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Demand Immediate
Release of
Anne
Auguste (Sò No)
Haitian
Singer & Humanitarian Haiti Delegation Report
It should be also be noted that other
international journalists attempted to visit Auguste at the
National Penitentiary but were spurned by the current Latorture
government, citing that they were “too busy” to respond to
requests to see her.
Why was Annette Auguste targeted for this
military-type assault by U.S. Marines in Haiti? One week ago,
Lavalas officials, who had been calling for the end of political
persecution and repression against their party had publicly
announced they would begin demonstrations calling for the return
of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide beginning on May 18.
Given the important role that Annette Auguste
has played in supporting the constitutional government of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and helping to build the base of support
among the majority of the poor in Haiti for that cause, many in
Lavalas see this attack against Annette Auguste as a preemptive
strike by the Bush administration to continue the
destabilization campaign begun by Otto Reich and Roger Noriega
that eventually led to the forced departure of President
Aristide.
The real question is what right does a
special military assault team of U.S. forces in Haiti have to
perform such an action. In typical fashion, the Haitian media
controlled by the same forces that had allied themselves with
the Bush administration to forcibly remove
President Aristide have reported several
uncorroborated accusations justifying this action. Among them is
the tried-and-true claim that Annette Auguste controlled violent
factions associated with the constitutional government of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A second accusation fielded by
Radio Metropole is that Ms.Auguste was organizing a clandestine
operation aimed at performing armed assaults against U.S.
military personnel in Haiti. As per usual with the Haitian
media, controlled by the wealthy elite, no corroboration or
factual evidence was ever given to back up these claims made by
their paid surrogates.
Guyler C. Delva of the Association of Haitian
Journalists has actually accused many Haitian journalists of
working as paid informants for U.S. military operations and the
Haitian police in Haiti. These are the same media in Haiti that
actively worked hand-in-hand with the campaign to destabilize
the constitutional government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide that led
to his forcible removal on February 29, 2004.
These types of accusations against Lavalas,
and particularly against Annette Auguste, are not new. Ms.
Auguste, a naturalized U.S. citizen, has been a frequent target
for persecution due to her close ties with President Aristide.
She is the leader of PROP (Pouvwa Rasembleman Organizacion
Popile), a popular Lavalas organization. She is also a singer of
Haitian folk songs and is open about her practice of voodoo,
officially recognized as a national religion for the first time
in Haitian history under the Aristide administration. Ms.
Auguste’s religious beliefs and practices have led to many
unfounded, disparaging rumors and a campaign of demonization
against her.
In the past, critics such as Yves A. Isidor,
professor of Economics at the University of
Massachusetts—Dartmouth and Executive Editor of wehaitians.com,
and Raymond Joseph of the Haiti Observateur, now the Chief
Diplomatic Representative to America for Haiti, have accused Ms.
Auguste of things as outrageous as human sacrifice. Isidor
authored a January 2, 2001, article (www.wehaitians.com)
that charged Ms. Auguste was President Aristide’s “voodoo
medium” and that she bathed him in human blood to curse George
W. Bush and ensure the election of Vice President Al Gore in
2000. No evidence or witnesses were cited as sources for this
information.
This article was picked up and embellished by
Raymond Joseph (www.haiti-info.com),
Joseph added details regarding a ceremony where a newborn was
sacrificed in a giant mortar with a heavy pestle. Joseph
contends that those who question the veracity of this allegation
need only find support in the statement, “But who would have
thought that men infected with the AIDS virus in South Africa
believe that they can be healed by having intercourse with a
young virgin!” Joseph never actually states that Ms. Auguste
was involved in the alleged sacrifice, but two paragraphs later,
his reference to her as Aristide’s “voodoo medium” implies
her presence there. Joseph directly accuses Ms. Auguste of
holding meetings at her home where criminal activities, the
nature of which is never revealed, were planned.
Joseph recently demonstrated his
“journalistic” attempts when he lambasted Representative
Maxine Waters in a March 11, 2004, article in The New York Sun
because Rep. Waters had made three trips to Haiti in seven
weeks, with the third trip being first-class. Joseph asked,
“Do American taxpayers have to pick up the tabs? Or is it the
Haitian government robbing from the poor in the ‘poorest
country in the Western Hemisphere’ to maintain Waters and
company in luxurious style?” Joseph provided no support or
explanation for these allegations. He simply sought to discredit
Rep. Waters, never even offering the possible explanation that
she paid for the tickets herself or upgraded with frequent flier
miles. As a reward for his part in the destabilization campaign
of lies and misinformation against Aristide and Lavalas, Ramond
Joseph has been named the highest diplomatic representative of
the Boca Raton regime to the
United States. We are sure he, along with
Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, have much in common when it comes
to the current witch-hunt and political persecution against
Haiti’s undeniably largest political party representing the
majority of the poor.
Addendum
Annette Auguste (http://www.haitiaction.net),
a.k.a. Soeur Anne (Sister Anne), is being robbed of her Legal
Permanent Resident (LPR) status in the United States due to this
arrest by the U.S. Marines. It has been widely reported in the
past that Ms. Auguste is a naturalized U.S. citizen; however,
these are rumors designed to destroy her political career in
Haiti. The Haitian Constitution requires that members of the
government be only citizens of Haiti. In an attempt to destroy
the political careers of leading Lavalas members, opposition
organizations used media outlets such as Radio Caraïbe to
report that they were actually United States citizens. The
deception went so far as to include fake passport numbers. Ms.
Auguste’s husband confirms that she only has LPR status and is
not a naturalized citizen.
Ms. Auguste is required to travel to the
United States every six months to renew her LPR status. An
operation in February delayed her ability to make the trip and
her doctor provided her with documentation that would grant her
an extra three months for recovery. However, her detention is
keeping her in Haiti beyond the time she was granted for
recovery, and as a result, she will lose her status in the U.S.
Ms. Auguste’s older sister is a United
States citizen and lives in the same compound as Souer Anne. The
Marines stormed into the elder Auguste’s residence at the same
time they raided Souer Anne’s home. She demanded that they
leave and stated that she was a U.S. citizen. They told her to
get out of their way and that they were looking for
Annette Auguste. She clearly explained that
Souer Anne lived next door, but they did not leave until after
doing an extensive amount of damages to her home. She has
demanded restitution from the U.S. Embassy.
Restitution and damages have also been
demanded from the U.S. Embassy for Souer Anne. They have denied
this request and will not release her from U.S. custody in the
National Penitentiary. According to her husband, rumors are
circulating that the U.S. is accusing Ms. Auguste of
collaborating with Al Q’aeda and that they are planning on
trying her in the United States. There is serious concern for
her safety and Haiti’s sovereignty.
See also -- (www.nlg.org/programs/international/Haiti_delegation_report1.pdf)
Emergency Action Alert --
www.haitiaction.net/News/hac5_11_5.html
see article "Propaganda War Intensifies Against Haiti as
Opposition Grabs for Power" by Kevin Pina (www.blackcommentator.com/62/62_haiti_1.html)
* * * * *
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What Color is Haitian Jesus?—17
October 2011—When it comes to Jesus, however, it seems everyone else
is Black, leaving Jesus to standout more than what would be normally
expected in a religious painting. My favorite example of this in
the gallery is a depiction of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. The
scene contains onlookers in the foreground, all Black, as well as
John the Baptist, also Black, baptizing Jesus, white. The message is
uncanny, but the true gravity of the piece takes a moment to sink
in. Finally, it hits: you mean even in a Black country where the
people and important figures in religious history are depicted as
Black, Jesus still has to be white? For any Christian painting, I
imagine the image of Jesus would figure prominently. Yet, this
painting has added an extra layer of “heavenliness, ” by depicting
Jesus as white amidst a sea of Black followers and a Black baptist.
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In another painting, depicting the
miraculous catch of fish from the book of Luke, Jesus and the disciples are
painted white, though admittedly the fish are a variety of colors. And, after
further scrutiny, perhaps Jesus isn’t white exactly? After all, Haiti does boast
a sizable and influential Libyan population. Perhaps the images in this painting
bear homage to middle eastern influence?—SakpaseDiplomacy
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The Impact of the
Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World
Reviewed by Mimi Sheller
Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804
A Brief History with Documents
By Laurent
Dubois and John D. Garrigus
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 |
Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
* * * * *
|
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 6 May 2010 |
