Haitian Spring

when start rebelling in. Everybody can do it, don't matter what you're melling in. Learn from mistakes and maybe never fail again. And we need more people for the fight. Go and tell a friend I'm trying to talk, don't make me wrap. It's waiting a reparations. They could pay me back, don't ye do dope knife waiting on reparations so much to cover today, ship you just wanna just want to get into it? Should we just let's get to it. Let's give the people what they want, what

they need. Today We're gonna talk about the political situation in Haiti. Haitian entrepreneur turned president Jovana Moys had his term officially end on February seven, but pleasantly decided not to leave and to continue governing for another twelve months, exciding that he took office a year after being voted

in and the people are not having this function. People have been protesting in porter prints by the thousands, calling for his represignation or even new elections, with the suspicion that his term extension is a stelling tactic to gain more power, and since taking office, his regime has been shrouded. There's just admired in corruptions, charges, just balls deep in

corruption over there. Now. The police and government sanctioned militias are using lethal force against these protesters to the tune of like a hundred and eighty people dead over the last two years, and even by the time you hear this episode that that number is most definitely risen um. The situation is quite simply spiraling. Just to be honest

with you, Haiti is burning. And the reason that you're not seeing it on your you know, usual news sources is because this has the full backing of the US Trump had the same policy towards them, Biden has the same policy towards them. So we're pretty much you know, sponsoring of authoritarian fascist regime right down the street, you know,

globally speaking. Yeah, so we're gonna talk about that, a little bit of the history of Haiti's political turmoil, and we'll chat with journalists, activists, and politician Eugene per Year about his recent experiences covering the Haiti uprising against authoritarianism and government. Correct also going to check out a couple Haitian hip hop and r and B artists and see what type, if any connection they have for the ongoing

political situation there, you know, how we do. We'll have all that more after the jump and we're back, and we're gonna dig into a bit of Haitie's history of uprisings. Um Haiti has a storied history of rebellion against the ruling class, and I just like, I just really want to briefly highlight in our discussion of Haitian politics how fucking dope the Haitian revolution was for listeners who may

not have learned about it in school. And you know, fucking course he wouldn't have, because they don't want colonize people replicating this ship all over the world. But yeah, this is gonna be an extremely rudimentary breakdown of the Haitian Revolution, and I highly recommend listeners check out The Black Chep Jacobins by c. LR James for a more into depth account of what went down in Haiti in

the seventeen nineties. So the history of Haiti's founding is when weighs heavily on the people who are in the streets today pretty much. Christopher Columbus, he claimed one half of it for the Spanish crown in sixteen then the French claimed the other half in sixteen sixty, and the

two nations stars fighting over control of the territory. Spanish ultimately seeded the land of the French in sixte and in the end result Haiti had over a hundred years of rule by two European powers for the right to oversee one of the wealthiest colonies that was heavily dependent

on African slave labor to run the sugar plantation. There's so many parallels in like the way ship went down in Haiti, down to the fact that Christopher Columbus quote unquote discovered Haiti in two Where have we heard that before? Heavy quotations on that heavy quotation mark heavy shout out to the people who were there first um life on santaming as they called it. Then San Domingo was broken

down into three classes. You had LeBlanc, so the white colonists, which were further subdivided into plantation owners and lower class whites who were often oversea years and day laborers. And then you had the gensa colord libre, or the free black folks, who were usually mixed rate children of flavors who or people who had purchased their freedom. And then interestingly, some of them owned and operated their own plantation and owned slaves. And then there was a third group, the

African born slaves, who vastly outnumbered the other groups. I'm talking like ten to one. And I break all this down because it very again, very closely mirrors the class system in demographic breakdown of many parts of the Antebelle himself. But it's precisely why the Haitian Revolution scared the ship out of Americans at the time, and probably why we don't learn about it in school today anyway. So these three fucking groups anyway, so these three groups fucking hated

each other. As historian Paul for Ghost he put it, the poor whites couldn't stand the rich whites, and the rich whites despised the poor whites. The middle class wise were jealous of the aristocratic whites, and the whites born in France looked down upon the locally born whites. Mulatto's envied the whites, despised the blacks, and were despised by the whites. Free negroes brutalized those who are still slaves. Haitian born blacks regarded those from Africa's savages. Everyone quite

rightfully lived in terror of everyone else. It's funny because when when read that quote, I pictured like the player hats ball, just like hate hate the way smell, just like hating on each other. Um. When heads started rolling in France during the French Revolution and the National Assembly published a Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizens declaring all men free and equal, everybody in Haiti was like oh word, but for their own separate, class driven reasons.

The whites wanted independence from France. The free blacks were agitating for suffrage, one prominent freedman leading a three hundred person siege on the largest busiest Haitian port in the name of ending racial discrimination, while the enslaved Africans kind of stood by the side, you know, just kind of watching. And that was all until the night. One night in August one, oh yeah, taking a queue from the message

of the French Revolution, the Haitians launched a revolt. Thousands of slaves attending a secret voodoo Sarah money it's a tropical storm came in and later that night returning to their plantations and began to kill their masters, plunging the colony into civil war. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire northern province of Haiti, and within weeks the number of slaves who joined the

revolt in the north reached one hundred thousand. Within two months, as the violence escalated, the slaves killed four thousand whites and burn and destroyed a hundred eighty sugar plantations and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations. But slave rebels controlled a third of the island. Hat right there, isn't it. It's just okay, And I want to be very clear, it's not because I'm plot revelations. It's because, like the the they outnumbered that there appressors tend to one, and

they decided they were gonna take it anymore. And like, I really feel like it comes back to what I was saying at the top, or I would saying, no what I was saying the last episode about the powers of people, like we just realized we outnumbered the people who are making our lives out and just say we ain't gona take it anymore. And that can take the

form of a general strike. Everybody's walking off the job, shutting down ports, shutting down factories, shutting down highways, just bringing society to a standstill, like you can change things. By eighteen o four, Haiti was an independent republic, like and they all took with a couple of thousand slaves, being like no, like, there's ten of us for each

one of you. We ain't gonna pick you fucking you know, we ain't garden you compa's Historically it was historically it was only Haiti and Ethiopia that ended up doing that, right kind of like I didn't know about Ethiopia, but we don't gonna do another episode of I mean, Ethiopia wasn't having that ship either. It was like fuck that.

But um so from you know, after gaining independence in the Republic of Haiti officially being born, there was a task of unifying the country, overcoming in a brief America Can occupation. Of course, we couldn't stay in our business. Contested election after contested election, coup attempts, actual coup's. Political struggle runs deep in the nation's history. Several regimes in Haiti have been described as fascist regimes, from Luis Luis

Borno and the later government of France Suis du Valier. Yeah, that brings us to present day and I think contextualizes some of I think what Eugene talks about in a minute around just like the uniqueness of the way people are organizing and taking the streets in Haiti right now. It's like in it's kind of in people's blood. So let's get into talking about Joviano Mooys in some of

the current context. Born Jovino Mooys was a Haitian businessman with his hands a little bit of everything and autoparts business, banana plantation, drinking water distribution and many other ventures. He was hand picked by his predecessor, Michelle Martelli to run as the presidential candidate back into the fifteen under the Patient tet Kale Party or p h t K. Martelli himself founded that in two thousand twelve, he ran on a platform that promoted bioecological agriculture is the backbone of

Haiti's economy. It was you know, it's got over rural population and he supported universal education and health care, energy reform, rule of law, environmental protection and development of Haiti as a destination for eco terrorism. It all sounds good so far right, so I know for you universal logic. His rise to power just from the outset was Mardern controversy and the current protests that are going on over him particular.

It's not new, it's just gotten more intense. Yeah. So exit polling after the election and showed him receiving only six percent of the vote, but then he was given thirty two, qualifying him to participate in the run off election against June Celestine, the second place finisher. So out the gate he was met with mathive protests and calls the fraud two thousand sixteen to runoff was called his favor only off of preliminary results ain't ship with an

estimatedent voter turnout total. The dispute over his mandate saw an interim president installed and finally after getting fifty in a of the vote in another special election he was

sworn in. What a ship show anyway. So in Porta Prince, there's gang warfare in the streets among competing factions who support or oppose Moise, and there's a lot of suspicion that the rising murderate and the unprecedented number of kidnapping networks has ties to the Moise government, but the accusation that he's using violence and kidnappings to scare opposition in

the population at large eeen. A massacre took place in the lass A Lean part of Porta Prince, carried out by the G nine gang, which is probably the most notorious of these gangs that are operating there. They have long suspected ties to most Seventy people were killed in fourteen hours in the U and the U S would eventually implicate and sanctioned two members of his administration for planning the attacks and providing weapons to G nine in order to quell corruption protests or in order to quell

anti corruption protests. This all took place after the U N pulled out peacekeeping troops who were there on a thirteen year occupation, so it's like they waited for the moment to strike. So yeah, things are going real well. So yeah, earlier this year he's like, are you seven down? I got another year. I'm staying in office. Y'all can't give her to me, and the people weren't having it.

So we're gonna talk to journalist Eugene per Year, who was recently on the ground and got to work in his things firsthand, to help get a better understanding of what is happening in Haiti today. I'm joined by a journalist, activist, and politician, Eugene per Year. Even It's a founding member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation IT in two

thousand eight sixteen ran as their vice presidential candidate. UM. He's also the author of Shackled and Chained Mass in Carstration in Capitalist America and it's host of the show The Freedom Side on Breakthrough News. He also reasently returned from Haiti, where he and his team covered the uprising against authoritarianism and government corruption there. Thanks so much for being your Eugene, And to start, I wondered if you could talk to us a little bit about why you

and your team decided to go to Haiti. Yeah, well, you know, first and foremost, thank you so much for having me really honored to be here and you know, to have the opportunity to to share what we saw because the reason we really went to Haiti um with our Breakthrough News team is you know, it was obvious from the outside looking in that there is a major popular struggle breaking out in Haiti, but the state of Medio and Haiti is basically disaster born by and large,

like people just looking for the most sensational images, and we do that there is a lot more to it obviously, like in terms of the broader geopolitics of it and what was going on domestically, and you know, could we find a way to get there on the ground to get the voice of the people who are involved in this movement, to try to give people a sense that it's not just sort of uh, you know, Haitians as as objects, but as subjects, and you know, really that

people are you know, engaged in an attempt to take their own lives into their own hands and make major changes in the country. But the US and the OAS and these other institutions playing such a huge role and seeing how so much of what is happening there is is not by accidents, not endemic, but it's really imposed. So you know, that's why we wanted to be there,

and and we were there specifically around the Constitution Day. Um. The data was celebrates the Constitution because there is such a major attack on that right now, So we were also there for that sort of particular moment. Yeah. So protests in Haiti have been going on since he does an a in response to rising field prices that have evolved into demands for the removal of President A Naw Moys.

Can you fill them listeners a little bit of the background of the current unrest, What has happened in the years since, um, the current uprising has started, and what

how things came to a tipping point recently. Absolutely, so, you know, I working backwards, I would say that what has really made this crisis erupted in a huge way from kind of early February on until now has been that on February seven was the end of President Moy's term and he just unilaterally decided that he was going to say, well, actually my term ends next year, so

I'm just going to remain as the president at this point. Uh. In the justice system were less it come to a halt, uh, And so it was ruling principally as a dictator, and so the level of anger against him for many reasons rose to a fever pitch because he was refusing to give up power in the context of of this you know, technical democratic system of Haiti, but it's also tied to the already existing deep anger that had existed with Moy's

since team. Really and you know, this was when a scandal emerge when there was about three point about three billion dollars in development aid from Venezuela that was embezzled and stolen by Moys and his crnies and his party, the p h t k UH. And given the discrepancy between the large amount of poverty and oppression faced by so many people in Haiti Uh and billions of dollars of development aid being stolen, it was really the tipping

point for a lot of people. Um that Boy's had to go, but he was able to hang on for the rest of his term. But now he's decided to overstay his term and it is really sort of pushed people to come back out, not just because he's overstaying his term directly, but because it represents an undemocratic imposition of this This extraordinarily brutal social system. To tell us a little bit about what the protests have looked like and what the government's response has been. You know, the

protests in Haiti are amazing on so many different levels. Um. And you know, folks, good to be two newsroom. They can see some of our coverage from being out there. I mean, I would say, you know, one thing that is definitely very notable about all Asian protests is the

role of music is definitely very big. You know, in the biggest protest on Sunday, actually in both, but the bigger one that we read is uh, in the lead up to Constitution Day, you know, there was a giant sound truck like in the front of the thing just mainly blasting music. I saw two different brass bands. Um, you know they were just driving. It's just very just suffused throughout it. Um, a huge amount of cultural expression, which I think is fantastic. Uh. It was a large

it was a huge demonstration. I mean it was definitely over a hundred thousand people. And you know port of Prints where where we were for most of the demonstrations, so that we did get out into the rule areas on some previous days um. But port of prints is pretty spread out, so the marches, they'll be like one general place that starts from, but people will come from other places. So there's this amazing area of ported prints.

It's known as the Crossroads of Resistance UM, where people meet up from all the different parts of Court of Prince and then demonstrations continue from that point to to many other places. So it's a massive, this massive convergence of people um that is there, and I would say that you know, it locks down significant parts of the city, so it has a big economic impact um. You know, almost like a strike or a super effective boycott um as well, just a fact of having these mass demonstrations.

But uh yeah, I mean it's almost kind of hard to explain in a way, but it's the level of of of just just raw enthusiasm for people to like take down Jovanel Moys and people are so uh to turn like no one really has a lot of doubts that they're going to succeed that. I would say that's the other thing about the nature of the demonstrations of the chance and things like that are very much not like you know, uh, we want you to do this.

It's sort of like, not only are you gonna do like not only should you do this, but you are going to do this and we will ultimately be victorious. So um, not those exact words, but in that vein So yeah, definitely, it's it's a powerful experience and you know, even just the sort of cultural environment around you. Um, so, Haiti is actually the only country in the world that

has a street named after John Brown. So and like it just kind of a surreal moment in one of these marches, Um Juan, who is also there with me to break through newspoints out. We're on John Brown Avenue or whatever boulevard. So we're going, we're doing different things. And then the demonstration takes a left and when we take a left, I look at the street side. I

noticed that it's the Martin Luther King Street. So I just said, well, this is wild to be like in a march in Haiti on John Brown Boulevard turning onto Martin Luther King uh Street there and then the level of internationalism also is very high in the protest because people are very cognizant of the role that that these other countries are playing, these imperioless countries. So um, that's also something you see a lot of, uh, you know,

I saw some American flag, We're burned. There's definitely a lot of feeling, a lot of anger that people have that Biden is so squarely behind Moist. So that was definitely heavily expressed. And then so I would love to talk to you more about some of the larger subspolitical issues that the current unrest sort of like has arisen out of. You mentioned imperialism the Biden administration, But first, what is the government's response been to uh, this this uprising.

You know, it's been brutal repression. I mean, you know, many protests of course have been fired on with live rounds, with the so called non lethal ammunition. Uh. You know,

there's been beatings of journalists and things like that. So just from that perspective, there's been a lot of sort of I mean, the larger the demonstration usually the less open the repression is because you know, to some degree, though there's not a lot of coverage, I think they have some sense that you know, they're benefactors around the world, would not like for them to see too much. Um,

but definitely it's it's significant and it's notable. I would say also there's really sort of like a strategy of tension at play that the government is playing some role in, although it's not clear at least to me um on what that is. So, you know, a lot of the folks are talking about the level of violence in Haiti and how there has been the two increase in kidnappings in the past year, uh and so on and so forth, and there's no doubt that that that is in fact

the case. Um there has been really increase in kidnapping as kind of a crime of desperation, but also violence more generally has gone up as there has So there's really a security vacuum in Haiti and there's no real it's it's entirely I mean, it's just amazingly neoliberal. There's almost no public services, almost no social services, um. You know, like even the cops, which technically are controlled by Mlay's half the cops have quit, so there's very little state capacity.

So there's a lot of entities that they're called gangs, I don't know if that's even the best way to describe them, um that have arisen that are providing some form of like basic social government security services. I think they have sort of differing, you know, ideologies, goals, positions, but there's a lot of a lot of a lot of inter uh intermural rivalry, if you will, between them, and a lot of killings and other attacks are driven by these sorts of conflicts that are sort of presented

as gang conflicts. But when you talk to people on the ground, and honestly, when you just sort of observe it at a bird's eye view and sort of see it all at once, you know, it's very clear that some of the people who are being targeted, and some of the neighborhoods that are being targeted, like in bel Air, are centers of the popular struggle um and places that have always been targeted by death squads by you know, the occupation forces doing the un occupation and an attempt

to prevent to scare people from coming out and being a part of demonstrations. So bell Air has been in the news internationally quite a bit in the past few weeks because of you know, a number of killings that have happened there, and it really doesn't seem like there is a coincidence there that of a neighborhood that has strong and popular resistance is also being heavily targeted by violence. Now, you know, there's a lot of sides to that story.

Some of the people who are accused of working with moys are saying they never have, they're not working with them at all. You know, there's some accusations of the U S working directly with some of these people, not just through mois UH. And there's a long history and hating of this kind of UH, you know, vigilante paramilitary style violence m driven by right wing governments UH and in an attempt to quell popular uh popular activity in Haiti. So it's it's it's it's definitely a huge piece of

the fact of the landscape. And I think something worth understanding about the nature of like quote unquote violence of Haiti when we hear Haiti is violent, is that there really is definitely from the government, I think, a a strategy of essentially using an element of chaos, I think, to benefit their attempts to keep people from wanting to

come out and and be on the streets. Yeah, and I think, um, I appreciate you speaking to like relationship between some of the violence and neoliberalism, the shrinking of the state and like the state's capacity. I think um. As we in the show look at different UM issues happening in other countries, they oftentimes can shine a new kind of light on issues that we are experiencing here

at home. Where there any sort of lessons you drew from your experience in Haiti around their organizing, what they're getting done with they're calling for that you think might hold lessons for us here in the States with regard to our own reprison that's happening here right now. I'm glad you've actually brought that up, because there's definitely a consciousness there in Haiti in the popular movement about what

has been going on here. UM. You know, one of the things that we were able to capture, and this is also you can see it on our social media at BT newsroom on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, like we found a beautiful mural uh in honor of George Floyd, imported prints just randomly driving around When we were out in the countryside talking to peasants who are riding land grabs, one guy, sugarcane farmer, told us, you know, they're just

trying to choke us out like they did George Floyd. UM, And you know, people definitely are asking people to take action in the United States, but because they also don't

think it's like a lost cause. Like people know things are happening, and so they want they're hoping that people will take up Haiti also amongst other issues, they say people taking up and then culturally, you know, Black America, uh, you know, for better or for worse, the sort of entertainment elements of black culture produced by the capitalist you know, entertainment arts media definitely has an impact on Haiti as well.

So even some of that, I mean, you know, I was at a community meeting UM and a young woman would actually ask me a question about what was the role of black capitalists in the current movement because they were getting a lot of and I don't want anyone

to come after me, I'm just reporting what was said. Uh. She was saying that Beyonce uh was had become so popular recently and was getting promoted more in Haiti, and was you know, it was sort of in the midst of sort of trying to give like American blackness as a sign of the ability to have upward mobility in a capitalist system, and whether or not sort of black capitalism was becoming a big stumbling block to the movement

here and how people were organizing around it. So you know, there's sort of both sort of like abstract and I think kind of direct links just about the sort of way the Americas are linked together culturally. Um, which was powerful. But I think one that is one of the things I will take away is you know, there's a really strong in a nationalist element to a lot of the

popular movements that are happening in Haiti. And we were able to meet, like I said, with with peasants, you know who in addition to some of the things I already said, you know, we're telling us about how you know they're modeling some of what they're doing on the landless workers movement in Brazil, and you know, they're looking to be part of a worldwide movement of of of peasants and small farmers uh that are pushing to have

sustainable food, sovereignty oriented agriculture in their areas. Uh. You know, we're in community. We were in like a small all community school with the che Guevara Mural talking to a women's organization that works on a range of different fronts, both from the political to sort of mutual aid style. You know, I guess sort of informal economy, business projects, but really to help people build up their self sufficiency, uh, you know, and and their consciousness was very much shaped

around the need and the understanding, and they're mentioning to us. Uh. And then they very nicely hosted a community meeting where we were able to chat with people and they were also able to exchange with us. UM mainly organizes maybe twenty or thirty people, and so much of the back and forth was around how to the need to build solidarity internationally, how it can be done, the relationship between

working class people in different places. And I think that that it was a probable takeaway from me because I think that, you know, obviously, in the context of what the United States is doing the Haiti UM, I think it shows a super advanced level of consciousness for people to be making really strong distinctions between, you know, like who controls politics in America, who controls politics and haiti and like, how do popular movements get together to exercise

real power against these multinational corporations because they feel the brunt of that because so much of the politics is determined by what's happening outside of the country. UM that you know, the sort of capital is global and if labor is not global, then it will be difficult to win.

And I think you know, in the United States sometimes you know, there are people who I think put a uh a a a sort of maybe lesser importance of the struggle here domestically, uh to change what's going on with the government, And I think for them that's the opposite. Like they want the working class in America to be organized, to be organizing against the government, um, and to embrace as many people as possible, which is also something people

were asking me. UM. People were very curious to know, is we're white people involved in any of the things that they were seeing around police brutality and protests, because you know, they know that we're not the majority of people here. Uh. So they're thinking, Okay, well, let's what us up or these other people involved. Can we win out?

Can we succeed? So, you know, that thirst for knowledge about what's going on and how to not only link up movements, but to know what's happening was really palpable. With so many community organizers we met. UM. We went to a meeting, a socialist meeting at the university, like a hundred and twenties students. UM. Really just sharp questions, discussions placing every It was a discussion really lead about pacing Haiti in the broader context of Latin America especially

and and the regional politics. So I think that's something that Americans could really and from the United States, I should say, uh, and our movements could take a lot from. Is the importance of international solidarity building between the working in the popular classes, between the nations in a real way, but having a true belief that despite all the differences that exist between North and South especially UM, that there's a powerful unity that that's possible there against a shared enemy.

I mean, I think that's definitely not only what people say there, but it's certainly what they were looking to project back. Every person we asked what is the main thing you want us to underline? It was that they won't be able to act against against moist. So it's certainly that I would say is one element of it.

But maybe the final piece is also just the steadfastness UM, because the conditions are very tough, very very tough, and not only from the level of violence, but just a low level of development in the country, like things we take for granted like being on a zoom meeting right now and having access to high speed internet, Like even if you have money there that you know, it's not like you you might not necessarily consistently be able to access that, which is why all these oligarchs requind these

houses in American and Canada. You know, um, but it really it really does when you're doing things like popular media and different pieces like that, and trying to compete against also the mainstream media of Haiti, which is just like the mainstream media year controlled by capitalists. It puts a lot of constraints on the ability to to do

a lot of different work. But you know, I people are very determined there, and like I said, the spirit is really that people feel like they're going to succeed, not with like a false pravado, but that they just have confidence in what they can do. So it was impressive a lesson for us here as we also come front uh capitalism, police repression, yeah, imperialism. Um. I wanted to zoom out a little bit and talk to us about your role as a journalist that's engaged in you

know that is also a politician, also an activist. What do you see as the role of journalism in this fight against capitalist, fight against police for repression, Like how do how does your work with doing things like going to Haitian sort of highlighting their struggle, Like how does that fit into the larger, uh, the larger framework of you know what you're what you're trying to accomplish. What were we as you know, the international working class United

are trying to accomplish? Yeah, you know, I think it's it's it's one of those things that I feel like everyone thinks about in a way because we consume so much media. UM, but it's sort of has been in a way neglected as sort of like a battle front in the sort of broader battle of ideas in a way.

And I think that so much of like even billion bridges between people in Haiti and people in the United States, Like even having some d um that can show people on both sides that there are people already on both sides that want to build stronger links and acting is even just a hypothetical bridge just in a sort of proof of concept. At least we know they're similar thinking people who exist abroad. UM in and of itself, I think is deeply powerful. And so I mean that is

almost never transmitted. So I mean, on the one on sort of a basic human level, I hope that we

can do a lot of that. I think also just from the point of view of how do we not only shape our consciousness and like sort of the most immediate sense, like how do we get people like the the information they need to really know what's going on in these situations, but how do we also start to create mediums that people can can trust that also are are consistently not just bringing you the facts but putting it in a context I think, and you know people can take it or leave it, I guess, but putting

it in a context that also I think helps sort of condition a broader way of thinking, not just about the individual issues of Haiti, not just about the individual issues of the United States, but how a lot of these things start to fit together in ways that I think you can get siloed reporting, like the New York Times can write about Haiti, they can write something about the fifteen minimum wage, they can write something about you know, SPACs on Wall Street, all in the same day, but

you know, there's no through line that's connecting all of those things and trying to put them in sort of an intelligible context. But that's politics, right, is like taking all the different things that make up the world and putting them in a context, deciding what you like and don't like, and then deciding how to engage in action in order to change the things that you don't like.

So I think ultimately those kind of sort of trying to I don't want to give people a guide, like we want to just tell people what to think, but maybe that is kind of what I say, rather than just give people a bunch of atomized information, which I think is so much of the media now, So I hope we can also give people sort of an intelligible guide in a way to help try to contextualize and understand what is an extremely uh an extremely hard and

complicated to understand world. Um. And then the sort of final piece of that, I think is, you know, also creating a feeling that people's lives are news worth the outside of just that it bleeds it leads sort of reality in the mainstream media. I think, like for a lot of porm working class people, you know, you just expect for the media not to cover things, you expect

for people to cover them wrong. You just like, you know, I mean, I think we all sort of know that, Like if you see some super racist segment about crime on the local news, like no one is surprised by that,

Like that's just how it is all the time. And I think a lot of times, you know it almost it's it plays an important role I think in a lot and instilling a level of demoralization and people because I really do feel like it's information warfare on a community where it's almost just like no one cares, no one's doing anything. They never reported correctly, So like where is the hope? What can I do? How can things change?

And I think by giving people what I believe is like a well produced uh you know, and and factual, substantive uh production of the depredations that are being done to them through no fault of their own, uh, that then can you know, be seen and consumed and enjoyed by people, to help people feel that their story really does matter and that it's a huge injustice, that it's not the forefront of what's out there, uh, and that

there's a reason for that. And I think hopefully restore people's at some level of hope maybe um that that there are people out there who do care and that it is possible to bring those people together and maybe do something and change something. So I don't know how coherent that is, but I think those are some of the things popular media can really do. But I think it's something we really got to take up in a

bigger way. And it's challenging obviously because I mean, like anything, to do it at scale, you need money, right, so we have to come up with ways to fund our own movement. But either way, I think it's an area where were we we have to move or we're gonna be in trouble because obviously, you know, the capitalist class

is spending so much money on and propaganda and disinformation. Well, speaking of the media, you mentioned a couple of times um throughout, but where can people get caught up on your coverage of Haiti as well as your show and stay in touch with the work that you're doing to bring these stories to the people. Absolutely so. On social media we're at BT Newsroom, just at BT Newsroom, on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, where YouTube dot com, slash breakthrough News

uh where also we have to break Through News website. Uh. Patreon dot com slash Breakthrough News is our Patreon where we have some subscribe patrons only content and other things that people can get and so through all that you can catch up on everything we're doing. Um, you know, we're doing a twenty minute podcast every day, The punch Out, which is you know, news and information people need to know Thursday night, streaming live on Twitter on YouTube the

Freedom Side eight pm Eastern time every Thursday. We have fantastic guests like Mariah Parker. So if you like that kind of thing, uh, definitely tuned into the Freedom Side. So yeah, all of that is an easy way. I'm at Eugene very years, so just my name needs to find me on Twitter two if people want to fill all right, well, thank you so much for your time, and thank you so much for getting the stories out. Thank you so much for having me. I really was

an honor. I really respect all the work to do. Seriously, thank you so much. So. Having talked about the recent uprising in some of its socio political contacts in the larger history of Haiti as well, let's not time to talk about our favorite part, the rapping music. So we're gonna talk about the rapper is a Lot who is a popular Haitian rapper. He's also a member of the l A p H opposition party, and he was arrested recently by the Anti drug Trafficking Unit of the National Police.

This was last month. Uh Andrew Michael, lawyer and opposition leader, alerted his followers on Twitter. He said the d c p J has just illegally arrested Jean Lenard to poussan or is a lot pop puler artists. Fazima, a lawyer who works for the Democratic and Popular Sector of the opposition groups, is on his way to the d c p J. The Democratic and Popular Sector demands his immediate release. So White Club Gen, who we don't know and who has recorded several songs with the Salon, posted a video

on his Instagram account condemning the arrest. I'm only gonna say this once. This thing. I'm not going for it. I'm not going for it. We're not going for it. Let he's along go, please, let he us along go. He's The Instagram video was a lot more like emotional than we just I'm not I'm only gonna We're not going for voice oscars. I'm not. I'm not going for it. Sorry, I don't. I can't do a white Club job. I don't remember what he sounds like. It's yeah, I don't

think I've heard. Okay, So the rappers of the local radio station that he had been interrogated, but did not elaborate any further. He would only say that he was not asked about his ties to Phantom five oh nine, which is another renegade group. The current police officers have blamed them for a series of jail breaks, looting, violence, and even a hold up of the Belize national soccer team on a bus. Now you know, wa, Yeah, I mean they're they're trying to They're trying to. You know.

It's one of those things where it's like from from my digging, you know, it's it's hard to get like a full story, you know, because it's like, obviously, if the dude is doing all this stuff, then okay, I guess he's a bad guy. But with the way that this government is corrupt and he's part of the opposition party, it kind of seems like they're just throwing some trumped up ship at him. Yeah, so let's check out some

of his music. Show, Let's check out the trek by him called mim po or translated into I'm Not running. Let's check this out. I've now, from all of digging it could not find a transcript of the lyrics of the song to translate to get more of a sense of what he was saying. So I wish you could offer more commentary over the actual song itself other than I think the ship was dope, especially the instrumental. So yeah, so we can at least describe what's happening in the

music video. Oh, I know, is this gout Honey's dancing and scheme mask outside of what looks like a castle in ruins. We got some shots of the slums with his boys, you know what I mean. It's like it's I don't want to say typical rap ship, but you know it's some typical mainstream looking rap shit, at least from this video. But um, it's dope, as the beat

is dope and my man's is flowing. So I'm not and I honestly I've been sleeping on like the sound of like creole, you know that particularly I mean as as a you know, having study romance like which is the French sounding nous of it stands out to me and I'm like, damn okay, Like then flow it's just really ill fun fact for the people out there. I was the ESL kid. My first language before I spoke English was Creo West West African Creo until I was about five, so I didn't Is that is that based on?

Is that? Basically it's based in French. That's why when I when I ended up traveling later on, I picked up French, probably quicker than I would if I had just gotten there, being like, you know, English. The next track we're going to check out is actually by the son of the former president Michelle Martelli. This is his son, Yanni Martelli, with his song Yen, which is translated to there are things. So let's check this out. Guy. Okay, that was dope. Again, we're gonna have to describe the video.

So damn all the niggas jumping out the tr the truck and follow her on the street. A lot of bit you live. Got this old man spilling his drink looking at that fine ass. That's amazing. That's the girls. Girl is in danger. This woman is The cops are

in on it and ship. Okay. So I mean the video starts out and he's hanging with his boys and then he sees a really pretty girl and you know, I guess they're trying to do the Michael Jackson the Way You Make Me Feel thing where he's following down the street but home he's got like a gang of dudes with him and ship. You can't just you can't follow motherfucker's that you don't know down the street with

a gang of motherfucker's. Come on, man. Yeah, that's one of the it's kind of like an R and B reggae sounding song that that's one of those sort of joints where it makes me wish that like I had more of an ear to determine whether that stuff is like because like I hear that and to me, it just sounds cool. You know, it sounds good, But I can't determine whether he is like dope where than another reggae artist, you know what I'm saying. So it just

seems like, Okay, I guess this is good. But just in case there's any actual like reggae listeners, I don't want you to be like, man, why you give him that president that former president's son propty? Ain't you know what I mean? He don't really rocket? Yeah, yeah, I feel like putting it in contacts and be like I do exactly like I'm on a boat mother like whatever. Like yeah in the capitol Capitol like the way that we're going, y'all, y'all look out in the next four

or five years. The Baron Trump LP produced by Kanye is on the way. It's on the way, it's coming. It's coming. Leave that y'all alone. That's child to not asking me born did not ask for that. Family, Well that's what Yeah, we got for the music today. Um we should we should wrap right, Yeah, let's drop it, Joel, drop a beat? Oh sope, waiting no reparations, waiting, no reparations. You want to go first, you should, Okay, I'll go for go yeah, yeah, not back back to the fucking basis.

I got rhymes and you don't want me to wasteing. Still that time to really mess with the face ship. Open your eyes will be a little replacement facing You need lasing just to see their ship while he's done billion days and trying to see spaceships. Arrested, our charges, the scene baseless and the copy my ask because he'd be racist live. This one goes up to one that's to send little for each other and the Thomas and car This one goes out to the Indian farmers who

market will contempt the flawless fee market. This one goes doctor, the kids in Hong Kong and the kids not you where you're fighting the sauce, and the kids being Martyn and Mike and Mark. Never forget what they're marching and dying for. Never forget the war crimes in the fours that they're fighting. Make all their website can fight sings since picking us, never accepting and just society, they'll always remember them. Dollion's a mightier all right, that's gonna do

it for us today. My name's Dope Knife Frank Waiting on reparations. Hurry up, see you next week. Waiting on Reparations as a production of I Heart Radio. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. M