On an absolutely gorgeous Saturday morning, three members of the Haitian delegation of December 2003 spoke to a small group in the Upper Room at St. Joan’s. There were only twelve people in the room (nine of whom were not delegates). However, the small size of the group did not minimize the impact or the importance of the meeting. The meeting lasted 2 ½ hours!!! Pretty impressive for a small gathering on a Saturday morning in the spring!

The delegation members in attendance were: Paul Miller, Dick Bernard and Jeanne Morales. In what I see as the Holy Spirit at work; two of the attendees were Bruce Nestor, who is going to Haiti this month with the National Lawyers Guild, and Laura Flynn, who knows President Jean Bertrand Aristide personally and worked with him for six years with the Aristide Foundation for Democracy. Bruce and Laura spoke for a while on their experiences/hopes with Haiti.

Each of the St. Joan’s delegates spoke about their experiences in Haiti and what they learned/realized/hope.

Paul Miller spoke about visiting Haiti every year since 1996. Paul moved away from his initial missionary purpose for being there to trying to understand the reasons for poverty and problems in Haiti. He also realizes Haiti is a case study for peace and justice and he has learned a lot about the U.S. involvement in Haiti (there is a profile of Paul Miller on the St. Joan’s website).

Dick Bernard(right) spoke about his trip. If you were at St. Joan’s for Paul’s homily, Dick is the “real Catholic” from the Basilica of St. Mary’s. The December trip was Dick’s first visit to Haiti. He did not expect to be a “witness to history” in the making. The group was there right as things were becoming unsettled. They met a man who was assassinated two days after they met him. However, he found Haiti to be more peaceful then he had been led to believe by reading the U.S. press. He believes the U.S. is more violent then Haiti. Later, he noted Minneapolis had more murders in 1996 then Haiti yet Haiti ended up on the State Department watch list as being unsafe. The trip strengthened his commitment to do more for Haiti. Dick has spent time in the Philippines and he recalled a wealthy Filipino telling him matter-of-factly “if you are poor you die”. Dick sees the same belief at work in Haiti and the same gap between rich and poor. A very small part of the overall population lives in affluence.

Jeanne Morales(right, who has written on Haiti for this website) found her trip to be very affirming and positive because of the optimism of the people of Haiti. She even ponders selling everything and moving there. She mentioned Fonkoze, which is an alternative bank for the poor, is a big success story for Haiti. Jeanne did not get to speak about Fonkoze during the meeting but I asked her about it later. Jeanne said Fonkoze gives small loans to women, exchanges money from all the Haitians living abroad who send money home and also provides literacy and community health programs. Fonkoze has been a frequent target of violence and attempts to close it down. But, it perseveres. Jeanne talks glowingly of Fonkoze, an organization that “empowers people to move out of dependency and to create a viable future for themselves. It is an institution that doesn’t belittle a person because they are poor-instead it gives them the tools to move out of poverty”. One of the delegates wants to raise money for Fonkoze so they can open another branch in a rural community. Jeanne believes they would need to raise $25,000.

Paul(right) played a 20-minute version of a longer video that Jeff Nohner put together from the trip in December. It was called Ayiti/Haiti: Eye of the Storm, December 6-13th.

For a 20-minute clip, this video was extremely powerful. I can only imagine what the impact of the full-length is. Images/stories from the video that stood out for me were:

• The Haitian women in a group circle at BAI (Bureau of International Advocates) telling of the abuse, rape and assault they have suffered. Several of the women pleaded with the women of the world to help them, to stand in solidarity with them in their struggle. If I have ever been ashamed of doing nothing, this was a time when I was ashamed.
• The SOPUDEP school and community center. I was struck by the fact that despite what must be overwhelming poverty experienced by the people of Haiti I have rarely seen school children so clean and well-dressed in my life. I think all of the kids had shirts that looked like they had just been pressed and laundered. Even in the midst of overwhelming poverty it is clearly a matter of pride to the Haitian people that their children are presentable at school. The school classes were extremely crowded and it looked as though there was not enough room or even chairs for the children to sit during lessons. Everyone was standing.
• Kevin Pina, a correspondent from Flashpoints who has lived in Haiti for many years, pointing out the fact that U.S. Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) receive humanitarian aid for Haiti but it’s not clear what they are doing to help Haiti with the money. Right across the street from SOPUDEP, which is clearly just getting by, is the Haitian headquarters for Save the Children. The Save the Children building is barely seen but it’s grounds look like an oasis of palms and trees and green. Everything I’ve seen in Haiti is bare and brown. A high brick wall surrounds the Save the Children grounds and the driveway is gated and locked. The employees have chauffeured cars that drive them around. The video shows the electronic gates opening while a black, well washed, SUV emerges onto the street. The dichotomy is glaring.
• Ron Voss of Visitation House walking us through a series of murals. He says the murals are the Haitian Stations of the Cross. Since this is Lent I could not think of a more timely coincidence. There is a website that explains the stations significance at www.olgp.net/ministry/haiti/memorial/mem.htm:
  1. Church of St. Jean Bosco
  2. Citi Soleil
  3. Fort Dimanche
  4. The Waterfront
  5. U.S. Embassy
  6. National Cemetery
  7. National Palace
  8. Military Headquarters
  9. Man of Peace statue
  10. Cathedral of Notre Dame
  11. Sacre Couer-Antwon Izmery
  12. Guy Mallory
  13. Father Jean Marie Vincent
  14. La Famni Selavi
• Father Jerry Jn Juste preaching at a church service clearly directing his comments at the Joan of Arc delegation and us the viewer since his comments are in English-not Creole. “Take sanctions off us, Mr. Bush” “We are poor black Americans too” “We are an American country”.

What does the U.S have against Haiti?

1. Haiti achieved independence from France in 1804 but it was not until after the Civil War that the U.S formally recognized Haiti. The U.S. was a slave-holding nation at that time and Haiti was a nation of former slaves who revolted against their “masters” in France.
2. Race is probably a factor. Haiti is almost entirely black.
3. U.S. is usually allied with the elite in Haiti. The U.S. supported the brutal Duvalier regime for decades in exchange for the Duvalier’s supporting U.S. business expansion in Haiti.
4. Andre Aped, the winner in the recent coup, owns 20 sweatshops in Haiti that do work for Wal-Mart and other large U.S. corporations. Aristide raised the minimum wage in Haiti three times, a move the U.S. corporations in Haiti were opposed to.
5. From his first day in office, the current President Bush wanted to get rid of Aristide. The U. S. cut off money from the OAS to Haiti and claimed that Aristide was not fairly elected even thought he won 67% of the vote in 1991 and 90% in 2000. International election observers said they had seldom seen such fair elections in a third world country.
6. U.S. claims Haiti is a drug-trafficking country since Port-au-Prince is an unregulated port and it is a frequent staging area for drugs into the U.S. It may be true that the port is a drug staging area; however, Laura Flynn says Haitians don’t produce drugs and they are certainly to poor to buy them. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) has recently asked to see the evidence of U.S. claims of drug trafficking in Haiti.
7. It’s not just the Republican party that has been unfair to Haiti. What did President Clinton ever do for Haiti? He visited once but enacted no positive reforms. President Carter publicly stated recently that he still does not support Jean Bertrand Aristide and he was booed during his 1994 visit to Haiti because he said Raoul Cedras was a man of honor when most Haitian’s see Cedras as a thug.

Laura Flynn(facing the audience) says there may have been some corruption in Aristide’s government but nowhere near the levels claimed by the U.S. media. She says recent stories that Aristide stole money from Haiti are untrue. The money went to opponents of Aristide via NGO’s.

What can we do?

• Keep reading/seeking out stories on Haiti and the current status of Jean Bertrand Aristide, who is currently in exile in the Central African Republic.
• Write Letters to the Editor demanding Haitian coverage and that it be fair and unbiased.
• Ask your elected representatives for their opinions on Haiti.
• Ask those running for political office in the upcoming elections what their position on Haiti is.
• Laura Flynn raised the issue of possibly sponsoring a Haitian to come to the Twin Cities area and speak locally. She also mentioned the Haiti Accompaniment Project. A project where people would live in Haiti for two weeks and witness/report on what is happening. This sounds very similar to some projects in the Palestinian settlements.

Janice LaDuke was baptized at St. Joan of Arc but her parents left St. Joan's in the early 70's and went to a "less radical" Catholic church instead. She's very glad to have found her way back to St. Joan's in 1994!! Janice is a librarian by profession and has been working in the library of a healthcare consulting firm since 1997. In her spare time, she enjoys listening to all kinds of music and working on her home near Como Lake in St. Paul. Janice is also Echo Thoren's assistant every Sunday at the 11:00 a.m. service.

Paul Miller said each of us has an impact on our circle so if 6 people can reach 50 people and so on and so on eventually the word will get out. It’s important for us to keep talking and thinking about Haiti. Don’t let it disappear!

• Read Paul Miller's February 1st, 2004 homily
• SJA Delegation Arrives in Haiti
• SJA Delegation Returns from Haiti
• Delegate Jeanne Morales discusses Haitian politics

Kelly Jones Hicks is a new photographer for the website. Welcome Kelly!