1) CENSORSHIP
I'm not a "writer". I'm not a "journalist". I'm not a "researcher". I'm a guy in a band living in Haiti. That's right, I have a band. If you want to hear my opinion, then take it the way it is. I sent a piece to HuffingtonPost and some one took a line out of it or changed the URL and I went NUTS!! I wrote my "editor" or whatever title the nice man has and I asked him in a really nasty tone: "Why are you editing/censoring me?!!" He never answered me back. He ignored me, as he should have.
Two posts later, I'm writing an open letter to an old High School friend who now works at the White House in Washington DC. I knew her as Valerie B. At some point she got married and became Valerie J. In my post, I embarrassingly confused the J. with a G. (which is easy to do when you go back and forth between English and French) and HuffingtonPost went with it, as they should have, because I asked them to stop editing/censoring my Sh*t... Valerie.. I'm still calling out to you. I'm in Haiti and I'm concerned about the representation here. (I think I even spelled T.Cook's name wrong. For some reason I'm now thinking that it's Cooke. I can't remember. Someone please help me out on this and ask Valerie to please track me down.)
2) VODOU
I'm not going to talk much about Vodou. If you're reading this post, there's a 99% chance that you are CLUELESS as to what Vodou is, so there's no reason for me to blah blah blah too much about it. I will say a few things though just because it is one of the two OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED religions in Haiti and if you're interested in reading my posts, then you should have a little background on Haiti.
A) When we (our ancestors) came over on the SLAVE SHIPS, we were NAKED and in CHAINS. Simply put, people were going to use us as SLAVES to become WEALTHY. The people who were running the ships and financing the ships, were associated with religions that followed the teachings of Jesus Christ. When modern day missionaries come down to Haiti with food or medical aid, please ask them to take it easy with the religious rap; it's not necessary.
B) There are no more "Indians" (Arawaks, Taino or Caribe) on the Island of Hispaniola (1/3 Haiti and 2/3 Dominican Republic). These "Indians" were exterminated or chased away by people associated with religions that followed the teachings of Jesus Christ.
C) Right after the EarthQuake of January 12, most Haitians who experienced the QUAKE were singing or shouting out to Jesus. This is not a paradox to us in Haiti. Not only do Catholics pray to Jesus, not only do Protestants pray to Jesus, but Vodou people pray to Jesus too. Vodou is a prayer system, it is not sorcery.
3) COCAINE
During President Arisitide's second term in office (2001-2004), we (those of us who live in Haiti) used to get daily updates on what percentage of the Cocaine entering the United States was coming through HAITI. Sometimes it was 10%, sometimes it was 15% and I think we topped off at 19% of the COCAINE entering the US was coming through HAITI. Now that the UN troops are here (since 2004 or 2005), we no longer get those reports in the press. We don't hear 1%, we don't hear 5%, we don't even hear 10% of the COCAINE entering the US is coming through HAITI.
Does that mean that COCAINE is no longer coming through HAITI or does that mean that since Aristide is gone, we don't have to apply that kind of pressure to assure our "REGIME CHANGE" objectives? I'm just trying to get a better understanding of our current situation here in HAITI... Who owns the PORTS and if there is COCAINE coming through HAITI, is it coming through the PORTS??
Richard Morse
Port-au-Prince, Haiti