Letter to George Bush, president of the United States

[Edelma]

Ernst Delma
316 Bradford Place
Bordentown NJ 08505

To

His Excellency Mr. George Bush
President of the United States
White House
Washington, DC 20515.

Although I doubt my correspondence will reach your hands, so tight the security around your person is and must be, I take anyway the initiative to write this letter to you concerning a matter that you personally take to heart and which is of prime importance for the people you represent. Your function of president of the oldest democracy of the New World entitles you to have a word on democracy wherever it is threatened by chronic malevolence against mankind evolution.

I believe - should you falter to be a good president for the world - you are at least a great president for the United States of America and as such, you are sensitive to the fact that whenever and wherever democracy is in danger, the world
safety is in peril and consequently United States - no matter how militarily strong it is - is also in danger by the phenomenon according to which when the nose is hurt the eyes inevitably cry.

I am a Citizen of Haiti residing in the United States with my family, but conceptually and by choice I am citizen of the world, and as citizen of the world parodying Mr. John Fitzgerald Kennedy I always ask myself what I could enterprise to present mankind’s adversity before the tribunal of human conscience.

Recently a political crisis has perturbed in its essence the most sensible democratic experience the Haitian people has ever lived: the election of a president through collective suffrage. The right to vote was for the first time in honor, and people has loudly spoken in the name of democracy. I wouldn’t take the initiative to insinuate US involvement in our political hardship, nevertheless the chaotic resurgence that resulted at the aftermath of President Aristide’s ousting needs the political resol
ution of the most powerful nation of the world to help prevent the worse that could happen to a small nation searching its way through uncertainty. I understand this is a Haitian dilemma that can be only solved by Haitians, but we are a member of an International Community and the world as a body suffers when the least of its constituent is hurt.

As president of a proven democracy, I don’t need to introduce to you the fact that democracy is in danger in my native Haiti as it is all over the world. If terrorists have the nerves to attack the heart of the world as they did on September 11 2001, nothing is left to humans as hope and no place on the globe is safe. As you were prompted to debark American soldiers in Iraq to signify to whoever shows no respect for human lives that you mean business against any form of aggression to democracy, I’d like to humbly urge you to spend a little more salutary reflections on the fate of democracy in Haiti. It was great of you to prove to builders of weapons of mass d
estruction that the world deserves better than their disdainful and destructive autocracy, prove as well that democratic pursuit all abroad is in your government agenda.

Haiti is a small country with a great history. Its citizens want to survive with dignity and in peace the trials of existence. So manifest and essential is democracy to its surge for survival. The destiny of that nation - small but with a great heart – has been ceaselessly shaky. The solution is not in the removal of a president who could be a good president if the status quo against democracy wasn’t constantly on the move to debase, persecute, assassinate the characters of those who stand for a change, to annihilate the surge of those who cry that it is in effect time for the things to adjust to mankind’s happiness, for misfortunes to succumb for the glory of Men on earth.

In the impossibility to urge you to stand for a man or for the Haitian people, I’d like to implore you to stand for democracy, for the survival of the first
black Republic in the world, the second free nation of the new world after the United States, and for the glory of mankind without making allusion to trade and industry, to geopolitical location, or to the exclusive interest of the United States.

In this perspective, you will be the dignified follower of George Washington who surely knew how to use government as source of power to change things around and of Abraham Lincoln who has made of government, a servant of democracy, a field of blossoming humility to put money and supremacy in view of the rehabilitation of the humblest ones. You have made history before the tribunal of History by your firm stands against terrorism, please make history by rendering the Haitian people’s aspiration to democracy through economic development a permanent and definitive one.

As Alexis de Tocqueville has already acknowledged without flattery, but with the sense of the contribution of the early United States in the world’s response to calamities” America is gre
at because America is good”. Your reaction to the excellence of your presidential duty will be your testimony before posterity, and you’ll be able to visualize the praise of Universal History as the one who has irreversibly changed world Historical structure by definitely helping to implant democracy wherever it stays a refractory expectation.

Good bless you Mr. President.

Sincerely


Ernst Delma

This letter was sent to President Bush through Devry University By Ms. Madelyn Hoffman and through Congressman the Honorable Michael Ferguson

[guysanto*]

Brother Ernst Delma,

I have read your letter to His Excellency and while I share your doubt that your correspondence would ever reach his hands, I am even more assured that my critique of your letter WILL NOT. So allow me to quote from your letter, liberally:

Your function of president of the oldest democracy of the New World entitles you to have a word on democracy wherever it is threatened by chronic malevolence

If the source of this chronic malevolence is none other than the government of the United States of America, then the above statement would be comparable to granting a slave master the definitive word on social justice, a serial rapist the last word on gender equality. That being said, we need perhaps to examine in depth the source of this "chronic malevolence" against participatory democracy in developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean community.

I believe - should you falter to be a good president for the world - you are at least a great president for the United States of America

I don't have the pretense to command the judgement of History, but suffice to say that a reading of recent polls places your favorable assessment of George Bush's presidency in an incredibly shrinking camp.

I wouldn’t take the initiative to insinuate US involvement in our political hardship

Why would you not? Is it perhaps because US involvement in our political hardship is just a fairy tale? That Brian Dean Curran and James Foley have just been choir boys for Haitian sovereignty? That the World Bank and International Financial Institutions have not perfectly aligned their financing operations to the political objectives of a government bent on imposing a world order that deepens the chasm between rich and poor, the exploiters of the world's resources and the exploited, the privileged and underprivileged of the last 500 years? That the United States has been on the side of democracy in Haiti at any time in our 200 years of illusory independence? That it would be too much of a stretch... to "insinuate US involvement in our political hardship"?

If terrorists have the nerves to attack the heart of the world as they did on September 11 2001, nothing is left to humans as hope

To HUMANS????? Would these include the hopeful people of Chili in 1973, the hopeful people of Cambodia prior to 1975, the hopeful people of Haiti in 1991, the hopeful people of post-Somoza Nicaragua, the hopeful Palestinian people (et j'en passe)? Does September 11 2001 symbolize the end of THEIR hope... and if it does, isn't it worth asking why far more calamitous tragedies have failed to extinguish hope in the manner elicited by September 11 (2001!) ?

As you were prompted to debark American soldiers in I
raq to signify to whoever shows no respect for human lives that you mean business against any form of aggression to democracy,

NO RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIVES (clearly evidenced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo)... AGGRESSION TO DEMOCRACY (as demonstrated in Chile, Grenada, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, ALL OF LATIN AMERICA really)... yeah, man, American soldiers are always ready to debark anywhere in the world in defense of freedom, democracy, and human rights... OU KOUPE SOUF MWEN! And this "good president for the world" would deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if that were prestigious enough for His Excellency. I think he deserves better...

It was great of you to prove to builders of weapons of mass destruction that the world deserves better than their disdainful and destructive autocracy, prove as well that democratic pursuit all abroad is in your government agenda.

Yes, we indeed had to disappear the builders of SVWMD's
(suddenly vanished weapons of mass destruction) and leave alone the builders of NTAWMD's and NTAWPD's (not talked about weapons of mass destruction and not talked about weapons of palestinian destruction) as the latter represent a much lesser danger for humanity "as the US government perceives it"... perhaps "as we perceive it?"

"The world deserves better than their disdainful and destructive autocracy," you say... and you are right! That's exactly what people are saying the world over.

I’d like to implore you to stand for democracy, for the survival of the first black Republic in the world...without making allusion to trade and industry, to geopolitical location, or to the exclusive interest of the United States.

To implore (the emperor) for democracy (what about imploring God or is HE/SHE too far away to hear our prayers and we must therefore genuflect in front of George W. and beg for divine mercy) - OR - TO VOTE THE RASCAL OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE? I am keeping my choice a secret... bet you can't tell what it is!

In this perspective, you will be the dignified follower...of Abraham Lincoln who has made of government, a servant of democracy, a field of blossoming humility to put money and supremacy in view of the rehabilitation of the humblest ones.

WOW... "a field of blossoming humility" (if I did not already know that you were a poet, I would now be convinced)... and of course, George W. Bush has been a picture of blossoming humility... he is using money (the highest deficit in U.S. History) and supremacy (of the shock and awe variety) to rehabilitate the humblest of Haiti's poor and of the oppressed in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jewish settlements of Palestinian homelands.

There's a dignified follower of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln! Would it be too inconvenient to recall that George Washington was a slave owner? That Abraham Lincoln regarded Blacks as inferior and that he wished that they would simply go back to Africa after he "gloriously emancipated them" from the bondage of Southern plantations? But, of course, who could accuse the Bushes of racial bias...didn't they give us Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice?

You have made history before the tribunal of History by your firm stands against terrorism

"Making history", in the present, before the "tribunal of History" is no small feat, when that history has yet to be written... when the 9/11 Commission has yet to release its findings... when presidential testimony is given "in collaboration with the Halliburton VIP", NOT under oath, and UN-RECORDED...

Could the Tribunal of History fail, indeed, to reward such historical legislation as the Patriot Act, the deliberate use of terrorist tactics against suspected terrorists, the scornful and absolute refusal to submit to the authority of an International Court of Justice, the arming/training and unleashing of "freedom fighters" against a popularly elected president, the bypassing of the United Nations to wage war "against world terrorists", the establishment of an Axis of Evil, the "You Are Either With Us Or Against Us" doctrine of neverending war backed up by the greatest military force the World Has Ever Known and financed by the largest "record-federal-surplus-turned-to-record-federal-deficit" budget in History? Could the Tribunal of History fail to recognize such earthshaking achievements? No, I do not think so. Yes, George W. is making history. He may yet make history out of all of us.

please make history by rendering the Haitian people’s aspiration to democracy through economic development a permanent and definitive one

Ah! but don't you see that the "Washington Consensus", that is the twin neoliberal programs of privatization and globalization for sub-world economies and dependent democracies, is precisely what the President of the United States is pursuing? Never fear, my friend!

Your reaction to the excellence of your presidential duty will be your testimony before posterity, and you’ll be able to visualize the praise of Universal History as the one who has irreversibly changed world Historical structure by definitely helping to implant democracy wherever it stays a refractory expectation.

I can't breathe... honestly, I can't breathe. I intended to have one Last Word, but your concluding paragraph leaves me speechless.

A perplexed brother,
Guy S Antoine

[Serge Bellegarde*]

Guy, I just now have had the opportunity to read Mr. Delmas's letter and your reply. I must tell you "chapo ba". I was just totally disturbed by Mr. Delmas' s letter and I am quite glad that you replied in such a thorough manner. You see, a lot of us need to go back to do serious readings about US/Haiti relations so as to put things in perspective. Yes, the US has done a few things positive for Haiti (however contradictory that may sound), yes our Haitian leaders and our elite have done profound damage to the country, but the US influence in Haiti has been profoundly damaging to Haiti's economic and political development. Examples are too numerous to list them here.

Your reply that "the above statement would be comparable to granting a slave master the definitive word on social justice, a serial rapist the last word on gender equality..." is right on the money. While Mr. Delmas may have been well intentionned in writing this letter, wit
h all due respect, I believe that history undermines some of the points he is making in trying to awake President's Bush consciousness about Haiti. He does not have any.

Serge Bellegarde