P age A2 O ctober 26, 1994 « T he P ortland O bserver 3J ean B ertran d A ris tide's face is not a face to fo rg e t: H o llo w cheeked, goggle-eyed, wide mouthed. The foreign journal ists call him d im in u tiv e , bespectacled. It is hard to believe that this small person who takes up virtually no room at all. can bring thousands of people to their feet and lead Port-au-Prince's slums with a wave of his hand. As one of the few prominent people in Port-au-Prince who had stu ck their necks out in Jean-Claude's waning days, publicly expressing the growing discontent and disgust with Duvalierism. Aristide helped to cre ate in the capital the same climate of unrest and protest that already exist ed in the countryside, and that made the dictator’s departure necessary'. By the end of Jean-Claude’s days. Aristide was the most visible of many young progressive priests and nuns who had been organizing peasants and slum-dwellers since the late 1970s. Aristide preached a brand of lib eration theology that pleased no one except his extended congregation: the poor in the slums, the peasants who heard him on Radio Haiti-Inter and Radio Soleil, a scattering of young jobless lower middle class youths with no future in the country, a few liberals among the Haitian bour geoisie, and the exile community. He had all the right enemies. The army hated him, because he mentioned colonels and sergeants and lieutenants by name in his sermons 1 ÎATI ONz* W ti III IBI d C O A L IT IO N Our Current Concerns and excoriated them for the abuses they committed against the people in their regions. The American Embas sy hated him because he held the United States and its economic sys tem responsible for much of Haiti’s economic woe, and thus for the mis ery of her people, his congregation. The church hierarchy feared him because he did not often miss a chance to include them on his list of enemies of the people, and they were jealous of him too, for the loyal following he had attracted and for the attention he received from foreign journalists. The very wealthy few in Haiti despised him also, because he accused them of betraying their countrymen and stat ed boldly that the system by which they enriched themselves was cor rupt and criminal and an offense against their fellow Haitians. He frightened them all with the violent honesty of his sermons. And the worst part was that he had a reputation for being Haiti' s foremost biblical schol ar. and was always ready with aquote from the gospels to support his mes sage. His targets did not like to hear Christ quoted against them. Aristide’s message was doubly frightening, because try as they might, his enemies could not property ac cuse him of preaching communism. He gave sermons in which he lauded the sanctity of private property. “The peasant’s land,” he said, “the land that he and his family have worked for generations, that is his private property, no one else has the right to take it. The shopkeeper's little store, that he bought fair and square with his little savings, and from which he makes a decent income, that is his private property. But the class of landowners and the bourgeoisie who live off the corrupt system we have in Haiti, who do nothing, who give noth ing back to the country, who steal what little wealth we have to put it into banks in foreign countries, their private property is the property of the peasants. Their private property is Haitian property, it does not belong to them.” Like other liberation theologians in Latin America, who use Jesus’ teachings to raise the political con- seiousness of the poor. Aristide tried to make connections between the struggle of the Haitian people for freedom and what liberation theolo gians see as the struggle of Jesus for the liberation of Jerusalem. "What weds the movement with in the church to the movement within Haitian society as a whole,” he said, "is liberation theology, which has filtered into the youth of our country, which invigorates them, which puri fies their blood, which leaches these youths that either you are a Christian or you are not. And if you are a Christian, you cannot allow what you are seeing to happen without saying something, because if you say noth ing, you will be sinning by your si lence. You will be sinning by your complicity. So in order to avoid that sin, which is a mortal sin, we refuse to accept what is happening. We cast off corruption. “If you're a Christian, you can not accept to continue the Macoute corruption in thiscountry. Well, then, you are obliged to take historic risks. You are obliged to participate in this historic movement of liberation the ology. In other words, the resurrec tion of an entire people is occurring right now. It is liberation theology that is lifting our children up against a corrupt generation, against a men tality of the Church and the society which see corruption as the comfort able norm, and which one cannot stomach if one is truly a Christian. It is the history of the Jews and Jesus Christ that we ourselves as Chris tians are living through now. We have become the subjects of our own history.” THIS WAY FOR BLACK EMPOWERMENT Let’s Develop! by • * V • ' V .¿ -A--’- >. V D r . L enora F ulani As human beings, all of us have theyfcpportunity millions of times a day to decide how we want to live, to choose who we want to be, to create our lives rather than to act out the limited and limiting roles that we’ve been taught to play. In fact, it’s our unique capacity to do this - - to grow, “to go beyond ourselves,” to develop -- which makes us human. Moreover, development can be reinitiated at any age and any stage in life. This is the extraordinary discov ery made by Dr. Fred Newman, my political mentor and very dear friend, who has been a practicing therapist for the last 25 years. In helping thou sands of people from all walks of life to transform their lives, Dr. Newman has discovered that human beings (unlike any other creature) can go on developing up until the moment that we’re no longer alive. He has recent ly written a book called Let’s Devel op! A Guide to Continuous Personal Growth, which shows you to live your life as an ongoing exercise in development. Now to say that all human be ings have an unlimited capacity for development is a direct challenge to traditional psychology, which teach es us that development is something which takes place only in the first few years of childhood. Supposedly, we’re born with something called an "I.Q.” which limits how much we can learn. Supposedly, we quickly ac quire a “personality” (based on some combination of heredity and early childhood experience), which limits what we can do socially and emo tionally. better Just think of the dozens of labels that get thrown around in ordinary conversation: This child is “a trou blemaker." That one is “a Mama’s boy.” That one is “just like his Dad- ' dy.” Andjust think of all those pseu do-scientific labels that children get stuck with: borderline I.Q.; hyperac tive; underachiever; learning dis abled; developm entally delayed. Even positive labels are used to put kids in boxes: a little lady; smart as a whip; good as gok’- a flirt; a tease; a brain. The labeling business contin ues, of course, into adult life: "This person is an alcoholic." That one is a “compulsive eater." Someone else a “co-dependent” or "addicted to.” Not only do these labels have no scientif ic validity, they often do profound harm by blaming and punishing peo ple and at the same time denying that, as human beings, they are responsi ble for the life choices they’ve made. They keep us all in boxes, in catego ries, convinced that w ecan’tchange. , Are psychological labels good for anything? Well, they help to make enormous profits for the addictions industry, the dieting business, and big-time dealers of drugs (legal and illegal). But they are anti-develop mental tnrough and through; they serve to perpetuate the myths that keep millions of people in their plac es, feeling that they’re stuck in their lives, going through the motions, doomed to go on acting out their hand-me-down roles in what seems like a bad play. Let’s Develop! is a practical guide to transforming your life. You can open this book and learn how to live your life as an ongoing exercise in development. 'Ulie (3L?it0r Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 •*’<• * Post Office Indifference To Minorities C ; z • ;v r.\ * ;y X • .» ' : f e i » 5 31 - of the American Postal Workers Union. From the start of my employ ment, I couldn’t help notice the small number of blacks that employed at the Main Office at 715 N.W. Hoyt. Why was and is there such a small number of minorities (blacks)?. The reply to this question has yet to be answered. Does this low number re sult in any difficulties in the areas of promotions, training and treatment of minority postal workers? I cannot answer the second ques tion objectively, because I work there, but if asked I would respond with a resounding yes! I’ll let you try. An incident happened at the main office on Sept. 3 0 .1 was approached by a black person who asked if I was the Equal Employment and Oppor tunity Representative for the union and said he had something to show me “There is a Confederate flag put up in the area where I work and I feel intimidated by it." he said. I immediately informed two su pervisors of the situation and they quickly removed the crossed stars Ä j£s(?Sn -V*? ¿¿Stì am an employee for the J.S. Postal Service in Portland and a member □¿vi.?.,»/ and bars from the area. I also informed them, that I would appreciate it if they would post on the bulletin board that this type of activ ity will not be tolerated in the work place and also mention it during the weekly stand up talks. I was assured that this would happen. The following week I checked the bulletin boards to see if there were any such notices, there wasn’t. During the stand up talk, I waited for management to respond. There was no mention, of the flag incident. As usual, at the end of the stand up talk, the supervisor asked if there was anything else someone wanted to say? I stepped forward and said, “yes." Immediately there were growls and moans from my co-workers. I asked to see those that made such sounds after the meeting. I started by speech by saying. "As an American Negro, myself and another, were of fended by the presence of a Confed erate flag being displayed in the post office, but what’s more disturbing is the nonobservance attitude of man agement or respond to the requests, and I wonder what would be their response if it was a swastika or an Oregon Citizens Alliance poster put up in the work place?" I went on to say, “I have defend ed individuals rights to free speech before and will continue, but this type of act should not be allowed in the work place." As the talk broke up I was asked, “What do you have against the — ?” Somewhat shocked by the question, my reply was “nothing!" I asked myself what did I say that would give a lyone the indication that I harbored ill feeling towards the opinions of — - oackers? In my address, my intent in re ferring to the swastika and OCA was to show that in the hot headline issues in this arca, I bet management's re sponse would be more sensitive to requests in announcing a condemna tion of such acts. Observing the way others react ed to what was said, introduces an other question. Do my co-workers hold this backlash effect that man agement has displayed? To find the answer we need only to look at the post office manage ment’s response to the Confederate flag incident. Which seems to say, since it only affects the minorities (definition: small and insufficient number) there is no need to address it. Or maybe my co-workers misun- derstood my intentions, after all I too am only human. But the fact that management’s attitude regarding the incident can’t be overlooked and the message that this oversight sends to my fellow workers does have some effect on their perception of others in the workforce. This brings us back to the questions I posed regarding op p o rtunities for m inorities at the main post office. L e t’s take note or m anagem ent’s attitude to the flag incident. It says a lot about the m anagem ent culture at the main office and provides a grim but true picture o f barriers that rem ain so deeply rooted in our thoughts and perceptions of oth ers. In order to overcom e these archaic social attitudes, a more congregated effort by all is need ed to ensure the eradication of them. I hope there are other postal employees at the main office that share in the beliefs that the rights to be respected and afforded equal op portunities in the post office are for all, regardless of management’s os trich approach taken on the (lag inci dent. ■ O llis Burchfield p e r s p e c tir e s What Happened To South Africa? by P rof . M c K inley B urt e would have thought that the daily media would be still wringing every drop of acclaim and solicitude which could be enacted from the ‘Second Emancipation’. And we’ve yet to hear from the high-profile blacks from Am erica who danced the night away there in the ‘old country', promising massive economic imports of fin a n c e and know how . Perhaps they were part of the massive entertainment. W N o w , we are accus tom ed to the gigantic m edia c irc u s e s th at s e iz e upon em otional and topical issues, ‘riding the w hite h o rse’ until it is felt that ad v ertisers would so o n er place th eir m oney on fresh steeds. There will alw ays be new plays and actors waiting in the wings: A Som alia, Haiti or O.J. S im pson--or even a re run of Kuwait. The public is forever saturated, m anipulated or ex p loited; often ju st bored. It was only a few m onths ago that I provided a deeper background study of the South A frican tragedy. I drew heavily upon the m as sive book on this bloody land w ritten by Robert I. R otberg, A cadem ic V ice -P resid en t for A rts, Sciences and T echnology ; The Founder:C ecil Rhodes And The P ursuit of Pow er” (O xford U. Press, 1988, 800p.p.). I q u o t ed from text by this officer of Tufts U niversity because it has proven to be factual and unem o tional and, as indicated, the au thor is o f a sc ie n tific b ack ground. We learned o f the centuries- old struggle betw een the E uro pean im perialist pow ers to co n trol the m ineral and agricultural riches of ‘G reater South A frica- and the fact that such an en trenched financial infrastructure with tentacles reaching into the com m ercial capitals o f all the world could not be dism antled by eith er w ords or civil laws. For exam ple we see that the U nited States early on forced the United N ations to exem pt ten key m inerals from their al- leged sanctions against South A frica. T h ese m a te ria ls , o f course, were those essential to the m anufacture of the special alloys for supersonic aircraft, nuclear bom bs and space vehi cles. In fact, that ’Wah C h an g ’ exotic m etals plant at Albany Oregon has alw ays been a fre quent receiver and shipper of m inerals on the Dept. o f C om m erce and State D epartm ent forbidden lists. But as with their environm ental violations they are always let o ff the hook with a nominal fine, if any. B e g in n in g on page 81 o f “A frica: an In Oy ternational B usi Professor ness, E conom ic Mckinley & Political M ag Burt azin e” , is a re v ealing a rtic le , “A fric a ’s M ineral P o te n tia l” (M arch, 1978. There is not only a general essay approach in a special section (“The E conom ics o f M ineral E x p lo ita tio n ” ), but an exhaustive country-by- country inventory o f trillio n s and trillions o f dollars in “non ren ew ab le re so u rc e s” o f the A frican people--and d etails o f which A m erican and European com bines control this w ealth. Perhaps those naive A fri can A m ericans who danced the night away at Nelson M andela’s presidential inauguration actu ally believed they would be a l lowed to own corporations that would sit astride control stra te gic pipelines of wealth and m a terial flow ing betw een nations- -the A frican m onies and m ate rials that supported two great W orld W ars, and which will fi nance the infrastructure o f the next century and beyond. Or perhaps the blacks were not so naive after all; perhaps they ju st wanted to ‘be on stag e’. In any case, we h av en 't seen the developm ent of a com m er cial culture here at hom e in A m erica, let alone the co o p e ra tion and com m itm ent it would take to launch viable overseas ventures. W ho was it that said “charity begins at hom e?” There are other ram ifications to this e x p lo ita tiv e s itu a tio n . O ld M assa’ always looks ahead, next w eek, “E x p o rtin g A p a rth eid A cross The A tlantic (to South Am erica). tUljc ^Llnrtlatth (Obserricr (USPS 959-680) OREGON’S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION Established in 1970 by Alfred L. Henderson Joyce Washington-Publisher The PORTLAND OBSERVER is located at 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97211 503-288-0033 * Fax 503-288-0015 Deadline for all submitted materials: Articles:Friday, 5:00 pm Ads: Monday Noon POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes to: Portland Ob server, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208. Second Class postage paid at Portland, Oregon. The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manu scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned. If accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and can not be used in other publications or personal usage, without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has pur chased the composition of such ad. © 1994 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIB ITED. Subscriptions: $S0.00 per year. The Portland O bservcr-Orcgon’s Oldest African-American Publi cation—is a memberof the National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgam ated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver