The New Dark Age

9 August, 2010 — HLLN

Recommended HLLN Link: Charlie Rose – Actor Sean Penn on his work in Haiti

www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11127 (See Ezili Danto’s Note below on Penn’s worst and best lines on the Charlie Rose show)

Haiti’s (Would Be) Hip-Hop President
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/opinion/07blow.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Wyclef Jean Seeks the Haitian Presidency: A Breath of Fresh Air — or a Dabbler who will Break Haiti’s Heart? by COHA Research Associate Alice Barrett bit.ly/amY0B4

The Root: Dear Wyclef, Please Don’t Run! by Marjorie Valbrun www.theroot.com/views/dear-wyclef-please-dont-run (Ezili’s Note: Interesting article by Ms. Valbrun. But besides this idea that Haiti needs TECHNOCRATS presumably who take their marching orders from Washington not the Haitian people, I note a statement she makes that gives pause. She writes that Haiti doesn’t need Wyclef as President but someone who can: “tamp down the country’s cyclical social unrest.”!!!

IRS hit Wyclef w/ $2.1 million tax liens Haitian presidential candidate owes for 1040 returns
www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/irs-hits-wyclef-21-million-tax-liens

In this post

– Sean Penn on Charlie Rose – recycling unfounded charges against Pres. Aristide, showing his dearth of knowledge, but he does mention ngos are a business and cites Timothy Schwartz’ Travesty in Haiti www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11127

– LINK Charlie Rose – Actor Sean Penn on his work in Haiti http://www.charlierose.com Actor Sean Penn on his work in Haiti www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11127

Ezili Danto’s Note: Hollywood, Hip Hop and Haiti

We know two things for sure: Hollywood and Hip Hop get media attention. And, for Haiti that translates into big media hype and megaphones for actor Sean Penn and rapper turned presidential candidate, Wyclef Jean. Forget that people’s trust and naive responses to celebrities-turned-scholar-on-Haiti and Haiti’s future are unseemly and utterly appalling.

Think: how can we use this upcoming and unprecedented 3-months media glare – the elections are Nov. 2010 – to help the 2 million Haitians made homeless by the earthquake stay alive, sheltered, with water, food, medicine and maybe some jobs; push for the monies raised to be used for Haiti’s domestic growth, for fair trade not sweatshops and push to get rid of the poverty pimp NGOs, end the UN occupation by showing the failures, these last six-years, of the UN, the NGOs, Clinton, their repugnance?

How to use this media glare? To take away the smiley face that was put on tyranny, UN/US occupation and the benevolent face put on structural poverty, white venality and vampirism in Black Haiti? The real narrative on Haiti cannot be allowed to fall through the cracks while this PENN/WYCLEF-hype gives the US corporatocracy and Haiti oligarchy more cover to continue their pillage, plunder impoverishment and destruction of Haiti. There’s work to do.

WYCLEF’S RUN FOR PRESIDENT OF HAITI, SEAN PENN TAKE:

So far, the Sean Penn’s script in Haiti, has been written by USAID and the US State Department as we noted back in May when he testified before the foreign relations committee. (Sean Penn, new spokesperson for Colonialism, Exclusion and Haiti’s Oligarchy: he says, don’t encourage Haiti’s independence, that’s premature and murder! – bit.ly/bpPcCW)

But, the Hollywood’s bad boy, one time heroin user, reputed cokehead, former husband to Lady Gaga’s godmother, Madonna, who once filed assault charges against him, is starting to get a clue almost 7-months into his Haiti sojourn and the Charlie Rose interview marks that demarcation.

Still, Penn’s paternalism and white privilege arrogance is so offensive that even if he’s starting to see the NGO’s are a business in Haiti, his notion that he’s qualified to speak about Wyclef’s run because of his six-months in Haiti, is blatantly offensive.

Nonetheless, Penn seems to believe he has STANDING and legitimate media authority to say, not the Haitian people, but for HIM to say Wyclef Jean should not be running for president. There are just no words to express the temerity of these white boys sometimes. Penn is simply NOT the proper person to take this issue to – the people in Haiti are! How is it that they are being by-passed for Penn’s opinions! How could Sean Penn not even get it that seven-months after the earthquake, his very presence in Haiti, still at a tent city golf RESORT, which he puts HIS name on, is merely further evidence of the Jake Sully/Tarzan messiah complex as played out in Haiti, not much different from the NGO as a business issue he is denouncing.

There are forces behind each of these people – Penn and Wyclef Jean, with political interests that may not be similar to what the masses in Haiti see for themselves. Forces even that perhaps neither Penn nor Jean are fully aware of, and may not understand who pull the strings.

For one, recall how, before the earthquake Wyclef Jean was a media darling and US/UN/Clinton favorite in Haiti. He was ambassador at large with a security detail and VIP treatment at the airport. When the earthquake hit that favor was transferred to clueless, first time doing Haiti charity work, Sean Penn! Not the security detail, but his crew had access to the airport when regular Haitians and more veteran search and rescue and first responders were being denied; access to military logistics and Wyclef Jean’s crew had to come in through the Dominican Republic! When Wyclef went to the airport with a crowd of Haitians to pick up the mounds of food and water that was just piling up there, he was denied, the crowd of eager-to-help Haitian youths who had followed him witnessed this treatment of Wyclef, embarrassed and shamed and force to leave empty handed. Meanwhile Sean Penn’s star in Haiti was rising, in his safe compound on a golf resort area fully protected by the military. Nevermind that most Haitians in Kafou Fey and elsewhere outside this new “green zone,” have no access to medicine, water, blood transfusions, no safety or that in general, and notwithstanding Sean Penn’s well run camp, many of the World Relief organizations and various other NGOS are, in the main, using aid monies for paying their high end salaries, traveling, attending meetings ad nausea, some buying prostitutes and living the high life in Haiti.

World Vision, among other NGOs are leasing homes in the Haiti mountains of upper Petionville for from $6,000 to 12,000 per month paying for electricity and everything else plus renting huge SUVs from the Haitian Oligarchy. While the Haitian elite are taking this opportunity to leave Haiti and rent their plush homes for big money raised for earthquake victim relief. The new ROTATIONS from the World Relief organizations and the extra UN/US deployed personnel since the earthquake have comfortably replaced those flown out as the “new foreign elite moving in.”

All this is going on. But none of the top Haiti charity moneymakers’ tax returns were publicly exposed by the IRS or were dressed down by the media for their misuse of Haiti funds. NGO businesses like Red Cross, World Vision, Care International, Catholic Relief Services, UN world food programs, known charities that have been collecting on Haiti’s poverty and pillaging Haiti for DECADES after decades, none of them were dressed down for their mis-use of dollars collected in Haiti. But soon after the earthquake, ONLY Wyclef Jean’s Yele foundation was singled out and uncovered to have IRS problems and a $400,000 discrepancy issue in his Yele Haiti foundation.

Before the earthquake, these problems were not made public. Wyclef was needed then to put a smiley Haitian face to US imperialism. But he’s being reigned in now and there is a reason. A black messiah who save earthquake victims, has Hollywood cache, a tent city, and who was not stopped from competing with Red Cross for donation dollars may not have been controllable enough for the US Kingmakers in Haiti. It’s no surprise to us at HLLN that today the actor Sean Penn, the new cultivated Haiti expert, suddenly is the one ‘suspicious’ of Wyclef Jean’s bid for Haiti president. (bit.ly/dtmxzT USA Today) Notice, in the USA today article Sean Penn is wearing his Haiti medal. He’s our new white expert on “all things Haitian!” ( See, also Sean Penn Hopes His Critics Get Rectal Cancer – www.dlisted.com/node/36338; Youtube Video – ; Sean Penn ‘suspicious’ of Wyclef Jean’s bid for Haiti president – USATODAY.com – www.youtube.com/watch?v=znJ34X4FFd8)

WYCLEF JEAN: Talking about standing. Although Wyclef Jean supported the forced removal of Haiti’s democratically elected president; although Wyclef Jean was part of the bicentennial boycott and one who called the murdering US-supported Guy Philippe death squads, “freedom fighters; although Wyclef Jean used his goodwill from his music fame to open Site Soley slums up to UN guns and then left his young Black male supporters to be rounded up and imprisoned indefinitely without charges, a hearing or a trial for years and years, never saying a word to request they be tried or set free; although all this is true, we are not going to restate this case again Wyclef Jean’s Haiti non-humanitarian interventions because at Ezili’s HLLN we try not to enter into fratricide and use our resources towards changing the paradigm put in place by category one, the imperialists, not category zero, the Black opportunists.

For now we will just say this: Mr. Wyclef Jean, hype or not. Qualified to run a country or not, all that is BESIDES THE POINT. If the LAW applies, he simply has no STANDING to run. He does not meet the technical requirements to run for President of Haiti. To run he must, according to Art. 135 of the Haiti Constitution have LIVED in Haiti for a minimum of 5 years. Wyclef is a legal resident of New Jersey, USA. (See article 135 Haiti Constitution at bit.ly/djyJSm)

Even if by some stretchhhhh Mr. Wyclef Jean points to his 2007 appointment as ambassador at large by Pres. Preval as “residency in Haiti.” Still falls short. We await the Haiti Electoral Board decision at Ezili’s HLLN before making any further comments, if required.

There are some advantages to this media coverage of Haiti, through this Wyclef Jean candidacy, it won’t help Mr. Jean. But it is an OPPORTUNITY for those of us who care to bring the REAL Haiti narrative to the fore on this media frenzy. I hope Ezili Network folks will take this opportunity to write op eds and respond and comment to CNN, Larry King, New York Times, Hollywood reporter, et al…

SEAN PENN: Sean Penn’s anti-war work on Iraq did not sit well with the embedded media and US military, but he made it up with the media and US military in post earthquake Haiti.

Once, the media had labeled him, Baghdad Sean and accused Sean Penn of undermining American solidarity in a time of crisis. Penn’s support and visits to Venezuela president, Hugo Chavez and to Cuba meeting with Raul Castro, both sworn enemies of American imperialism, also got him in trouble with the mainstream media and military. Not any more.

Today, he’s now a CNN, Larry King, Charlie Rose, et al… darling, not relentless attacked for his “anti-American stands against the war in Iraq.” No, he’s a “humanitarian” now, losing no chance to praise the US military presence in Haiti. US State Department/USAID mostly write the actor’s script in Haiti. He’s palpable now. Digestible now. So, he’s become a regular “go to” person whom the mainstream media will quote and consult with on the “Haiti situation.” Ahhh, the uses of Haiti!

Baghdad Sean gets on the good side of the US military and mainstream media in Haiti. See the May 19 Senate Hearing on Haiti – ning.it/9tov7G. Read Sean Penn’s testimony praising the US military, Preval and the NGOs – ning.it/d2qkYl and urging the militarization of aid and continued US/UN occupation – bit.ly/bpPcCW)

“President Preval and his administration have proven in their pre-quake efforts the will of Haiti to overcome its devastating legacy. But to demand of them, or encourage their demand of a fractured society’s independence prematurely, will be murder by another name.” —Sean Penn

As a reward, Sean Penn was presented with a medal from President Preval for his Haiti work on the six-months anniversary ceremony at the destroyed National Palace and was presented with a MILITARY coin and several honorary certificates of commendation for his service in Haiti by the deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command, Lieut Gen Ken Keen.

Sean Penn’s organization appears to be trying hard in Haiti to help save the lives in his golf resort tent city. There’s no denying that his camp’s efforts have helped dying earthquake victims, have given morphine to patients screaming in pain, provided medicine, blood transfusions to keep them alive. That relief work is necessary and not discounted. Still, in the long run, when seven month on, people are still in Sean Penn’s camp, living in tents, not homes, this sort of “development’ may soon become dependency. At the end of the day if there’s no skill transfer and permanent infrastructure change, staffed by Haitians as owners not “helpers’ to the foreign saviors, its no different than before the earthquake and Penn’s organization may end up perpetuating itself to be in Haiti for decades like the other NGOS, trying, as Spike Lee gushes to “get this country on its feet! (Spike Lee praises Sean Penn’s work in Haiti bit.ly/crTbhB)

Penn doesn’t seem to see neither the unseen hands pulling the strings from the very beginning nor that Western military power and white privilege have vied for the soul of Black folks since the days of the missionaries. Does not seem to question how HE came to get this privilege of his OWN tent camp in Haiti. Seems to take it for GRANTED as a position that, with no previous Haiti experience, he actually EARNED. Doesn’t seem to see the entitlement, or the strings attached and unintended harm being done. Doesn’t seem to want to know that Haitians are not children; that with the resources, access and connections made available to HIM and his foreign organizations and staffers by USAID, UN, the US military, Haitians in Haiti would have done more, saved more lives, covered a wider geographical area of people. Haitians in Haiti simply know the ground better than Penn.

On the Charlie Rose show, Penn said he intends a movie on his Haiti presence in the future. He explains Haitians are like “props” in a movie set put together by NGO’s. Nonetheless, he says he sees himself as a DIRECTOR in the Haiti tent camp scenario with presumably Haiti’s people as props?

Mr. Penn appears to have NO CLUE how USAID/US State Department/Pentagon, more schooled in the patterns of privilege and domination are USING him to further their “do-gooder” narrative and deflect away from 6-years of failure in Haiti since the occupation and NGO republic began in earnest.

Here are Sean Penn’s best and worst lines on the Charlie Rose show:

As you watch the Charlie Rose interview, there’s a clear picture the NGO’s are a business, they are in Haiti to keep Haiti dependent, continue their business existence using the poverty for their benefit.

Penn’s best lines, 1. “the rest of the world live like this, America is the fringe…

2. “A prominent Haitian said to me ‘when the apocalypse come, the survivors will be roaches, rats and Haitians.’ The Haitians will survive (no matter what…)…”

3. Penn’s worst line Recycling unfounded charges against Pres. Aristide. He says that Aristide “rising personal power issue gave in to narco trafficking, if not personally CERTAINLY indirectly, …that gave into violence, so you didn’t have the basic security in the country, trust in the police in Haiti!” (go to 33:15) He goes on to parrot USAID/State Department about what a wonderful job Preval was doing before the earthquake…presumably he was “DECENTRALIZING” power!!!

Someone ought to have given Sean Penn a clue. Not to say a known coke-head can’t have a valid point, smoking drugs and being a heavy drinker don’t mean one condones how drugs gets from Haiti to America. So I won’t point out Sean Penn’s ‘old drug problem, jail time and assault charges. I think Madonna pressed charges for assault and then withdrew them for a straight divorce. So I won’t go there at all. The clue Sean Penn needs to get is that to come to a nation and start impugning its legally elected President on drug charges is a bit arrogant, if not hypocritical in the altogether. Besides, he’s dead wrong. Aristide didn’t bring the violence to Haiti, he was raised in the poverty violence; he was raised in neo-colonial Haiti and a 30-year US-supported Duvalier dictatorship. Violence in Haiti is not only evidenced by the NGO dependency business today but is made entrenched there by the US/UN military occupation herald in by the two violent Bush Coup d’etat’s that summarily disfranchised 10 million Black Haitians, killed 20,000 and subjects the masses to the unprecedented nightmare Haitians have been living under since the bicentennial coup detat and return of the Oligarchy macoutes/elites and vampire internationals back to power in Haiti.

Duvalier’s macoutes and Haiti’s army junta have been supplementing their income with allowing drug trafficking up from Columbia, et al… way before Aristide came to power in 1990 and all their main army’s leaders, like the drug trafficker Michel Francois and or coup d’etat leader. Raoul Cedras were on US payroll and trained a Fort Benin Georgia, way before Aristide came into office; that Haiti’s poor whom Aristide was a spokesperson for, own no planes, no cocaine fields and the DEA suspected drug dealer who helped oust Aristide, Guy Philippe, was originally trained by US Special Forces and financed by US and trained by US from the DR to invade Haiti in 2004. In terms of decentralization of Haiti, Aristide tried to decentralized power, empower Haiti’s 565 communal sections and not just Port au Prince. That wasn’t acceptable to the US and internationals because they did not want his community organizing to work, or participatory democracy in Haiti. The US and Haiti oligarchy want ELECTORAL democracy, not participatory democracy. Elections under occupation where THEY control the elections, manage them, steal them or hi-jack them. The US talks of decentralization of Port au Prince, but it was the first US occupation (1915 to 1934) that made Port au Prince the seat of power the better to run their colony. USAID/US have no intention of allowing decentralization, unless they can control all 565 sections. It’s easier to just buy off the politicians in Port au Prince and be done with it.

Sean Penn Hopes His Critics Get Rectal Cancer www.dlisted.com/node/36338

Spike Lee praises Sean Penn’s work in Haiti bit.ly/crTbhB

Forwarded by Ezili’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network