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
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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
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>. 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
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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
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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)
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