I've just listened to Tracy Chapman's 20 year old song Talkin' 'bout a Revolution from her critically acclaimed debut album Fast Car, after watching an interview on Al Jazeera with a Haiti police chief who said that Haiti is in need of a revolution, although he wasn't sure what form it should take - the song has timely resonance.
We ordinary people whose interests are not represented by global/regional bodies such as the AU, the IMF, the UN, the World Bank etc need to make ourselves heard. When ordinary people exercise their will, it is willfully ignored, see Kenya, Zimbabwe etc. In Haiti, the ordinary people are suffering from policies drawn up in Washington DC. Haiti which used to be a net rice exporter now imports rice from Louisiana and North Carolina because Jean-Bertrand Aristide was required to open up Haiti's markets as a condition of his return to power. Opening up Haiti's markets meant that cheaper US subsidised rice imports flooded into Haiti, eventually destroying Haiti's rice industry. As Haiti now imports most of its food, ordinary people in Haiti have been particularly susceptible to the recent hikes in food prices. USAID sends food aid to Haiti from US farmers, using US transportation so 50% of that so called aid ends up in the pockets of the US. What went on in Haiti has been replicated in Mali except substitute rice for cotton.
So the question is, what are we as ordinary people going to do about this sorry state of affairs?
I'm Talkin' 'bout a Revolution.
Aluta continua!!
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