe Issa mantra and donates to both parties as "business must always be in power". He has nothing to fear. He is the "game changer" we must pray for. He is the catalyst to make it OK for all of us to support a party openly, if we so wish! This donor is not tribal or criminal and to be a pioneer in our twisted nation is a hard decision to make. He may begin an avalanche of openness; a catalyst to a Parliamentary vote for disclosure! Sir, you can change the tone of our politics! In the sweep of history Bruce is nothing, but our country we can count in history if we defeat the Goliath of ignorance and secrecy and prosper. Please help us. Stay conscious, my friend!

Congratulations to the PNP on a watershed audit! Transparency begins here. Please ensure the next audit is vouched by a registered public auditor and the donor schedule given to the OCG and the taxman "for their eyes only". Most big firms are on both JLP and PNP lists anyway. Whoever loses, business always wins. More power to you!

Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK. franklinjohnston@hotmail.com

September 24, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

RESTAVEK...: A HIDDEN EVIL

Insight - tribune242:


"The restavek culture is being exported from Haiti to other Caribbean countries. It is very much slavery and I think it's going to increase exponentially now."

-Aaron Cohen

I WOULD wager that few Bahamians lose sleep contemplating the tortures endured by an 11-year-old girl forced into the sex trade, or imagine themselves in the shoes of a young boy, barely a toddler, sold to strangers and forced to work tirelessly for his survival.

For most people, the ability to empathise with extreme suffering decreases in proportion to its distance from their normal experience, and most of us in the Bahamas are thankful these scenarios play themselves out elsewhere.

However according to one human rights pioneer, we are fooling ourselves - modern day slaves are being trafficked in this country right under our noses and the trade may be set to explode.

American activist Aaron Cohen is widely considered to be the world's foremost expert on modern-day slavery. He is credited with rescuing numerous young girls from enslavement as sex workers and many young men from child soldiering camps.

He travels the world to shed light on the reality that the trade in human beings is alive and well in virtually every modern society. He notes that with 27 million slaves worldwide and another million sold into slavery each year, there are more enslaved people now than at any time in human history.

When I spoke with Mr Cohen, he was leaving New York after giving a speech at the UN on the status of women. Later this month, he is off to Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic to talk about what he considers an issue of the utmost urgency - the fallout from the earthquake in Haiti, which was until recently a central hub for the trafficking of humans.

Mr Cohen told me he believes the disaster in Haiti has severely curtailed the ability of organised crime to use that country for the transshipment of domestic and sex slaves, and that other countries in the Caribbean, particularly Jamaica and the Bahamas, are prime candidates to take up the slack.

He said: "I think the effect of the disaster on slavery in the Caribbean is going to be this: number one, there is going to be more poverty in Haiti and therefore an exodus; that's already being witnessed statistically.

"Second, in the past, in human trafficking just like in drugs and arms trafficking, you have criminal organisations that use countries of origin, transit and destination to operate their illicit businesses. Haiti previously was both a destination country and a transit country. Girls coming out of the Dominican Republic were transited out of Haiti to Europe, to the Bahamas, to Jamaica, to the United States. What's going to happen now is, because of the increased scrutiny in Haiti because of the international presence, we're going to see this transit business spread to the nearby Caribbean."

As proof, Mr Cohen pointed to what happened after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, a capital of organised crime, drug and human trafficking.

"When the disaster occurred, there was an 80 per cent increase in murders in Houston, Texas. There was the same increase in human trafficking, and now Houston is the hub of human trafficking in the United States. I would imagine that's what's going to happen to the Bahamas," he said.

Mr Cohen noted that the existing culture of illegal immigration from Haiti makes the Bahamas a particularly "soft target" and therefore an ideal replacement as a transit location for captive people.

"It is highly probable, if not statistically provable, that the Bahamas will have an increase in human trafficking from the disaster in Haiti," he said.

According to Mr Cohen, what makes modern-day slavery particularly insidious is the fact that it is largely invisible.

The transatlantic slave trade, while monstrous, was at least tangible and had limits, could be argued against and protested.

Now, slavery is a covert phenomenon, and those who take part in it - either by smuggling someone else's children or selling their own - may only do so once or twice in their lives out of financial necessity. It is governed by no rules or central authorities, respects no treaties or boundaries, and is immune to rational or moral entreaties.

"You can buy crystal vases in a store and they are very transparent, but paper cups aren't, and they're disposable," Mr Cohen said. "Slavery is like that -- it is no longer an item that stays in the family for a lifetime; it's a disposable commodity, so it's very hidden."

He noted two additional factors that obscure the signs of human trafficking in the Bahamas in particular. Firstly, the reluctance of law enforcement to aggressively tackle prostitution - which often relies on foreign women tricked or forced into the sex trade. The occasional raids aside, virtually every resident of Nassau can name at least one brothel operating without interference from the police.

The second factor is the introduction, through illegal immigration, of the Haitian "restavek" system.

Restavek - which means in Creole "one who stays with" - is a system whereby poor rural families send their children to stay with and work for urban families as domestic servants. They are usually between the ages of five and 14, as Haitian law requires workers 15 and older to be paid. Sometimes the children are sold, but sometimes no money changes hands.

Cultural standards are of course relative - as seen in the International Labour Organisation's condemnation of the use of packing boys in Bahamian supermarkets - and in Haiti, the system is seen as a normal facet of society.

But anti-slavery campaigners like Mr Cohen emphasise that the lack of regulation means these children are often subjected to severe abuse and exploitation. "I don't even like to use the term domestic servants," he said, "because it conjures up an image of some moral, legal employment model and that's not what we're talking about."

He added that the likelihood of physical and sexual abuse increases when the system is transplanted outside Haiti, particularly to countries like the Bahamas, where the immigrant population is subjected to discrimination and often treated as subhuman.

Jean-Robert Cadet, founder of the Restavek Foundation which works to raise awareness of this phenomenon, was once a restavek himself. He says that as a "domestic slave", he endured years of physical and emotional abuse, working seven days a week with no pay and no time for recreation or rest. According to his website, restavekfreedom.org, there are an estimated 300,000 restavek children in Haiti.

Mr Cohen is eager to investigate the extent of the problem here, but as a rule does not request government co-operation for his investigations, as authorities in many countries are themselves tied up in the trafficking of drugs, arms and people.

His organisation, Causecast, tries instead to work with non-governmental organisations and human rights activists to identify, interview and hopefully rescue victims of human trafficking, while gathering sufficient evidence to prosecute offenders. Unfortunately, he says, the modern slave trade is hidden in the Bahamas to such an extent that even local activists are unaware of it.

He said: "One of the reasons we chose not to come to the Bahamas is because although we know the restavek culture has spilled over to that country and the sex trafficking trail (leads there), I don't have an organisation there that I can partner with as far as infrastructure and support.

"I spoke to a number of activists who told me there is no slavery, and I sort of took a step back when I heard that. I thought, 'My goodness, even some of the activists who are interested in combating this problem think that there is no slavery'.

"But there is no way around the fact that slavery is the fastest growing illegal enterprise in the world. It has already passed arms sales to become the number two illicit business in the world, period.

"The fact that the restaveks are there would indicate to me that there is an enormous amount of exploitation going on in the Bahamas and the country is at risk of falling into the tentacles of organised crime in the Caribbean.

"When someone says there is no slavery, it's because they haven't educated themselves on the issue properly."

So, is Mr Cohen right? His views are certainly supported by the United States government.

The US State Department's 2009 Trafficking in Persons report states that "Haitian women, men, and children are trafficked into the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, the United States, Europe, Canada, and Jamaica for exploitation in domestic service, agriculture, and construction. Trafficked Dominican women and girls are forced into prostitution."

The report further notes that the Bahamas is a destination country for "men and women trafficked from Haiti and other Caribbean countries primarily for the purpose of forced labour, and women from Jamaica and other countries trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation."

In 2008, parliament passed the Trafficking in Persons Prevention and Suppression Act which sets out penalties for offenders that range from three years to life imprisonment.

The State Department's report acknowledged this, but criticised the continuing tendency of law enforcement to conflate human trafficking with human smuggling - the transportation of persons engaging in illegal immigration voluntarily.

It also said the Bahamas failed to take steps to identify the casualties of the trade among vulnerable populations - such as foreign women and girls engaged in prostitution or women and girls intercepted while being smuggled in for this purpose - preferring to repatriate them as violators of immigration laws rather than offer them help as victims.

According to Mr Cohen, addressing this last point is vital. He said: "The average age of a woman who is prostituted is 11 years old. That makes them victims. They should not be treated as the criminals.

"The Bahamas needs to wake up and move towards the model the Scandinavians have created. Here's how it works: they have criminalised the demand, but they recognise that you cannot arrest a prostitute who is 14 and servicing a client who is 42 and then treat her like the criminal and let him go free. Yet that's happening even in the United States. The women, the victims, should be decriminalised and receive services and the Johns should face criminal prosecution."

He feels that treating such women merely as illegal immigrants - not to mention the children we send back to Haiti on a regular basis without inquiring about their identity or circumstances - amounts to punishing slaves for their condition of slavery and heaping further misery upon people who have already endured unimaginable suffering.

What do you think?

Email:

pnunez@tribunemedia.net

March 08, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International