Dear Editor,
There can be no more fitting expression than the one used in your editorial of Jan 20 to describe the actions of former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier’s return to his homeland – a country weighed down in unending and untold sufferings. The caption ‘Unmitigated gall’ to me struck the nail smack on the head, and with which one instantly was in full agreement, as a voice within uttered, “this is real eye-pass fuh true.” I cannot say why, but this caption generated a certain vibration within me, for without even casting my eyes on the very first line I knew it had to be about that little despot – Baby Doc. Then as was reported earlier, he said he came back to help!
Now, wouldn’t last year’s January 7.0 earthquake have been the time to come and have been a bit more decent – not that he would have been absolved in any way of his crimes – but to arrive at this time is so crazy and such an insult to all Haitians. Surely some men have a big heart, thick hide or as you expressed it, ‘unmitigated gall.’ One would have thought that 25 years in exile would have allowed for sober reflection, sound analysis, self critique – and to stretch the imagination somewhat – even some remorse for the misrule corruption, misery and destruction brought upon the people of Haiti by both himself and his father. Hell no! The years as we can now see have only served to make him more brazen, pompous and contemptuous of the people.
After 25 years this pompous oppressor with head held high strolls back like a colossus amidst a weary and struggling people grown tired of incessant battles and disaster of one sort or another, both man made and natural. Shirley Bassey comes to mind when she sings, “How can people be so cruel, how can they be so heartless… have no feelings.”
But what can we say of his toadies and sycophants and the bigoted band of followers who laid down the red carpet for him – a hero’s welcome! What must we make of this sick tomfoolery displayed by this motley gang in spite of the prevailing life-threatening conditions they know so very well to have been to a great extent caused by both father and son’s despotic rule.
This to my mind is nothing less and nothing more than sheer hokum.
Editor, I go to the thoughts of D H Lawrence in an effort to make some sense of this: “The more I live, the more I realize what strange creatures human beings are; some might very well have a hundred legs, like a centipede, or six like a lobster. The human consistency and dignity one has been led to expect from one’s fellow men seem actually non existent. One doubts if they exist to any startling degree even in oneself.”
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
