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Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Deibert
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy Used: $12.25
You Save: $10.70 (47%)
New (21) Used (8) from $12.25
Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 733573
Media: Paperback
Pages: 448
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 1583226974
Dewey Decimal Number: 972.9406
EAN: 9781583226971
ASIN: 1583226974
Publication Date: October 1, 2005
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Product Description
Notes from the Last Testament, by veteran reporter Michael Deibert, is a riveting narrative account of the events leading up to and including the overthrow of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A fearless correspondent and a meticulous researcher, Deibert traces the rupturing of the social-democratic coalition that originally brought Aristide to power and that had been the fruit of years of opposition to the dictatorships and military juntas. From chaotic scenes of frenzied mayhem on the streets of the bidonvilles of Port-au-Prince with their armed gangs and burning intersections to heated debates in the halls of power, these dramatic events throw into stark relief the obstacles facing the world's nascent democracies, the trend of first world military intervention in third world affairs, and the dual legacies of slavery and colonialism. In a remarkable and deeply humane synthesis of on-the-ground perspectives and exhaustive research, Deibert sets vivid personal testimonies alongside an analysis of the country's rich history that reaches back to Haiti's first days as a colony, to the time of the rebellion led by the former slave Toussaint Louverture, and extends to the present, ultimately exploring how Aristide, once a beacon of populism and democratic aspirations, came to embody brutality and misrule in the tradition of his predecessors. Along the way, Deibert introduces us to the real heroes of the Hatian people's struggle for a just and independent society free from violence and corruption. Michael Deibert first visited Haiti in 1997 and serves as the Reuters correspondent in Port-au-Prince from 2001 until 2003. His writing on Latin America and the Caribbean has appeared in Newsday, the Miami Herald, The Village Voice, The Economist Intelligence Unit, Salon, and The Guardian, among other publications.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 It's All Here January 13, 2006
B. Fountain III (Dallas, Texas USA)
13 out of 22 found this review helpful
Notes from the Last Testament is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand Haiti in general and its upheavals of the last ten years in particular. Deibert doesn't pull punches: he names names, documents his sources, and levels scathing judgment on those he charges have betrayed Haiti's hopes for a decent future, from Aristide to corrupt police officers to thug-politicians across the ideological spectrum. If the writing and narrative seem somewhat tentative at first, keep reading; Deibert hits stride several chapters in, and the last half of the book is a truly riveting account of the Aristide regime's bloody downward spiral and eventual fall. Especially powerful are the author's accounts of his time among the Cite Soleil and Gonaives gangs, the young men and women born, as Deibert puts it, "in the worst place in the world."
It's all here--the chaos, waste and heartbreak of the past ten years, as well as the startling hits of beauty and mercy that Haiti continues to serve up in the midst of so much hell.
 An absolutely dreadful book February 13, 2006
ARK (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
12 out of 19 found this review helpful
Filled with misinformation, outright lies and, interestingly, numerous type-os. Deibert shares only one perspective to the story, one that is grossly disorted and slanted towards the interests of the elite.
Reality versus ideology February 14, 2006
David Doherty (Olney, Maryland)
12 out of 21 found this review helpful
I purchased Michael Deibert's book "Notes from the Last Testament" as soon as it was published. Having lived and worked in rural Haiti from March 2002 until January 2006, I am always interested to read what people are writing about the country I have come to know so well and love despite all the compromises inherent to living in such a complicated place.
Too many authors write about Haiti with an air of authority when, in fact, their knowledge is based on minimal personal exposure to the country and maximum dependence upon hearsay, propaganda presented as fact by one side or another from the cesspool of Haitian politics or the taint of personal ideology.
Having read the book in its entirety (something that many reviewers in the mainstream media have failed to do prior to forming and promoting their own opinions), I can say that it is an accurate account of what I had seen and experienced in Haiti during my nearly 4 years there. I do not say this because of what I "feel" or "think" but rather because of what I "know". By happenstance, I witnessed many of the events detailed in the book. It was usually a case of my being in the wrong place at the right time. For many other events described by Mr. Deibert, I knew the principals involved and had received firsthand reports of those incidents at the time they occurred. I have countless other personal examples that provide anecdotal support to the contentions made in this book about the Lavalas government and former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Though my work required that I maintain an apolitical public posture, facts accumulated over time such that it was impossible to maintain this posture in private. It became abundantly clear that the Aristide government had become a criminal enterprise bent on power, wealth and the manipulation of the Haitian poor to maintain both.
I would recommend that anyone who is truly interested in Haiti read this book. It is an excellent primer in understanding how Haiti has become what it is today: a broken country. Of greater importance, it will help the reader understand the underlying strength and nobility of the Haitian people who continue to survive despite the worst intentions of their own leaders and the vagaries of the patronage business that has become international development.
Please do not let the negative reviews deter you from reading this book. There seems to be a clear pattern of disinformation or even outright attempts to rewrite history in much of what has been presented as feedback. Contrary to the ideologues who offer attack pieces knowing that very few people can fact check their assertions, Mr. Deibert writes in a clear, though not completely detached voice, of a journalist who took the time to learn about his subect matter. He lets the facts speak for themselves and is comfortable to let the reader draw his or her own conclusions. The one "taint" that comes out of his writing is his clear affection and respect for Haitians including the chimere of Cite Soleil and the other urban slums of Port-au-Prince. He reminds us that one can find humanity even in the most violent of street hoodlums. This is not a message that many Haitians would embrace willingly. Perhaps Haiti must learn this type of reconciliation before it can turn the corner and make tangible progress toward rebuilding society.
If nothing else lends credibiity to this book, it is Michael Deibert's passion for Haiti. He does not write with any agenda other than wanting the disinterested masses to comprehend the human dimension of Haiti, both its failures and its promise.
 Accurate, but flawed and sloppily edited December 29, 2005
C. Kovats-Bernat (Allentown, PA United States)
11 out of 21 found this review helpful
I am an anthropologist who has worked with street children in Port-au-Prince over a course of time that both precedes Deibert's arrival and exceeds his departure from Haiti. His account of Aristide's downfall and slippage into corruption are more than accurate. I spent much of my fieldwork at Lafanmi Selavi, Aristide's orphanage project, and had the genuine pleasure of meeting the man at his home with children from Lafanmi Selavi. Lafanmi was an orphanage that fostered more than its share of uncritical do-gooding book-writers; witness Youme Landowne's children's book, that glorifies the horrors of the orphanage that I document as scandalously abusive corruption in my peer-reviewed text, "Sleeping Rough in Port-au-Prince: Street Children and Violence in Haiti", University Press of Florida, October 2006).
My main complaint with Deibert's text is the sloppy editting. Misspelled words, poor translations of Kreyol, and just plain bad proofreading seem to suggest that he had little interest in the production process of his book, which is what separates a good book from a great one.
All in all, read Deibert's book. Finally we have a text brave enough to ask what went wrong with Aristide. It is balanced, thoughtful, and informed enough for me to assign it for an anthropology course that I teach on Haiti at my university.
Are Deibert and Tom Saber the same person? February 13, 2006
J.Hall (United States)
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
I ask this question because "Tom Saber" seems to be using the same elitist rational that Deibert uses. I read Deibert's book over Dec-Jan. I checked it out at a local library so I would not have to give any money to this publisher.
First of all, just want to point out a few errors of the below reviewer, this so called "Tom Saber". The Batay Ouvriye (which he claims are well meaning "Haitian labor activists") has in fact been targeted by two AFL-CIO grants from the NED and the U.S. State Department which total nearly half a million dollars. The Batay Ouvriye was one of the main "left" organizations calling for the elected government to "leave the country". Now they are claiming "we'd accept a million dollars". Much like Deibert's warped view, Saber's love for the U.S./ CIDA funded "left" organizations in Haiti show his colonialist mentality. The people who overwhelming elected the ARistide government and now Preval are the one's who don't speak english and french. They are the one's that don't have wealthy NGO's to back them up.
I don't understand how anyone can say this book is "balanced" or "even-handed".
Fifty-five footnotes, for a book of 454 pages!!!! I don't need a college degree to realize that has little basis in reality. If he could back up his claims and rumors with facts he would have footnotes to documented cases and examples. Taking the word of a "gang leader" is not a fact. Sorry, Deibert.
I also know that the human rights lawyer tom griffin confronted Deibert because of the negative things this book says about him in the prologue.
In the same paragraph that Deibert called Tom Griffin an Aristide employee or supporter, and his report "bogus" Deibert claims that Aristide "saved his own skin and . . . left his supporters in the slums to their fates for the second time . . . ." No matter what anyone thinks of Aristide., fleeing to save his own skin twice is a funny way of looking at the facts. Deibert admitted he never contacted Griffin or even tried to before making his claims against him.
Deibert totally ignored his interviewees admissions that they were on USAID/IFES payroll. Deibert takes rumors from group 184 supporters and US funded operatives and spins them as facts.
Hey, if this is the Haiti you want to think exists.. Then go ahead.. but for you all who believe this book , you are living in la-la-land of charles baker's fantasy.
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