Flag this message Inauguration Paris 4 avril 11 heures Le général Dumas pourrait enfin être décoré de la Légion d'Honneur

Communiqué de l’association des amis du général Dumas

Inauguration d’un important monument à la mémoire du général antillais Dumas et de l’esclavage le 4 avril à Paris par MM. Bertrand Delanoë et Claude Ribbe : Le président de la République française, M. Nicolas Sarkozy, envisagerait de réintégrer dans les prochains jours le général Dumas dans l’ordre de la Légion d’honneur.

L’association des amis du général Dumas organise avec la mairie de Paris le 4 avril 2009 à 11 heures place du général-Catroux Paris 17^e (métro Malesherbes) l’inauguration d’un important monument financé par la mairie de Paris et réalisé par le plasticien Musée Khômbol (Driss sans Arcidet). L’association, reprenant le slogan « Tous pour un ! » souhaite faire de cette matinée un moment historique et symbolique qui prend tout son sens après les événements survenus aux Antilles.

Un monument spectaculaire représentant des fers d’esclave brisés de plus de cinq mètres de haut et pesant plus de 10 tonnes va être inauguré samedi 4 avril 2009 à 11 heures à Paris, place du général Catroux, un quartier huppé de la capitale française proche du parc Monceau, en présence de plusieurs milliers de représentants de la communauté afro-antillaise de France.

Des honneurs militaires officiels seront rendus au général Dumas par la garde républicaine de Paris et l’outre mer, venu en masse, rendra hommage au général par l’intervention de plusieurs dizaines de tambours antillais et de danseurs des groupes Miyo et Choukaj qui poursuivront la cérémonie.

Ce monument, qui rejoindra les statues des deux écrivains Alexandre Dumas, fils et petit-fils du général, déjà installées sur la place depuis la fin du XIXe siècle, viendra remplacer une statue vandalisée pendant l’Occupation allemande en 1943 qui avait été érigée en 1913 pour honorer un grand héros de la Révolution, le premier général d’armée originaire d’Afrique de toute l’histoire de l’Occident.

Ce monument sera aussi le premier monument important commémorant l’esclavage et son abolition dans une grande capitale d’un ancien pays esclavagiste.

Le monument sera inauguré conjointement par M. Bertrand Delanoë, maire de Paris, par l’initiateur de ce projet, M. Claude Ribbe, écrivain, président de l’association des amis du général Dumas, par Mme Brigitte Kuster, maire du 17^e, par M. Jean-Claude Pruski, maire de Villers-Cotterêts (Aisne) et par l’artiste, Driss Sans Arcidet, alias Musée Khômbol. Trois allocutions seront prononcées par Mme Brigitte Kuster, M. Claude Ribbe et M. Bertrand Delanoë.

De nombreuses personnalités seront présentes et en particulier M. Yazid Sabeg, commissaire à la Diversité et à l’égalité des chances, M. Victorin Lurel, député, président du conseil régional de la Guadeloupe, M. Alfred Marie-Jeanne, député, président du conseil régional de la Martinique, Madame Christiane Taubira, député de la Guyane, Madame George Pau-Langevin député de Paris, président du groupe d’amitiés parlementaires France-Haïti, le Directeur général de l’Unesco, qui a placé cette manifestation sous son haut patronage. Le président Obama, invité à cette manifestation et de passage en France le 4 avril à l’occasion du 60^e anniversaire de l’OAN, sera représenté par un membre de l’ambassade des USA à Paris. De nombreux artistes, sportifs personnalités du monde associatif, sont également attendus, notamment : Harry Roselmack, Stomy Bugsy, Pascal Gentil, Claudy Siar, Jacques Martial, Jean-Michel Martial, Jean-Claude Tchicaya.

Claude Ribbe et l’association des amis du général Dumas se battent depuis 7 ans pour que le général Dumas, empêché de faire valoir ses droits dans l’ordre de la Légion d’Honneur, du fait de la législation raciste de 1802, soit réintégré dans ses prérogatives. Après avoir essuyé un refus de jacques Chirac, Claude Ribbe a reformulé cette demande auprès de Nicolas Sarkozy, avec l’appui de Jean-Claude Pruski, maire PS de Villers-Cotterêts et de Yazid Sabeg, commissaire à la diversité. Lors de l’avant première, jeudi 2 avril, du film Le Diable noir, documentaire réalisé par Claude Ribbe d’après la biographie du général Dumas, Le Diable noir, qu’il vient de publier (éditions Alphée Jean Paul bertrand) et prochainement diffusé sur France 2, France 3 et RFO, M. Yazid Sabeg, qui doit accompagné M. Sarkozy aux Antilles, a publiquement laissé entendre que, cette fois, M Sarkozy, faisant droit au souhait de Claude Ribbe et des élus, pourrait annoncer dans les tout prochains jours que le général Dumas est officiellement réintégré dans l’ordre de la Légion d’Honneur dont il aurait été membre de plein droit s’il n’avait été frappé par une législation raciste écartant les officiers afro-descendants de tous commandements et de toutes récompenses.

Contact association :

www.general-dumas.com

contact@general-dumas.com

Obama : 'The challenge is clear'

US President Barack Obama has called the G20 summit 'historic', and a turning point in the pursuit of economic recovery.

House Approves $3.5 Trillion Budget of Obama Initiatives

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 3, 2009; A06

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama's ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday, endorsing a $3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

On a party-line vote, the House approved a budget blueprint that would trim Obama's spending proposals for the fiscal year that begins in October and curtail his plans to cut taxes. The plan, however, would permit work to begin on the central goals of Obama's presidency: an expansion of health-care coverage for the uninsured, more money for college loans, and a cap-and-trade system to reduce gases that contribute to global warming.

Senate leaders predicted late yesterday that their version of the budget blueprint would win approval by midnight.

If so, the two measures would then move to a House-Senate conference committee, where the harder work of implementing Obama's initiatives would begin. While Democrats have sanctioned the president's vision for spending massive sums to transform huge sectors of the economy, they remain fiercely divided over the details.

There is no agreement, for example, on how to pay for an overhaul of the health-care system expected to add more than $1 trillion to the budget over the next decade, and there is no consensus on how to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars the government stands to collect by setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions and forcing industry to buy permits to pollute. Those issues will be decided in committees where lawmakers have already begun the tortuous work of penciling in the details of Obama's vision.

"Democrats in the House and, I think, the Senate are shoulder to shoulder with the president in trying to make the big decisions we need to make in this country," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). But, he said, "Hammering out the details will require everyone to roll up their sleeves."

Republicans blasted the spending plan as a reckless manifesto that would greatly expand the size of government and double the national debt within five years. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he and other opponents feared the consequences of a budget that "calls for a dramatic and potentially irreversible shift of our nation to the left in the areas of health care, education, and private enterprise."

Democrats rallied behind the president, however, arguing that their budget would rebuild an economy ruined by eight years of Republican rule. In the House, fiscal conservatives fell in line behind the plan, even though it would generate a deficit of more than $1.2 trillion next year and produce large annual deficits well into the future. The progressive caucus offered an alternative budget plan primarily to voice opposition to the war in Iraq, though many of its members also voted for Obama's budget.

"It's nice to support a president who's got a brain and a heart -- and uses them both," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), co-chair of the progressive caucus.

In the end, the House voted 233 to 196 to support the president's budget proposal, with only 20 Democrats voting no and no Republicans voting yes.

The biggest dispute between the two chambers is whether to use a powerful procedural shortcut that could allow Obama's health, education and energy initiatives to pass the often balky Senate with 51 votes rather than the usual 60, eliminating the need to win over any Republicans.

Encouraged by the administration, the House yesterday voted to include the procedure, known as reconciliation, in its budget plan to speed health care and education legislation. But Senate Republicans -- and some Senate Democrats -- argue that the maneuver would make bipartisan cooperation all but impossible on some of the most significant measures to come before the Senate in years.

The Senate, meanwhile, has roundly rejected reconciliation for Obama's cap-and-trade proposal, adopting an amendment to ban the maneuver by a vote of 67 to 31. The House budget does not include cap-and-trade in its reconciliation provisions. But neither fact has deterred cap-and-trade advocates, and administration officials support leaving the door open in the final budget blueprint when it emerges from conference committee for a final vote later this month.

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) called cap-and-trade "the most significant revenue-generating proposal of our time," and said it would be difficult to pass without reconciliation because Democrats would be forced to accommodate a handful of Republicans as they did during the debate over the president's economic stimulus package. Though winning use of the maneuver is unlikely, Cardin said, "a lot of us don't want to give up without a fight."

Other differences between the two chambers are comparatively minor. Both the House and Senate budget plans would authorize about $3.5 trillion in spending next year, about $100 billion less than Obama had requested. Much of that reduction would come from lawmakers' decision not to budget another $250 billion for the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout of the nation's financial system. That move would not prevent Obama from requesting the funds, however.

Both chambers also trimmed Obama's request for government agencies, with the Senate cutting $15 billion and the House cutting about $7 billion. But both budget plans would fully fund Obama's request for defense spending and authorize the administration to spend $130 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year.

Both chambers have adopted Obama's plans to extend tax cuts for the middle class beyond their 2010 expiration date and to allow cuts for families making more than $250,000 a year to expire. But after congressional budget analysts forecast that Obama's plans would add $9.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, both chambers scaled back Obama's plan to protect millions of families from the alternative minimum tax and dropped his plan to extend his signature $800 tax credit for working families.

Like so many other big-ticket items, a decision about whether to revive the tax credit will be made in committee over the coming weeks.

Obama's scorecard: Some setbacks but a good summit

By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven, Ap White House Correspondent 32 mins ago

LONDON – At his summit debut, President Barack Obama failed to persuade foreign counterparts to commit to fresh and lavish spending to boost economic revival. And the success he did achieve in finding common ground was as much the result of modified goals as swaying other countries to bend to U.S. priorities.

Still, he emerged with much of what he wanted from allies on the flailing global economy. And he helped thwart a French-backed attempt to set up an international financial regulator.

Closing out the 20-nation gathering here, Obama — aware of the risks of over-promising to a hurting public back home — hailed the agreement hammered out among wealthy and developing countries while stopping well short of claiming it would reverse dismal conditions or even prevent a deeper recession.

"This is not a panacea," Obama said at a news conference where he straddled nearly every issue.

The president called the meeting a "turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery" and heralded steps agreed to by the Group of 20 leaders as both "critical" and "necessary."

But, he cautioned: "Whether they're sufficient, we've got to wait and see."

The new U.S. president also has met privately with other heads of state, from Russia, China, Great Britain and India on the sidelines of the summit.

How has he done? "I think we did OK," he said, summing up his performance so far.

Thursday's daylong gathering of the G-20 nations pledged $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to struggling countries, agreed to crack down on tax havens, large hedge funds and other risky financial products, rejected protectionism that hampers foreign trade and committed to upgrading an existing financial forum to flag problems early in the global financial system. Those were all elements Obama was seeking.

And, as he hoped, the leaders also rejected a push by French and German politicians for a global financial super-regulator, a proposal that had been expected to go down in defeat. The emphasis, instead, was on cooperation among nations to each choose it own way to enact "a stronger, more globally consistent, supervisory and regulatory framework."

Overall, the outcome seemed more robust than the one global leaders were able to muster at a first summit held last fall in response to the financial meltdown and hosted by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. Since that November meeting, the global crisis has worsened, making the need for urgent action more plain to formerly reluctant nations.

Still, the leaders, many wary of piling up debt, did not sign off on large new stimulus packages for their own countries. Obama's administration had initially pushed for such a commitment, but backed off in recent days as European opposition solidified.

Obama claimed Thursday's collective action was a giant victory, calling the meeting historic "by any measure." The president said he was sure the steps would have "a concrete effect" in each nation of creating jobs, saving jobs, expanding economies, loosening credit and restoring confidence in financial markets. To Americans hurting at home, he argued that working to boost the economy worldwide — in particular by helping poorer nations — creates export markets for U.S. goods and the restoration and creation of crucial jobs.

"The steps that have been taken are critical to preventing us sliding into a depression," he said. "They are bolder and more rapid than any international response that we've seen to a financial crisis in memory."

He acknowledged the U.S. had to make concessions. But he begged off detailing them, saying the final communique reflected a collective voice of world leaders.

In a jam-packed news conference that drew hundreds of journalists from around the world, Obama was both playful and wonkish, coughing and sniffling at times with a cold he said he'd been fighting all week.

Obama moved closer to his goal of decisively putting a new, listening-not-lecturing stamp on U.S. foreign policy, not only as it is conducted but as it is perceived around the globe. Citing international polling showing his popularity, Obama said: "I would like to think that, with my election and the early decisions that we've made, that you're starting to see some restoration of America's standing in the world."

Yet, Obama also found himself defending American prominence for the second time in as many days. Just before he spoke, the summit host, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, declared "the old Washington consensus is over," a reference to decades of U.S.-led dominance of the global economic order.

"I do not buy into the notion that America can't lead in the world," Obama said. "America is a critical actor and leader on the world stage and that we shouldn't be embarrassed about that. But ... we exercise our leadership best when we are listening."

Obama acknowledged that some participants during the summit made comments that seemed to blame America and Wall Street for triggering the crisis that has spread around the world.

"It's hard to deny that some of the contagion did start on Wall Street," Obama said, asserting that some firms took "wild and unjustified risks" and some government regulators were "asleep at the switch."

But he said there were problems in other parts of the world as well.

While Obama argued that the document the G-20 produced included both "a strong, coordinated response to growth" and "a strong, coordinated regulatory response," he said it also reflected the range of the nations' individual priorities, and he added: "It is hard for 20 heads of state to bridge our differences."

Kenya wants protection for athletes

Thu Apr 02, 2009 By Reuters

By: Getty Images Saad Yusuf Kamel had claimed there were bonuses and parts of his salary that hadn't been paid to him as originally agreed upon when he went to Bahrain. NAIROBI (Reuters) -- Distance running power Kenya wants more protection for young athletes lured to compete for richer Gulf states amid allegations of mistreatment, a senior Kenyan athletics official said on Thursday. Kenyan athletes have defected to the Gulf States in droves in recent years, lured by cash and better training conditions, and to avoid a brutal selection process in an east African nation that has dominated middle and long distance running for decades. Kenyan athletes Isaac Kemboi Chelimo, Edwin Chebii Kimurer, Stephen Kamar and Gladys Cherotich Kibiwot were taken to Bahrain last month and represented the Gulf State at the 37th World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan. But a number have appealed to the country's athletics governing body to help them repatriate amid allegations from one of its top runners of unpaid wages and bonuses while training for Bahrain, Athletics Kenya (AK) chairman Isaiah Kiplagat told Reuters on Thursday. "They are taken from their schools, spirited to the Gulf and are given passports to run in international competitions. What is their status after that? Are they aliens or still Kenyans?" said Kiplagat, who expressed concern about their legal protections. Kiplagat said AK had spoken to Bahrain and Qatar about the treatment of young Kenyan athletes in their countries, many of whom were not given full citizenship and were only made permanent residents. AK had also told Bahrain to release Saad Yusuf Kamel, formerly Gregory Konchellah, after the 800m runner quit a training camp in Ethiopia claiming unpaid salaries and bonuses, Kiplagat said. Konchellah, who came fifth in the 800m final at the Beijing Olympics last year, had asked Kenyan authorities to reinstate him, but Bahrain had been reluctant to release him, his Kenyan manager Barnaba Korir said recently. "Bahrain was told to release Konchellah unconditionally so he can start preparing for future competitions, but our biggest concern is these young athletes," said Kiplagat. "Once the formalities are completed between Kenya, Bahrain and IAAF, he will be free to run for Kenya in Berlin (in the world championships)," he added. Kiplagat said another five Kenyan athletes representing Bahrain had sought help from AK to retrieve their passports from authorities there, to help them repatriate. The athletes included Saleh Marzooq Bakheet (Simon Mbuthia), Ishaq Isaak Abedeen (Isaack Waweru), Dawood Sultal Khamis (Dominic Kiprono), Majjid Saleh Basheer (Ronald Kipchumba) and Eyad Juma Yaqoob Basheer (Eric Chirchir).