The Great Experiment: A Nightmare for Haitians

Never in the Haiti’s two centuries of storied existence have its people experienced this succession of calamities in such a short period of time, which coincides with the unlawful occupation of country under the fictitious pretext of saving its people from the tyranny of their leaders. 2004: Hurricane Jeanne 3000 dead; 2004-06: MINUSTAH-Latortue regime 4000 plus, 2008: Hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike 800, January 12th 2010 earthquake: 250.000 plus and 1.5 million homeless, 2010 cholera epidemic: 1200 and counting. These are tangible evidences that the UN’s Great Experiment (2004-?), whose purpose is at best insidious, poses an existential threat to this little nation, which was liberated at the beginning of the 19th century by rebellious slaves. Untold numbers were asphyxiated with sulfur dioxide and others burned alive by the vengeful French in a chilling forerunner to the 20th century use of crematories by the Nazis. The selfless sacrifices of these freedom fighters on behalf of an entire race could never be erased despite repeated attempts by detractors, even though their achievement seems lost on many of their descendants.
Through treacherous actions of local collaborators, Haitians have lost faith in their illustrious past that once made them the vanguard of self-determination against organized repression and injustice. The handover of the government’s constitutional prerogatives to the foreign-dominated Haiti Reconstruction Project (HRP) by a truncated parliament, acting at the behest of foreign entities and the local elite, fits a pattern of dereliction of duty and political delinquency, if not outright treason. Fortunately history is on our side, because great nations, despite setbacks, always lived up to their predestined purpose. Our indomitable ancestors must be turning in their graves, seeing that their selfless sacrifices are being negated by the vile actions of impenitent collaborators and opportunists whose raison d’être is self-preservation at any cost.
Though no one, particularly Haitians, can accurately predict what will happen next, the smart money is no doubt betting on something more catastrophic happening in the near future, which would be consistent with the trend. It could be a global food shortage that disproportionately affects Haiti and results in a large scale famine (the country currently imports 80% of its food needs) or some unknown mutating virus for which there is no known cure. Yet, Haitian politicians, from René Préval to the 19 presidential contenders in the November 28th elections, oblivious of the looming danger, remain in awe of the empty promises of the Great Experiment which is a nightmare for the people.
Within days of the cholera epidemic and without the benefit of concrete actions, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Préval regime irresponsibly announced that the disease was under control and measures were being implemented to prevent it from spreading. The generic statement, consistent with the pattern of calculated deception, arrogance and unaccountability underlying the Great Experiment, turned out to be premature, seeing that the epidemic is spreading at an alarming rate unseen in the history of treatable diseases. At the very least, the Nepalese contingent, the most likely or circumstantial originator of the disease, should have been repatriated. The occupiers however would not even entertain the idea and, oddly enough, appear indignant at the people’s indignation.
Responding to the public outcry over the epidemic in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, Vincenzo Pugliese, the U.N spokesman, angrily blamed political actors for instigating the protests. "It looks like the demonstration began in three or four parts in the city in a simultaneous way that means it was planned ahead or organized," said Pugliese in a statement that exemplifies arrogance and apathy in the face of human sufferings. Ironically, Pugliese got it backward, as it is actually the dearth of dedicated agitators that allows this abomination to continue. Therefore, doing away with the occupation is the prerequisite to extricating Haiti from this Great Experiment conceived in the dark rooms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that bears the hallmarks of a planned genocide.
When Colin L. Powell, the former U.S secretary of state, declared in March 2004 that France had the right to intervene in Haiti, his statement was based on our colonial association with the French, which many consider indissoluble. In which case, it would not be presumptuous for us, Haitians, to borrow the first verse of La Marseillaise as a battle cry: “Let’s go children of the fatherland; the day of glory has arrived. Against us stands tyranny. The bloody banner is raised. Do you hear in the countryside the howling of those ferocious soldiers? They have come into our midst to slit the throat of our sons and wives. To arms citizens! To arms citizens! Form your battalions. Let’s march, let’s march, so that the impure blood should irrigate our fields.” The lyrics, which reflect on the invasion of France by the armies of Prussia and Austria (1792) in the aftermath of the French Revolution (1789), illustrate what is actually happening in Haiti.
Indeed, the roar of MINUSTAH’s armored vehicles is terrorizing the population into submission under the assertion “the protesters are being manipulated by enemies of stability and democracy in Haiti.” Unbeknownst to the occupiers, the muffled cries of the victims are resonating in the remotest corners of the globe and the lovers of freedom are attentively listening, as the Great Experiment resembles more a war of extermination than the mission of mercy its architects want the world to believe.