Decades of poverty, extreme environmental degradation, violence, instability, dictatorship, zero investment in education, zero investment in agriculture, systematic oppression against the poor, tyranny, hatred, classicism, poor health services, ‘boat-peopleism’ and maximum investment in international banks. The result: Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorests in the world.
How could we expect the people not to believe that some how any other land in the world might be better than the land of Haiti? The geronts destroyed every inch of freedom and by all the above means trampled on the country’s real profile which is: the world’s first black –led republic and the first Caribbean state to achieve independence.
It took decades of dictatorship and powerfight to destroy all the prospects of Haiti’s potential as a tourist hot spot. This is so true that even people in their 50s in the Eastern Caribbean are not so sure about the existence of white sand beaches in Haiti. They would often ask such questions as: do you guys have hotels, do you have nice beaches? Or even, do you have schools? I forgive their ignorance because the Geronts did not promote the positive; they did their best to make Haiti a “Casualty of Western Consciousness” rather than a force to reckon with.
When I teach young people in the Caribbean , I am some times forced to give an account about what has happened to my country. The young children would ask me: why is HAITI so poor? When that happens, I wish I could call a member of the gerontocratic society to answer, but alas! They are no where to be found. So the new generation is obligated to answer for their legacies, suffer for their missmanagement and currupted results.
Although they have left us with absolutely no foundation, no pride, no country, we must not remain silent. Not at this time , because the younger generation of leaders in our neighboring nations will continue to ask us questions about our Haiti.And we will have to stop being bassive about our responsibilities towards building a new nation. We must prepare to work hard and be responsible;be responsible morally, politically, socially, and economically.
We must rebuild the institutions of Haiti so that other nations don’t decide when to change our government and who should be in our government. We must not allow the Geronts to push us to the street to blindly protest on behalf of their politics of mud and dust. We must elevate our thinking, raise our standard and look to the horizon of new dawn for Haiti.
If we are going to change Haiti for good, we must be willing to suffer a little longer, we must sacrifice our cravings within the context of the principle of postponement of our wants in order to cater to our fundamental needs. We need a strong education system, a strong agriculture, a strong justice system and a police force free of corruption that protects and serves the people within the context of a true moral society where the rights of the people become sacrosanct.
The Geronts have shown that they have no concern for our dignity. This is why we have our people collecting water from unsanitary pipes and carry it on their heads for long distances .We have a great number of our schools, private and public, still remain unsanitized. We have no electricity, no significant road network,poor water distribution network etc… And our leaders have shown that the have a proper strategy on how to solve these problems.
My dream is to see the new generation of Haitian leaders defy the legacy of the Geronts by building a road network that will allow one to tour Haiti in one day. Cutting through the mountains of Haiti we will build the railways and bring supersonic trains to the nation. Also, if we have to build toll roads, let it be. It is unacceptable that the hard working people of Haiti have no way to transport their goods for sale after long days of manual, traditional agricultural labor. We must acknowledge that the political culture of the Geronts has left us with no country, no pride, so that we may be able to rise from our psychological deficit and build our land.
Louinel JEAN
August 6, 2009 at 1:09 am |
As I was reading your articles, I was stunned on how much you care, and that make me wonder if you are thinking about occupy a government position in Haiti. We have too many incompetent people in office. We need a government that needs to embrace agriculture so that we can produce the basic needs for food. Haiti is tropical island and we are buying most of our goods oversees. If we import and not export we will always be poor, therefore we have to produce goods so that the economy of the country can be improving.
August 6, 2009 at 10:10 pm |
I will always be available to serve Haiti, my country.I have served other nations well, why not Haiti. the fact is I am a young man with much passion for growth and development,sustainable development.I am not a passive citizen of Haiti, I have never stop serving and will never do.be it in office or not I will do my part, help the people to realize the true potential that is hidden inside of them. At this time I am observing what the government is going to do about the gold mines of Haiti. They are extremely quiet about it and the Haitian media as well. I will speak for the Haitian people whatever it takes. I am ,and will continue to be conscious,optimistic Haitian who sees much hope if we allow a younger generation of politician to take roots in Haiti. We must push for a new way of
of doing politics so that we may have policies that work for all of us. I hate what I see going on now
Haitians spend their days working for an elite that gives them nothing in return, they have done everything they could so that the poor Haitians don’t even GET ($5)200 gourdes per day.Such a shame.
August 7, 2009 at 2:28 am |
It is a sad to see how our people have been oppress, but when you think about it, the low paying job is what they used to educate their children and feed them. They don’t have other option.
By the way I was not aware of the gold mine in Haiti. They should not allow other nation to come and exploit them like they do in Africa. I wonder if the government in Haiti is aware of that gold mine.