Original subtitles

HAITI THE END OF THE CHIMERES?

Happy New Year. Happy New Year...

How many is that?

Five!

- For how many years? - Five.

Five!

Aristide for 5 years!

If not for 10 years!

Over 300 years,

15 million Africans were transported like cattle,

locked in holds, across the Atlantic Ocean.

What genocide!

Slave trade? Or death trade?

But...

remember...

here...

here...

I repeat: here...

in 1804,

from the darkness of slavery broke the dawn of freedom!

Sunshine in the dark of night!

Who dared say it?

Who would have thought it?

Haiti is the Mother of Liberty.

The world's first black republic

is and ever will be

the geographical pivot of black freedom.

With our Bicentenary, we also celebrate

the only victorious slave rebellion in history.

The only one! The only one!

Down with Aristide!

Who is Aristide? We can oust him!

How wonderful and great to be united!

How wonderful and great to love each other!

How wonderful and great to cultivate freedom,

tolerance and peace!

It's too late, no more bargaining!

Too much blood is spilt! Aristide must go!

Together, we repeat: in 2004 Aristide must go!

He has to go.

And the international community must help us get rid of him.

Join together to oust Aristide!

All political parties realise that it's impossible

to celebrate the Bicentenary with Aristide. Why?

Because the Haitian Bicentenary

is something that corresponds

to the ideals of equality and liberty

that founded the Haitian Republic.

Whereas now, we're in a situation

where fundamental liberties

are systematically denied.

People realise that the 200 years of independence

are being celebrated

against a backdrop of great imposture.

In no way can the people identify

with the official celebrations.

In fact, you could say that the commemoration of 1804

- 2004 -

is a powerful stimulant

to the people's fight for change.

Can we celebrate freedom from slavery

when we have no freedom of speech?

I was almost assassinated 2 weeks ago

because I stated my disagreement.

What do I have to celebrate?

My intellectual and moral slavery?

Because 200 years ago, slaves who couldn't read or write

won a war against slavery?

I'm still in slavery.

A kind of 21st-century slavery,

where one man imposes his will on an entire nation.

I know what Toussaint did

I know what Dessalines did...

In the 18th century, Haiti was the world's richest colony.

In the name of liberty and equality, values of the French Revolution,

African slaves deported to Haiti revolted in 1791.

Shortly after,

Toussaint Louverture, an ex-slave,

joined the movement and became known as the freer of blacks.

A General of revolutionary France,

Toussaint was named Governor.

When Napoleon came to power, he had him arrested.

Toussaint died in prison in the Jura in 1803.

Dessalines, his lieutenant,

won the final victory against the French,

and on 1 January 1804,

he proclaimed Haiti independent.

In 1804,

Dessalines was supreme commander of the Haitian army.

At Gonaives, having united all his generals,

he created this country,

which he baptised Haiti, the name the Taino Indians used

for this island.

When he gave it this name, he said,

"I have avenged the blacks and the American Indians.”

I should point out that Haiti

was not only the first riposte to black slavery

but also to the Indian genocide.

And this is part of our universal heritage,

in that Haiti invented universal man.

Before that, "man” was white.

Because let's remember, the American and French Revolutions

were led by the owners of slaves.

It was only in Haiti that slaves, for the first and last time,

formed themselves into a free and sovereign state.

We went from a people of slaves to a nation of citizens.

Remember what colonisation entailed.

It was an established system of racism,

a system of forced labour on plantations...

All that was rejected in one fell swoop.

Aiming to recapture Haiti and re-establish slavery,

Napoleon fought, with his brother-in-law, Leclerc,

a genocide war.

And he did try to commit genocide,

as we see in the letters Napoleon and Leclerc wrote,

which mention needing to fight a war of extermination in Haiti.

But they couldn't, and they duly lost Saint-Domingue.

The armies of Leclerc exercised terrible cruelty

with their return in strength in 1802.

Whereas Haiti...

- it was still Saint-Domingue then -

...thought it was part of the French Revolution.

Haiti is the daughter of France. Haiti pushed the French Revolution

to its extremes.

Saint-Domingue was France's most profitable colony.

25% of French exports came from Saint-Domingue,

and it had the largest concentration of slaves in the Caribbean.

Haiti was punished for continuing the French Jacobin dream

of liberty, solidarity, fraternity and equality.

True, our histories are linked.

1789 is part of Haiti's history.

But 1804 and Toussaint Louverture is part of France's.

Because here, the French Revolution became universal.

This is where it was accomplished.

The French wrote The Rights of Man,

which was just the rights of Whites.

Haitians made it The Rights of Man.

So we owe them a great deal.

To the great Jean-Jacques Dessalines,

to Toussaint Louverture, the spirit of our race,

to Pétion, to Christophe,

to the valiant soldiers and all the heroes of independence,

let us pay a vibrant homage.

"Haiti, the Mother of Liberty”, as this streamer says.

A land where liberty is always killed.

It's also true that men and women have constantly fought here

for liberty.

How those impostors have conned the people!

We're attached to myths.

And one of the biggest myths is one that makes believe

that 1804 saw a victory for slaves,

slaves freeing themselves from oppression,

French oppression.

In fact, 1804 was a victory for the owner class.

Affranchised slaves allied to the old generals,

who were officers in the French army.

So the majority of black slaves

ended up in the same situation, if not worse.

In a state of apartheid

where political and economic power

belonged to former owners,

mostly mulattos and a few black generals.

I'm descended from an affranchised black general.

That's right. Let's celebrate!

Not you, old pal.

Why not?

You're descended from slaves.

You were the cannon fodder who helped me seize this land.

In fact, the whole history of Haiti

has been a quest for freedom by the black masses,

who finally realised

they'd been robbed of power, a country and a state.

So we're still slaves.

Evening, Mistress, how are you?

Evening, Lovana, how are you?

Evening, Master Lakay, how are you?

Evening, Master Bitsayon, how are you?

How handsome you look How are you?

We say good evening And how are you?

The paradox in our history is...

that the people who fought against the horrors of the colonial system

would see the same system return after independence.

After 1804, it was clear that the workers

who had fought to establish a local market,

would be obliged to work

on the big plantations

run by kinds of feudal lords,

black squires with epaulettes

under army rule.

And this system

totally thwarted the hopes of the workers

who had fought to have land of their own

and not for speculative farming for a foreign market.

There was a kind of oligarchy

that grew rich and replaced the old colonials.

These plantations still belong to these traditional families.

But there's nothing on them.

Nothing at all.

Haiti is two countries in one.

Two civilisations.

In one is the peasant with his knowledge

that goes back to the dawn of time,

over these dark centuries.

And the new system to emerge after 1804

and to be established would try to impose a new order.

And that's been with us throughout Haiti's history.

People have always kept privileges for themselves

and refused to share their wealth.

Haitian history constantly repeats itself.

So Haiti hasn't changed.

It's two worlds in opposition. We're still not one nation.

Dear friend, we shall celebrate our Bicentenary with dignity.

Dignity and pride. We're with you!

Our mother, France, abandoned us.

And we rebelled against her.

In fact, we were abandoned

by all the international powers

throughout the 19th century, because they were all pro-slavery.

We were surrounded by Spanish possessions,

British possessions,

and the US, which was totally pro-slavery.

So we were punished and sent into quarantine.

We demand reparation and restitution

In the name of our ancestors...

We had to pay 150 million francs in gold

for recognition by the international community.

It's the only case in history

of a country that had fought to win its freedom

paying to be accepted among other nations.

That's why President Aristide said

that to celebrate the Bicentenary

we need three slogans:

celebration, reparation and restitution.

The demand for restitution of this "debt of independence”

is actually very complicated.

It should be remembered

that Charles X of France

demanded that colonials be paid damages

in exchange for international recognition.

So France had no debt of independence as such

in those last decades.

So in one way it's demagogic, but it's also symptomatic.

Symptomatic of a plea.

Not a plea for money,

but for consideration.

We are not asking for charity

We, the youth of Haiti,

say to France that its support of this stateless opposition,

of colonials and of rebels

will lead to nothing but ruin.

Instead of following this path,

France should apologise to us

for all the wrongs she has done us,

and return the $21,685,135,571 and 48 cents she stole

in 1825 with a knife to our throats under the Boyer government.

We're not begging or asking for a loan, we want what's ours!

True, France owes a debt to Haiti.

All the West has a debt to Africa and many other countries.

But this 21 billion dollars

is like giving a joint of grass to millions of Haitians.

In any case, the people would only get

a few cents of a sum like that.

In my own personal opinion,

1 think that any aid given to Haiti

will only be effective once we have good government.

When a country is run the way Haiti is run now,

1 think it would be irresponsible

to give a sum of any amount to a government

that has nothing but contempt for its people.

Aristide for five years!

Even hungry, we'll celebrate 2004!

Three years after the coup d'état, Aristide was back from exile.

This used to be an army camp.

There were lots of executions.

Few prisoners survived the camp.

The whole population that had gone into hiding

or had gone into exile

moved here to live.

Because Aristide said it'd be a people's forum.

This was the prison. The cells were like oubliettes.

One person here, one person there, all hunched up.

I remember

in this cell,

we found prisoners.

Some of them had died of starvation.

They were all hunched up.

Others were crying for help.

When we started breaking the locks to get in,

they thought we were going to Kill them.

But we freed them and gave them food.

And since then, we've been living here.

Our problem here is we have no respect.

Aristide promised us a people's forum,

but we haven't seen a thing.

Today, no other poor districts support the government.

He promised a people's forum, then forgot us.

But we'll continue to fight for the government even if we get nothing.

We'll fight to the death for another five years.

He said it, and I'll never forget this to my dying day:

"Fort Dimanche will be a people's forum.”

But Aristide forgot his words. Sadly, we still support him.

Living in the old Fort Dimanche is a nightmare.

But we're used to it.

We never imagined the President would abandon us.

And yet we support him, despite hunger and filth.

I've just spent my daily allowance

on lighting the street to make it nice.

I haven't eaten today, but I still support Aristide.

I'd like to see him come here

to visit his supporters.

We would say to him...

"If this is the people's forum, don't forget the people.”

More like "people's hunger"!

Look at the first independent black country:

only filth, mud, hunger.

When some poor soul has a baby,

he can't feed it, and that's a crime!

The death rate for infants under five

these past few years

has gone from 125 per thousand to 110 per thousand.

In 2015, this rate will fall below 40 per thousand.

It's possible, because union is strength.

From 1993 to 2003,

the malnutrition rate

went from 63% to 51%.

In 2015, it will go from 51% to 25%.

It's possible, because union is strength.

Between 1990 and 2000,

the proportion of Haitians living below the poverty line

dropped from 60% to 56%.

In 2015, it will drop further from 56% to 28%.

It's possible, because union is strength.

70% of the capital's population

live below the poverty line.

Just walk round Port-au-Prince

to see this reality:

the millions who have no water,

no electricity, no schools, no healthcare.

How is it that we can live

in such a scary reality

and not be able to see it or question it?

Aristide

was seen as the defender of the poor for a long time

as he worked in a shantytown.

He was the "poor man's priest”,

who worked with street kids.

But what no one was aware of

was the corruption.

Firstly of the kids.

The kids who followed him, those we now call the Chiméres.

After beating up demonstrators,

they go to the Ministries and say, "Pay up.”

That's the kind of corruption we have to live with.

Another thing we know is,

15% of drugs that enter the US pass through Haiti.

The police are totally involved.

It seems to be the main business in some provinces.

And in the shantytowns, drugs and corruption

are big business.

But that's nothing.

Aristide made an appeal

for people to invest in credit unions.

Hundreds and thousands of people

came to give their money to the heads of these unions.

And suddenly people realised

they were Aristide's men,

under orders to take him the money.

All the money was taken

and bundled off to the National Palace.

Overnight, thousands were ruined.

It's an unimaginable system of corruption

that consists of making the poor even poorer.

That's what became of the "poor man's priest”.

A man of a so-called popular church,

Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide of the Salesian order

stands to win the election.

Discarded by the Church hierarchy,

he is a veritable hero here.

His church, on 11 September 1988,

was the scene of a massacre by an armed group.

Aristide was deeply marked.

In the 1980s,

and especially

under the influence of Liberation Theology,

contact with other Latin American Churches

and the Pope's visit in 1983,

at that time,

the Church went headlong

into the battle for change

to the country's political and economic structures.

Also,

the fact that Aristide

was a priest at that time played a big part.

He was seen as having moral values,

as being honest, just and poor,

as needing no money.

And so at the time the people said,

"That's what Haiti needs:

"a man who won't work to get rich,

"but for the good of the people,

"and who'll give his all to serve the people.”

He used the St Jean Bosco church

to plan his rise to power

and is still profiting from both the situation

and state funds to get rich.

True, he believed in Liberation Theology,

but he used everyone

to reach his personal goals.

He had none for the country.

He wasn't out to free the masses.

It's terrible to see a priest, or a former priest,

taking a route that is against democracy,

against the people

and even against the poor.

It's also terrible for the Haitian people

who had so many hopes tied up

not only in one man

but in an entirely new event,

an event to mark its history.

1 would say that 1990

was the most important date after 1804.

And now, 2004

should be an apotheosis for the Haitian people,

for all social classes,

to try to bring progress to the people.

Sadly, this is where we are!

That is the main demand of the Haitian people since 1986

was for a government not of men

but one of laws,

objective rules that everyone can obey.

So, a demand for true equality

aligning us with what Haiti represented in 1804:

equality for all before the law.

That was the main demand of Haitians since 1986.

It's like time stood still.

As though in celebrating the Bicentenary,

Haitians believe they're back in 1804.

With peace of mind,

I have decided this evening to hand the fate of the nation

to the Haitian army.

In 1986,

we truly saw

an entire people rise up

against thousands of armed Tonton Macoutes

and overthrow Duvalier.

Because his dictatorship was a hereditary one.

When Frangois Duvalier died in 1971,

his son replaced him.

When Duvalier fell,

the crisis in our society affected all ruling parties.

The army, which was in disarray,

the sector linked to the employers,

which showed no capacity to join the fight for democracy

sought by the Haitian people.

And suddenly a priest came on the scene.

A priest of Liberation Theology,

the incarnation of youth

and all the dreams of the people of Haiti and Latin America

in the 60s and 70s.

Dreams they had never realised in their essence.

Of course, ideological concessions had to be made

so that this man could represent this search

for democracy in Haiti.

That's why so many left-wing intellectuals and Marxists

supported Aristide since they couldn't support the army.

They couldn't support the former Duvalieristes .

They couldn't support a seemingly conservative neo-liberal project,

so populism appeared to be the best way out.

With his slogan Lavalas , - "avalanche" in Creole -

and with no funding, Father Aristide set off a populist landslide

that swept aside the discredited political classes.

Sworn enemy of the Macoutes,

an escapee of several assassination attempts,

Father Aristide is a living legend in the shantytowns

and countryside of Haiti.

Elected with a 70% majority,

"Titid" is the last hope of this suffering people.

For the first time since Haitian independence in 1804,

the people have finally spoken out.

Awareness, organisation, mobilisation,

finally leading to revolution.

The man, elected by the people, who propounded these demands

was exiled from Haiti,

so he couldn't put them into practice.

After eight months of government,

there was a brutal military coup

financed by the elite, the Haitian oligarchy,

and three years of Aristide's mandate were lost.

Three years lost.

Aristide propounded a policy of anti-imperialism in 1991.

It was this policy that led to the coup.

We weren't like the Cubans.

We didn't take power by force.

We weren't like the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.

We took power with the ballot box.

And President Aristide's policies

didn't suit Washington

or the Haitian oligarchy,

who co-financed the coup through the Haitian army.

After three years between Caracas and Washington,

the President came to realise that the Haitian oligarchy's arms

were so long that they reached the US Congress,

Senate, Government and multinationals.

So he sized up the balance of power.

To come back, he had to make concessions to our neighbour,

who came back with him

with a reconciliation policy.

But reconciliation without justice.

With this policy of reconciliation with no justice,

all those who had suffered in the military coup,

notably the families of the 5000 who died,

they all more or less dropped Aristide,

as he had returned to reconcile with the executioners.

Violence, no!

Vengeance, no!

Reconciliation, yes!

We had seven months' democracy,

then a coup d'état and then Aristide's return.

But the Aristide who returned from Washington wasn't the same.

If you spend 3 years in the lion's den,

you can't help picking up their principles.

Maybe the influence he was under during those 3 years

meant that when he returned he was part of their system.

I say the corrupt one was always corrupt.

The corrupt one simply hid the truth.

And with our frustrations, we were blind to it.

He toyed with our frustrations

the way you tease a dog with a bone.

Finally, this so-called poor man's priest,

who had such a disconcerting simplicity,

who said that 50,000 gourdes was too much for a president

and it should go to the poor, came back in luxury,

with an alarming vision of luxury. It KO'd us.

He failed miserably.

Because no president in our history ever had,

will have what Aristide held in his hands.

On his return in 1994, he could have taken his phone

and called any head of state in the world

and done good for Haiti.

Like Mandela in Africa, he could have united the people,

because the majority backed him and were ready to support him.

He was a little man dreaming of absolute power,

dreaming of wealth, dreaming of women

and dreaming of staying in power forever.

This populism soon revealed itself as very archaic,

more than we could have hoped for.

And all the old traditions of despotism

returned with Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Like under Duvalier, all institutions served him,

they all had one orientation.

He alone directed everything.

Practically nothing escaped the control of the President.

- There's no question of elections. - No elections?

You're President for life?

There is a small difference with Duvalier.

Under Duvalier, we had a real dictatorship,

in the purest sense of the term.

For a time, there was no parliament,

no elections, he was there for life.

We now have elections, but they're fixed.

He talks of dialogue, political parties exist,

but under permanent persecution.

The media exist, but under permanent persecution.

He also has a similar ideology to Duvalier:

nationalism, noirism,

terms that constitute a kind of fascist ideology.

We, the youth of Haiti,

the people of the poor districts,

which are treated as ghettos,

we say enough!

After 200 years of humiliation, theft,

corruption and marginalisation,

we say enough, we want the other side of the coin!

Haitian people must live in democracy and peace.

This is what's pushing the ruling classes

to join forces with the so-called members of the Church.

They flock to this stateless group led by the terrorist Andy Apaid,

who is Lebanese, despite his US birth certificate.

Another favourite theme of Aristide's,

which was also one of Duvalier's,

is the family.

He calls his party "the Family”.

But the truth is,

his family is a kind of Cosa Nostra.

And he's the Godfather.

Santa Claus is bringing toys

To all the good girls and boys

Well done. Sit down.

Let's wish each other Merry Christmas!

Now let's hear it for President Aristide!

Thank you, children. Merry Christmas.

I'd like five boys and five girls, but no arguing.

I'll ask my helpers to find me five boys and five girls.

Santa Claus says,

"A ball is a ball, a man is a man."”

Are you scared of me?

Aren't I your friend?

Are you scared of leaders?

Should you insult leaders, throw stones at them?

Can leaders kick you?

If you kick someone, that's violence.

This year's Christmas message is: "No violence in 2004!"

Adults and children alike, no kicking each other!

Same goes for adults, because: "A ball's a ball, a man's a man".

Does everyone want a ball?

Have a Christmas in peace

We need to abandon the notion of a "father”.

Papa Doc, Pé Titid, Papa Titid...

We now need to build a collective leadership.

This paternalism is the cause of the present situation

of having a man who thinks he's almighty...

a Messiah.

We must abandon this.

Remember the saying: "Dictators love children.”

Haitian history is rich with general outcries:

the outcry against Duvalier

and now Aristide.

But what these people don't realise is,

such men are products of collective folly.

And until now, in this state of folly,

people have looked for a father, who can only become a despot.

After God in Heaven, there's only Aristide on Earth.

Aristide's a prophet.

Papa Aristide is King!

Aristide for five years!

Aristide is our father, our life!

Aristide's misadventure incites one to remain secular.

Or become so.

Because mixing the Bible with the national budget,

mixing the prophet Isaiah

with parliamentary elections

mixing... -how can ll put it? -

...evangelism and politics is monstrous.

Because in fact,

the moment you're convinced you're the Messiah,

you're accountable to no one,

you're the answer to people's unsaid prayers.

All citizens, except those who support the new dictator,

get shivers when they see the so-called police.

More and more information points

to the possibility of him recruiting his men from the police.

Like Papa Doc's militia!

When Aristide disbanded the army,

I was delighted.

Because it was an army against the people.

But sadly,

what did he replace it with?

By a police force in the service of one man.

That's also against democracy, against the people.

Wanting to maintain absolute power,

he unleashed a dark machine made up of gangs,

all-rounders,

former hoodlums who worked for the army

and committed their crimes.

On 17 December 2001,

taking advantage of an internal conflict in the National Palace,

the Aristide government set about

punishing and destroying political opposition.

So on the morning of 17 December,

the headquarters of political parties,

the main political opposition,

were attacked by so-called Popular Organisations.

But in fact, they were paid henchmen

from the Interior Minister and the National Palace.

During Aristide's "reign”,

my party, KID, which got Aristide elected,

had at least three of its offices burned down.

Over fifteen of our party members just disappeared.

A dozen others were executed in broad daylight.

These same methods

were employed at the Faculty of Human Sciences

on 5 December,

and it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

- Where's the people's protector? - Good question.

Where is he when citizens are beaten up

and arrested illegally?

Where is he when the university is demolished

and the Dean's knees demolished with it?

And when students are targeted by satraps in black ski masks.

Good question, my friend: where's the people's protector?

We say it clearly and sincerely:

programmed and conditioned students,

corrupt ex-soldiers inherited from the army,

are destabilising the land.

They claim they're students.

They tear each other up with their weapons

and accuse the Lavalas government.

They compare us to Chiméres.

They say they're citizens,

but they're the real Chiméres.

Unite in strength to oust Aristide!

"Down with Aristide” means down with impunity, injustice,

violence, corruption,

poverty, rape, theft...

and dictatorship.

Not only do we want Aristide out,

but we also want a change

in the politics and running of the state.

It's more a question of structure, of a system.

It's like our education system

keeps reproducing only torturers and tortured.

In primary school, the teacher's there

with his cane on the table,

and if you don't know an answer you're flogged.

The Chiméres and the masses are different.

Of course, most of the Chimeéres originate from the masses.

They've had such terrible lives

that they have no awareness.

They're the same type of people who during the coup d'état

were called Attachés or Macoutes. They're easily manipulated people.

The name changes depending on the government...

Exactly!

Not only people from the masses become Chimeéres,

but also people in state offices who sell their souls for money.

Let's try to understand the Chimére phenomenon.

I see them as a category of people

who have been marginalised

so they can be used to maintain power

and fulfil Aristide's political objectives.

They're not only victims of a system,

but also victims of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Don't take the responsibility away from the Chiméres.

Of course the government plays on their financial plight

to turn them into tools with which to maintain power.

But many are as poor as them and treat the situation differently.

For 200 years, all we've known is dictatorship.

We must now try hard to make 2004

a door open to the future,

to ensure that the Aristide government

is the last to establish a dictatorship.

We know where we're coming from And where we're going

The fight has only just begun Aristide must go!

This is Mélodie FM.

The capital Port-au-Prince

doesn't look very festive.

The Republic of Haiti is like a leaning cathedral.

Leaning. Yes, leaning!

Haiti's like a drunken ship.

Rimbaud would have loved another hellish season with us.

No carnival this time. Or maybe there is...

Haiti's slipping away. We're living under high pressure.

Child-soldiers already know how to handle machines

or dangerous toys.

The grenade held by the desperate shantytown youth:

is it a weapon or a mango?

Ripe or rotten?

Chimére refers to someone who's angry,

who's frustrated.

Not just angry, frustrated too.

Someone hurting so much inside,

he reacts in a very violent way.

Chimeéres are young men from the poor neighbourhoods,

often on drugs,

who are angry.

And their frustration is the rope

that ties them to their masters: the Lavalas government.

My dream was to become a militant revolutionary

against governments that act against the people.

I wanted to do it here, because in every land,

you need people willing to die for change.

All those in the government know who I am.

I met the President when he visited Sun City.

Later, we met again four times

in meetings with the 24 leaders of the Sun City ghettos.

Sun City had many martyrs for Aristide's cause.

And yet people sleep in filth, next to drains or latrines.

When you see how I live, a Popular Organisation leader,

it's totally unimaginable.

Hello.

I'm at home, boss.

They didn't call you?

So nothing's happening?

I'm at home talking with friends.

White friends.

He called to tell me that the opposition

will invade the National Palace and we must go.

Sun City is the President's only hope.

But we haven't decided whether to abandon him yet.

People treat us as Chiméres.

They invented the name Chimeére.

But this is something that's in everyone's blood.

If someone owns a gun

and disturbs the public peace

or commits acts that are against the law,

he's not a Chimere, he's a thief or a murderer.

But the opposition uses this word

to denounce those who are breaking up demonstrations.

A Chimére is often someone who's poor and hungry.

The moment you're hungry you're a Chimeére.

You have to be.

Aristide and the rest of the government act the same.

They use Billy when they need him.

Aristide calls on us in adversity.

Take Billy, who works for him.

Once the problem's solved, he doesn't exist.

But the moment Andy Apaid causes trouble, Aristide calls Billy.

That's why I hate this government.

We don't get any benefit from it.

It's a government of liars.

1 ask myself who can put Haiti back on track

out of all those fighting for power?

It's about willingness and awareness.

If there's awareness, the truth will come out.

The Haitian police force doesn't function.

They're even the main drug dealers.

Whether it's the government, the police,

the politicians, the parliament,

the senators... They're all liars!

There's no truth in justice, everything's about money.

It's total chaos. The schools, everything.

The solution is a second period of American occupation.

It's terrible.

Misery and poverty blight the entire nation.

Billy, would privatisation and American occupation satisfy you?

I just want the population to live.

Why not? Do you like the life you lead?

Haiti's independent, we must be free.

We want liberty.

But we don't live.

We, the people of Sun City,

have one big regret.

We worked for the government

and received nothing.

Sun City doesn't need only guns, it needs schools,

food,

housing and hospitals for all.

That's the result of working for Aristide.

The only answer is to become militiamen

or government agents.

I'm young. At 22 years old,

I have 10 years' experience of handling guns.

Kids much younger than me even have their own guns.

What kind of country is that?

When Aristide goes,

we mustn't forget the authenticity and force of what he represented.

Or the aspirations of the people to exist

when they didn't exist. He gave them that.

If that wave is not represented in the future

it would sadly signal the return of the oligarchy.

Where are we heading?

What brought us to where we are?

Those are my real questions.

In my opinion,

all Haitians must ask

if one of the fundamental problems

that needs solving here isn't that of equality.

So what happened here?

The black masses have constantly been pressured

by an elite which has never done the masses one favour,

and a predatory, elite-backed state that has always refused

the existence of the black masses.

In Haiti, liberty is just a word

used by phoney politicians to get into power.

The last example of this is the Lavalas government,

where one man presented himself

as the defender of the people,

claiming to fight against corruption

and dictatorship,

and who once in power, repeated the same practices.

This is a constant in Haitian history,

a terrible recurrence.

And we still have much to do to change it.

Before Killing me Judge me 7 times

First let me ask God What I've done wrong

Before destroying my country Judge it 7 times, 77 times

Before destroying Haiti Judge it 7 times

Before destroying Haiti Let me ask God what I've done wrong

Subtitles: Mark Bryant

Processed by: B.B. COM - Paris