In Gaza They Don’t Even Bother to Call It Peace
I was having sushi on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, sitting outdoors. All day long I’d been reading about the Hamas attacks in Israel and the Israeli bombings in Gaza. Now, sushi. What a disconnect. At the table next to ours was a young family we didn’t know....
The American Rules for a Haitian President (or de facto Prime Minister)
Here are the rules from the US Embassy for being president of Haiti, or just de facto Prime Minister (maybe you’d like the job?): Don’t interfere with Haitian business people who are old friends of the American Embassy, no matter what corruption they’re into: customs,...
Again
Oh, mesi, Bon Dye, one can imagine Ariel Henry, the interim Prime Minister of Haiti, saying this morning—Thank you, Lord—not because he likes earthquakes or doesn’t care about the people of his country but because a 7.2 earthquake just off shore with hundreds of buildings down and more than 700 counted dead so far, and roads impassable and a tropical storm on the way to create mudslides and more destruction and death is easier to deal with than the investigation of the July 7th assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
The Big Whodunit, Howdunit, Whydunit…
A Haitian friend and I have been talking the last few days about the “telenovela” that is the story of Haiti, post-assassination. In the days just after the murder, he said “it feels like an abscess emptying out, which could be good.” Now it feels more like the ranks closing and shutting down the investigative process, such as it is, while carrying out and elaborating the almost comic narrative the authorities have created to explain things and shield the actual perpetrators and intellectual authors….
Long Years of Pain and Glory
My engagement with Haiti started during the year leading up to February 7, 1986. That year I learned Creole from the Indiana University tapes, and bought their dictionaries, which were in notebook form. I went over to the Haitian Corner, a bookshop near my apartment...
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