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By Kevin Stoda
As people recall MLK and events of his time this week, we need to take a broad view on racism, democracy, and the eye of God. (of our planet Earth).
On the one hand, I am happy about all the good democratic trends we are observing in Burma. Years of international boycotts, sanctions, and local efforts to promote change peacefully have finally led a horrid regime to being to change its stripes. (The international boycotts and sanctions with Myanmar were undertaken with support from Burmese victims in their homeland and abroad. This contrasts with the USA and European policies with Iran over the past year.)
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/01/201211322337400580.html
This Friday, Myanmar's government began "releasing hundreds of
prisoners, including many political detainees, pro-democracy activists
say, as the country takes further steps towards political reform and
ending its international isolation. Myanmar state radio and television
said on Friday that 651 detainees were being freed to take part in
"nation-building'."
"Real change' in Burma
Sadly in South Sudan
The world's newest country, South Sudan, which has a great deal of wealth and potential is not doing as well as even Burma these days.
According to the New York Times, ""Bitter ethnic tensions that had largely been shelved for the sake of achieving independence have ruptured into a cycle of massacre and revenge that neither the American-backed government nor the United Nations has been able to stop."
Continuing in this vain of reporting, NYT claims that such "ethnic clashes were unnervingly common here in 2009, before the final push for independence. More ominous than the small-scale cattle raids that have gone on for generations, the attacks often seemed like infantry maneuvers, fueling accusations that northern Sudanese leaders had shipped in arms to destabilize the south."
This stability continued through last year, but "only a month after South Sudan celebrated its independence last July with a new national anthem and a countdown clock that blared "Free at Last,' Murle fighters killed more than 600 Nuer villagers and abducted scores of children. That attack set this month's massacre into motion."
The main problem for the government of South Sudan in getting the tribes in line and behaving humanely is summarized as follows: "South Sudan's government has been extremely reluctant to wade into these feuds because the government itself is a loosely woven tapestry of rival ethnic groups that fought bitterly during Sudan's long civil war. The Nuer are a crucial piece of the governing coalition, and the Lou Nuer, the subgroup that led the raid on Pibor, supply thousands of soldiers to South Sudan's army."
God, help South Sudanese citizens to treat each other properly, NOW.
HAITI STILL WAITING FOR MUCH PROGRESS
Two years after an earthquake destroyed much of Haiti's infrastructure--killing 300,000 people--the country is still awaiting a lot of aid and development.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/13/2_years_after_devastating_earthquake_haitis
Much of the international aid offered to Haiti by sovereign nations, peoples and institutions around the world have been delayed over the past years by the fact that one of the most important figures in the country, twice illegally ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was not permitted to participate as a candidate. This led to even more infighting and political shenanigans in 2011. Entire neighborhoods in some parts of Port-au-Prince have not been repaired.
One expert notes that The USA has played a great role historically in the underdevelopment of Haiti. Randall Robinson, author of many works on Haiti stated on DN recently, "It's gone on for 200 years, virtually since the Haitian revolution, when freed slaves, under the leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Toussaint Louverture, with 40,000 revolting ex-slaves, turned back a French army twice, a British army and a Spanish army, and committed and produced the first successful revolution in this hemisphere, making possible the American purchase of the Louisiana Territory, because Napoleon said he was done with empire with that defeat. But it was humiliating to the West. It was humiliating to Europe. It was humiliating to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. And it is something that has stayed in the American craw. These people fought and died for their freedom. And we did everything possible to suppress it. And that has been an unrelieved, implacable American opposition for 200 years since. What we have done to Haiti is unforgivable."
Aristide told Haitians and all in the Western Hemisphere why Haiti remains a basket case in too many ways, like in the recent American supported exclusion of the largest party in the country, "If we don't salvage our dignity, our dignity will be gone. Yes, you are right, because the problem is exclusion, and the solution is inclusion. The exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas is the exclusion of the majority. The exclusion of the majority means that you are cutting off exactly the branch that we are all sitting on. The problem is exclusion. The solution is inclusion of all Haitians, without discrimination, because everybody is a person."
On Eve of MLK Day
Randall Robinson, who is also a professor of law, notes that what the USA has done historically in Haiti is "unforgivable". Likewise, in America, he describes the American justice and prison system as a promoter of a horrid American "caste system".
Robinson noted that this judicially sanctioned caste system or "system of crime prevention or control" feeds "our prison system " [which] has exploded in the past 30 years."Randall says that this is "why we now have the largest--the highest rate of incarceration in the world, you know, just don't even pass the laugh test once you take a close look at them. It is not the case that our prison population has exploded due to a surge in crime or crime rates. It is not true that people of color are more likely to commit drug-related crimes than whites. So many of the excuses that have been offered actually just aren't true, once you dig a little deeper. And my book is an effort to do just that."
On the Eve of MLK Day in America, all Americans need to be called to reflect on their own democracy and our own foreign politics, especially after the crimes of a few bad soldiers in Afghanistan have shamed their own homeland so much once again this past year.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/13/on_eve_of_mlk_day_michelle
