HAITI MISFIRED, ARREST OF THOSE AMERICAN BAPTISTS IS ILL ADVISED!

If it were any other time, may be the "kidnapping" charges could be appropriate; but not this particular time of utmost want and need in Haiti, when every assistance of any form, type, manner and/or kind should be warmly welcomed. Icheoku would even approve the "kidnapping" of those children if that is what it will take to save them and provide them with a better future somewhere, somehow! But they were never kidnapped as some of the mothers have already publicly acknowledged that they voluntarily and freely gave their children away because the situation is overwhelming. We believe it is the politics of the rescue that is now being recklessly exploited and propagated; not minding the possible backlash that might follow as a result with some people becoming so mad that some of their predecessor-in-rescue were wrongly accused, arrested and detained of a phantom child-running that they turn away from Haiti? This is in a country which some white American men led by Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh have condemned as suffering the consequences of their evil voodoo and idol worshipping; and here are some other white people who do not share in this warped racist ideology, trying to help out and then this fate? Now, what do they get for all their benevolence and trouble but a trumped up charge of children-racketeering and trafficking? Icheoku says, unbelievable!

It does not matter whether or not those children were being taken out of Haiti illegally, without proper authorisation, papers, documentations and/or approval of the necessary authority; under the circumstance of a very daunting times in Haiti, any help is a good help and should be appreciated rather than condemned. It is also not a proper and beneficial public relations for the authorities in Port-au-Prince to have arrested those American baptists who were simply trying to take some orphaned children of Haiti to some place where they can still hope and have a life! A country which is laying on its back following the most devastating earthquake disaster of all times, which lost over 200,000 of its citizens already, with another one million plus homeless and hungry, should accept without any complains, all manner of help, irrespective of the guise or form. At least that is 33 less mouths to feed; 33 less bodies to cloth; 33 less heads to rest under a shelter and 33 less persons to take care of. So why, Haiti? Such anticipated help includes a wholesale exportation of her orphans and children to any country where they can have some semblance of sanity and somewhat normal life, after the trauma of the recent earthquake. So it is with hellish-fury that Icheoku frowns at the action of the authorities in Port-au-Prince in arresting those American baptist church people, who attempted to take some orphaned children of Haiti out of the desolate country; thereby denying some orphaned children of Haiti an opportunity of a lifetime to start life anew. Icheoku asks, don't these people at the helm of affairs in Haiti not have enough problem to contend with already to worry about 33 kids being rescued, that they should abort a help from abroad?

What is going on in Haiti with regards to the present American-baptists' tango with some deprived orphans, is akin to what transpired in Malawi with the last Madonna's adoption of the little girl named Blessing. Icheoku then wrote a comment condemning the excesses of the immigration judge in trying to deny the adoption, all the circumstances considered. However, it ended on a happy note when a more reasonable superior court, on appeal, saw the wisdom in the adoption and gave green light to the little orphaned Malawi girl to go with Madonna; who today is enjoying the parenting of Madonna. It was our position then as it is now, that the little girl had better and brighter future with Madonna than remain behind as one of the countless orphans in Malawi without any hope for the future. Hence our similar sentiment with the Haitian 33. We also contended then as we do today with the Haitians deprived orphans that the Malawi authorities have a plate-full of orphans to take care of and can afford to do without the one mouth removed from their care by reason of the adoption. So with Haiti, the count is 33!

Now therefore, what does these guys at the helm of affairs in Port-au-Prince not get; amidst the countless number of people needing their attention in Haiti to worry about these Haitian 33 - from food, water, shelter, health care and possible rebuilding of their completely lost life? If these 33 Haitian kids were allowed to leave Haiti and possibly and eventually migrate to America, Icheoku believe that they will not become too Americanized as to forget their ancestry! America has a lot of Haitian population and communities including the popular musician Wyclef Jean who has neither forgotten his root or his people and has spent a fortune trying to help out. These Haitian 33 can always return back to Haiti whenever circumstances improve to help other Haitian families and by extension the country of Haiti; which will continue to have one form of need or another and possibly for next several tens of years. Icheoku says, chasing off any help including by the arrest of these ten American baptists, whose mission for all intent and purpose is simply humanitarian, is a very dumb and thoughtless action of whoever is in charge of Haitian immigration. We here therefore call on President Rene Prevual to pressure his minister to rescind this decision, free those detained Americans and allow those children to migrate to Dominican Republic enroute America? That is the wise and better thing to do, as a better fate await them there more than in a Haiti in ruins.

Let this not be another bungled opportunity, evidence of the curse of the blackman, who does not smell an opportunity and cash in on it for the greater good of some Haitian children, the country of Haiti and the United Nations who will have less 33 children to worry about? Please President Rene Prevual, Icheoku begs of you to let those 'sprung' children go, set them free so that they can keep a date with their destiny which made them members of this bunch amongst thousands of possible others who are similarly situated. Posterity will not forgive you and your government, nor will it judge you kindly should you let this opportunity be fleeted away. Moreso, many other would-be-helpers will be scared away from Haiti, spooked by this stupid children-trafficking allegation levelled against some innocent baptists? Please intervene to stop this madness and set those American baptist free. Do it for your name! Do it for Haiti! Do it for those children! Do it for the black race! This is a golden opportunity which must not be allowed to dissipate and an anticipatory thank you for looking out for the people of Haiti and their future.

It will be recalled that Haiti suffered a very devastating 7.3 magnitude earthquake on January 7, 2010; and that these ten American baptists went to Haiti in answer of plea for help. They were taking 33 Haitian kids to their orphanage in Cabarate, the Dominican Republic when they were arrested and accused of children-racketeering? According to the Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin, they did not have valid paperwork to effect their immigration out of the country, describing their effort as "an abduction and not an adoption"? Icheoku decries the action of the government of Haiti and says, the minister's statement is a complete baloney, a hogwash and balderdash! In an emergency situation the niceties of a bureaucratic paper-work and documentation should be set aside, and needy children rescued; thereafter the adopting orphanage can come back to formalise whatever papers that Port-au-Prince may require. Like in a fire emergency, the first order of business is first put out the fire and then take stock of what was lost/necessary documentation.

It is not smart politics to deny these children a God given opportunity through this Idaho based Baptist Church and their New Life Children's Refuge to migrate out of Haiti, albeit temporarily. In a time of acute need any help is a good help and so the Haitian authorities would have allowed this "adoption" to take place and not in anyway embarrass these American Baptists, who voluntarily offered to help, by accusing them of child-trafficking. Such antagonistic posture has a way of jinxing other would be helpers from setting their foot on Haiti, talk-less of trying to help out or assist those hapless children now orphaned by the earthquake find a meaning in life. Icheoku really does not care if those children's parents are alive or not; whether they were kidnapped or not; what is important is that an opportunity called for their rescue and they should have been allowed to leave for a better life, elsewhere outside the Haiti presently in comatose. Assuming for the sake of argument that some of those children still have parents living, is it possible that those parents needed some relief and will not mind their children being gone with those Baptist people?

Icheoku disagrees with the position taken by Amanda Weisbaum, of Save the Children Organization that "the Haitian government was quite right to halt these people at the border if they felt they didn't have the right paperwork; as experience has shown it is better to keep the children in the place, and with the people they know.” What an utter rubbish? Which people does Amanda know that are still alive after the earthquake for these children to be left with? Moreso, Amanda seem to have forgotten that children adapt very easily to any environment and would have adjusted eventually? It becomes more pathetic the reason behind the veil of this useless accusatory posture of the Haitian government, in view of the public acknowledgement by some of these children' mothers that 'they voluntarily gave up their children for a better life elsewhere'! According to their explanation, they are already stretched-thin and overwhelmed, trying to find a way in the jungle of the lost-world created by the earthquake, that they can use any help from anywhere and any form including relieving them the burden of taking care of these 33 children. It is the same wrongful mindset designed to keep Africans down, no matter their location, including in Haiti that this Amanda represents; otherwise who ever offered similar opinion that "those Africans conscripted into slavery four hundred years ago would have been better "left with the people they known back in Africa?" But to accuse these group of baptist humanitarians of child-trafficking is rather a dangerous stretch for which a certain backlash is inevitable; they should therefore be set free, apologised to and possibly allow to carry on with their work of mercy with the Haitian 33.