Haiti: Disaster and Sovereignty

January 12, 2010 deserves to be a day that lives in recollection for all peoples in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti was struck with a horrible act of nature that will seemingly impact the lives of Haitians for generations to come. We can see the way the land has been changed as a result of the catastrophe, however what we have failed to explore is how the nation will appear as it re-emerges from the ruins. Before the nature of the news cycle confined  Haiti’s  tragedy to the shadowed corners of our memory and the eyes of the world were averted to the newest trauma-action locale, there were the beginnings of a discussion  of Haiti’s political future; a discussion that left me shocked and devastated. As I was listening to The Take Away, the popular morning news show on WNYC, a field reporter “on the ground” in Port-au-Prince reported a growing consensus among the devastated Haitian population, now proclaiming that the republic needs a president that is not Haitian. When asked if this was an appeal for statehood (presumably within the US) or even a Fujimori (former President of Peru) situation she replied neither. Later, there was discussion on NPR’s On Point; a field reporter stated that he had a conversation with a Haitian who was hoping that Haiti could move into a protectorate relationship with the United States akin to that of Puerto Rico. I’m so disappointed.

What France and the Western communities started so long ago by placing huge reparation taxes on Haiti’s liberation, granting near usurious loans (the US), and incessantly intervening in internal politics has come to its logical conclusion. Haiti appears to be broken.

With 18,000 foreign troops (US) in Haiti, to win hearts and minds, how long will the first black republic in the Western world remain an independent nation? As so many peoples and countries around the world so stridently clamor for their sovereignty, will Haiti surrender theirs?

I remain grateful that I have never experienced a natural disaster on the scale of the earthquake that has brought Haiti so low, and therefore can only imagine what fears and pressures are at work in the minds of Haitians. It is just my sincere hope that Haiti can find a way to rebuild not only the infrastructure that was so visibly obliterated on the fateful day of the earthquake, but also its spirit. I hope that Haiti can and will reclaim the confidence, strength and resolve that made it a beacon of hope to a world of African descended peoples clamoring for freedom.

Corporations Are People Too

I have problems with the idea of corporate citizens but then it’s the same problem I have with super-rich citizens (they are seemingly above the law), although you can at least theoretically arrest those. Regardless of what has transpired in the highest court in the land, this comic from www.bigfatwhale.com offers a humorous perspective on a disappointing reality of modern life.

Our Fellow (Corporate) Citizens

Honolulu BS move over BO

Honolulu is engaging in a war against the poor, the aged and abandoned, and the unfortunate; all for the benefit of a newly “conscious” moneyed class.  Those of us who live in large cities, cities with effective and vital public transportation systems, sometimes ride the bus. We recognize the importance of the bus providing affordable transportation for everyone.  The city of Honolulu has decided to  penalize hygiene.  According to local news, “Under the bill, if you or something you bring on the bus smells bad, you could be asked to get off, or be issued a police citation. That would carry a fine of up to $500, maybe even up to six months in jail.” This new measure, proposed by the city of Honolulu is really an assault on the traditional user of bus services for  promoting the service to a new “green class”  one that is turned off by the prospect of sharing a bus with those that may be unable to maintain their hygiene in a manner that we would prefer.

This is classicism repackaged as civic concern and I am ashamed that any civic institution would levy, without any compassion, such a large fine on any facet of their citizenry; especially one that could not easily afford to pay it.  Furthermore, it is taking the one method of “convenient” transportation that needs it most.  I hope that the citizens of Honolulu would reflect upon the true ramifications of this law and ensure that all citizens can depend on dependable transportation, but I am not particularly hopeful.  What do you think?

Meditating on Race, Class, Perception and Information: Analysis of Cambridge’s Skip Gates

Recently, I received an email (birthed from a chain of emails), from someone I respect as a scholar, educator, and social critic. It was drafted in response to the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Ph.D. of Harvard University and the media fallout that followed. It assumed the arrest incident was predicated on race, on racial profiling. I largely disagree. The concept of racial profiling has become a topic in vogue in the media, as well as among the ever-expanding class of black intellectuals that modern America has and continues to produce. It is a worthy thing to critique the concept and the practice of racial profiling; as a dreadlocked young man living in New York City I feel comfortable in saying that I have some familiarity with the idea. New York’s finest have a strong history of getting matters of race and policing wrong, and I am reasonably certain that Boston PD as well as Cambridge’s police have had there issues in the past as well. As a result, I would never want to stifle the critique and examination of an issue that is a very real cause for concern for “minorities” (however long that term will remain accurate for people of color); but in addition I think it would behoove us to cast our net a little wider as we explore what happened between Gates and the department which is sworn and protect both he and his community.

I am not in a position to offer true commentary on what happened on that day at that moment. So I will not speculate on what I guessed happened and will rely on published accounts, primarily drawing from Professor Gates’ account on The Root, a web magazine on African American culture founded, in part by Gates.
Gates’ account reads something like this:

1. Gates gets home from China, door lock won’t open.
2. Has to break open door with the help of his driver.
3. Is on the phone demanding someone at Harvard to come to fix his door.
4. Cop asks him through open (and probably visibly forced) door to come outside.
5. Gates refuses.
6. Demands cop’s name and badge number.
7. Cop refuses, leaves.
8. Gates follows him out of his house demanding his information and insinuating racism.
9. Gates is arrested.

First of all, I’m not surprised when reading Gates’ account that I don’t get any true indication of race coming to the forefront, but rather one of class. The true nature of the altercation began with a call to the police about a possible home invasion, but ended with a black man in handcuffs, not because he was black but rather because he felt being a Harvard Professor placed him above a working-class police officer. Evidence of Gates’ hubris lie thickly across the lines of his own account of the incident. The brusque demand for a locksmith, not a request; and the haranguing of the officer from his home, down his walk stand as evidence to the intractable nature of Professor Gates. Behaving as a modern day Boston Brahmin does not make one exempt from neither the law nor the common courtesies of a civil society.

As a society and as a nation, we in the United States have much work to do to truly attain a society where race does not play a prominent role in dictating one’s social and professional trajectory; fortunately, the over-hyped affair of Professor Gates does not belong in that conversation.

France vs. Burqa?

Even before its inception the entity now known as the United States of America has shared much in common with the French nation. The idea of revolution, an uneasy relationship with the British, and perhaps belief in man inaliable rights. Today, the French Republic has established yet another concrete connection to the American mindset, intolerance. Today, according to The Guardian (UK) has denied citizenship to a morrocan woman because she wears a burqa. Evidently, immigration feels that the burqa and what it represents are completely at odds with the french concept of fraternite’ liberte’ egalite’. The established argument is that the the traditional head covering is representative of female subservience to men, and therefore is in direct conflict with what it means to be French. One could argue about the state of ethnic, and gender egalite’ in France, especially after the election that brought President Sarkozy to power.

Whatever your feeling on that election, and the issue of gender and security that took place in the minds of the french polity, one cannot argue the rammifications of this action in an increasingly xenophobic nation. I personaly have no personal experiences with the burqa or the lifestyle it entails, but this condemnation of culture as not worthy for French citizenship is a staggering step in modern immigration doctrine. It is interesting that we here in the United States are going through some of the same growing pains with concerns over employment, immigration, as well as struggling to maintain a “American” identity in the face of large scale immigration. France, like the United States, has established its culturally unilateralist credentials.

Obama vs. Spying?

On 9 June 2008 the United States Senate voted on HR6304; amending the foreign intelligence service act enacted in 1978. This current revision to this measure was best described by Ryan Singel of the WIRED blog world as granting “retroactive amnesty to the telecoms that aided the presidents five- year secret, warrantless wiretapping of Americans, and to expanding the government’s authority to sift through U.S. communications.”

The ramifications of this measure can be an more than likely will be damning for the personal liberties of American citizens in the electronic age. Barack Obama showed his ability to be a bipartisan politico by voting with the Executive branch bloc (looking to exercise those ever expanding Presidential powers in 2009 perhaps?) while his defeated rival for the hearts and minds of Americans hoping to escape the similar power hungry machinations of the last two terms, voted against. The Senator of hope and change voted against his fellow Senator from Ohio, Dick Durbin, and most importantly, against his “constituency” in the presidential race to come. Will it cost him? I doubt it the Gentleman from Chicago seems to be Gotti-esque when it comes to negative press.

We made him the presumptive nomine for the presidency, I hope he doesn’t make us rue that day as one of infamy.