The War of Terror: Pitting Anglophones vs. Francophones

"We have never relied on terror" is the title of an article in the Hard Beat News (Daily Caribbean Diaspora News) by Lionel A. Hurst. It states:

"The news this past weekend that four nationals from the English-speaking Caribbean were plotting to destroy John F. Kennedy Airport by igniting fuel lines, left everyone I know from my Antigua and Barbuda and the Anglophone Caribbean dumbfounded."

Call me naive, call me uninformed, but this was an unpleasant surprise to me. I was steamed to hear this obvious attempt by the writer to separate the inhabitants of the Caribbean by the cultural derivations of the colonial masters. This writer sought to distance himself and his "Anglophone" brethren from the "Francophone" other. He claimed that:

"There is not one instance of Anglophone Caribbean people turning to terror or other violent means to bring about change. That is not our approach to political change!"

I appreciate and congratulate Caribbean people for their peaceful nature. However, I think this is a characteristic shared by their brethren of the "Francophone" Caribbean.

I was rather disturbed by the ignorance displayed by the author of this piece. His statement that "There is not one instance of Anglophone Caribbean people turning to terror or other violent means to bring about change" is contradicted by facts that I will outline here.

My concern is that the statement is an oblique criticism of Haitians of the "Francophone" Caribbean, to use his quaint term, who suffered from a US backed coup in 2004.

Mr. Hurst must have had his head buried in the sand when the people of the Caribbean witnessed the rigging of the current political crisis in Haiti. He must be uneducated in the history of intervention, racism, isolation and deliberate funding and fostering of violence in Haiti by the US government and its proxies in Haiti.

As an aside, the Haitian people staged NON-VIOLENT marches against the defacto government put in place by the US after a US backed coup-knapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 (a previous coup was staged by the US in 1991 of Aristide, only months after his first popular election). Violence in Haiti was initiated by the US and a group of criminals, thugs and ousted army officers trained in the Dominican Republic and armed by the US government. Aristide had disbanded the country's Army because it had in the past been the instrument used by Haiti's enemies in coup d'etats (initiated time and again by US operatives).

I say this as an aside because Mr. Hurst only seems interested in platitudes, not facts.

By the way, like the various Caribbean nations Mr. Hurst mentions, the majority of Haitians were just as prideful of their new democracy under the leadership of President Aristide in light of the demise the US backed dictatorships of Baby Doc Duvalier, who inherited the same dispensation of US anointed rule given his dad Papa Doc. In fact, Haitians have turned out in huge numbers to vote in each of the democratic elections held.

Conveniently, Mr. Hurst ignores the history of Haiti and the so-called "Anglophone" who started the slave rebellion in Haiti, namely Jamaican Boukman Dutty. Boukman is honored and remembered by Haitians and his place in Haitian history is assured.

On a sad note, Mr. Hurst makes no mention of Colin Ferguson, an immigrant from Jamaica who killed six and injured 19 commuters on a Long Island, NY train. Ferguson was an enraged nut and his attorneys attempted to defend him on the basis of "Black rage" but Ferguson chose to defend himself, like a nutty fool, and was convicted and sentenced to 200 years.

On another note, how ludicrous of Mr. Hurst to make the statement "They certainly are not enamored of Islamic states, for they have never lived in any of them." Putting aside that it is not only Muslims who are outraged and angry about the so-called "War on Terror" and the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, do you have to live in an Islamic state to care about:

• The deaths of over 700,000 people, mostly innocent civilians in Iraq alone?
• The revelations about torture, war crimes, extra-judicial murders and assassinations?
• Maybe it would peak Mr. Hurst's interests to learn of the secret prisons?
• The so-called "extraordinary renditions"?
• ...all violations of the Geneva Convention and the US Constitution.

Haitians would not thank Mr. Hurst for his aspersions on our character and country. However Haitians do owe a sincere thank you to the principled leaders of CARICOM for their support in standing up to the US government; in refusing to allow the US-backed illegal, corrupt "interim government" of Gerald LaTortue to join CARICOM.

Interesting that the Caribbean is now having to pay the piper. I would just say to brace yourselves because you have made a tenacious, evil, violent and traitorous enemy.

Actions taken by the US government that have negatively affected the Caribbean community:

• New passport requirements (effect on tourism guaranteed to be negative)
• Currently, in the US headlines (disinformation campaigns) paint the Caribbean as a "new front" in the "war on terror". In other words, its citizens are ripe for "informants" to entrap and manufacture "terror plots"...

All I can say is, good luck. God or whomever you pray to be with you. I would not be so much worried about tourist dollars as I would be terrified for my life, liberty and the security of my family. History and statistics says that there is one nation that has turned to violence to bring about political change consistently, invariably and often. It is not the "Francophone" Caribbean that you must worry about Mr. Hurst. Welcome to our world Mr. Anglophone.

I think we all know that as a Black or person of color, your significance to the US government is less than zero, if it is not in the US's best "interest". Ask your not too distant neighbor Mr. Chavez in Venezuela; does he have a story to tell! As one American official put it: "We will intervene whenever we decide it is in our national interest to intervene. And if you don't like it - lump it." (source: Resisting the Empire by John Pilger).

It is my hope that Trinidad continues to stand up to the US government and refuses to extradite its accused citizens now in custody. It is up to the US government to now prove its case. Chances are, they will be exonerated. However, in the past the US government has held what it calls "enemy combatants" including US citizens without a hearing or a trial in violation of US and international law. I would not take my chances because the US criminal injustice system bad as it is has been preempted by a new even more Draconian, unconstitutional blanket "martial law" type edict, facilitated by the Patriot Act (Military Commissions Act 2006), that gives the US President the right to detain ANYONE without trial or charges indefinitely.