Haiti occupied and overcoming — Patrick Elie

Editing by Carolyn Bennett
Haitian political activist Patrick Elie spoke in 2008 with Canadian photojournalist Darren Ell about “obstacles to Haiti’s quest for true sovereignty.”

Ell asked, “What message would you like to pass on to Canadian and American readers — what should they be thinking about if they want to help Haiti?”

Patrick Elie answered, “Become citizens in your own countries. You’re nothing but consumers. You’ve lost control of your governments. Open up your eyes and ears to the lies you’re being fed about other countries.

“… Canada [also] should stop robbing, literally looting Haiti of its better minds that are so needed [in Haiti], especially in the last 5 or 10 years.

“I’ve heard French President Nicolas Sarkozy speak about ‘chosen immigration’ but Canada has been doing it for years. I think the reason Canada is ‘involved’ in Haiti is that it gets finished products without having invested in them: Haitian minds: technicians, doctors and engineers. If you do the math, you will see that Haiti has helped Canada much more than Canada has helped Haiti. It costs money to raise a kid, send [a kid] to school, then have someone grab that finished product for free and start using it. Please tell the Canadian government to stop baiting our kids. Stop destabilizing our country.”

Today Patrick Elie spoke again from downtown Port-au-Prince this time with Amy Goodman. Remembering the earthquake, Haiti and its people, and foreign occupation, this is some of what Elie said in the Democracy Now interview.

Haiti occupied
A foreign government and foreign interests, the so-called international community, currently control Haiti. In the month or maybe years to come, the situation will get even worse because the recent election did not mobilize the Haitian people. Whoever is elected will form a very weak government, a very weak presidency with very little popular legitimacy. The ability of this new leadership to actually mobilize Haitians for reconstruction and, on a partner-to-partner basis, engage the international community is going to be very, very small.

As a people, we are facing a huge challenge — maybe as big as the one we faced successfully in 1804. The vultures are again descending on Haiti and the only people who can prevent that are the Haitians themselves — with the help of foreign friends who keep their vigilance high. What needs to be done is not easy to map out. There is no magic wand.

Haiti moving forward
Big-shot lawyers and technicians are not enough. The voice of the communities — not only of Port-au-Prince — voices from other parts of the country that represent our way out of this mess must be heard. One of the very encouraging things that emerged from the earthquake was the birth or the rebirth of neighborhood committees. … Some of them have remained and they are sketching their way ahead.

This movement has spread beyond the cities to small peasant communities. There lies the future of Haiti and of its democracy — not in fancy hotels or convention centers.

Sources and notes
“Haiti's Catch-22: An Interview with Patrick Elie — Canadian photojournalist Darren Ell asked Elie about obstacles to Haiti’s quest for true sovereignty” (Darren Ell The Dominion), 2008,
http://www.haitianalysis.com/politics/haiti-s-catch-22-an-interview-with-patrick-elie

“Haitian Activist Patrick Elie: ‘Haiti is Controlled by Foreign Governments and Foreign Interests,’ January 12, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/12/haitian_activist_patrick_elie_haiti_is


Patrick Elie
“A biochemist by training, 58-year-old Patrick Elie is a political activist in Haiti, who has been fighting since the 1980s for the right of all Haitians to shape their country’s political future. A member of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s cabinet in exile following the 1991 coup d'état, and Secretary of State for Defense after Aristide’s return, Elie recently and reluctantly accepted President René Préval’s request to lead a commission studying the question of security in Haiti.” Elie was interviewed in Port-au-Prince four years after the 2004 coup d'état against the Aristide regime.

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