Jean Juste of Haiti – Cause of Death: Indefinite Detention

Father Jean Juste – Father of the Just
by Professor Bell Angelot
May 27, 2009

"Like Jeremiah the prophet, he knew the inside of a prison. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. he preached love. Like Mahatma Gandhi he lived non-violence and overcame violence. Just as Moses never reached the Promised Land, he too, did not see the day of the complete liberation of the Haitian people."

Father Jean Juste was always coupled to what’s just and morally right.

A powerful spirit has left this earth, and our mourning darkens the whole city. A griot left for eternity and the whole tribe is in tears. But though the prophet is gone, his light remains. The Haitian community of Miami has just rung the toll to announce in pain, and in a flood of tears the departure from this planet of Reverend Father Gérard Jean-Juste. Father Jean-Juste was one of the pioneers of Liberation Theology alongside Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, Leonardo Boff of Nicaragua and Oscar Romero of Salvador.

Father Jean Juste was the spoke-person of the poor, the homeless, and for all who thirst for justice. Father Jean Juste was a megaphone for the victims of exclusion, those hungry for love, those suffering from the selfishness of others and inequalities of all sorts. Father Jean Juste was the flag bearer for Haitian immigrant rights, for those without papers, for those who braved the shark-infested seas and for whom Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is still denied. Father Jean Juste was a man of justice, his very name called forth what’s just.

One can well compare the struggle of Father Jean Juste to that of the biblical Moses who delivered his people from the persecution of slavery. ("Let my people go!" Moses said to the Pharaoh of his time). This cry of Moses came often of the lips of Father Jean Juste, the Prophet from Petite Place Cazeau, Haiti: “I have certainly seen the affliction of my people, I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.” (Exodus 3:7).




Father Jean Juste was a martyr. While distributing food to hungry children, he was arrested and tortured by the political dictators in 2005. Some months later, even in the deepest bowels of a church, The Sacred Heart Church of Turgeau, the very same church where Izmery was assassinated, draped in his priest cassock, Father Jean Juste was brutally beaten almost to unconsciousness, manhandled and humiliated, afterwards waking up in prison.

Like Jeremiah the prophet, he knew the inside of a prison. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. he preached love. Like Mahatma Gandhi he lived non-violence and overcame violence. Just as Moses never reached the Promised Land, he too, did not see the day of the complete liberation of the Haitian people. The passing of Father Jean Juste brings us tears, this is a painful severance for us. Of course, the lost of Father Jean Juste brings us grief, but we believe that Father Jean Juste lives on.

Again in the years to come, we shall hear, all across Little Haiti in Miami, the echo of his voice denouncing discriminatory immigration laws. Through time, his voice shall still wholly resound on Haiti, saying no to violence, no to exile, no to arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions, no to Coup D’etats. Jean Juste lives on and it is now that his butchers will tremble. For without confessing their wrongs and without altering their ways they allowed their victim to die, a man whose heart was filled only with compassion and tolerance.

Father Jean Juste left us on an assignment to meet up with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to whom he shall say that love amongst the races and race equality is still a dream; to meet up with John Fitzgerald Kennedy to whom he will say that Democracy and Peace are still the big challenges of our peoples; to meet up with Father Jean Marie Vincent, to whom he shall say that the movement to bring literacy to our people has fallen by the waste side; to meet up with (Haiti’s founding father) Jean Jacques Dessalines to tell him that our country has been sold, it’s been torn apart, its been bloodied - peyi a vann, peyi a fann, peyi a tonbe nan sann - and we’ve been divided. He is not dead/He lives on! His body succumbed to the vicissitudes: to pains that even defied science, to evil his heart and his brain could no longer bring order to, to political shocks that his conviction and his morale could no longer endure.

In the name of the larger Lavalas Movement, we bid farewell to Father Gerard Jean Juste and wish him a good journey. In the name of all the cadres, the grassroots/popular organizations, in the name of the Lavalas vision of inclusion, we say thank you Father Jean Juste. Thank you very much brother/compatriot, we shall continue to be the Sentinels – (to watch out - veye yo - look out for the enemy).

The Haitian Center of Research and Social Science Investigations, bows in great reverence, before the remains of the greatest tree (Mapou) to be cut down in the forest of the just. May your demonstrations of faith, lessons in courage, messages of patriotism, forever be the oil that lights our lamps to bring the light in the darkness of realms, serve us all as the chorus of hope, songs of resistances, hymn of love and friendship. For, as the (Haitian author, Jacques) Roumain said in his book, Governors of the Dew - "The fruit that rots nourishes the hope of the new tree."


Professeur Bell Angelot
Directeur du Centre Haïtien
De Recherches et d'Investigations
En Sciences Sociales

Translated into English by Ezili Danto

YON SÈL NOU FÈB, ANSANM NOU FÒ, ANSANM, ANSANM NOU SE LAVALAS.
"Alone we are weak, together we're strong, together, together we are Lavalas (the flood)"
www.fanmilavalas.net 954-670-9209
PO BOX 2252 FORT PIERCE, FLORIDA 34954

IMF vs The Bank of the South - IMF to Clean Up Its Act?

At the Group of 20 summit in London last month, President Obama pledged to boost IMF funding to "help countries weather the global economic crisis." On Thursday, May 21st, the Senate approved the IMF funding as a part of the $91 billion funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This seems appropriate somehow, since international banking institutions like the IMF have laid waste to the economies of poor countries of the global south.
The IMF, World Bank and International Development Bank (IDB) have similar stated missions: "working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world." However, a 2000 internal World Bank report concluded that poor countries are better off without structural adjustment and that some of their policies do not work. Almost a decade later no significant reforms to these antiquated policies have been made, not at the World Bank, not at the IMF nor at the IDB.
Some of the general issues that are of great concern to countries who have been burned by these institutions are outlined below. Additionally, the human rights abuses perpetrated against Haiti by the IDB are also explained. Unfortunately, when these human rights abuses were happening in Haiti, calls for accountability fell on Congress' deaf ears.
Is the global economic crisis enough to spur legislators in Washington to look into past abuses in order to avoid future missteps by these antiquated institutions? Not likely. Washington's modus operandi is to *move on* from crisis to crisis with no accountability for past abuses. When a crisis results from bad policies, the mantra from Washington is predictable; *we must look forward, and not backward*.
While it's clear that international banking institutions, sorely need to have "pre-conditions" for any new funding, what is not clear is whether the Congress has the will to impose or enforce any existing or new standards. Particularly, if it would require reform of the existing policies of these institutions.
The world banking system has virtually collapsed from greed and corruption, yet aside from show hearings, no real reform or accountability for Wall Street and banks has taken place in Congress. Also, to date the particularly predatory, criminal practices of the IMF, World Bank and IDB have not come under any substantive scrutiny from the mainstream media.
For instance, the IDB is accused of human rights violations in Haiti. An expose in 2008 by the RFK Center's Human Rights Director Monika Kalra Varma and the Director of Zamni Lasante, Loune Viaud sites internal emails at the IDB:

"In 2001, US officials threatened to use their influence to stop previously-approved IDB funding unless Haiti's majority political party submitted to political demands to accept a particular apportionment of seats in a Haitian electoral oversight body. Soon after, at the behest of the US, instead of disbursing the loans as planned, the IDB and its members took the unprecedented step of implicitly adding conditions to require political action by Haiti before the funds would be released. These actions violated the IDB's own charter, which strictly prohibits the bank and its members from interfering in the internal political affairs of member states."
... The results have been devastating. The town of Port-de-Paix, selected 10 years ago by the IDB as the first project site due to its particularly deplorable water situation, has yet to see the implementation of any water projects. A study conducted by Zanmi Lasante, Partners In Health, the Robert F Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, and New York University's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice found no functioning public water sources in the city.
Researchers found three-quarters of water sources in the city contained high levels of coliform bacteria, a key indicator of contamination with faecal matter. A frightening 15% of households reported symptoms likely related to typhoid.

If the US and other member states join the IDB and take on the responsibility to improve conditions in the Americas, they cannot then use their membership to undermine the basic rights of the people they claim to serve simply to advance their own political agenda.
The IDB and the US government must take responsibility for their actions and implement the necessary transparency mechanisms to ensure that such abuses do not recur. Congressional inquiries and annual reviews of the Treasury by the Government Accountability Office could provide the oversight necessary to prevent future political misuse of the IDB and its funds. The people of Haiti, as well as US taxpayers, deserve a system that makes public the status of IDB loans and projects in Haiti in order to ensure that the US and IDB member states uphold their commitments to development and human rights."

The IMF is often criticized for undermining the basic rights of the people they claim to serve.The onerous pre-conditions they impose on poor countries for *development* loans, more often than not perpetuate poverty, underdevelopment and exploitation.

"Some IMF conditions that countries have been forced to comply with can only be described as harsh and undemocratic. Often the devaluation of a nation’s currency has been a precondition for IMF assistance. In order to qualify for IMF loans, some nations have also been forced to lower tariffs, restrict governmental subsidies and spending, balance budgets, as well as sell-off state institutions to foreign interests. In some cases, the IMF has even prohibited wage increases as some countries have tried to do so, in order to compensate for a sharp rise in food prices and other commodities. Environmental and labor rights have also taken a hit as a result of IMF policies. Under the guise of helping economic distraught countries, the IMF is really bailing out foreign investors and multinational corporations. They have further fueled chaos and instability in some of the poorest regions in the world."

-- The IMF: Raping The World, One Poor Nation at a Time

Admittedly, these international banking institutions will most likely never be held accountable for their greed and inhumanity. We have only to look at the bailout of the Wall Street speculators for confirmation of this fact.
A most significant and positive development on the global stage has been the founding of The Bank of the South by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and his allies in May 2007. The bank is intended as an alternative to the IMF and The World Bank and intends to remedy what some perceive as "a double standard which allows richer countries to use fiscal expansion in the face of recession while poorer nations are forced into stricter economic restraints."
In fact, there has been a significant decrease in "Latin America's dependence on the IMF between 2005 and 2008, with outstanding loans falling from 80% of the IMF's $81bn loan portfolio, to 1% of the IMF's $17bn of outstanding loans.

"In April [2007], Venezuela announced that it was paying off all its outstanding debt with the World Bank—totaling $3.3 billion and dating from before President Hugo Chavez took office in (1999)—five years ahead of schedule. Venezuelan Minister of Finance Rodrigo Cabezas said that because of this, “Venezuela is free ... and thank God, neither today’s Venezuelans nor children yet to be born will owe one single cent to those organizations.” Later that month, in the wake of the Wolfowitz scandal, President Chavez declared that Venezuela was withdrawing its membership in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. "

The Bank of the South has been heralded as a step in the formation of a unified Latin America. As Nadia Martinez of TomPaine.com puts it: Adios, World Bank! Also, the formation of this alternative bank could be effective in pushing the IMF to reform its ways. Free market competition for development funding from The Bank of The South, is more likely than any proposed Congressional oversight to motivate reform at the IMF, World Bank and IDB. Hopefully, this will mean that poor and developing countries can say, adios/goodbye to the antiquated politicies of the World Bank, IMF and IDB.
Interestingly, an article on the IMF website from February 2009 claims that it is focused on "...Bank Clean Up." Of course, they mean the clean up of banks "damaged" by the global economic crisis, but they should examine the IMF banking system itself for reform and "clean up."

Most Religious Practices Originate from Vodun

The Vodun religion is practiced by over 60 million people worldwide. "Today, there are two virtually unrelated forms of the religion:
• An actual religion, Vodun practiced in Benin, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Togo and various centers in the US - largely where Haitian refugees have settled.

• An evil, imaginary religion, which we will call Voodoo. It has been created for Hollywood movies, complete with violence, bizarre rituals, etc. It does not exist in reality."¹

Vodun's roots trace back 6000 years directly to the Yoruba people of sub-saharan Africa. They lived in Western Africa in The Kingdom of Dahomey from 1690 - 1901. Dahomey occupied parts of today's Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Enslaved Africans brought the Yoruba religion or Vodun with them when they were forcibly shipped to Haiti and other islands in the West Indies.

The Nok: Vodun's ancient practitioners
"In 1928, archaeologists unearthed artifacts from an amazing culture that flourished from about 500BC to AD200. The archaeologists referred to the ancient culture as the Nok, the name of a modern Nigerian village where they made their discovery."²

The Nok was the first known iron-smelting civilization in West Africa, and
the first known art-producing civilization in sub-saharan Africa.

This video is a "summary of all the essential information concerning the geography,
history, culture, technique and aesthetics of the Nok civilization." – mémoire d'afrique

How the Nok are connected to Ancient Egypt.
Sub-Saharan Africa's [Nok] relation to ancient Egypt can be substantiated [for one] via sociological means such as: "religion, which reveals the Egyptian/Nubian pantheon replicated in Benin, Togo and Nigeria from the Fon, Ewé and Yoruba cultures."³ The Nok culture predates Ancient Egyptian, and evidence from artifacts of Nok civilization shows "that a shamanic religion was established in the Nok society. Certain representations of bird-men, half-sphinx and half-sphinge can be linked to the animism of ancient Egypt."⁴ Also, "archeology, with the excavations carried out in Upper Egypt and Sudan, highlight[ing] the southernmost origin of Egyptian civilization."³

How Vodun/The Ancient Egyptian Cult of Isis connect to Christianity's Cult of the Virgin Mary.

There are a number of points of similarity between Roman Catholicism and Vodun:

• Both believe in a supreme being.

• The Loa [Lwa] resemble Christian Saints, in that they were once people who led exceptional lives, and are usually given a single responsibility or special attribute.

• Both believe in an afterlife.

• Both have, as the centerpiece of some of their ceremonies, a ritual sacrifice and consumption of flesh and blood.

• Both believe in the existence of invisible evil spirits or demons.

• Followers of Vodun believe that each person has a met tet (master of the head) which corresponds to a Christian's patron saint.¹

There is little doubt that early images of the Madonna & Child are based on that of Horus & Isis. "In addition to being the fertile wife of Osiris, Isis is honored for her role as the mother of Horus, one of Egypt's most powerful gods. She was also the divine mother of every pharoah of Egypt, and ultimately of Egypt itself. She assimilated with Hathor, another goddess of fertility, and is often depicted nursing her son Horus. There is a wide belief that this image served as inspiration for the classic Christian portrait of the Madonna and Child."⁵

(left) A bronze statue of Isis nursing Horus from Ptolemaic Egypt;
(right) A famous mediaeval icon of Mary and Jesus.

"In the Roman Empire, the cult of Isis was very popular throughout the Mediterranean area. It focused on the celebration of the mysteries of the death and the resurrection of Osiris. Isis, had been the consort of Osiris, and after his murder she recovered the scattered parts of his body and restored them to life. Osiris then became king of the dead and his son Horus became king of the living. The story of Isis, Osiris and Horus parallels the Christian mysteries of the virgin birth and the resurrection. It is also the origin of the certain [sic] Christian symbol of the Madonna and Child."⁶

Hadrian's Roman coin honoring Isis.

Also indicative of the African influence on Christianity is the fact that there are numerous sites dedicated to the Black Virgin Mary in France, Spain and Italy. The Cult of the Black Virgin reflected the "deeper senses and beliefs of newly Christianized Western Europe at the end of the Roman Period." The Black Madonna of Czestochova, the "queen" of Poland, is a well known religious icon representative of this widespread & dense network of shrines dedicated to the Black Madonna/Virgin Mary.

The Black Virgin Mary of Poland

Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism and many other monotheistic religions (a single omnipotent creator-god rules over the universe along with several hundred lower gods [saints]), can trace their origins back to the religion of Vodun. This is because Vodun is a religion of a single creator-god [Olorun/God] and lesser "spirits" [lwas/saints] that promises eternal life through worship and has many other similar religious traditions reflective of the modern religions that developed later. It is therefore possible to conclude that most major religions are generally derived from Vodun.

Mounted by the spirit of the Lwa.

Mounted by the spirit of the Lord.

Rene Preval: "Embarassment?"Worry about his arrogance and contempt for his people.

The opinion piece entitled "Embarassment" by Jocelyn refers to this photo of President Preval at the 5th Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain where he is the only one not in a suit. A small furor was stirred by this photo as Haitian media and Haitian Internet forums opined on the "embarrassment" this protocol mistep is for the country with comments along the lines of "WOW... WOW ... WOW ... God help us. That is all I am going to say." Jocelyn's response goes beyond the shallow, advises against mental colonization and is worthy of note for other reasons. HLLN, May 4, 2009

"Embarrassment"
by Jocelyn, May 4, 2009 1:31 PM (Via email)

Come on ladies and gentlemen;

Could you please stop making a mountain out of a molehill! The man was not naked, had mud on his face and smelled like a sewer as far as we knew. Actually, we shouldhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif have a national costume that is elegant so we stand out when we go into these ceremonious meetings or summits.

I would be more interested in what Rene Preval is selling for nothing from the country. I don't know why you are so "shocked" by Rene Preval's behavior at this point. He displayed his arrogance and contempt for his people since he was named Prime Minister under President Aristide's first term. When he became president himself because he took a ride on the Lavalas movement, he didn't express any love for his people then either. Remember, his political motto was: 'Naje pou soti" [swim to get out], meaning that he was just there taking care of his own business, you better take care of yours. Remember during the boating accident how he acted with total indifference by urinating nearby (even with prostate problem that was unwarranted to do this in such a public manner). He again kept on reminding the Haitian people when he was called to participate in the last presidential election, after Aristide received another coup and we had the horror of the "tecknocrap" Latortue, he kept on saying that he was having a grand time at Marmelade and that he was "forced" to run for president. His attitude since then has not improved and his total contempt for his people has become even more apparent.

Just remember the virulent hatred manifested against Aristide by people who look like him and come from his social class. Preval was supposedly more acceptable (Li pa gen gwo bouch, gwo nen, li gen yon ti kob, e li bay franse plis enpotans pase kreyol) [he doesn't have big lips, big nose, he has a little money, and he gives French more importance than Kreyol]. We have to look at our inner pathologies and try, try, try to correct them first. Otherwise, we will keep on putting, at the head of Haiti, children of Haiti who hate their mothers maybe because she is not an aristocrat and wears jewelry all over her. The same way we treat our most destitute citizens who through no fault of their own don't have much clutter to call their own, but have values of loving their fellow citizens, would welcome them and share with them the little that they have at their own expense, the same way we treat the country called Ayiti, Boyio, Kiskeya.

We have to start really loving ourselves. See beauty when we look at ourselves in the mirror. Be proud that we have created a language that allowed us to maneuver and organize against our slave masters to get out of physical slavery at least. However, we've allowed ourselves to be placed in serious mental shackles and it seems harder to get out of that state of being.

Speaking any language well is not necessarily a sign of high intelligence. I worked with the mentally retarded for 16 years and have encountered wonderful people in that situation who have a great command of the English language verbally, but can't write it as well. Mentally retarded French people speak French too because they were born listening to it. We have to stop appreciating ourselves through THE EYES OF OUR SLAVE MASTERS. We sometimes keep on producing their creations so we can please the slave masters first instead of our own people.

All the slave master countries who come to us want to take our well prepared brains to use them for their own purposes. They all have had electricity for more than a century and they absolutely refuse to allow Ayiti to have it too. They could electrify all of Ayiti in one year or less. Ayiti is smaller than any of their provinces. They don't want to do it, along with their sewer representatives in the country, because with light a lot of the ignorance, superstition, time wasted, dependence on the exterior, will be GONE, GONE, GONE.

If we are not desperate enough, we can't be cheap labor, prostitutes, guinea pigs for any kind of toxic medication test, garbage disposal for any toxic waste, stupid enough to give our lands, our treasures in art and material goods.

Let's not worry much about Preval's appearance. Let's examine his substance. He is tolerating the presence of MINUSTAH [United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti] in the country and that stinks! He is wasting money on non-consequential issues leaving Ayiti in more debts for the future. In 4 words: He does not care!

Let's concentrate on how to prevent our people from eating mud. Let's teach them that most of the leaves in Haiti are edible. That's where all herbivores get their proteins and look how big they are. We have zepina, mazoumbel, lam veritab, fey zanmann, fey kann to name only a few. They are all edible. Legim tout jan! [foliage everywhere!] We don't have to eat meat which is putting a cadaver into our system anyway (and we know that cadaver do nothing but rot - decompose, decay - inside our bodies).

LET'S CONCENTRATE ON BUILDING! ENOUGH MENTAL MASTURBATION! ENOUGH DISTRUSTING OF EACH OTHER!

THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO DESTROY US, ORGANIZE QUIETLY AGAINST US. LET'S TAKE A LEAF OUT OF THEIR BOOKS FOR A CHANGE!

By the way, anybody remember what Jesus used to wear, (Not the CRAP dished out by Michelangelo and Hollywood)? What Karl Marx used to wear? Anybody cares about what Castro wears? He was always in an army uniform, but the presidents in civilian uniforms killed their own people more than he will ever do. However his vision for his country is enduring.

Anybody cares about what Mother Teresa wore? She could have been in shorts like quite a few nuns in the Caribbean countries (which makes sense in a warm climate instead of that off-putting habit). Contrary to the media in this country, I am more interested in what the Obamas are up to than what they wear. I don't know of anyone who wants to come close to you and do you hard that will dress like a stinking bum.

I'll tell you a real story told to me by a Jewish female nurse. She was in a hair studio and this attractive white male dressed in a suit rang the bell. The salon owner and everyone present thought that it was one of these people selling beauty products since he had a suitcase. As soon as the door opened, he pulled a gun and told everybody to give their money and jewelry. After he cleaned out everybody, he calmly left the salon, got in his car and took off. Even after the incident and the report to the police, the women kept on repeating "but he looked so nice and well dressed". Remember: "L'habit ne fait pas le moine" [The habit does not make the Monk]. Even though we were raised with that saying, we still give more importance to appearance than substance.

Nobody cares either about what Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Sanite Belair, Defile, La Folle Bazile, Malcolm X and so many who have been courageous enough to show love to their fellow human beings, wore. Their actions, however, stay vividly in our collective memories even though we were not present when they acted.

My verbosity comes out of love. I would not give that much time to hateful people.

HatTip to HLLN for permission to post this here. I took the liberty of adding the emphasis in bold, translations and links.