Let us not kid ourselves. We must take control of the situation– and the sooner, the better.
Of the many editorials I’ve read in leading news media outlets in the United States lately, many are a mixed bag of advice that do not include the voice of the Haitian people in the dialogue on rebuilding Haiti.
Haitians everywhere ought to have a voice in the future of their homeland. If the world is serious about helping Haitians build back better, it is time that we trust the choice of the people, literate or not, the people knows best.
It is comical to hear people of high statue talking about building Haiti back better, and yet none of them seem to worry much about the millions of youth who are out of school at present, who can’t eat, let alone find a place to sleep. It seems that those people are still stuck in their thinking that a better Haiti means a modern Port-au-Prince.
How can you talk of a better Haiti, when all the talk is still centered on rebuilding a doomed city? At this point, what Haiti needs most is an influx of capital in the rural areas to help with Haitian products for Haitian people.
If we are serious about moving Haiti forward, it is time that we empower local Haitian organizations and strengthen the institutions with capable and honest individuals. The way of doing business pre-quake cannot be part of the solution moving forward. It is time for us to turn the page for good.
Here are a few quick proposals for building a just and prosperous Haiti for all Haitians. We ought to take all the sympathy that the citizens of the world have shown in the past few weeks and ask for the best experts in every single field to come to Haiti and help us build a new nation.
* Haiti does not need warriors, nor are we in need of more non-governmental organizations. On the contrary, we want experts in the field of agronomy, bioengineering, architecture, civil engineering, economy, ship building, and medicine among others.
We ought to start anew, and we must start with the very best. It is not the moment to buy into the myth of insecurity in Haiti. We are a peaceful people, who are seeking an alternative toward better living conditions.
* Instead of investing all the aid money in relief organizations, it would serve Haiti best if most of that aid was invested in sustainable organizations.
As an alternative, what we are getting is promises from big donor countries who have failed to deliver on their promises time after time. The bank of the people of Haiti is not seeking charity, but rather sound investments so that Haitians could live life as it was intended with pride and dignity.
The way forward will not support business as usual. We must start operating in the brightest of lights so that even those with visual impairment might get a glimpse of their future.
It is not a coincidence that Haitians are feeling a complete vacuum in the leadership of the country. It is not coincidence because we, Haitians, have been conditioned our whole lives to expect a moment like this.
Since the quake struck Jan. 12, our president has yet to address the whole nation. Schools all over the country have been shut, and businesses are barely trying to come back. The quake did not only cripple Port-au-Prince, but rather has rendered the whole nation stationary.
If you walked around Port-au-Prince and heard people say they would prefer an occupation rather than being a free people, it is all as a result of the conditioning that the international tyrants have been forcing on the Haitian people.
Since our independence, they have tried to teach us that we made a mistake, and through the quake they might have finally found the moment to act on their doctrine. Haitians asking for foreigners to take control of the country is nothing for the international press to be proud of; rather, they should be asking themselves why a people would choose occupation over sovereignty?
The lack of institutions and infrastructure in Haiti today is not only the fault of Haitians. The international community has played a great role in making sure that Haiti remains an underdeveloped country.
Why would the international community want something like that for Haiti? What’s in it for them? The obvious answer is that Haiti’s defiance to defeat the imperial forces of Napoleon is reason enough to keep them in poverty forever.
Where other nations failed to make practical the notion of democracy, Haiti was ready to champion it in its core. We were the first nation of the modern era to endorse freedom for all citizens, not just our own, but everyone the world over. Haiti did not only represent a threat to the harmful trade of slavery, but a forceful impediment to white superiority.
In Haiti, the equality of the human races was to be in full display, and the rest of the world was not ready for such a concept. A free and prosperous Haiti would mean too much to the true value of democracy and the rest of the oppressed world and for that Haiti had to pay the price of its freedom.
The international media before the quake never hesitated for a second to call Haiti the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, and still in the face of such horrible loss of lives, they did not fail to paint the picture once more that Haitians are indeed poor. Many people outside of Haiti have found great joy in belittling the victory of our battles for independence.
They have made sure to brainwash the world into thinking that Haitians are incapable of doing anything good for themselves. Indeed, to that end, they have succeeded in making matters worse for all those who have lost everything in the quake.