E, e, Mbomba! Kanga Bafyà ²ti. Kanga Mundele. Kanga Ndà ²ki. Kanga li!
Ezili Dantà ²/HLLN
For more background information:
Listen to the Welfare Poets's song Sak Pase and their reciting (at 2:05) the Bwa Kayiman invocation or call: E, e, Mbomba! Kanga Bafyà ²ti. Kanga Mundele. Kanga Ndà ²ki. Kanga li!;
Please also refer to the three posts by Ezili Dantà ², written back in August of 2003, before the occupation where I wrote: Beloved, know, no matter what you hear from the Bafyà ²tis, Mundeles or Ndà ²kis, Haitians love themselves and their children and Haitians are pushing to come together to stop the abuse of poor, unprotected children, as well as to raise awareness of the plight of the Restavek. These three post give a historical perspective, some critical observations, and hopefully, will add to the many concerned Haitian voices clamoring to legally amend Chapter 9 of the Haitian Labor Code which sanctions child domestic labor, and, for a nationwide educational campaign on parenting and the rights of Haitian children.
http://annpale.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=720#720
http://annpale.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=721#721
http://annpale.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=722#722.
- See, Slavery Still Legally Sanctioned under US Constitution - The 13th Amendment states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT
as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject
to their jurisdiction." For more on slavery in the US, sharecropping
and the peonage system, see - The Cotton Pickin' Truth..Still on the plantation; The Untold Story: Slavery In The 20th Century.
Know
that: - "An increasing number of prisons in the U.S. are run by
corporations, using their prisoners as workers and selling their labor
to corporations. Federal safety and health standards do not protect
prison labor, nor do the National Labor Relations Board policies. The
corporations do not even have to pay minimum wage.
- "J.C.
Penney, Victoria's Secret, IBM, Toys R Us and TWA are among the US
corporations that have profited by employing prisoners. Put together
long mandatory sentences for minor drug offenses, a strong racial bias,
prisons run by corporations for profit, the sale of convict labor to
corporations, and a charge for prison room and board and you have a
modern system of bonded labor - a social condition otherwise known as
slavery." [from Take It Personally: How to Make Conscious Choices to Change the World edited by Anita Roddick, p.75]
***********
"...The
US government must stay out of our affairs and let us run our country.
Each time they organize a coup d'Ã ©tat in Haiti - we have already 35 or
36 coups d'Ã ©tat in our history - we have to start over. This US policy
of wanting to control everything in Haiti is blocking development as
well as political, social or sociopolitical progress..." (--Lovinsky
Pierre Antoine, interview entitled "Sovereignty and Justice in Haiti" by Darren Ell, March 4, 2007)
***********************
Haitian-Americans ask the US Congress and President
to...end the UN occupation; stop unequal immigration treatment of
Haitian refugees and asylum seekers; cancel, without condition, Haiti's
debt to international financial institutions; void unfair trade laws,
start fair and reciprocal trade, restrict free trade so not to dump
food and other imports into Haiti that eviscerate Haiti's domestic
growth and by also calibrating Haiti's domestic needs for agricultural
expansion, public works, job creation, health care, schools,
sanitation, infrastructure, and by adding enforceable human rights,
labor, environmental rights provisions in US trade laws; permanently
stop all deportations to Haiti, grant TPS; release of the political
prisoners; stop trading for Haiti with USAID - foreign aid should go
directly to the Haitian government; demand new foreign aid guidelines
and oversight of USAID in Haiti; respect Haitian sovereignty and the Haitian vote;
return President Aristide; investigate the role of US in the 2004 coup
d'etat where US Special forces forcibly exiled President Jean Bertrand
Aristide via an unmarked plane used for renditions.
- U.S. good governance and democratic enhancement policies administered
by USAID should result in maximizing, not depleting or obliterating the
Haitian Diaspora's $2 Billion annual remittances and investments in
Haiti; the next US Congress and President should implement new US
foreign assistance regulations, guidelines and oversight to ensure
foreign aid administered by USAID actually reaches the people in need,
doesn't stay in Washington and is not primarily used for USAID's
political benefactors, NGOs and non-profit's administrative, salary or
shipping/transportation fees. (For complete details, go to: What Haitians and Haitian-Americans Ask of the New US Congress and President and Haiti Policy Statement for the Obama Team).
HLLN's Letter to AP Editors on Restavek Issue
On AP story entitled Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves written by Evens Sanon
Regarding the Restavek issue in Haiti and The Slavery in Haiti the Media Won't Expose
Dear AP Editors:
We are writing you today in referenced to the Associated Press' story by Evens Sanon, entitled "Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves."
The article, citing the Pan American Development Foundation, explains
that "Poverty has forced at least 225,000 children in Haiti's cities
into slavery as unpaid household servants, far more than previously
thought" and "said some of those children -- mostly young girls -- suffer
sexual, psychological and physical abuse while toiling in extreme
hardship."
At Ezili's HLLN we find it repugnant when children
are forced to work for food and shelter, not provided with good
schooling and a loving and nurturing childhood is stolen from them. We
all must together change this for the world's poor. But our concern is
that in all poor countries there is some form of child labor. Until
very recently child labor was also prevalent in industrialized
countries including the United States. Today, the media is calling
child domestics "slaves" only in Haiti. This is far too obvious,
racist, arbitrary and capricious. Please consider reporting on the real
enslavement in Haiti - that is, the slavery in Haiti the media won't
expose: eleven to thirteen mercenary families in Haiti own most of the
country's wealth while the majority starve and live in utter misery and
poverty.
There would not be child labor in Haiti without the
tyranny of the rich, the false charity of US/Euro Christian missions,
the false orphanages, false food aid, false Euro/US benevolence
administered by USAID that serves the wealth-off in Haiti not the
poorest of the poor and the regime changes and coup d'etats they
sponsor with the backing of US/Euro governments to keep the majority of
Haitians in poverty's bondage. (See, Ezili
Dantà ²'s review of TRAVESTY in Haiti - A true account of Christian
missions, orphanages, fraud, food aid and drug trafficking.)
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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