Democracy There, Democracy Here

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158308/democracy-there-democracy-here

A lot’s been happening regarding the fallout from Haiti’s flawed November presidential election—which has shaped up to be a sequel to the Bush-backed 2004 coup that drove president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office—and I’ve been meaning to write a longer post on the topic, but in the meantime, this interview run at the Council on Foreign Relations with Jacques-Philippe Piverger, the director of something called PineBridge Investments, gives a crisp snapshot of the Washington-Wall Street-Haitian elite attitude toward democracy.

“Question: Exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, living in South Africa since 2004, also wants to come home. How worried are people about Aristide's return? What could be the political impact?

Answer: It would be destabilizing since there's a large faction of the population that would potentially be supportive of him being in the government.”

As the great historian/musician/songwriter Ned Sublette, who forwarded me the interview, puts it, “can't have that, can we?”

More at the link --