Rich Benjamin

The Axis of Democracy and Our Black Step Child

Haitians went to the polls yesterday as turmoil continues.

Will Haiti join Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Syria and Saudi Arabia in the axis of democracy, nations listed by Bush in recent speeches, as prime candidates for his sweeping visions of human liberty and universal democracy? Or is the Bush administration just obsessed with the central ritual of democracy -- voting -- while failing miserably on other counts.

In supporting democracy and funding elections in poor countries like Haiti, the U.S. and international organizations should tend more effectively to the country's basic humanitarian and economic needs, too.

Have you ever seen 'elections' replace a plate of corn porridge (mayi moulin) for Haitian children who throw up bile because they haven't eaten in days? Or replace anti-retrovirals for young women who contracted HIV because they had to sell their bodies to eat? All that because they are of the wrong race, have survived incompetent, corrupt, U.S.-backed regimes, and were born like the little navy blue Darfurians in a place without much natural resources for "first-world" nations to pillage.

I suggest as a last resort that the U.S. government, the World Food Program, and UNICEF collaborate to install feeding kiosks and mini health dispensaries at each polling place. I also suggest that an international election advisor fast for two days, then define "democracy" in Creole in Port-au-Prince's ravaged La Saline slum, with a focus group of light-skinned elites, frustrated youth and no peacekeeper!

I offer these immodest suggestions not only for the sake of a humane, lasting democratic system in Haiti, but to solve the U.S.'s real concern: keeping poor Haitians from Florida's shores and our own democracy.

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Posted at 9:40 AM, Feb 08, 2006 in Democracy | Immigration
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