Invasion of the Body Snatchers

From 1957 to 1971, “Papa Doc” Duvalier ruled Haiti with an iron fist. His dreaded Tontons Macoutes (“bogeyman” in Haitian Creole) were sunglass-wearing killers who slit the throats of thousands of Haitians deemed insufficiently loyal to Duvalier The dead were often left hanging in marketplaces as "examples" for anti-Duvaliers. Abducted Haitians simply disappeared under the Duvalier regime.

Under Argentina’s brutal military junta in the 1970s, over 30,000 Argentinians were kidnapped and killed during the “Dirty War.” The junta used its military might against its own people. The state-backed torture and terrorism was supported at the time by the United States. Years later, mothers and grandmothers demanded answers to the fates of their children and grandchildren but the answers never came. The dead could not speak.

Almost half-a-century later, under president Trump in 2020, sunglass-wearing federal forces, nameless, faceless storm-troopers in the style of Nazi Germany, have descended on the streets of Portland, Chicago, Seattle, Oakland and other cities across the United States, tear-gassing and abducting American citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest. War veterans - Americans who fought to defend American values in distant lands - are being mercilessly beaten. The abducted are being hauled away in unmarked cars. When mothers tried to act as buffers between the protesters and the storm troopers, they were beaten and bloodied.

We Americans have gotten used to scenes of carnage in what we call Third-World countries, lawless dictatorships where people gathering to protest inhuman conditions are mowed down with machine guns. We watch these carnage and feel superior because of the durability of our democracy, the checks and balances that temper executive power.

Surely it cannot happen here, we tell ourselves, as we sip on our morning coffee. This can never be Haiti or Argentina. We can never turn into a fascist nation.

Well, think again. Our streets are turning into war zones. Why? Because Trump, badly trailing Biden in the polls for the November 3^rd election, is determined to hang onto power by any and all means. So this most lawless president is trying to pass himself off as the law and order president by sending federal troops to kidnap and kill Americans racial and systemic injustices.

A monster is bent on destroying America. It is up to us, the voters, to reject Trump on November 3^rd, and put a stop to the murderous madness he has unleashed across the nation.

But after Trump is defeated, we have to ensure that no American president can flout the rule of law with such impunity as he did, no matter how many sycophants he managed to surround himself with. Our vaunted “Checks and Balances” type of government came up short when confronting a sadistic president. One of the first things President Biden must do is to ensure that such murderous transgressions can never happen again without immediate accountability.

Haiti's Sorrow

Born in Bangladesh. Experienced devastating cyclones and floods. Saw bloated bodies floating on ponds, rivers and the Bay of Bengal. Cry of orphaned babies pierced the heart. Relief inadequate to the humanitarian disaster.

These random thoughts passed through my mind as images of death and destruction from Haiti filled the media. Hospitals, schools, shops, homes have collapsed from the 7.0 earthquake that struck the island nation on January 12, 2010.

Preliminary reports indicate that more than 100,000 Haitians may have perished. The infrastructure, hardy any to begin with, has been completely destroyed. Rescuing people trapped beneath the rubble seems impossible at the moment.

Fate has dealt Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, a particularly cruel blow. As aid pours in from around the world, the means to distribute food, water and medicine to the approximately 3 million affected Haitians remain precarious.

Whatever we can do to bring relief to the living, we must. When tragedy strikes in any corner of the world, we become aware of our common humanity. For Americans, the Katrina debacle remains a vivid reminder that such lapses cannot repeat. Already the Obama administration has dispatched several hospital ship and planeloads of emergency supplies to the devastated nation.

In the next few days and nights, Haitian will try to come to grips with what has befallen them. But perhaps they can find some solace in that people from around the globe have opened their hearts and pocketbooks for them, to help them bury their dead with dignity and bring a semblance of normalcy to their lives again.

But after the world moves on to grapple with the next crisis, Haitians themselves must bear the responsibility for reconstructing their country. The history of Haiti is tragic. The French were brutal slave owners and grew wealthy beyond their dreams from sugarcane plantations. Americans occupied the country for almost two decades. Haitian dictators killed their own countrymen by the thousands. Against this backdrop, rebuilding Haiti becomes even more challenging. But unless Haitians step up to the task, they will always be dependent on the generosity of others and that can never be a long-term solution.

Thoreau said: "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life." Same should be true for nations. In the long run, local leadership that promotes self-reliance will be the only catalyst for fundamental national changes. In the disaster that has hit Haiti, there is obviously the need for as much aid as possible. But a few months from now, Haitians will have to think long and hard about their own responsibility and accountability.