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Invite you to help launch Dan Whitman's new book
on
Friday, February 11, 2005, 5:30–8:00 p.m.
at the
DACOR Bacon House, 1801 F St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20006
RSVP | About
the author | About the book | Excerpts
| Table of Contents | Praise |
Orders | Sponsors
Reasons for attending:
Natalie Hill at CCD, (202) 789–9771 or click here
or
François Jean at the Haiti Democracy Project, (202) 588–8700,
or click here
| Whitman holds a Ph.D. in French (Brown University), and served for the U.S. State Department in Denmark, Spain, South Africa, and Haiti. In Washington he was Cultural Coordinator in the Africa Bureau, and Program and Coordination Officer for the European Bureau. He is now deputy director, Office of Press and Public Diplomacy, Africa Bureau, Department of State. His forty articles range in topic from current affairs, African culture, and profiles of Europe to cultural leaders on three continents. They have appeared in Musicus, Parabola, The New York Times, The Foreign Service Journal, The Strad, and Research in African Literatures, among other publications.. His books are Kaidara, a presentation and study of a thousand-year-old African folk epic; Madrid Inside Out, a guide to residence for foreigners in Spain; and One Step Up, a manual for buyers of stringed instruments. |
| Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince in 1999–2001, Daniel Whitman believed that the three elections of 2000 could advance Haiti's democracy and its development from the bottom rung as poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. He was wrong; they did not. Local supremacists killed, torched and rushed to fraud while foreigners forgave and even blessed the electoral debacles without posing the resistance even of meaningful public comment. However, seeds also germinated to make Haiti one day fit for its inventive, humor-loving and too-often betrayed people. The effort was kept alive largely by Haiti's gritty journalists, going into hiding when necessary for their survival, but newly organized in October of 1999 into a tenacious and daring national federation. The nationwide Haitian Press Federation advanced against all odds, and held eight regional meetings which changed political discourse forever in Haiti. The country now enters a post-Aristide interlude. A Haiti Chronicle offers recent context for understanding Haiti's current crisis, and opportunity. |
Jean-Bertrand Aristide came; he liberated; he turned bad; he
left for unknown horizons on February 29, 2004. He received extraordinary
amounts of aid — much of it personal — from foreign governments.
When those governments asked blandly and condescendingly that he behave better,
he turned enfant terrible, offering them a vulnerable smile, waiting for their
airplanes to leave his airport, then cracking down with ever greater severity
on his own people. Often the victims of the killings, beatings, and destruction
of property were taken totally at random . . .
As the rebels closed in on Port-au-Prince in February of 2004, the U.S. government unilaterally proclaimed Aristide as the “free and fairly elected president of Haiti,” brushing aside prior statements to the contrary by the U.N., OAS, EU, and the previous White House, NSC and State Department. In response, Haitians dusted off their ingenious word plays for the world to note, saying “Colin pa we’l” (Colin didn’t see it).
They proceeded to greet a group of two hundred or so “rebels” enthusiastically on their sweep from Cap-Haïtien to Port-au-Prince in February of 2004, seeing them as liberators all the way. As the Haitian witticism had it, retreating police were called on the carpet by their boss, but answered, “But Sir, we were weak and he outnumbered us!”
From the chapter, “The Crocodile of the Route de Delmas”
Jean Dominique made mincemeat of any interview guest he did not like. Recklessly perhaps, I took up the gauntlet and went on his program with him February 8, 2000.
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Dominique. “Your congressmen keep coming here to visit.
Why all this sudden interest in Haiti? Are they mere visits or are they
. . . ?
Whitman. “We’re trying to help, not take the place over.” Dominique. “Some suspect that you are trying to do just that: Take us over.” |
Dominique tried leading me down the alley of the U.S. Government having a dog in the Haitian race coming up.
Whitman: “I vow we have neither a Satan nor a Saint in this race. We want only for Haitians to be able to express their preferences freely and without intimidation.”
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How it Happened Getting Ready May-July, 1999 Jockeying: The Horse Falters Getting There Man Versus Pig Listening July to October, 1999 My First Issue "Mini-Civitas" COPAC The Golden Age October, 1999 to February, 2000 Tenterhooks Harvest On the Road The Crocodile of the Route de Delmas Things Fall Apart February to May, 2000 Back Tracking Tin Ear Nails in the Coffin Rome Burning O.P. May 21 Mop-Up
Léon Manus June, 2000 "Manus, Not Minus" Léon Manus, June 21, 2000 The Lavalas Fist April to November, 2000 "Hell Hath No Fury . . . " The Hornet Dozes Other Side of Obstinacy Narcosis Dégringolade December, 2000 to July, 2001 December, Bloody December Breakfast and Tony Lake The Eight Points FRAPH Docs, Fusion International, and Two New Presidents "Haïti Cherie" Time of Troubles "And So it Goes . . . " Tableaux Vivants What I Learned Epilogue Chronology What, Whither, Why Haiti? On Haitian Intransigence A Note onVodou Glossary A Short Comment on Haitian Art The Rich Creole Language A Personalized Bibliography |
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"This book by Daniel Whitman is gripping—on the one hand, |
| "This is the first book to explain clearly what has happened in
Haiti over the last few years. The violence is chronicled, catalogued, and dissected. The fear it spread over a largely defenseless population is revealed. If you want to know what it was like to experience day by day the unfolding of a major U.S. policy debacle, read this book, the only one to convey the enormity of the disaster that overtook Haiti during 1999–2002. A splash of cold water especially for sectors in American politics who have averted their gaze for so long. This book removes the last excuse for them to do so." James Morrell Director, Haiti Democracy Project Washington, D.C. |
| "If you want to understand contemporary Haiti, the real Haiti beneath all the cant and propaganda, then the single best book to read is Dan Whitman's fascinating A Haiti Chronicle." Jeffrey Paine, author of Re-enchantment, Father India, and The Poetry of Our World |
| "Dan Whitman's fascination for Haiti and its people has led to
this remarkabale account of events which, like others, have marked our country's two hundred years of turbulent history. This is a testimony of courage—courage to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth." Marie Lourdes Elgirus President, Fondation Femmes en Démocratie (Vital Voices, Haiti chapter) Founder and Coordinator, Toussaint-King Center for Nonviolence in Haiti |
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New Book Availability Notification from TRAFFORD PUBLISHING Title: A Haiti Chronicle: The Undoing of a Latent Democracy,
1999–2001
To order this book, click here. This book is now available for purchase. RATHER PHONE IN YOUR BOOK ORDER? In USA & CANADA please call:
Order Department |
| Robert R. LaGamma
Executive Director Council for a Community of Democracies 1801 F St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006 phone (202) 789–9771 | fax (202) 789–9764 |
James Morrell Executive director 2303 17th St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 phone (202) 588–8700 | fax 588–8711 |