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by Kim Ives
Former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide called for national unity to tackle the
problem of hunger in Haiti and thanked the Haitian people for
their massive show of solidarity the day before when thousands
joined him in a slow procession through Port-au-Prince back his
residence from making a court deposition on May 8.
“Yesterday, was an ordinary
day, but you made it into an extraordinary day, and I say thank
you,” Aristide said on May 9 to about 20 journalists assembled
in his home’s spartan study, where he has spent most of the past
two years since his return to Haiti from a seven year exile on
Mar. 18, 2011. Since that day, when thousands also accompanied
him home, it was the first time he has spoken publicly.
In the course of his 40 minute
talk, Aristide also thanked Haitians in Haiti’s rural provinces,
its diaspora, the police force, his Lavalas Family party, and
“all the other political parties.”
Speaking directly to the
Haitian people, he obliquely tweaked the government of President
Michel Martelly, but refrained from any direct criticism or
policy discussion. “I know you have a $1.50 problem,” he said
referring to the illegal tax that the Martelly government levies
on every money transfer Haitians make to folks back home. “I
know you have a problem in the sending of money. I know you have
problems in the question of telephone calls [where a 5 cent or 1
gourde tax is placed on every minute of international calls]...
I’m not going to get into the problems. I’m not going to get
into making criticisms.”
Instead, he spoke about his
university, his emotions after the earthquake, and his love for
the Haitian people.
“I want to say thank you for
what you have taught me,” he said. “Yesterday I learned a lot.
In the two years since I’ve returned, I’ve been learning at the
school of the Haitian people.”
He reported that his medical
school began with 126 students, but that “this year it opened
with 254 students, while there are 115 who are in their second
year of medical school.” He also said that the University of the
Aristide Foundation (UNIFA) now has a nursing school with 73
students and a developing computer school.
“All the students this year
have partial scholarships,” he said. “When in a university a
student pays 90,000 gourdes (US$2,118) for the year, with us in
the first year they pay 30,000 gourdes (US$706), one third.”
“We’d like to do more, but we
don’t have the means,” he said. “Whatever little bit I can do
for education, I do it.”
To the consternation of many of
his followers that he has not spoken out, he replied: “Nobody
forced me not to speak. I don’t take orders. Like the Haitian
people, I’m my own boss. I speak when I have to. Nobody can stop
me from talking.”
As for staying in his home, he
said: “I didn’t leave with my body, but I left with my heart. My
heart’s eyes sees far. My heart’s eyes see what is happening in
the provinces and in Port-au-Prince.”
He said his trip through
Port-au-Prince had reminded him of all the suffering and damage
after the earthquake and “yesterday I relived it.”
“I know what it means for you
who have not been able to escape the pain of goudougoudou,” he
said, using Haitians’ onomatopoetic term for the seism. In
typical form, he rattled off various statistics about the damage
done by the earthquake.
“I saw a people that even
though they have suffered under rubble, they have a pride, a
dignity, a determination, a character, and they want to live,
they have to live,” he said. “Despite being deceived, they still
stand.”
Most of his declaration was a
call for Haitians to come together to fight hunger, a message sparked by
an old woman who had pointed to her belly during the march the
day before. “When I eat, I’m ashamed as I think of people who
cannot eat,” he said.
Aristide called on politicians
to “depoliticize” hunger to fight it, and to come together.
“The Fanmi Lavalas is growing
and becoming stronger and more powerful,” he said. “If there are
free, honest, democratic elections, it is likely that it will
win big.”
But Fanmi Lavalas is also
“fooling itself” if it thinks “it is going to resolve the
problem of hunger by itself. That’s false. It cannot.” He also
said that the Martelly government, “with all the respect that I
have for the current authorities,” could not solve it alone
either.
“The problem of hunger demands that we find a
formula where people and parties who are in power and those who
are not, overseas Haitians with those here, can dialogue
together with respect so we can solve this hunger question
because it is no joke.” |
