From: "Anne Fuller" <affuller3@xxxxxxxxx>
As usual, Jacqueline Charles explains what the Haitian press takes for
granted.
Anne
Former Haitian President Martelly banned from Haiti carnivals — and
Trump’s the reason
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
January 31, 2018 05:32 PM
Haitians don’t like President Trump’s recent comment about their country.
And now they won’t take similar insults from their former president,
either.
Two Haitian cities have banned singer Sweet Micky — the foul-mouthed,
anti-establishment, gyrating alter ego of former Haitian President Michel
Martelly — from this weekend’s pre-Lenten Carnival celebrations on their
streets. The ex-president won’t be performing in Jacmel or Gonaives,
cities where the boisterous street parties are legendary.
Where is this new conservatism during Carnival coming from?
“When you, as a Haitian, decide to engage in vulgarity and say whatever,
you open the door for a stranger to denigrate you,” Jacmel Vice Mayor
Loudie César said, explaining how Trump’s remark — he reportedly called
Haiti a “shithole” country during a private Jan. 11 White House meeting —
influenced officials’ decision to ban Sweet Micky from performing during
the National Carnival of Jacmel on Sunday.
The self-appointed president of konpa — Haiti’s dominant musical sound —
Martelly rose to political success through his music and is known both for
his socially conscious lyrics imploring Haitians to rise up and his frank
discourse from the stage, often laced with profanity.
Since he left the top office in Haiti two years ago, he has increasingly
responded to critics of his controversial presidency through unfiltered
rants and sexually explicit imagery while performing on stage.
But now some Haitians say they’ve had enough. The wave of protest, led by
religious leaders, feminists and human rights groups, erupted after
Martelly’s Jan. 6 performance at a Port-au-Prince music festival. Clad in
a black T-shirt, he vacillated between inspiring leader — “Youth, if you
believe you are good at something, do it and do it well” — and bombastic
entertainer, bashing two prominent journalists and a human rights
activist, accusing them of corruption and land grabs. He dropped F-bombs,
insulted the audience’s mothers and used raunchy language as he lashed
out.
“They say Martelly is a vagabond. Why? Because I say zo... and co...,”
Martelly said in Creole, the audience finishing up the words, which refer
to male and female genitals.
Turning to his experience as president, he referenced a Haitian Senate
Commission report accusing several of his ex-ministers and heads of
private firms of embezzling $2 billion in Venezuelan oil loans under the
Petrocaribe program. He dismissed the accusations with a sarcastic tirade,
aiming a particularly obscene comment at one of his chief critics,
journalist Liliane Pierre-Paul, regarded as an icon in Haiti’s fight for
democracy and free speech.
Pierre-Paul, who was tortured during Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s
dictatorship and has faced death threats, has tried to ignore Martelly’s
rants. When she has to refer to him on her Radio Kiskeya news program, she
calls him the “pornographic” or “lewd” president rather than by name.
“I am absolutely sad to see that such a person was the president of
Haiti,” she told the Miami Herald. “What will his legacy be?”
Michel Joseph Martelly, “Sweet Micky” former president of Haiti (2011-
2016), during his first live performance three months after leaving the
Haitian presidency. The performance took place at Cafe Iguana Pines in
Pembroke Pines on May 19, 2016, where he officially relaunched his former
career as the potty-mouth musician.
Efforts to reach Martelly were not successful, but his supporters have
called the move to ban him from carnival performances a political plot. He
also implied that in his recently released carnival song and a Facebook
Live chat on Monday. Unapologetic and defiant, the former president
acknowledged his foul mouth — “It works for me,” he said — seeking to draw
a distinction between his music and his politics.
“Handle your issues with Michel Martelly,” he said, directing his message
at critics. “Don’t touch Sweet Micky.”
Activists who led the push to get the cities of Jacmel and Gonaives to
institute the ban say they hope the decision teaches Sweet Micky, the
musician, a lesson — and forces Martelly, the politician, to reflect on
his responsibility as a former president.
“For us, this behavior of Sweet Micky’s is a danger for Haitian society,
and he gives a lot of foreigners reasons to treat us any way they want,”
said Didier Pierre, a Gonaives resident.
Jude Edouard Pierre, mayor of the city of Carrefour on the outskirts of
Port-au-Prince and head of the National Federation of Haitian Mayors, said
he disagrees with the two-city ban. “It’s a restriction of liberty,” he
said.
While the backlash against Martelly, who some believe is contemplating
another presidential run, began with the Jan. 6 concert, it strengthened
after reports of Trump’s insult, which the U.S. president has denied.
Publicly, Haitians were criticizing Trump; privately, they also questioned
their own tolerance of the antics of their celebrity-turned-president, who
is famous for getting a rise out of a crowd with insults.
“We couldn’t let him come here and ruin the youth in Jacmel,” said
Marie-Ange Noël, whose feminist organization, Fanm Deside, or Women
Decide, was among the groups that pressured Jacmel to shut the singer out
of its rollicking celebration known for its papier-mâché masks and
artistic costumes.
“Trump doesn’t have a right to say what he said because we are talking
about discrimination,” she said. “But if at home, we don’t start to scream
‘no’ against immorality and against people who are doing it, then we will
be giving them a reason to denigrate us.”
But Martelly isn’t just anybody.
“He’s a former president, which gives him a lot of advantages and
privileges,” said Pierre, 35, a member of a citizens group in Gonaives
calling itself “The Independents” that vowed not to rest until Sweet Micky
was removed from the carnival line-up. “There is a minimum that he has to
do for the country. He has to be a role model.
Martelly is no stranger to carnival controversies. During his presidency,
he was accused of banning singer Antonio “Don Kato” Cheramy — now an
elected senator — and other bands from participating in carnivals because
their méringue tunes criticized his governance.
On Wednesday, a group of Port-au-Prince citizens, taking note of the
decisions in Gonaives and Jacmel, said they’ll stage a sit-in on Thursday
to push for Sweet Micky’s removal from that city’s line-up when it hosts
the National Carnival the weekend of Feb. 11.
Martelly responded to the mounting campaign against him in his usual way:
through song. In his new carnival méringue, “Without Profanity,” he sings:
“They say Micky can’t parade?”
Minus the expletives and more subdued than songs he released for carnival
in prior years, he still indirectly takes aim at his critics, warning in
the opening lines: “If you try me, you’ll find me.”
“I’m a musician, a comedian, a citizen,” he sings. “Who do you think you
are to call me a vagabond? When I look you are no better than me.”
César, the Jacmel vice mayor, says the issue isn’t just with the lyrics.
It’s what happens when Martelly hits the stage as Sweet Micky.
“The minute he sees the crowd and starts playing, he could just start
saying something and go off. And we don’t want to invite that,” she said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article197716859.html#storylink=cpy
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