THE AMERICAN QUESTION

                                                   AMERICAN TOLERANCE

I

n the beginning 21 st century, faith here and there is a way to live and also to die for.

Hagia Sophia,
Turkey

The best illustration of those flourishing beliefs can be watched here in America. This fact matters because it is a time when America, the western watchdog or so considered, is at war not only for oil, as many tend to believe it, but also because on both sides, people continue to convince themselves that their gods are  the  best ones and so  their values and way of life.  Henceforth fanatics   are on the rise.

Mosque

No doubt that in some remote parts of America far away from the East Coast, hard core believers doesn’t want to act open mildly   nor show comprehension and tolerance. But, in the rest of America, despite attempts to mix church and state, the vast majority accepts and shares other values different from their ones. America, as an immigrant-shaped country, continues to welcome visitors and others. That is a sort of unavoidable destiny. America for long will remain a country of opportunities and diversity.

African  Dance

Anywhere, we continue to observe this swirling diversity. Jamaica Estates used to witness at dust Muslims hurrying up to mosque for evening prayer. Inside, adults, youngsters and growing ups offer a  display of moving back  and  bowing chests while uttering guttural words sounding like prayer or  theatric  rehearsal. Not far away, Indians gather at a funeral home to pay their final respects to their loved ones.  Others sell religious articles in stores smelling perfumes. Nearby, Christian churches display size-nature statues, glittering from inside to outside, as monuments of the early Christianity.  Here and there, Guyanese, Jamaicans worship Rastafarian deities, with long hair atop their heads. Bangladesh protesters walk bare foot and chest while punching their bellies .Religiously speaking, America also is a mosaic.   

Happy Boy

Mecca

Last July, at the St James’ celebration day, many Haitians came dressed in red and blue. According to voodoo mythology, St James has an equivalent named Ogou that corresponds to the Roman war god, Mars. His colors are precisely red and blue.  In Haiti, some 75 years ago, or less, the popular religion Voodoo has been despised and almost banned. It is unthinkable for voodoo adept to enter the Catholic Church, let alone the way many worshipers were dressed this 26 July in this Brooklyn church. Now, however, the Haitian Catholic church became more open and more tolerant. At St James, we could observe how majestic was a voodoo priestess walking straight forward to the bishop, Father Guy Sansaricq to receive the host without fear of being rejected. Only in America, can be watched such a so deep   religious. It is not exaggerated to say that at this time of religion-fed terror, American tolerance is at its best as a weapon against fanatics, rejection, frustration and the likes

Chapel Sixtine, Vatican

US AIRWAYS. WHISPERING VOICES...

US AIRWAYS PLANES

The sky is borderless, but planes create the illusion they can make it anyway.

However, when fed up  with crisscrossing the huge blue, some of them long for relaxation and rest, they land in places where they can forget about runaway, signs and tower instructions. It’s no longer time to head for the sky and close by or far away destinations.  A plane has a life time on its own .Unfortunately, we do not think enough about.

US Airways magazine once want to know what travelers think of their flight, the crew team and the way they feel travelling aboard. Good question even for those who continue to be scared of wandering among clouds. Human beings are not angels, alas !

Boarding a jet is a process we begin to become familiar with. Obviously, pretty fly attendant welcomes you with smiling and prevenances. Customer feels at home and many end up in good relationships with hostesses.  Imagine. They make you comfortable, nodding to everything you want, whether your luggage or more room to stretch your legs.  If it happens you need something like a pillow or a cup of water, never mind. Name it and you get it. At least, your stress toward flying is lowering a little bit.

But, because between Miami and NY, US Airways lands for a couple of hours at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, you could know more about this airline life. At the beginning, I was leaning to believe North Carolina was home to this 80 –year old air line. For some reasons, there always is a fleet with this American flag logo painted in the big tail.  Why are there so many US Airways planes on the ground? Is North Carolina really home to the air line company?  No doubt.  Any traveler could confirm himself by glancing at the large windows while heading for his  gate.

Whatever it might be, like many others air lines, US airways has realized the miracle to recreate a king of family gathering impression at thousands feet in the sky. With a Sky Mall magazine, you can buy while running into so many earthy goods displayed through the pages. Even there, good life feeling endures. Hand crafted wood items, jewelry, fitness locations... nothing has really changed since you’ve left the earth. Did you need to travel to become so homesick about life below?

This is one of these things that matter to me. While traveling at so much speed, US Airways don’t let you feel confused about distances and locations. Travel has changed a lot in the 20th  century to become one of those banalities we owe to techniques and good service. As fly attendant feel at ease, why do you have to worry about anything? There lies the power of a smiling hostess.

So, besides a nostalgic touch at Charlotte Douglas airport attached to the American South, and Black ladies still dressed in the old fashion way, NC seems to be the very home of the US Airways air line. Again this huge fleet of planes is at a glance relaxing after having cruised so much in the sky. Nothing on earth can prevail to witness more landscapes, more sight view than a plane. Lining up along their hangar and these glass buildings that characterize airport life, US Airways planes are ready to whisper to each other what they’ve  endured while flying, the stories they’ve  heard about, the  situations they’ve gone through and finally what relaxing time mean to them, now that ungrateful  travelers are already home.

Planes also hold to their privacy..

CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS AIRPORT, NC

US AIRWAYS HEADQUARTER

HAITI BILL CLINTON FAUX PAS

HAITI THE FALL INVASION

SEPTEMBER 1994

I

’ve been working as a country doctor when  the US government landed troops  in Port-au-Prince on the morning of   the  19 September 1994.  Back to 1915, it was the beginning of the 2^nd US invasion in Haiti.

Even though the Haitian image aboard had been tarnished by a nasty propaganda campaign, not all the Americans had agreed on the ground that Haiti would have been invaded. But, according to the American president Bill Clinton, should  democracy be restored , there had been no  another solution left. Against the U.S. intelligence service’s warning,  M .Clinton sent  the boys  of the 82 airborne division. On the Sunday 18 September, we have been brushing the war by an hair. The day after, Clinton who was looking for a CNN diplomatic success,  had the marines landed in Haiti. The US president had  crossed  the Rubicon.

A few time later, the mistake was obvious.  Like in Washington DC, at the American embassy in Port-au-Prince, there had been a splitting among the personal on this foreign policy issue. The chief of the Mission, a quiet and polite man,  Mr. Lesly Swing, had  reunited the Haitian employees a few days before to let them know that “as an ambassador”, he has not identified any cause to send the marines in this impoverished country.  At the contrary, the  cultural attaché, an unexpected man, called Shraeger sided up  with the Lavalas mob, which in the morning of September 19, rushed into the streets, welcoming the planes and helicopters that were crisscrossing  in the Haitian sky.  When the American armada showed up , it was 8.05 A. M.  We could listen to  the  Creole message  broadcasted  from helicopters flying at low altitude and retransmitted as well by the local radio stations calling the native for cooperation with the marines.  But, locked up home, a lot of  proud Haitians felt humiliated and deeply wounded.

More than a decade later, few Haitians Americans and international observers as well .understood what were really  at  stake at this time.    The more smarter claimed that the Clinton administration needed an outstanding diplomatic success  to strengthen  its position in the US after some bad experience in Somalia, Mogadiscio.  In the long term, however, the aftermath of this invasion turned out to be very problematic. Kidnappings, killings, drug trafficking and arsons flourished more than before. Even among the restored government, officials were not innocuous in many wrongdoings. Worst, prominent public figures would have been  shot to death like this  famous lawyer, Mireille Durocher Bertin and later on Jean Dominique, a well known journalist praised overseas. The new people in charge maneuvered well  to keep the power, but  the price  to pay was so high that in the winter 2004, almost ten years after the landing of marines, street protests and students uprising brought down the Clinton-backed president that was to flee  again to exile.

But, early in September 94, among Haitians as well as Americans, there was a lot of concern and doubt with respects to the way American authorities were handling the Haitian crisis. The Haitian army in the North already  had come to rough times  when almost a dozen of soldiers have been gunned down  and buried amidst   sadness and anger in the military hospital at Port-au Prince.  When we denounced those killings in the government newspaper, Shragger sent the marines in front of the office,  wearing heavy weapons aimed at  building and  personal.  In the meantime, the Cap Haitian –based US colonel. Tom Jones,  acknowledged to  have fired first against  these  unfortunate soldiers that were playing outdoors. In the Southern part of the country, aux Cayes, a marine was deeply wounded.  There were no more clash, despite some casualties among Haitian troops.  We were told that all the countrymen were shocked by the return of the US in Haitian internal affairs. High-  ranking American military  were asking themselves why they were sent to Haiti.  Haiti has not been a high risk at the Caribbean sea , like  Iraq later  .

But, very soon, we noted a change of mood among the American troops. Better than that, in many families, American troops felt to have been  welcomed. They tried to understand genuinely the Haitian crisis. Without fear, anywhere, they felt at home.   Many of them tasted our cuisine. Haitian American in the army wanted griot, rice and beans, yellow soup as at   Claude Raymond’s, a former Haitian chief of Staff.   It was  moving to see the conqueror looking at the submitted country with new feeling as if war has never destroyed the human being inside us.  In  the long term, politics would be the only thing to be blamed. US Officers and troops never understood why they went to Haiti.  In other words, Bill Clinton seemed the only one to know the answer .

 Finally, this president expressed some regrets after leaving office.

AUGUST 2007

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

                                      Zanglais Rebirth

The best places in the world are not always what you might think.

When I was in Aquin I used to attend party at Zanglais and practice rural medicine. At this time, it was a boring  place with a poor pubic market and some thatched houses scattered along the main road. Some families  continue to live over there, but by the mid 80s, Zanglais had been switching to a retirement place for people  back home after hard work in the US.

But, to tell the truth, it was  about this time that a kind of pioneer fond of outdoors life and adventures had been launching his well nurtured project. It was a surprise to see special people choose to live in a kind of wild life, but some of them persist and finally their dreams come true.

Today Jardin sur Mer is worth a visit and maybe more. Bob Anglade, a former Belgium resident, is back as the  bible prodigal child. He made coconuts, fruit trees and green vegetables grow while organizing fishing cooperatives. Fish men  can be observed preparing their nets and other tools in front of a bright sea. Instead of wild life with small vegetation, Jardin-sur-Mer  today displays beautiful vistas and attractive beaches open on  the turquoise waters of  Aquin bay. “ it is a work of a quarter of century” Bob Anglade tells  in an interview  with Fre Joel, a Christian American who fell in love with the Haitian countryside.

Needless to say that Jardin sur Mer would be housing very soon Haitians from the diaspora  for a short stay. Jardin sur Mer serves soft and high spirited  drink as well as fruits from its nearby fenced verger.

Bob Anglade, a native of Aquin, where still live some of his  relatives, not only loves his homeland, but also  is showing that  even with nothing creation and success remain  a human process.

THE AMERICAN QUESTION : AN AMERICAN AMBASSADOR

an  american twilight

I

  was turning twenty five when I was asked to get an interview from Howard Isham. As an American ambassador at Port-au-Prince, Mr Isham was runing his mission with kindness and competence, Haitian authorities thought. At this time, I was doing a part time job at the Nouvelliste, the oldest  of the Haitian newspaper. A reporter eager to meet with important and famous people, I was proud to be there. Haiti was in peace.  I  was young...

I went to the embassy , an evening  of  July 1975, convinced that the ambassador had something to say at the eve of the 200 –year anniversary of his country’s independence and  at the midst of the Vietnam war. A couple years before, America  has been retreating   from Saigon at the relief of its own  national opinion. Mr. Hisham would probably consider this hot topic, that is, the ending war. I believed so, at least

Mr. Hisham, tall and well built, greeted me  with a little bit of paternalism. Sleeves rolled up, the forehead  
almost  hairless, the ambassador  talked about this two-century anniversary and other issues. I remember having brought up what once was called the yellow threat, with regards to China. Going on, the interview was considering the cold war and communism rise especially in Asia. “ The communist world once for all is  collapsing  ” the VIP across me concluded.

I was amazed, for two years ago,   the current president Richard Nixon and his secretary of state, Henri  Kissinger have been abandoning Saigon, a event known the world over as the fall of Saigon. But, while saying so, the ambassador was looking away and  not  at me as if  he wanted to talk for himself . It happened I came up with   another question that I didn’t remember. At that moment, going into  a kind of trance, M. Hisham started talking again to himself the way the priests  used toperform matins:

The United States have completed the…
The United States are the main democracy
The United States are the guardian of the free world
The United States used to fight…
The United States…the United States.


I was bemused and almost frozen while listening to such a repetition. The ambassador seemed to pray as he was reminding the US accomplishments in the world. Mr. Hisham has put aside every protocol to make sure I would never forget that moment. It was dusk. The sunset in the Haitian seaside was then as glamorous as in the early fifties at the famous bicentennial inaugural of P-au-P.


While the ambassador was telling his monologue, I glanced at the outdoors yard, where a marine dressed in gold and navy blue, has been lowering the American flag. When the marine received the flag, he took it and squeezed against his chest in a prayer like attitude, a move of less than 30 seconds. But, for me, it was like a prayer time, the ambassador and the marine setting up the ritual and the right moment, not only for the beginner  reporter that I was, but also to a would be threatening cold war enemy.


Since  then, I could never forget this evening July. I saw again Mr. Hisham at  one or two party receptions. Like at this interview, he was relaxed while talking about his country and confident that the US have fulfilled its historical mission in the world.

THE CUBAN QUESTION

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION 

''Castro had stolen our youth', these ladies told us

When they want  to chat and talk about what happens at home, Cubans go to Versailles where the gentry reunites.  A little bit aristocratic and conservative, Versailles opens late at night. By 6 and 12 PM, all of the Cuban politics is there. Workers in jeans, ladies wearing eardrops and necklaces listen to the last news form their native island while swallowing teas, scrambled eggs and waiting something they wish to happen. A very relaxing place, Versailles displays TV interviews and VIP visitors, some of them ready to make news and maybe history. Once at Christmas, we had to stand long before being seated. 

Calle Ocho is part of the so-called Little Havana, with noting to do with  the remote and crumbling Havana in the island . It is considered the core of the Cuban political life. A sometimes quiet neighborhood, Calle Ocho conserves the touch of tropical countries. More than 40 years later, nostalgia and memories of the past is lively. Everything you see or watch has not completely move out of this past. 

History is everywhere present in Calle Ocho.

Elderly are delighted to recall these memories . bay of Pigs' veterans, prisoners freshly released and finally settled in the US, opponents watching every move in the island... They want to associate  Cuban future with the turmoil of past It is behind their windows and at the shadow of the oversize trees that Cubans dream of their countries. Once again, a relaxation feeling is not absent.  As if in the midst of more serious questions Cubans keep their sense of humor and hedonistic life philosophy. The 1900-like resorts or guest houses lining the famous avenue bring as much relaxation as Little Havana is being modernized.

Nevertheless, good life or not, what really matters and what people are expecting is the coming of a few Cuban generation still linked to their island and raised  in the shadow of a  free America. Many expect the real change would take place now. This is not in vain that some Cuban voices are talking about Miami as the capital of sun, exile and anticommunism. 

 The last one, they add with pride, is well a Cuban job.

FEVER IN THE SIXTIES :LET'S TWIST AGAIN

Come on everybody, clap your hands
Oh, you're looking good
I'm gonna sing my song, it won't take long

We're gonna do the twist and it goes like this

Come on, let's twist again like we did last summer
Yeah, let's twist again like we did last year
Do you remember when things were really hummin'?
Yeah, let's twist again, twistin' time is here

Chobby Checkker

Go round 'n around 'n up 'n down we go again
Oh, baby, make me know you love me so and then
Twist again like we did last summer
Come on, let's twist again lik
(Instrumental)




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Nikita was turning 14 maybe when twist dance became so popular in Port-au-P, Haiti that every teenager prided himself by twisting. At this time, JFK's America was still a wonderful land we're dreaming of, let alone that France  whose growns up kept the language like a war trophee. Haiti had been  displaying  a rural like touch even tough wealthy  and famous were launching what over the years would have ended up modernizing this country. But by then, life even traditional was  worth living.

Twist dance came home. There was no farewell to merengue and the new beat of compas. However, as the Haitian society were at a turning point withall   kind of conflicts, class, color, religion and language, youths escape by imitating overseas'life in dancing, singing and dressing, save that the identity crisis didn't prevent the very country from finding out its own exit.

Nikita told me she was a fan of Les Copains at Radio Haiti. Later on, she was rather delighted at listening to Gerard Duvperil from Jazz des Jeunes. The late Dupervil will tell us that Des jeunes was the watch dog  of the Haitian soul and traditions. But, looking back at those years, nobody seemed to have thought at the turmoil of our times. we're blind on ourselves and people that used to make our daily landscape.

Twist Again was then the hit hop that resounded a lot from City Club and Macaya, those brothel of the struggling  middle class in down town suburbs. Never did pretty girls  like Nikita wander that far. Alix Chalmers, a school mate of the fall 1963 was thinking twice about that. Nevertheless, when I felt smart enough to ask myself what it's true about this volatile mindset of our fellows, I am even today convinced that we miss a golden opportunity to see the world,our world as it is.

Twist Again was driving everyone crazy, even the American president John F. Kennedy. His wife Jacky used to dance in a childish way this dance born among Black Americans from the South. In Haiti, before bese bas from Tabou Gombo, every one was twisting. At Rex Theatre, Les Copains came with a kind of Elvis Presley singer that threw himself on ground ending his singing " Every body in Haiti was imitating somebody overseas" concluded the author of One day for the hunter one day for the prey,  Gage Averill.University of  Chicago Press,  1997

The government at this time was aware of this on going crisis in the youth. As time went on, the Elvis Presley fans switched very soon to mini-jazz, after so many avatars: Les vampires, Les Corvington, Les Mordus .... A cultural revolution was unfolding, the Haitian soul was at the risk of vanishing away...But, it is no secret that nature is what it is.

Nikita doesn't twist any longer. Time has changed. This change of guard implies a change of heart. Chobby Checkker, the twist king, got some fat in the belly. The sixties are gone and the girls we were gazing at went to church every morning,pacing uneasily overcrowded streets. My friend Alix  Chalmers is cursing this fading era when Nikita and the likes were the queen of the hearts. 

Et maintenant ?

Guess what: Nikita had escaped to the Recul, Camp Perrin

LA QUESTION HAITIENNE: QUO VADIS , HAITI ?

Est-il vrai que dans le cas d’Haïti l’essentiel reste à faire ?

Je suis de cet avis.

Pourtant c’est loin d’être l’opinion d’une bonne partie de l’élite pensante, maintenant que le branle est donné dans les affaires et  qu’une politique dont le moins qu’on puisse dire c’est qu’elle est une politique de réaménagement du territoire, avec en perspective qu’en changeant le cadre physique il s’ensuivra ce que l’on pourrait bien appeler cette dilation de l’imagination ou pout tout dire cette sorte de réveil des consciences, telle que l’ère des conquérants au 16 ème siècle nous en offre l’exemple.  Les plus optimistes ajouteraient qu’Haïti est en train de sortir de son marasme et de son isolement. Depuis 1994 et le séisme de 2012, le pays semble être parvenu dans une ère nouvelle. Le futur devient des plus attrayants  comme si à cette fièvre haïtienne s’ajoutait également une fièvre de la découverte.

La question de toujours « Quo Vadis, ( ou vas-tu) Haïti », qu’une carte postale anonyme  se posait une fois  semble même n’être plus de mise. Pour le meilleur et pour le pire, la modernité s’installe chez nous. L’internet et le culte du téléphone cellulaire donne bien la mesure de cette  rentrée d’Haïti dans les grands circuits internationaux. En 1965, l’atterrissage d’un jet a l’aéroport de Mais Gâté n’avait pas à ce point réveillé les consciences. Mais, dans la première décennie de  l’an 2000, cette Haïti encore en grande partie rurale  se meurt à petit feu. Aucune différence entre les gamins de Lisbonne ou de Rio et ceux de  Pt Salut, en matière de communication. Même si le PNB continue encore à mesurer les niveaux de vie, dans le domaine de la communication, l’accélération tend à l’uniformisation de notre planète. Bill Gates notait dans une communication à Harvard que cette planète se rétrécissait et devenait même trop étroite.

Haïti se trouve donc engagée comme sur la route des conquérants curieux de savoir ce qui se cachait derrière les océans. L’ile  à Vaches dans le Sud émerge comme du fond des mers Caraïbes avec ses trésors  et ses secrets. L’ile de la Tortue invite à retrouver ces bassins ensevelis où Pauline Bonaparte sortait de son bain. Pour la première fois, dans son histoire, Haïti se trouve inscrite sur la carte des destinations cosmopolites. A la suite du séisme, on disait comme dans le cas du Portugal ou de la Californie, qu’Haïti pourrait faire l’objet d’un  capitalisme perçu alors comme une sorte de : destructive création ».

Adieu foulards, adieu madras, est-on alors tenté de répéter comme  au temps  des derniers tangos de Paris. Qu’après tant de souffrances Haïti puisse renaitre la modernité, quoi de plus enviable ! Cependant, le printemps n’est pas si rose qu’on le croit. Sans prétendre jouer les Cassandre, il y a derrière la magie de notre époque des zones d’ombre qui pourraient bien annoncer la fatalité si redoutée mais hélas toujours possible.

La portoricanisation reste  toujours une échéance probable, laquelle ne ferait que signer l’échec des élites. La privatisation qui parait inévitable ne ferait l’affaire que d’une certaine mafia, trop heureuse de chanter cette ère de libertés qui au fond menacent  la liberté. A quoi sert en fin de compte l’état quand les marchands se mêlent de faire une histoire  qu’ils ignorent ? Non pas que la libre entreprise ne soit dans une certaine mesure ce panacée qui libère le génie. Cependant, de quoi demain sera-t-il fait quand, la production réduite à néant, on est sur le point  de ne tenir que grâce aux miettes de ce festin de sourds, indifférents à toute haitianité ?

A la fin des années 80, un journaliste américain de passage en Haïti notait déjà que ce pays était en train d’agoniser rien qu’à lire sur les pancartes publicitaires ce qu’on considérait déjà comme la macdonalisation d’Haïti. Les choses ont empiré depuis. L’âme haïtienne  n’existe que dans la nostalgie.  Les vendeurs d’illusions de gauche ou de droite qui croyaient qu’Haïti avait encore un rôle à jouer semblent se raviser. Le destin d’Haïti ne nous réserve en fait que le sort d’être phagocyté par la grande Amérique et la communauté internationale. C’est vers une telle étape que se dirige la presente génération.

Pourtant, pour ceux qui connaissent bien cette Haïti qui n’a tenu que par le pouvoir de l’illusion, la déroute est loin d’être le dernier rendez vous d’un peuple qui sut confondre et dérouter l’adversaire. Que ce soit en religion ou en politique,  Haïti est capable encore de sursauts les uns aussi inattendus  que les autres. Ce n’est pas la première fois qu’on invente un destin pour Haïti, mais ce n’est pas non plus la première fois qu’Haïti  réinvente son propre destin.

C’est sans doute là que se prépare  la bataille d’Haïti.