"Perhaps, this is a new-era purging, less bloody but no less devastating than the 1937 atrocity in which the Trujillo government ordered the killing of 20,000 Haitians in the DR. Today, murder comes in the form of the death of identity and personhood, with its attendant denial of rights and services. While the government in Port-au-Prince promptly recalled its ambassador in protest, Haitians are not optimistic about much more, given the labouring category of persons involved. But we, the people of the Caribbean, have repeatedly shown ourselves to be better and more courageous than our governments. It was ordinary people who, in March 1986, took licks from the police at the Oval in defence of the rights of black South Africans. And as Ambassador La Rocque noted in his lecture, it was Caribbean workers who first promoted the idea of an integrated Caribbean in 1932. With Haiti as a member of Caricom and the Dominican Republic as a member of Cariforum, we should demand a less puny response from our governments on this issue even as we take up individual positions on the DR — whether as tourists, business people or simply as outraged members of the Caribbean family. Between them, the CCJ’s judgment in the Shanique Myrie case and the de-citizenising of Haitians in the Dominican Republic present the right opportunity to abandon our usual waffling bureaucracy and make the Caribbean family real." trinidadexpress/commentaries/Making-the-Family-Real-226621101.html
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 18:23:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015