Freedom - Haiti Observer Blog

Those who would seek to protect the freedom of all Haitians to choose and practice their religion have accomplished an applaudable feat in putting on a religious freedom festival that has hopes of continuing in perpetuity.

In February 2014 the Seventh-day Adventist Church put on the religious freedom festival that was organized by their Haitian Union Mission and received sponsorship from the International Religious Liberty Association. The turnout for the first iteration numbered into the 3,000s and many advocates went away from the festival calling for a national day of religious freedom in Haiti.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an advocacy group for media rights, has released its yearly World Press Freedom Index, which ranks countries on their treatment of press freedom. The report issues a warning there exists a "growing threat worldwide . . . (a) tendency to interpret national security needs in an overly broad and abusive manner."

The U.S. distinguished itself as having experienced "one of the most significant declines" in its attitude toward press freedom in 2013. It fell 13 places to rank #46 among 180 countries on the index, sandwiched between Romania and Haiti. The news event that most illustrated the U.S.'s hard-hearted stance on investigative reporting was its vilification of National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence leaker, Edward Snowden, as well as covert seizure of phone records stolen from the Associated Press.

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When a singular group of brave, pioneering Haitian men and women took part in a fight for their freedom in Haiti August 14 and 15 of 1791, they sparked a movement that would ignite in other Caribbean countries a fervor to do what they did, liberate their people from the shackles of bondage and slavery.

At that time in history, the enslaved African, kidnapped and deposited on foreign land, set to work in tobacco, cotton and sugar plantations, was an accepted staple of life. Since the original reaping initiated by the Portuguese in the 1400's, monarchs, the aristocracy and plantation owners dealt in the business of owning, trading and bequeathing slaves. The practice was so ingrained, and apparently sanctioned by The Bible, in Leviticus 25, that the flagrant kidnapping, disenfranchisement and genocide was allowed by states and backed by state finances, and also written and talked about in well-regarded literary tomes and in religious forums heard by millions around the world.

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One more blow for President Michel Martelly's plan to reinstate the Haitian Army. In a letter sent to the president by Fmr. Costa Rica President Nobel laureate Oscar Arias, he advised the president not to restore the disbanded Haitian army, saying that historically most armies are enemies of development, enemies of peace and enemies of freedom.

This can't be a good sign!

In the two page letter, Former Costa Rica president said instead, the $25 million Martelly has proposed for the new military should be invested in education, health and strengthening other institutions.

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