Cond Rice lent credibility to Chavez' claim that she is an illiterate

[seemslikeadream]

Dissident Voice editorialist Justin Felux writes: When asked about the overthrow of Haiti's Aristide government in a television interview, Condoleezza Rice lent credibility to Hugo Chavez' claim that she is an illiterate by saying "we believe that President Aristide, in a sense, forfeited his ability to lead his people, because he did not govern democratically." She later said "Haiti is moving forward. There's a new President. There is a new prime minister. There is a new chief of police. There's an Eminent Persons Council that is trying to guide that process."....


Reports of atrocities in the countryside and the slums have been coming in on a daily basis. In one incident a container full of people was allegedly thrown into the water, allowing the people to drown. Another reported incident involved people being herded into an outhouse that was subsequently doused with gasoline and set on fire. None of these events have been confirmed, and it is unlikely that we will know the true scope of the atrocities for some time. Appeals are being made to human rights organizations to launch an investigation. In Port-au-Prince, people with dreadlocks, a hair style sometimes associated with a certain political culture, are reportedly being shot at night. Aid workers and missionaries who attempt to provide help to people are being intimidated by the armed gangs.

The disturbing events surrounding this crisis aren't limited to the island nation. Here in the United States, the media has played the role of cheerleader for the coup. White liberals, I am ashamed to say, have been eerily silent on this issue. Around the time of the coup there were a spate of articles and commentaries which lightly condemned the Bush administration, but most white liberals seem to have already forgotten where Haiti is on the map. Some have even fallen for the propaganda and declared Aristide's ouster a victory for human rights. The left should be up in arms over what this administration has done to Haiti, and not just for moral reasons...


These are questions that could put the Bush administration in a pretty awkward position, especially when it becomes clear that the US has been actively supporting the "armed opposition."

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16428

http://www.pbase.com/image/13851992

[pfitz59]

1. All the "newness" in Haiti.......

has come without a single election! I guess they believe in Democracy, Bush* style.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Reaching the top levels of power often strips you of the elements you

need to empathize with what's happening to people of your own race. You would think that Condi's own ethnic persuasion would give her a third eye to what's happening in Haiti. But she seems thouroughly domesticated.

[IrateCitizen]

3. It's summed up by the comments of her cousin, Connie Rice...

... when interviewed on NOW by David Brancaccio, she said, "I'm trying to narrow the gaps between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. She's trying to narrow the gap between the multi-millionaires and the billionaires."

Condi has no empathy for the "little people", because they aren't as important as she and the "elites".

Race has nothing to do with it. Class trumps race every time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I look forward to the day we have enough minorities represented

at the top levels when we then can have a fair opportunity to test your theory.

[eridani]

10. A comfortable denizen of Frying Pan Park, fersure

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20040209&s=roy

The best allegory for New Racism is the tradition of "turkey pardoning" in the United States. Every year since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the US President with a turkey for Thanksgiving. Every year, in a show of ceremonial magnanimity, the President spares that particular bird (and eats another one). After receiving the presidential pardon, the Chosen One is sent to Frying Pan Park in Virginia to live out its natural life. The rest of the 50 million turkeys raised for Thanksgiving are slaughtered and eaten on Thanksgiving Day. ConAgra Foods, the company that has won the Presidential Turkey contract, says it trains the lucky birds to be sociable, to interact with dignitaries, school children and the press. (Soon they'll even speak English!)

That's how New Racism in the corporate era works. A few carefully bred turkeys--the local elites of various countries, a community of wealthy immigrants, investment bankers, the occasional Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice, some singers, some writers (like myself)--are given absolution and a pass to Frying Pan Park. The remaining millions lose their jobs, are evicted from their homes, have their water and electricity connections cut, and die of AIDS. Basically they're for the pot. But the Fortunate Fowls in Frying Pan Park are doing fine. Some of them even work for the IMF and the WTO--so who can accuse those organizations of being antiturkey? Some serve as board members on the Turkey Choosing Committee--so who can say that turkeys are against Thanksgiving? They participate in it! Who can say the poor are anti-corporate globalization? There's a stampede to get into Frying Pan Park. So what if most perish on the way?

[Kimber Scott]

4. Our president isn't governing democratically, why doesn't

anybody come and fly him out of here in the middle of the night?

[jbfam4]

7. You made my day!

This will happen in November!

[pippin]

5. Condi is a total sleaze

amazing how ph.d.s can be handed out to total idiots. Amazing too that she could rise in the faculty ranks to become provost at Stanford.

[eridani]

12. She ain't stupid--

--she's amoral. Big difference.

[indepat]

14. She ain't illiterate either, but is not being eaten up with an extreme

ideological virus just as bad, if not worse, because everything is preconceived and seen through reichous, mendacious, hypocritical, duplicitous, and sanctimonious lying eyes.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Haiti moving forward

The dead body of an unidentified man lies in the streets in front of the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Saturday, Feb. 28, 2004. The man was shot dead Friday night. (AP Photo/Rodrigo abd)


A Haitian man hauls a handcart through a trash strewn street near the port in downtown Port-Au-Prince. Canada sent three military planes to Haiti to repatriate its citizens wanting to leave(AFP/Yuri Cortez)

Supporters of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide march through the Brooklyn borough of New York, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2004, demanding the United States and France honor Aristide's five-year mandate in Haiti. (AP Photo/Jennifer Szymaszek)

Unidentified gunmen intercept a car of looters in the streets downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti Friday, Feb. 27, 2004. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)


Members of the U.S. special forces sit in the back of a truck, from part of a convoy which delivered people to the Dominican Republic. (Reuters/Andrew Winning)

[teryang]

9. That "special forces" photograph

...is interesting. They don't wear uniforms? Their facial hair is out of regs. I don't think they are special forces. They're position in the truck is anything but secure.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. And they look extremely white for the tropics.

They must have trained oop north.

[Disturbed]

13. Democracy

Seems that most Americans don't care about Haiti or Democracy. Maybe they know that Amerika is not a Democracy but an Oligarchy. That nothing Amerikans do can change the situation in Haiti. The powers of US, France and Canada wanted a Pres. change up and they got one.

[seemslikeadream]

15. They got one with a little help and I don't think he's gona fade away

Assistant Secretary of State Roger F. Noriega testifies on Capitol Hill Tuesday, March 2, 2004 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Haiti. Speaking of current leader Guy Philippe, Noriega said 'He is not in control of anything but a ragtag band of people.' The buildup of the international presence in Haiti will make Philippe's role 'less and less central in Haitian life. And i think he will probably want to make himself scarce.' (AP Photo/Stephen J. Boitano)




Guy Philippe (C) is cheered as he drives through Port-Au-Prince. Haiti's rebels raised the stakes in the country's crisis by declaring themselves in control of security, refusing to disarm and vowing to arrest the country's prime minister after the sudden weekend resignation and flight into exile of president Jean Bertrand Aristide.(AFP/Yuri Cortez)

[Judi Lynn]

16. Haven't seen these photos. They are excellent.

Noriega's a former chief of staff for Jesse Helms, who was obsessed with controlling Latin America and the Caribbean. Hideous people.

The Guy Phillipe photo is intrigueing because it reveals the killer as a handsome, relaxed-looking, congenial guy, yet it indicates his smile is a total sham, when you see how wildly rigid and tense his body guards are. They look as if they expect to dominate everyone, one way or another. Just like Roger Noriega, in the photo above, and his utterly unscrupulous collegues.