Aristide and the Battle for Haiti's Political-Economic Future

In 2004, President Jean Bertrand Aristide was removed from executive power in a U.S.-supported coup d'tat. Aristide was kidnapped by U.S. special- forces then flown to a neighbouring location. (Exactly like the coup in Honduras last summer). Since the 2004 coup Lavalas, a mass political party which Aristide created, has been subject to violent repression and censorship at the hands of the Haitian government. Aristide, now living in South Africa, has announced his intention to return back to the country for the on going recovery effort.

"The spirit of Ubuntu that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent
Black nation in 1804; helped Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador attain liberty and
inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States independence
cannot die. Today this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to
rebuild Haiti."

The return of Aristide to Haiti will be opposed by Haitian elites and the U.S. government. Haiti is a sovereign nation-state but for decades the U.S. has interfered in its internal economic and political affairs, often relying on violence. Immediately following the earthquake, U.S. right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation, began planning a political and economic future for Haiti that could effectively defend U.S. interests there. These interests include new “free” trade deals, economic liberalization and countering the influence of Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American countries aligned with the Bolivarian Revolution.

President Obama has already implemented many of the ideas coming out of the Heritage Foundation including sending in an overwhelming amount of military, civilian, and government forces to the island and tapping George W. Bush to help Bill Clinton in a "bi-partisan" aid effort. Bush has strong ties to the Heritage Foundation and their ideas will no doubt be represented in U.S. foreign policy in Haiti. Both Bush and the Heritage Foundation were supporters of the 2004 coup. The return of Aristide and a resurgence of popular participation during the political and economic phases of recovery would complicate their agenda.

Perhaps, it is inappropriate to start thinking about long-term political and economic transformation in Haiti given the amount of suffering taking place. But that has not stopped the U.S. State Department, Pentagon or Heritage Foundation. When the media cameras leave in the months ahead that is when the real battle for Haiti's future will begin.

Dark Days in Nigeria

In the midst of manufactured paranoia, lies and deceit about 'extremism' in West Africa, finally a voice of reason.

"As a result of a failed terrorism attempt on Christmas Day, the main topic
in the media has been Al Qaeda, Yemen, airport security, and one Nigerian
terrorist recruit. When this issue simmers down, will the wider travails and
prospects of Nigeria be confronted....Awaiting liberation, however, are 140
million non-jihadist Nigerians denied democratic and developmental governance
for a half-century. Will the country’s power-brokers now listen, and act?"

Richard Joseph of the Brookings Institute writes a timely reflection on Confronting the Greater Nigerian Challenge, and places the focus on the root of the country's current turmoil---poor governance. Too much of the existing commentary on Nigeria centers on ethnic division, religion, and geography but not enough on politics and power relations. Western liberal democracy has been restored in Nigeria after decades of military rule but its neo-colonial economic design and authoritarian impulses have not empowered traditionally marginalized groups in society.

The Nigerian legislature and executive branches are subject to manipulation by elites and there are very few avenues for popular participation within official institutions of political power. This situation forces workers, peasants, and religious organizations to find ways of participating outside the systems of power where the most important policy decisions are made. Nigeria is a text-book banana republic where personal goals and interests of foreign or national elites eclipse the human development needs of the average person.

In his article Richard Joseph argues that Nigeria has recently become a failed state defined as, "a dysfunctional state which also has multiple competing political factions in conflict within its borders or has no functioning governance above." The bottom-line is that Nigeria, like most other African countries, has always been a failed state since European colonialists carved it into an exploitative depot and instrument of elite interests. Normative political independence did nothing to alter this fundamental colonial structure.

Nigeria's conservative president Umaru Yar'Adua, being accountable to the country's former British colonizer, gave an exclusive interview to the BBC stating his intention to return to power after weeks abroad in a Saudi Arabian hospital. At home, Nigerian social movements and trade unions are mobilizing to have him removed from power. Nigeria is on the edge of political chaos, but perhaps when the dust settles the country will finally move toward participatory democracy. And "as Nigeria goes, so goes the rest of sub-Saharan Africa."