tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31283257.post115975939857463708..comments2024-03-21T17:15:35.252+01:00Comments on Michael Deibert, Writer: On September 30thMichael Deiberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04810256309168860637noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31283257.post-1159833652837671852006-10-03T02:00:00.000+02:002006-10-03T02:00:00.000+02:00Dear Asger,Indeed. I remember sitting off Grand Ru...Dear Asger,<BR/><BR/>Indeed. I remember sitting off Grand Rue in early 2001 with my friend Etzer Pierre, a democratic activist from the late 1980's/early 1990's and now in my view one of Haiti's greatest living painters, and having him regretfully tell me that "There's a new generation of political activists now who have come onto the scene since the return of Aristide without the level of political maturity that a lot of the older ones had developed over the years. A lot of the people who are acting now are acting neither with the same vision for global change nor the political autonomy that they were acting with in the 1980's." <BR/> <BR/>Around the same time, I realized that, despite their involvement in Haiti's often violent politics (which the political actors manipulated at will while steering well clear of the line of fire), people like James, Tupac, Labanye, Amaral and others were in fact the most politically aware of the hardened young men from those ghettos, and that in fact many of the "soldiers" under them were full of much of the same rage but lacking in any ability to judge and analyze their situation that some of the bosses had. I've tried to make it clear that if those in power kill a gang leader today, there will be twenty young men waiting in line willing to take his place, and always an opportunistic gangster-politician to exploit that sense of hopelessness. There needs to be a genuine rapprochement between woche nan dlo and woche nan soley. Too much to hope for? I hope not, because until the system of Haiti changes - the system of economic exclusion, environmental degradation, lack of education and services and political chicanery and violent, often murderous manipulation - nothing else will change for Haiti.<BR/><BR/>MDMichael Deiberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04810256309168860637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31283257.post-1159826417691219162006-10-03T00:00:00.000+02:002006-10-03T00:00:00.000+02:00Thank you Michael. Your blog made me turn of the p...Thank you Michael. Your blog made me turn of the phone and close the blinds for some moments of reflection.<BR/><BR/>And I would like to add to all those who think they can overcome gang-related crimes by comitting crimes against humanity in the slums of Haiti, that for every gangmember they kill there will be another with less restraint behind him picking up the gun. If there is no hope, there is always the gun. Sad, but true.<BR/><BR/>Tupak told me that if he or his brother were killed the capital would explode in violence as younger and wilder and more hatefull guys would take over... <BR/><BR/>Tupak was killed on the 30th of September and all hell broke loose as operation Baghdad began and the streets of Port-au-Prince have never been the same again. <BR/><BR/>Turns out Tupak was right and that there is a esson to be learned.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com