As of Feb. 16, 2011, nine U.K. MPs have endorsed a notice of motion congratulating the government of Haiti for issuing a passport to its exiled president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Early Day Motion #1378, entitled "Jean-Bertrand Aristide" states:
"That this House welcomes the announcement by the government of Haiti that former President Aristide will be issued with a passport and thus able to return from exile in South Africa; deplores the manner in which he was removed from Haiti; and hopes his return will help lead to social justice and democracy for the people."
Early Day Motions are rarely debated in Britain. The significance of #1378 will be in how much support this statement gathers over the next session of the U.K. parliament.
CBC's The Sunday Edition host, Michael Enright, gave an opening essay on the Feb. 13 program that lamented the failure of the United Nations to provide meaningful support to the people of Egypt in their courageous battle to end the tyranny under which they have lived for 30 years.
In the essay titled, "The United Nations of Nowhere," he said Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon offered nothing more than platitudes, token phrases to the people of Egypt.
Enright then went on to note, "When we say the words ‘United Nations,' we automatically think of four things -- the Security Council, the Secretary General, the General Assembly and peacekeeping.
On December 25, the Organization of American States removed their special representative, Ricardo Seitenfus, from Haiti. The reason was very simple. He told the truth.
In an interview four days earlier with the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, Seitenfus bluntly expressed the popular discontent which the Haitian people have been saying since the arrival of MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Force in Haiti) on June 1, 2004 -- simply put, that their presence " solves nothing, it makes things worse. [They] want to turn Haiti into a capitalist country, an export platform for U.S. market, it's absurd." The French language article can be read here.
The following letter concerning the Nov. 28 electoral exercise in Haiti was e-mailed to all members of the Canadian Parliament on Wednesday, Dec. 15. On Dec. 13, the House of Commons in Ottawa held a rare debate on Haiti. You can read excerpts or the full transcript of that debate by going to the website of the Canada Haiti Action Network.
To: Members of the Parliament of Canada
Subject: Election in Haiti
Dear Member of Parliament,
We are writing to urge that as an elected Member of Parliament you direct a critical eye to the Canadian government's financing and endorsement of the Nov. 28 election in Haiti.
On Wednesday, Haitians turned the world upside down. What do things look like from that perspective?
Since last Sunday, the tension has been building as the population waited for the Electoral Council (CEP) to announce the results of the selections. The moment they declared Jude Celestin's good fortune to be selected for the second round, people exploded. On Wednesday, the crowds reclaimed their streets in Port-au-Prince. Sometimes it was a violent exercise, but we want to consider the imagination and creativity of the Haitian protesters.