Gade
Sa Neg d'Ayiti fè mwen! - Look at what Haiti (Haiti's
Tyrants) did to me!"
Veye Yo is Father Gerard Jean Juste's grassroots human rights
organization on 54th Street, Miami, Florida, which he founded
in 1979. - "Don't cry when I die," said Father
Gerard Jean Juste, I leave the rest for all of you."
*
Inside the Veye Yo headquarters,
on June 6, 2009, after the Church memorial at the Notre Dame
D'Haiti Catholic Center, I met up with veteran Haitian human
right activists from all over the US, Haiti, and Canada and
we gathered together as a community in mourning but doubly
determined to continue the work of Father Gerard Jean Juste
("Jyeri"). We shared our stories and many made it
a point to tell me how important and meaningful our HLLN advocacy
work, information, promotion of Haitian culture and counter-colonial
narratives is for them.
Old Angelina St-Phar, sat in the same place at the Veye Yo headquarters
that she has been sitting at for over twenty years of attending
Veye Yo meetings. Everyone acknowledges that she had a very
special relationship with father Jean Juste. She's your mother,
your special grandmother, that aunt you have who is always making
you a healing cup of tea. She was that for Father Jean Juste
throughout the years at Veye Yo and like Veye Yo, a safe harbor
even when he was in Haiti. Angelina St-Phar is a self-effacing
woman, a natural nurturer mother/warrior who prayed for Jyeri
when he was ministering in Haiti, in the US, at street demonstrations,
in jail or out of jail. She prepared special care packages,
shaving kits, soap, socks, what mothers do. Watched his back
and was known for whispering truth directly into his ear or
for being a steady, calm center even when things got heated
at Veye Yo's weekly Friday evening meetings. Angelina St-Phar
will not be named in the tributes to father Jean Juste. In fact,
his organization is virtually ignored by most in power, including
the mainstream papers. But Lavarice Gaudin, the head of Veye
Yo and the members at Veye Yo, including the tall sentinel strength
and true solidarity of Jack Lieberman, provided Father
Jean Juste with the support, care and loyalty to do the
work he did, draw the fire of the powers-that-be while the luckier
Haitian poor, needy and without papers would try to move behind
him to safer ground. Angelina St-Phar is a prime example of
this strength. She was his quiet advisor and with his death,
Angelina St-Phar, like Haiti, lost a treasured son. Lavarice
Gaudin, like all of Haiti's young men and women, lost a father,
spiritual leader and mentor.
But when I walked into the Veye Yo headquarters Angelina St-Phar
was there, sitting in the same spot, not crying, watching everything
(that's what the Kreyòl word "Veye Yo" means
- "Watch them!"). I listened to the men and women
of Veye Yo recount their many bittersweet memories of Father
Jean Juste. It was a sad and tragic telling of a life of struggle,
suffering and untold persecutions by the Church and the political
powers, both in the US and in Haiti. Amongst all the telling
to Ezili Dantò/HLLN, two veterans from Veye Yo, examples
of solid courage like that of our warrior mother, Angelina St-Phar,
these Haitian women told of the episode I'm about to recount.
"Tell this story to the world Ezili Dantò,"
said Yannick Jolicoeur and Veronique Fleurime. I promised these
unheralded Haitian foot-soldiers that I would give them an international
voice; that I would say this was "yon mo kle de Jean
Juste" - I would tell of this relatively final insult,
in a hundred such cumulative injustices suffered by Father Jean
Juste for us and on our behalf as a community. For what Jean
Juste declared at that time most touched and tore their hearts.
But before I do, it is important for those who knew nothing
of Father Jean Juste to understand that he was a priest who
struggled for Haitian rights his entire career. He was the spokesperson
for the poor Haitian, the homeless and those without shelter,
refuge and asylum. For this work for the poor and needy, he
was ostracized, crucified, vilified, denigrated and imprisoned.
At the time of his death, the Catholic Church, after his 30-years
of service and struggling to help the poor, had stripped him
of the right to perform as a priest, suspended him. He thus
had no resources to pay for his hospital treatment and health
problems, caused by two prison terms in Haiti for speaking out
against rule-by-force, the UN occupation and the US-imposed
Boca Raton regime from 2004 to 2006.
During his last hospitalization in Miami, in January of 2009,
when the hospital insisted Father Jean Juste had to give up
the hospital bed and leave without the medication he couldn't
afford, even though he was almost at death's door unable to
breathe with a respiratory problem, these women of Veye Yo,
who sat with him, took turns sleeping in the hospital to comfort
him, relayed this to be close to his very last words, said with
some strength before he would fall into semi-consciousness.
Jean Juste, a fighter to the end, told the Miami hospital that
was refusing him medical care that he could not leave without
three things - he asked for a wheelchair, medication for the
pain and gas for his respiratory tank. The hospital refused
because they said he owed too much money already and needed
to pay at least half of "perhaps more than $60,000, I am
not sure but he owed a lot" recalls Veronique Fleurime
of Veye Yo. No Church official was there. Father Jean Juste
had been fighting for human rights and equal treatment in Miami
for Haitians since before 1979 when he headed Miami's Haitian
Refugee Center. Ultimately it was "Ben" from Veye
Yo who would hurry and apply for Medicaid to stop Jyeri from
being thrown out of the hospital without any medication while
so ill. Reportedly, the hospital's social worker, charged to
do this task, never put the Medicaid papers through.
Meanwhile, before the application approval hit the computers,
and asked to leave for lack of payment, a demoralized Father
Jean Juste got out of the hospital bed, paced the floor and
as the Veye Yo women and men at his bedside, stood in tears
and grief, feeling utterly helpless, he said:
"Kounyè a espwa m fini. Si m paka jwen swèn
medikal se pou m ale lakay mwen pou m'al tan lamò. (epi
li frape pye a tè li di:) Gade
sa Neg d'Ayiti fè mwen!" -
"My hope is gone now. If I can't get medical care I'm being
sent home to die. (stamping his foot he ends with emphasis on
these words:) Look at what Haiti (Haiti's Oligarchy, tyrants)
did to me!"
This occurred approximately two weeks before Jyeri was released
from the hospital. He had flown into Miami on January 7, 2009,
directly from Haiti, going straight to the hospital. He went
home once, in time to witness President Obama's inauguration.
But would return to the hospital, after this brief home stay
on an oxygen tank, and remain there until he died on May 27,
2009.
*
There's not enough space in all
of the universe to hold the pain of the Haitian men and women
whose suffering Father Jean Juste sought to alleviate, nor that
of his closest friends and family at Veye Yo, like Lavarice
Gaudin, Farah Juste, Angelina St-Phar, Fabius Rodieu, Yeye Boul
(Andre E. Joseph), Leader Fenfen, Thony Jean-Thenor, Lucie Tondreau,
Ertha Noel, Yannick Jolicoeur and Veronique Fleurime, to name
a few, who are witnesses and combatants alongside Jyeri and
helped to bear the awful life struggle that was Jyeri's burden
to bear for our community. The question is, who will now draw
the fire for us, until death, like Father Jean Juste did, in
pursuit of better treatment for those Haitians without papers,
without power, without asylum, safety, and justice of any kind
and who can't risk telling truth-to-power?
Never following the path of least resistance, Jyeri's power
was centered on his faith and love of Jesus and used to serve
and protect, not to maintain himself in a job or public position.
He provided the needy protection and walked the perilous journey,
in the frontlines of Haiti's populous neighborhoods, with the
2004 to 2006 demonstrators against Bush Regime change. They
were demanding the return of President Jean Bertrand Aristide,
denouncing the Haitian people's wholesale disenfranchisement,
the privatization of Haiti, foreign militarization, debt, dependency
and domination.
Father Jean Juste's huge sheltering presence is gone, but his
indomitable spirit lives on. And, as witnesses and participants
in this
David-vs-Goliath-Haitian-struggle for freedom and human
rights, we at Ezili's HLLN, in
solidarity with all our collaborators, shall pursue justice
for Father Gerard Jean Juste and for Haiti's most needy - li
kite res la pou nou menm - until US immigration and the
State Department starts treating Haitians and Haiti equal to
all other nationalities and countries; until they no longer
embolden the Haitian Oligarchy's repressive and undemocratic
rule.
Pursuing Justice For Jean Juste - Ezili's counter-colonial
narrative to the Miami Herald's coverage of Father Jean Juste's
June 6, 2009 Memorial Services
To the end of pursuing justice,
if you want to be kept engaged and posted on Haiti and the community’s
life in the Diaspora, skip the Miami Herald’s coverage
of Jean Juste’s June 6, 2009 memorial and click on our
photogallery.
You will learn more there about Haitian thinking, dress, memorial
attendance and the ways the Miami community remembered Jean
Juste than you’ll ever find out from reading the Miami
Herald/Jacqueline Charles-Trenton Daniel’s article on
Jean Juste, dated June 7, 2009 and entitled “Thousands
attend Little Haiti funeral for Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste.”
Though I know better, it still amazes me when I attend a Haitian
event, whether in the US or in Haiti, and then read about it
from the embedded press. Little of the majority view of things
in Haiti, on Haiti issues or on the depth and visceral nature
of what actually took place is captured by these folks. You’ll
see the sound bites yes, the begrudging “Even though Jean-Juste
fought against a system he sometimes deemed unfair to Haitians,
he respected and admired the United States." But then the
zingers will appear, such as these Miami
Herald outlays: – “Jean-Juste also had a knack
for getting in trouble…In 1980, he was fired from his
$16,000-a-year job at the HRC (Haitian Refugee Center) for what
the Christian Community Service Agency called his ''ineptitude''
and ``erratic and unproductive behavior… 'The jail time,
the illness brought a lot of wisdom,'' Jean-Mary of Notre Dame
said. ``I wish he had developed it earlier...''
See, the Miami Herald was always a voice for Haiti’s ruling
oligarchy, the world’s oligarchy - corporate America and
the Church and so, in conflict to Jean Juste throughout his
life and now as expressed in their article on his death.
Thony Jean-Thenor, a Veye Yo militant I spoke to said the Miami
Herald article on Jean Juste’s memorial was a “second
killing.” The article almost gave the Church Jean Juste
fought all his life, the last word on Jean Juste. They chose
to quote not any Veye Yo members, but a priest who said that
prison in Haiti and the resulting illness it caused had matured
Jyeri - gave him "wisdom" he didn't have!
For every good word they are forced to say about him, there's
an awful jagged-edged pen-knife-stabbing ahead or below it.
To wit: ''The jail time, the illness brought a lot of wisdom,''
Jean-Mary of Notre Dame said. ``I wish he had developed it earlier.
At the same time, you have to respect his convictions. He was
a fighter.'' (Miami
Herald, June 7, 2009)
What the Miami Herald fails to tell you is that by 1980, Father
Jean-Juste had incurred the wrath of the archdiocese of Miami
by conducting funeral services for non-Catholic Haitians who
drowned at sea and by picketing Archbishop Edward McCarthy of
Miami, who he said was a racist for not defending the rights
of Haitian refugees. No. The Herald will not contextualize.
They butcher his reputation, even at his memorial.
You won't learn that Father Jean Juste ran afoul of the Church
in the 1980s because, when the church agencies wanted to treat
the Haitian refugees - just as the current NGO’s are treating
Haiti and Haitians in Haiti - as charity cases, Father Jean
Juste objected, insisted Haitians are in their situation because
of injustices done to them. The pillage and plunder of Haiti
by the rich and the US backing and profit from this. Justice,
according to Father Jean Juste, demands rectification, changes
in the US immigration laws, changes in US policy that supports
dictatorship, exclusion and coup d’etat, not charity after
the harm has been done. He found that unconscionable, not generous
and benevolent.
A Matter of Justice for Jean Juste
The Miami Herald is "consistent in tarnishing the image
of Father Gerard Jean Juste, just as it is in tarnishing anything
that comes from the popular movement in Haiti and in glorifying
anything the deviant people - the outlaw people put in place
by the Bush Administration in Haiti, do" says Thony Jean-Thenor
of Veye Yo. "Since the beginning until today, they've done
their best to show that the Coup D'etat that ousted democratically
elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide was the best thing
for Haiti. They always give the de facto's a voice while ignoring
or vilifying the popular movement for justice...The day after
the 2004 Coup D'etat the Miami Herald put Haiti on the business
page, for the very first time, as if to say Haiti has been reborn."
"The Miami Herald denigrates Father Gerard Jean Juste because
he didn't want to support the kidnapping of President Jean Bertrand
Aristide. President Aristide and anyone, who was part of his
government have been vilified all over the pages of the Miami
Herald from 2001 until today" confides Thony Jean-Thenor.
In the Miami Herald's article, covering Jyeri's memorial, you
won’t learn that when, in November of 1980, the powers-that-be,
including the Church, simply left 102 shipwrecked Haitians to
starve to death on the deserted Island of Cayo Lobos, in the
Bahamas, Father Jean Juste was the only priest to fly to the
Island, on his own initiative, to bring them food, water and
the media attention necessary so that officialdom would not
just let these maroon Haitians die there without being rescued
or be harmed when taken by force and returned to the Haiti they
were fleeing. The United States had refused to come to the shipwrecked
Haitians' assistance to avoid having to bring them into U.S.
territory. The Bahamas made the same choice. The shipwrecked
Haitians had become skeletal from starving on the isolated Island
for 6 days before Jean Juste reached them. Jean Juste ignored
Church warnings and went to their aid. These are some of the
reasons, unexplained by the Miami memorial article that starkly
contends, Father Jean Juste “had a knack for getting into
trouble.”
Father Jean Juste insisted that the Haitian refugees had a right
to asylum because they were fleeing injustices. “'Don’t
go back to Haiti,' Jean Juste warned after arriving aboard a
television network’s helicopter. The leader of the band,
Claude Pierre, said they ‘could not go any place but Miami.
We sell everything to go to Miami,’ Pierre said. ‘We
lose everything in Haiti. They (Papa Doc’s US-supported
Tonton Macoute/dictatorship) will beat us up, kill us, put us
in jail. It’s a decision between life and death.”
(See, 102
Haitian Castaways Repel I Rescuers; Demand Trip To US.)
Back then, alone, a very young Father Jean Juste raised a media
storm on behalf of these shipwrecked Haitians who were left
to die on Cayo Lobos because the US did not want to apply its
"wet foot/dry foot" policy to Haitians only for Cubans.
Jean Juste’s intervention allowed for the refugees to,
for once, tell their own stories. But still, they were brutally
beaten by the Bahamians while the cameras were rolling and forcibly
evicted and returned to Papa Doc’s Haiti because Reagan’s
US would not open its door to "black refugees." Knowledgeable
observers believe that this public airing of the plight of Haitians
to a world audience, sensitized and influence US policy makers,
embarrassed by the publicity, to began to afford more equal
and humane treatment to other Haitian refugees, later on. By
then Father Jean Juste had made some very powerful and fierce
enemies.
You won't see any of this in the Miami Herald's article about
why Jean Juste may have been fired. Instead, you'll read in
the Miami Herald that "…In
1980, he was fired from his $16,000-a-year job at the (Haitian
Refugee Center) HRC for what the Christian Community Service
Agency called his ''ineptitude'' and ``erratic and unproductive
behavior…"
At that time, in 1980, Miami’s elected officials were
telling all and sundry that all the Haitian refugees would be
sent back to Haiti. As far as they were concerned, there was
no place in Miami for a Haitian community as there was for the
Cuban refugees. And but for Jyeri’s work, that would probably
have stayed true.
Today’s Haitian community in Miami owes its existence
to the pioneering work of Father Gerard Jean Juste. At his memorial
services, Haitians and even Miami's elected officials and the
Church, paid homage to this. But don’t expect these details
from the Miami Herald's coverage on Jean Juste’s memorial.
As we've already shown, if they write something good about him
in a sentence, you may be sure, that soon after they will insert
a zinger, like: “Jean-Juste's penchant for publicity --
more than once he threw himself on the asphalt in defiance of
immigration policy.”
Still, we all know that no matter how they vilified or denigrated
his work on behalf of poor Haitians, abused and being murdered
in the Bateys, in the prisons of Krome, at Cayo Lobos or in
coup d’etat or dictatorship Haiti, Father Jean Juste always
insisted: “My rosary is my only weapon.”
According to Thony Jean-Thenor of Veye Yo, the Miami Herald
newspaper, like most of the corporate press, was "so close"
to the de facto imposed 2004-2006 regime from Boca Raton, they
would begrudge Jyeri the truth even at his funeral.
But, Ezili Dantò is writing this piece, and Jyeri showed
us the path. Jean Juste taught us-activists by example. When
Officialdom fired him from his job at the Refugee Center, or
when they threw him out of the Church he had built up in Miami,
he had founded his own grass-roots, Veye Yo, watch group organization
to continue to give voice to the downtrodden, hungry and homeless.
God, indeed, blesses the child who has his/her own.
 |
 |
| |
