The world as seen from the mountains of Haiti

Commentary: The world as seen from the mountains of Haiti Published on Saturday, March 27, 2010 Email To Friend    Print Version By Jean H Charles Each nation, whether as small as Haiti or as big as the United States, tends to believe it is at the center of the universe, the world turns around them and their action can have global impact. Indeed, some nations albeit small in size did and continue to have some repercussions that affect the entire world. 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. I have in mind two countries where I have detected some fragrant similarities in their historical path. The people of Israel enslaved by Egypt some five thousand years ago were for two thousand years before Christ, selected as the venue for a God made man, who would come to earth, to teach humanity how to behave amongst each other and how to develop a personal relationship with the Creator. Christ indeed came; the historical testimony of some twelve apostles plus Saul converted into Paul have attested to the living proofs of that event. The story of the Crucifixion on Good Friday and the miracle of Resurrection on Easter Sunday is the basis of the tenets of the Christian church. The nation of Haiti occupies similar global interest; some fifteen men in a leadership position in their country have turned around three centuries of global policy of maintaining black men and women in eternal bondage and servitude. Easter Sunday was a turning point for man's relationship with God; January 1, 1804, was also a turning point for the relationship of man amongst man. The myth of the black man as less of a human being could not hold together anymore. In a recent article, How Haiti helped create the United States, Ted Widmer provided the trajectory of an "America that might never have come into existence without the help of our island neighbor', St Domingue. It would become Haiti later; it was the richest colony in the world, it provided more income for France than all the other Spanish colonies combined. The Boston Tea party at the origin of the colonists' rebellion against the British stemmed from the fact that commerce by New England with Haiti/St Domingue was so lucrative for the Americans that the yoke of the British Empire was too heavy to continue to be carried for a longer time. The commerce of cod fish for alcohol and sugar produced, on both sides of the Caribbean Sea, entrepreneurs "rich as a Creole". French support for the American Revolution was the determinant factor that insured the success of the war of Independence. France did not want the prized Haiti to fall into the hands of the British. It paid, according to Ted Widmer, the equivalent of 9 billion dollars to support the war. This war chest was nothing else than the blood, the sweat and the labor of thousands of Haitian slaves from the mighty Haiti colony. They gave more than money; the battle of Savannah in 1779 was fueled by a contingent of French and Haitian men, including the young Henry Christophe, who would grow up to become the second king of Haiti after the country's independence. Haiti's contribution to America's formation did not stop there, while John Adams, from New England, the second President of the United States was promoting a good neighbor policy with Toussaint Louverture, his successor Thomas Jefferson sided with Napoleon Bonaparte to re-establish slavery dismantled in the island by Toussaint. The French incursion into Haiti to put Toussaint Louverture in his place as commander of the slaves encountered the bravura of Dessalines and Christophe. The mighty French troops that succeeded all over Europe were defeated by the gallant Haitian freedom fighters. Napoleon, dejected from his hegemonic plan to create an Empire in the Americas, ceded for a penny to the acre, the Louisiana territory facilitating as such a United States shining from sea to a shining sea. Haiti's contribution to humanity extended also to Latin America. Alexander Petion, the country's third president offered to Simon Bolivar arms, food, support and money to go and liberate the slaves in the countries of Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia. He had no other obligation for the money lent than to create a land of hospitality for all in the territories delivered from slavery. Later, during the Jewish pogrom in Germany, Haiti took the bold stand of providing legal documents to hundreds of Jews persecuted by the Nazi regime. An exhibit in Montreal this week celebrated the forgotten history of Jews and Haitians as one nation always in the avant-garde, standing to protect those who are persecuted. At the League of Nations, Haiti was again the determining vote and voice to help Israel to become a nation when the crucial vote was counted at the world forum. Haiti's past vibrant diplomacy played a crucial role in helping Libya, Belgium and Greece to become independent nations. Nicholas Sarkozy, on his recent visit to Haiti, reminds the world it was again Haiti that helped to facilitate the use of the French language as an official tool of communication of the United Nations, helping to spread and maintain the culture and the language of millions who use French as their lingua franca. After the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, I have seen the pain and the misery of a country but I have also seen the resilience and the courage of a nation that bends but does not fall. I have come to believe that God in his firmament has a special eye and concern for the Haitian people.