today in history.

this morning i woke up early, not because i tried to or because i have the will of an olympic hopeful, but because the sunlight streaming through the window was holding my feet to the fire of another new day.  so i gave in and ventured outside. we're back in Leogone, where an inescapable relative silence filled the air. it was an eerie sort of calm that filled the streets with only the sound of an early morning church service faintly floating through the air. 


today is election day.


supposedly.


in recent weeks leading up to today, a handful of presidential candidates have made a stop in Ferrier as part of their campaigns. i've been both impressed and disgusted by this. 


i want to think this is brings power to the people, but it has also functioned in an opposite way for some of the candidates. for example, ont of the 'frontrunners' in the election, Jude Celestin, has led an elaborate campaign and made a showy display of himself. not forgein to any campaigh anywhere, right? but he's been taking advantage of the economic postion of many haitiens by paying them to wear t-shirts with his face plastered on them, paying for local bands to play in the streets to generate excitement right before he makes his arrival, and paying people to cover the streets with his campaign materials. i'm not sure that this sort of thing is the rule, but it sure makes the international community think he's got the honest support of the populus in a way that might make it less critical of the vote count if he 'wins'. 

campaign budget beneficiary. 

(also one of my favorite kids in ferrier. i miss him already.)

when i've asked friends in ferrier who they'd like to become their next president, most to all of them have answered with, 'none of them'.  i've come to better understand this with the help of more conversations with those friends and some revealing books about hait's history (this, this, and this one, inparticular). it's almost frightening to realize the strength with which the US has excercised its power in favor of its own geopolitical interests rather than in favor of 90-99% of the Haitian population.


this article sheds a some light on why today's elections are anything but 'free and fair'. some excerpts:


First, Haitian elections are supposed to choose their new President, the entire House of Deputies and one-third of the country's Senate. But election authorities have illegally excluded all the candidates from the country's most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas -- and other progressive candidates. Lavalas, the party of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has won many elections in Haiti -- probably the reason it was excluded. If this were the US, this would be like holding elections just between the Tea Party and the GOP -- and excluding all others. Few Haitians will respect the outcome of these elections.


...Fifth, the United States has pushed and paid for these swift elections hoping to secure a stable government to preserve its investment in earthquake reconstruction. But, as Dan Beeton wrote in the LA Times, "If the Obama administration wants to stand on the side of democracy and human rights in Haiti, as it did in Burma, it should support the call to postpone the elections until all parties are allowed to run and all eligible voters are guaranteed a vote." By supporting elections that exclude legitimate political parties that are critical of the current government the international community is only assuring the very social and political unrest it hopes to avoid.


Haitians are saying that no matter which candidates win on November 28, the political system that has failed them will not change unless there is an election that is fair and inclusive. They are also asking that the country undergo a reconciliation process that includes the voices of more than just the Haitian elite and international community.


is there hope for these elections? only, time and responsible reporting may tell. until then, let us find a way to be a part of what Dr. King called 'the arc of the moral universe's bend toward justice.'