| | Published on Saturday, September 5, 2009 | |
By Jean H Charles
The Haitian-New York Diaspora as well as the Florida and the Canadian Diaspora are well accounted for in their contribution in helping Haiti to sustain itself while the country is still in coma. Yet the 1.2 million Haitians in the Dominican Republic are soon becoming one of the largest mass of middle class stock on the island of Hispaniola ci devant Ayiti. The 50,000 Haitians in the Bateys are the subject of a just advocacy by human rights workers and decent people who believe a country that used the slogan y palente que va! … We are pushing forward! Cannot afford to dehumanize any segment of its population, alien or not!
 | | Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol. | Indeed, one million plus Haitians are leading a life in Dominican Republic they are thirsty for in their own country! The figures are there to prove it. Some fifty thousand Haitian students enrolled in all the colleges and the school of higher institutions in Dominican Republic constantly upgrading themselves and the fellow Dominican students in the level of academic achievement in their chosen field of study. Half a million Haitian professionals, doctors, engineers, construction workers, hotel attendants are enjoying the bliss of a peaceful and enjoyable middle class status. Another half a million are soon joining the rank of well to do families happy to work, raise their children and enjoy the good life of a country that values modernity and constant growth.
In that context, the Ligue of Haitian pastors, some 350-strong members, under the leadership of pastor Pierre Espadi, with the support of Haitian Democracy project led by James Morell, has organized a three day- conference on the subject entitled: Agenda for recovery of the Republic of Haiti. The coordinators of the colloquium Senator Tuneb Delpe and Senator (hors les murs) Rudolph Boulos have done a splendid job. If it was glittery with serious presentations at the Florida Conference recently, with Bill Clinton and Michelle Duvivier the main stars, it was only serious presentations at the Santo Domingo gathering.
The luminaries were intellectuals, professionals, captains of industry, religious leaders and students who presented papers and discussed in their respective fields the ways and means to revive, nay to rebuild the nation state of Haiti. I had the privilege along with Daly Valet and Lyonel Trouillot to put the Haitian malaise in perspective. Haiti stopped its nation-building process in 1820. It has adopted a culture of a predatory state against its own nation and its own people. The international community in spite of, or rather because of its support to that culture has served as an incubator and a life line to that status quo. The 2010 presidential election must be a turning point to create a modern Haiti hospitable to all its children. The Haiti of today is allergic to virtue and ethical principles; the buccaneer mentality is the order of the day. Eat the seed, forget the future! The will to create a nation is at its low point.
Dr George Michel one of the founders of the 1987 Haitian constitution, a fierce advocate of its integrity along with Dr Gessy Coicou, the conscience of the National Police force laid down the specific strategies to bring about the national recuperation. For Dr Coicou, the issue of security in Haiti must also include a component in food stock, transportation, public health, legal and social justice. The recruitment and the formation for the police force must be regional instead of national. The war against illegal firearms shall have a national media blitz where the databank of arms in circulation must be known by the authorities. In fact, those in authority and in politics who have distributed the illegal arms are still kicking they must be called upon to facilitate the recuperation. The trade of illegal arms for marijuana through the south of Haiti towards Jamaica and vice versa must receive the highest attention of the Haitian government.
Ray Killick and Jean Erich Rene, the gurus of high caliber analysis on the Haitian net, exposed the dilemma of Haiti, rich in natural resources such as lignite to replace the biological coal made from burned trees. The country is destroying its environment at the speed of the naked eye as a cancer is eating its own flesh.
Mr Killick used the Michael Porter formula to demonstrate how Haiti can aspire to the rank of a modern and growth oriented nation. The state must support the national and local institutions, access to capital must be easy and non discriminatory, quality control and competition shall be the golden rule of business. It takes 203 days to initiate a business in Haiti, while it takes 17 days in the Dominican Republic. The work place and the quality of work must be a state concern. The issue of the debate of 200 gourdes or 5 dollars per day recently in Haiti is an indicative of a sick country that has no concern for and no vision on behalf of its citizens.
The role of the private sector was further exposed by Dr Reginald Boulos and Dr Frantz Large, the latter is also a true conscience of the Haitian medical profession. They suggest that mass education through all types of media must start now not tomorrow. The cooperation between the Diaspora and the nationals shall become a leitmotiv not a bureaucratic machine without means and without vision. The elite of Haiti must engage in social enterprises that bring solace and relief to the masses left to fend for themselves.
Leslie Pean, who can fill easily the shoes of Dr Jean Price Mars through his epic story of Haiti as a maroon state, exposed the tradition of demagogies and make believe policies that go against the planetary mission that Haiti set itself into in 1804. I joined him in exposing the fact that Haiti did not spend in the last two hundred years $20,000 for building the infrastructure and the umbrella for good living in any of its 565 rural counties. Haiti has been practicing the promotion of mediocracy. To use biblical language, Haiti is sinning against the spirit. What is false and illogical becomes what is true and common. Since 1995, there has been a 51 percent reduction in public expenditures.
Daniel St Lot, the mother goose of all those women entrepreneurs who used their skills in embroidery and art work to produce pieces of high value, has exposed the fate of the million of Haitian women who fight every day to be the main breadwinner of the family. Chavannes Jean Baptiste added to the discussion the stark reality of the Haitian peasants who toil the soil, without credit, without tool, and without seed to remain the main provider of food security for the nation. They are living under the regime of a de facto apartheid system where the rule of social, political and economic exclusion is their lot each and every day.
And there was more, Mr Camille Leblanc debated the issue of an accumulation of nationalities versus the concept of double nationality. The Haitian Constitution admits tacitly the accumulation of nationality while it rejects the use of a double nationality. Once a Haitian sets foot in Haiti, he cannot at the same time demand the benefits of his foreign nationalities while expecting the privilege of being Haitian. The doctrine of don't ask don't tell rules. The United States, as well as most major industrial countries, accepts the concept of an accumulation of nationalities while being repugnant to the use of a foreign status while in their country. Haiti should step up to that practice.
The stars presenters, because of their age and their eloquence, Dr Louis Noisin and Dr Marc Bazin, brought the audience to their feet and through tears in evoking the splendor of the past and the possibility of a Haiti that can become again the pearl of the islands.
Several Dominican colleagues took part also in the colloquium. Representative Pellegrin Castillo did not mince words to recognize the fact that the bateys situation tarnishes the good name of the Dominican Republic but he puts the blame frankly on the side of the Haitian government that constantly refuses to provide a modicum of hospitality to the Haitians in their own territory. It even refuses to provide or facilitate the issuance of Haitian identifications in foreign territory, in particular in the Dominican Republic.
Osires De Leon, an expert in environmental matters, put it simply: the Dominican Republic cannot and will not reach its full growth potential unless and until Haiti is tagged along. The Dominican Republic has a national and elementary obligation to help Haiti to become and vibrant nation. There is only one island with two wings. The bird will not fly with one wing the one from Haiti being damaged, sick and inoperative.
The seeds of a new Haiti were planted in the hearts and the spirits of each one in Santo Domingo; it called for a Haiti that becomes a nation, one which is hospitable to all, one that extirpates the culture of exclusion to inject a culture of a moving solidarity among and towards each other. A Haiti that engages itself in the building of an infrastructure to facilitate growth and development and finally a Haiti proud and prosperous that re-engage itself in the culture of solidarity and service towards the Latin America and towards the rest of the Caribbean as it did in the 1800.
This Haiti is possible and will be. I have engaged myself to be one of its architects. | |
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