The Return of “Baby Doc”?!

As if the Haitian people have not suffered enough….

Talk about an earthquake; psychologically, this might be an even bigger blow. Never mind the few poor, misguided souls who greeted former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier like their Lord and Savior when he returned out of the blue on Sunday.

For I suspect the vast majority of Haitians would have preferred to see him necklaced – the preferred method of summary execution (by forcing a rubber tire, filled with gas, around a person’s chest and arms, and setting it on fire) that was meted out against his supporters after he was forced into exile in 1986.

But one has to wonder why any Haitian would settle for this proverbial Barabas, when the real Messiah, Jean Bertrand Aristide, is still waiting in exile to make his triumphal return. But I digress….

[B]laming the Americans for Haiti’s dystopia is rather like Robert Mugabe blaming the British for Zimbabwe’s.  Never mind that the foreign aid the world has lavished upon Haiti over the past 50 years has more than compensated for whatever damage this conspiracy may have caused. So blame people like Papa Doc, not Thomas Jefferson, for ‘destroy[ing] the dream that was Haiti.’

Haitians are living a serial nightmare. And even though white foreign faces appear as evil forces from time to time, black indigenous faces (like those of the Tonton Macoutes, FRAPH, and even Lavalas devotees) are the constant, central and catalytic characters….

(Haitians: returning to Africa…? The iPINIONS Journal, February 12, 2010)

I see no point is waxing too indignant, or at length, about this admittedly shocking turn of events.  For the reign of terror Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son Baby Doc exerted over Haiti for 29 years is all too well documented.

But, given that last year’s earthquake raised Haiti’s misery index higher than it has ever been, it’s worth noting that trading on the misery of the Haitian people was the only plan for economic development the Duvaliers ever implemented. Accordingly, foreign aid (from governments, humanitarian organizations, and religious groups) became the primary source of national income – none of which found its way to the poor.

This was the genocidal legacy Baby Doc left behind. It was implemented so insidiously, however, that “Le Misere”(selling the misery – as Duvalierist insider Elizabeth Abbott-Namphy refers to it) remains the country’s only source of national income even to this day.  And, of course, Mother Nature only reinforced this last year with her devastating earthquake.

Theories abound about Baby Doc’s return – ranging from it being pursuant to a political plot orchestrated by the U.S. and France, to a desperate attempt to fulfill a condition Swiss banking authorities have placed on the release of what remains of his ill-gotten gains.

Whatever the case, I fear no contradiction in asserting that Baby Doc returning to Haiti makes about as much sense as Idi Amin returning to Uganda.  This is why I am convinced he has returned from exile because he’s now either certifiably insane or terminally ill.  And judging from his rather frail and jaundiced appearance, I suspect it’s the latter. Alas, he’s probably suffering heroic delusions of dying on home soil.

All the same, I applaud Haitian authorities for launching an immediate investigation to hold him to account not just for the violent crimes his dreaded Tonton Macoutes executed, but also for the financial crimes he perpetrated.

I just hope he stays alive long enough to face the judge before he meets his maker.

Related commentaries:
Haitians returning to Africa…?
Haiti earthquake one year later