Monthly Archives: October 2010

Oct 15 2010

AXAN ABELLARD: JUST MY TWO CENTS

Presidential candidate Axan Abellard of KNDA

First, let me thank you, sir, for having left this video interview on my page on Facebook. At least, it gives me an idea as to where you stand on some of the key issues. You make sense in most of the things you said, but you left me a little perplexed for having not said a word with respect to the integration of the Diaspora in the development of the country and the reform of our system of justice. I understand the time allocated for this video interview may have not been a lot, but I think you missed a golden opportunity. How could you not be addressing these issues?

You talked about a program of job creation, and I think that is great. But how can you possibly think of any developmental plan without reaching out to the Diaspora, especially when we contribute over $2 Billion dollars a year to the country’s economy? We in the Diaspora have our own issues too, sir. We are tired of being economic contributors with no representation. We need to have a say in the internal politics of the country and have our own representation in Congress. And for all that to happen, the Haitian citizenship must be granted to us Haitians who happened to acquire the citizenship of our host countries.

In terms of the military, you are speaking my language -the return of the HAITIAN military to replace the MINUSTAH. I think that’s a must. You score some heavy points with that agenda item. To restore confidence in the foreign investors and the Haitian investors living in the DIASPORA, you have got to put the wave of insecurity under control. And so far, the UN troops currently occupying the country are not doing so. That was great to see you speaking in those terms.

You talked about a specialized intelligence agency to fight the corruptive practices in the public administration. I disagree wholeheartedly with you on that, sir. We don’t need another bureaucracy to fight corruption. We just have to enforce the law. By the way, don’t we have a Court Superieure des Comptes? It should be and it is the responsibility of that institution -to audit and investigate fraudulent practices in the public administration. Here in the US, we have an Inspector General (IG) inside almost every institution serving as watchdog to make sure things are being conducted according to the established internal rules, regulations and policies. So you don’t need another bureaucracy. We already have one. Let me tell you what we need. We need CAPITAL PUNISHMENT for these people. We need to be killing them. Once you prosecute and KILL five of them publicly, you will see if things will not be under control in a matter of weeks. I think you are a little too soft on this issue. I am for tough measures to fight corruption, especially in HAITI where it has become a CANCER. Well, again, I cannot blame you for your softness, for you are a politician running for office, meaning you have got to always be politically correct in your statements.

Well, though I disagree with your approach, unlike your rival Wilson Jeudy, at least you have a plan. That man plans on building a prison on the island of La gonave to jail the senators and other high government employees who are found guilty of stealing the people’s money. And the rationale behind that is that if the prison is destroyed and the prisoners are trying to escape, they will have the sharks in the sea waiting for them. That’s his plan to fight corruption. lol lol lol 😀 Excuse me, sir, if you see me laughing out so loud. This is the most ludicrous stuff I have ever heard in my life. lol lol lol lol lol 😀 I am sure you are now laughing too.

On the issue of taxation, I commend you for planning on working with our international friends to modernize our system at the General Bureau of Taxation (DGI) and train the staff there to make them more effective in their efforts to bring tax revenues into the country’s treasury. But I think it should be made a CRIME to not pay taxes in Haiti. Once we have the modernized system in place, we need to come up with laws to criminalize tax evasion. Then again, you cannot enforce something when you don’t have the system to do that. That would be foolish, would it not?

I see that you dodged the question on how to restore the authority of the state. You said: “Il faut moderniser l’etat” as though that is going to restore its authority. Yes, the computerization and modernization of our system is important, but I am not sure if it will restore the authority of the state.

I do agree with you on the necessity to strengthen the municipalities. The mayor in a city is the administrator, the president, the head of that city. If everything someone in the cities needs, it must be handled by somebody in Port-au-Prince, then what is the sense of having the local governments? Just have one central administration in Port-au-Prince and have everyone travel there for everything they want. Wait a minute!! Isn’t it the way it is now? What am I talking about? lol

Overall, it was a great interview. Many things you said I disagree with, but I do agree with you for the most part. Good luck, sir! You have a winning message. Just get out there and market it to see if the buyers will be interested in buying it.

P.S. Here are some issues –education, healthcare and agriculture -you slightly touched on but did not really get into details: 

  1. On the issue of public education, you only stated that 40% of our school age kids are not going to school. I would love to know what your plan is to remedy to this gruesome reality.
  2. Health care is a serious situation in Haiti. You mentioned that many pregnant women in labor in Haiti are being transported on the back of a horse to get to the nearest health care center, which, in many instances, is located tens of miles away. I am wondering what you have in your social agenda to fix this health care disparity issue.
  3. I did not hear you say anything about agriculture, a key component in our economy. Just let me know how important that is in your economic agenda. I hope it is somewhere to be found in your plan to reform our economy.
Oct 14 2010

REJOICING CHILEAN MINERS: Preval is not their president

 

Rejoicing chilean miner seconds after being brought to safety

The world has just finished watching the rescue operation that was going on in Chile all day yesterday; I am sure Preval too has, for it was being broadcasted around the globe minute by minute and action by action.

The 33 Chilean miners had been trapped under the ground for over 2 months, precisely since August 05. The Chilean government, led by President Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique, ought to be praised for the sophisticated operation they put together to bring these men to safety. Mind you, this government has been in power for only seven months, and the country has just got through an 8.8-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale, releasing an energy range between 500 and 900 times that of the magnitude 7.0 quake that hit Haiti on January the 12th.

By most people’s accounts, the government’s response to the tragedy was excellent. I bet the 33 miners are right about now thanking their God or gods for not being in a country like Haiti. Otherwise, they would have been left under the ground to die. If the authorities in that country were irresponsible like Preval, the president of Haiti, the miners would have had to “naje pou yo soti,” meaning they would have had to dig their way out.

Preval’s “naje pou w soti” philosophy could have not been any more evident than it has during and after the earthquake. While the people were dying and confused about which direction to go and whom to turn to, he was nowhere to be found -not even the foreign journalists dispatched on the ground minutes after the quake could find him. He went AWOL “Absent without leave” on the people.

All day yesterday, President Piñera of Chile and his staff were on the scene overseeing the operation to make sure that everything went as planned and expected. That played very well in the psychology of the rescue workers who were there doing their very best to bring the 33 men to safety. Yet, when the earthquake hit Haiti, it took our president days, if not weeks, to come out of the hole he was hiding in to show his selfishness, to make a statement only to complain about his palace and his house being destroyed. His selfish attitude could easily be translated in these terms: “the hell with the people; my palace and my house collapsed.”

The people of Haiti did not ask Preval to go out there and physically remove them from under the rubbles. They only expected him to command and lead in time of war, disaster and distress.  As a leader of a country, that’s what is required of you in situations like these. You have to be able to instill confidence in the people and make them believe that better days are ahead. And when you go AWOL into hiding and fail to do so, you’ve got to be held accountable.

Preval’s irresponsibility and failure to respond caused more people to lose their lives in the aftermath of the disaster. Some lives could probably have been saved had he used his office to command and lead in an expeditious manner. He has people’s blood in his hands. In the United States military, the institution I spent six years of my life in, that man would have been court marshaled and jailed for having failed to fulfill his duty expectedly and, because of that, loss of lives occurred. It is time that we hold our leaders accountable.

Accountability is the essence of good governance. We need to make an example out of that man. We don’t need to do anything more than what the Constitution of the land prescribes. We’ve got to organize the people to ask that the government’s response to the crisis be investigated. Preval needs to answer some very pertinent questions so we will know what went wrong and what needs to be done to not repeat the same stupid and silly mistakes in the future. We need to know why he, the president of the country, was so irresponsive for weeks while the people were desperately waiting on him to come through to provide them with guidance and reassurance in the middle of the disaster.

Now, what Preval’s fate should be is not for me to tell. But I am sure the law of the land has something for him. Therefore, he must be given what he deserves for the acts of failure he displayed.

Oct 13 2010

PREMARITAL SEX & THE SIN FACTOR

Why do people think that premarital sex, which they call fornication, is a sin? This to me is foolishness. Sex is a need just like the need to be fed when hunger strikes. Do you commit a sin for satiating your thirst and hunger, when you are thirsty and hungry? I don’t think so.

The people making this foolish argument want you to marry the person before you could engage in sexual activities with them. Are they really serious? Wait a minute!!! Which marriage are they talking about –the natural marriage of the hearts, which no one can see when taken place (not even the two involved individuals) or the government’s issuance of this piece of paper with the header that reads “marriage certificate?” I am anxious to find out which marriage they are talking about.

We were born with our own sex engine, which, when cranked, has to produce mechanical work. The mechanism put in place to make possible the cranking of that engine is beyond our control. A one-year-old boy’s engine, for instance, could be cranked, and he would not have any knowledge as to what has caused that to happen.

In my view, there is no sin in premarital sex; it is all a scam. We use the sin concept to scare people out in order to establish some degree of order in society. Go ahead enjoy your sex life as much as you can. Just be smart and careful in so doing just like you would if you were to operate a motor vehicle. If the Almighty did not want you to produce mechanical work with that great piece of engine, he would have not blessed you with it in the first place. He did not give it to you as ornament to beautify your body; He gave it to you so you could put mileage on it. lol 😀

Oct 12 2010

NINE MONTHS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE: Haitians Are Still Waiting on Santa Claus

Regardless the countless openings made available to us by the peoples that welcome us as guests in their home countries, we in the Diaspora cannot be living in our misperceived comfort zone of Chinese food eating and Kool Aid drinking to think that Haiti can do without us. Somehow, we need to find our political voice and activism to get involved in the political, social and economic debates going on inside the country. We, not the international community, are the savior of Haiti. No one can love and care about the country we call ours more than we do.

After the earthquake of January the 12th which basically put the country on its knees, it is more pressing today than it has ever been to get united around one agenda so we could do for ourselves what we have been desperately waiting for decades on others to do for us. We cannot and will not accomplish anything if we do not put aside all the bickerings and wranglings that are keeping us apart, thus preventing us from coming together as one people to overcome the challenges and solve our problems.  

The unity movement we are propagating needs to have three legs –social, political and economic. We already have the economic upper hand. We have been contributing about 2 billion dollars a year to the country’s economy. This is no small contribution; it cannot and must not be overlooked.

In any country, the economic power is the engine that tilts the political balance in one way or the other. If you do not represent anything economically speaking, do not expect to weigh anything on the political scale. Your economic standing is the drive that determines your political strength to influence the politics of things. Now that we know we have the economic upper hand, how can we capitalize on it?

We need to create and develop liaison organizations and establish partnerships with the political powerhouses on the ground. Politics is all about cutting deals and making compromises to get what you opt for, which in the world of politics we call LOBBYING. This is a world where you do not get anything with nothing.

If we organize ourselves in a systematic way, playing the game of politics on the ground in Haiti to get, for instance, the dual citizenship bill introduced, voted on in both chambers of Congress, and signed into law by the president of the country will be a piece of cake.

That should not be a matter of political struggle, not when we are all Haitians who just happen to be living outside the country. We do not need to be subject to a citizenship test to prove that we are Haitian. Being Haitian is not just a matter of nationality; it is also a matter of heart. Your home is where your heart is. And for most of us, our hearts are in Haiti.  

Way before the earthquake, the country was severely hurting with a brain drain phenomenon –skilled people leaving the country and migrating to foreign lands. The situation has gotten amplified as a result of the disaster. Now very few people with skills are left inside the country, explaining the reason why we are relying on these NGOs to take care of the country’s business. As I’ve said many times, the economic brain (skills/savoir faire) and blood (money) of the country are in the Diaspora, not inside the country. So any politics of isolation of the Diaspora is doing nothing but further alienating the country.

We have enough manpower and expertise in our ranks to rebuild our earthquake-stricken and poverty-stricken nation. Quite frankly, I refuse being entertained with the idea that a foreign country or dignitary has the solution to our problems; I reject any proposal that wants to make believe that the international community is here to rescue the country from the abyss it finds itself today. Believing in such foolishness is to believe in Santa Claus. Nine months after the quake, we are still sitting on our butts allowing ourselves being played by an international community that does not really give a damn about us.

It is time that we open our nostrils and start smelling the coffee. If these guys were going to do for us, they would have done so long ago, especially when some of them were and are still in control of the leadership of the world. In fact, some of them have their prints in the economic and foreign policies that got us where we are in the first place.

It is up to us Haitians to do for ourselves what we want and how we want it done. The rescue of Haiti lies in the hands of the Haitian people. Bill Clinton, however compassionate and sympathetic he may be with respect to the Haitian cause and struggle, cannot do anything for Haiti if we Haitians do not come through to set the tone and tell him what we want and how we want it done.

Finally, we in the Diaspora have this date with history which we need to show up for. We cannot stand her up this time. We need to come together as one to build our nation physically and psychologically like the Jews did to give birth to their independent nation of Israel six decades ago. We –dark-skinned and light-skinned Haitians, peasants and professionals, rich and poor, young and not so young, men and women across all social, religious, economic and political spectrums –need to converge our efforts with our brothers and sisters on the mainland to realize a social and economic 1804. We can make it happen. This is the moment for our generation to write its chapters in Haitian history. We are no different than our forefathers who brought amazement with their heroic spirits to the minds of the skeptics with their political movement that culminated in the independence of our great nation. So let’s not let this date with history bypass us.

Oct 11 2010

KONPA ARTISTS ON THE POLITICAL BANDWAGON

Choubou: Tabou Combo's lead vocalist, a Michel Martelly endorser

Political endorsement is something very serious; it ought not to be taken lightly. So far, we have witnessed quite an array of Konpa artists coming out at an unprecedented rate to publicly endorse candidates in this presidential election cycle; in my humble opinion, I think that is encouraging. I am not trying to scare anybody, but I am just hoping that you guys know that political endorsements, at times, come with backlashes and consequences -whether directly or indirectly.    

To the rest of you Konpa personalities, those of you who are still standing on the sidelines and have yet to jump on the bandwagon of presidential endorsement, I have four simple words for you: DO NOT DO IT.

Haitian politics is a very tricky and complicated field. You are dealing with an electorate not democratically cultured enough to accept the fact that you can have a say in the political process and have your political position respected. They all aspire to democracy, but refuse to understand that it cannot be possible without the creed of tolerance.  

Yes, indeed, you have your rights as citizens of Haiti to publicly endorse anybody you want in this race just like your fans have their rights to not support you anymore because your political endorsements do/did not reflect theirs.

Some people take politics very personal. Remember, you need the support of your fans to stay in business. Your fans are all you have. Once they turn their backs on you, you are game; your career is over. So be very careful with that political endorsement thing. If you cannot sustain the heat, keep yourself away from the furnace. Otherwise, you might get burnt.

Of course, Fanfan Ti Bot, Choubou, Cubano, Douby, etc… they all can come out publicly and endorse candidates; they do not have anything to lose. With all due respect to them and what they represent in the world of Konpa music, as far as this new generation of fan base is concerned, these guys don’t really matter in this business anymore. If Konpa was a structured and lucrative business, they should have not been in circulation anymore; they should have gone into retirement long ago. But you, young artists coming up, have a lot to lose. I am going to repeat the same thing I said to you earlier, and that is you need the support of your fans to stay alive in this entertainment business.

My golden advice to you all is this: DO NOT MINGLE; LET THE PROCESS RUN ITS COURSE. You are not ordinary citizens; you are people with a platform. Therefore, do not put yourselves out there for political expediency.

That’s all I wanted to communicate to you all. Hopefully, you will find my advice sound and relevant. Well, I am a nobody, why should you listen to me?

Oct 10 2010

DEFORESTATION WON’T STOP KILLING HAITIANS

 
 

 

Aerial photo taken from above the border

 

Definition

 

Deforestation refers to the total logging and/or burning of forest space -whether this destruction is due to cattle ranching, plantation agriculture or real estate development. It is also the permanent conversion of forest cover to non-forest purposes. There is a big difference between deforestation and forest degradation. While forest degradation may change the ecology of certain forest aspects, it does not, however, destroy all forest cover, which is what deforestation does. So deforestation is much more serious than forest degradation.

Historical aspect of the Haitian deforestation

The majority of us Haitians are descendants of slaves brought from Africa in the 1600s by French colonizers, who then destroyed tens of thousands of acres of forest for the purpose of cultivating the sugar cane that placed Haiti in the lead of the world’s sugar producers. Hence, more forests were destroyed to fuel the sugar mills and be shipped to Europe to make furniture of mahogany and dyes or colorant from campeachy.

After the revolt of the slaves that culminated in the defeat of the Napoleon Army and gave birth to the nation of Haiti, the world’s first Black republic in 1804, great plantations were partitioned among the slaves. Under the inheritance law that governed the then French society, land is distributed among a man’s heirs. A demographic explosion of the Haitian society was going to compromise the applicability of that inheritance law. “One of the fastest growing populations in the world — Haitian women average five births each — has reduced the average holding to little more than a half acre. That is not enough to support a family of seven even in a good rainy season” (Braken, 2004).

The economics of deforestation in Haiti

Because the land could no longer satisfy the farmers’ daily obligations, they found themselves under intense economic pressures for income -simply to take care of their family. So unbearable such a reality has become for them, they had to chop trees to make and sell charcoal.

In a report filed in September 23, 2004 by Amy Braken of the Associated Press, who quoted Mr. Victor, an agronomist, the deforestation in Haiti has moved from bad to worse. According to that same report, from 1950 to 2004, the 25 percent of Haiti’s 10,700 square miles that was covered with forest has reduced to only 1.4 percent.

According to David Adams, a former USAID director in Haiti, over the past 20 years, the U.S. Agency for International Development has planted 60 million trees in Haiti, but the poor chop down 10 million to 20 million trees each year.

Consequences

The rapid destruction of forest cover has serious economic, ecological and ethical consequences on the lives of the Haitian people. Millions of people in Haiti as well as other poor countries around the globe face permanent poverty as a result of the deforestation reality. In a case study titled Deforestation in Haiti, such a devastating reality got Kristen Picariello to say, “If one were to fly over the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the border appears like it was drawn by an ‘acetylene torch’ owing to massive deforestation in Haiti.”

We cannot address the deforestation reality in Haiti without placing under the microscope the most recent tragedy of hurricane Janne. Dan Bjarnason, in an article entitled Deforestation in Haiti published in the CBC News Online of October 01, 2004, stated that Janne had a big toll on Haiti because the country’s natural defenses were extinct. He went further to say that Janne was yet to become “a full-blown hurricane when it hit Haiti. At that point, it was only a tropical storm. Still its impact was enormous.”

Comparing Haiti to its next door neighbor, the Dominican Republic, one can see a heartbreaking reality. The Dominican Republic is lush, green, and fertile. On the same island, neighboring Haiti is mostly mountainous and virtually denuded of trees. That’s the troubling difference that exists between the ecological profile of the two countries sharing the same island.

Haiti’s forests then were destroyed to fuel colonial sugar mills; now its people, impoverished by a thread of gangster governments, are left with no other alternative but to destroy what is left of their trees just to survive.

“There are simply no jobs in Haiti, and for many people, cutting down and selling trees is a form of income, which they would otherwise not have,” says Daniel Erikson of Inter-American Dialogue. “Then the other side of it is 70 to 80 percent of the Haitian people have no access to modern electricity, so they need wood-based charcoal to cook, to provide fuel for heat, for light.”

One does not need a Ph.D in environmental economics to understand the reason why tropical storms are a calamity in Haiti. Ken MacDonald of the University of Toronto did a tremendous job at explaining the situation in very basic terms. He said that when there are no trees to break and absorb the fall of raindrops in a storm, they (those raindrops) crushed into the ground like bullets.  Because the soil is not strong enough to sustain and absorb the water, not having any place to escape to, it accumulates over land in a very short period of time -a situation that gets even worse because of the slope that covers most of Haiti.

The politics behind the issue

After the floods of May of 2004 that killed hundreds of people and left thousands without a home, interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said, “The root of the problem is that we have to go and reforest the hills and until we do that, every two, three, four years after some heavy rain, the same thing could happen again.” That is very true, but what did he do to solve the problem? Absolutely nothing!!! The problem with our politicians is that they are good talkers, not so good actors. What he said in 2004, we knew it then and still do today. He said we have to go on and reforest the hills, how is it going to get done? As the person in charge of the country then, that’s what he should have been talking about, not telling us something we already know.

It is not that we don’t have environmental laws to remedy to that chaotic reality of deforestation that the country is living at this present moment. According to that same gentleman Erickson quoted earlier, “Haiti actually has some environmental laws that are quite reasonable and quite good, but there’s absolutely no enforcement, and in most of the country, you have no functioning state whatsoever.”

Projecting toward the future

The future looks very gloomy for us in our battle against deforestation. It has been forecast that as the population mushrooms or swells in the next 20 years, twice as many people will be going after the fewer trees we have left. And Jean-Andre Victor, one of Haiti’s top ecologists, predicted that if nothing is done to take care of the deforestation problem, the situation will continue to deteriorate and other catastrophes are foreseeable. So inaction on the part of the government is not warranted; it is not going to efface the problem. If nothing gets done with a sense of urgency, the situation will get worse and more people’s lives will be exposed to greater and unthinkable natural calamities.

We need a comprehensive reforestation strategy which will take into consideration our geographical location, the people’s socioeconomic reality, the available and alternative sources of energy, the psycho-sociological aspect of the issue and all that. So this is a very complex issue whose scope must not be underestimated.

A comprehensive reforestation strategy will not come to light by spontaneous generation. We do need good and proactive leadership which only active and responsible politics can foster. That’s why it is imperative that we stop falling for political talkers. It is time to put in office political actors with a clear understanding of the people’s problems and a clear vision for the future to lead the country.

Any development plan for Haiti must incorporate the country’s ecological health. There can never be social and economic developments if this issue of deforestation is not properly addressed. This issue is so crucial that it is a make or break issue for any prospective development plan for Haiti. So, yes, deforestation is Haiti’s number one serial killer.

http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/haitidef.htm

http://www.waterconserve.info/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?Linkid=35159

Source: Copyright 2004, Associated Press

Date: September 23, 2004

Byline: AMY BRACKEN, Associated Press Writer

INDEPTH: HAITI

Deforestation in Haiti

CBC News Online | October 1, 2004

Reporter: Dan Bjarnason

Oct 9 2010

RELIGION: THE ADDICTIVE DRUG TO BE MADE ILLEGAL

Before I get deeper into this, I think it would make sense to define for your edification the “illegal drug” concept. Drugs are often called “illegal drugs” but in reality what is illegal about them is not the fact that they are being consumed but rather because of their unlicensed production, distribution, and possession. On what basis would a drug be classified as illegal?

The government would label a drug illegal because its use/abuse tends to lead to health problems, social problems, morbidity, injuries, unprotected sex, violence, deaths, motor vehicle accidents, homicides, suicides, mortality, physical dependence or psychological addiction.

In the case of religion, I think we would be better off without. Religion has caused more tribulations than good to humanity. It has brought us social problems, violence, deaths, homicides, physical dependence and/or psychological addiction.

Aren’t we told that there is one God and one Holy Spirit to inspire and teach us the way? If that is so, why do we have around the globe so many religions? Not only that, why do we have so many religion-driven fights over influence, supremacy and domination? There can’t be anything holy about all these turbulences religion has caused.

Religion divides us more than it unites us. All the great wars/conflicts our world has known stemmed from religion.

  1. Wars of Religion –a series of wars that erupted in Europe during the sixteenth and seventh centuries, as a result of the onset of the Protestant Reformation.
  2. The French Wars of Religion (1562–98) –this name is attributed to a period of civil disturbances and military operations primarily between French Catholics and Protestants. The wars also involved the aristocratic houses of France –the House of Bourdon and House of Guise. These wars ended with the issuing of the Edict of Nantes by Henry IV of France, which granted to the Calvinists a certain degree of religious tolerance.
  3. The Crusades –a series of religious-driven military campaigns waged by much of European Latin Christians against Muslim expansionism, over a period of nearly 200 years (between 1095 and 1291). The intent of these crusades was to regain control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule.
  4. Jihad –an Arabic term that means “struggle.” We are all aware of how this concept has been used by Islamic extremists to get the kind of attention they are looking for.

Religion can be very addictive. In Haiti, my homeland, for instance, we have more religious conglomerates than hospitals/healthcare centers. We are amongst the most religious people on earth, yet amongst the most underdeveloped and divided. In our case, as a nation, religion has not helped a notch.

Most Haitian religious crazies are walking the earth with their spirits and souls in a perceived holy world yet to come. These people are completely detached from the real world. They would not engage in the politics of things in the country, though they are greatly impacted by it. They would not work and even go to school to get an education because they believe that Jesus did not go to school, nor did he have to work to sustain himself and his family. For them, going to school to get an education and working to contribute to the development of the economy are all against the word of God. They view themselves as celestial citizens whose country is in heaven; they are only in transit in this world. Therefore, they don’t have anything to do with what is happening in the country, nor do they have to do with the reality of life they are living. In other words, they are in this world, not of this world. How ridiculous that is!!!

Before I put an end to this, I want to make a serious distinction. I believe there is a big difference between being religious and being spiritual. The difference is simple -being religious is for dummies, whereas being spiritual is for intelligent people. See how simple that is?

In conclusion, for all the pains and sufferings religion has brought us, it should be classified as illegal drug. Why it is not being categorized as such is beyond my pay grade. Some people would tell you, and I tend to agree with them, that the reason why it is not classified as illegal drug is because it is good politics, and politics rules the world.

Oct 7 2010

MADIVIN & THE MEANNESS OF OUR CREOLE

Kissing lesbians

The most popular Creole word there is to refer to a lesbian is “madivin.” It is a pejorative or derogative term to call someone. But in reality, if the etymologists are relying on the phonetic of the word “madivin,” they could deduct that it is from the French words “ma divine” or the English words “my divine,” meaning something holy and sacred. The question I have been asking is this: how could a holy and divinely inspired word such as this get to have a negative connotation in Creole?

Oct 7 2010

WYCLEF: A GOLDEN BULLET NOT TO BE WASTED

Some people could say, and rightly so, that I was too harsh on Wyclef when he had declared his candidacy for the presidency in Haiti. Yes, I was, and I had my personal reason for that. Most of us, and possibly including Wyclef, knew that he was not quite ready to lead the country at this very unique and unprecedented socio-political juncture in the country’s history. In spite of that, we had the same people -who were using Aristide as a political card for their own selfish political agendas only to turn their backs on him right in the middle of the raging sea, when the game got tough -on the forefront catapulting Wyclef again as a political card. I and many others said not this time.

Wyclef is a VALUABLE ammunition which we cannot afford seeing wasted. I was fiercely opposing the idea of having him then running for the presidency. In a sense, it was good sport for him to have tested the waters to have a sense of what he needs to prepare himself for the job. I had been writing extensively on the issue, and thank God it seems as though he has been listening, which is a great thing.

Wyclef has proven to us that he is a fighter, and he does not take defeat lightly. As a fighter on the battlefield, that’s what you do -you assess your defeats to find the causes, correct them, and engage the enemy again with a winning state of mind.

After his defeat by the PREVAL Provisory Electoral Council (PPEC), I wrote to advise him to start his campaign for 2015 the day of. That’s what you do as a politician who believes in a dream to transform the face of your country and the situation of your constituents. So Wyclef started his campaign for 2015 the day he got rejected by the PPEC.

In this election cycle, Wyclef was facing two uphill battles –the legal battle and the perception battle. So he is working on making sure that in 2015, if he will have to endure battles, they are not the ones he just got defeated in.

  1. He lost the legal battle because he could not prove that he was legally residing in the country for five consecutive years following the last presidential election as stated in the Constitution of the land. This is an easy fix. All he has to do is to be in compliance with the law by maintaining his residency in Haiti. He needs to get his lawyer’s counsel on how to go by doing that.
  2. We all know that in politics, whether you want to admit it or not, perception is reality. So on the perception front, he was being hammered left and right by the people who did not think he was educated enough, who did not think he met the intellectual profile of someone worthy to be considered as president. This could be a little toughy, for it is not really easy to change people’s perceptions of you. But he is working on that. The last report I have come in contact with confirmed that he is looking forward to attending Brown University, one of the best institutions of higher learning in the United States. On Tuesday, October 5, 2010, he twitted:   “I Had a great day Yesterday [at] BRown University and look forward to being a Great student and learn as much as I can to take back home.”  
  3. When he was complaining on Facebook about nothing being done to remove the rubbles after nine months of the earthquake, in my blog on Facebook, I wrote “Wyclef: Let Me Holler at You” and slammed him (http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=907295022&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=441370712272). My argument was that as a leader, when you see something needs to be done, and you have the means to mobilize and motivate the people and get them to make it happen, you act on it; you don’t complain about things not being done. He is doing exactly that, according to Le Nouvelliste of Tuesday, October 05, 2010 (http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=84221&PubDate=2010-10-05). He has been very active with his organization Yele creating jobs and giving his people on the ground a chance to live better days in a society where desperateness and hopelessness are sapping the inner lives of the people.    

The therapeutic way to cure one’s fear is to have him/her face it, not running away from it. I remember vividly just like it was yesterday that when I was a little boy growing up in Gonaives, Haiti, I was so afraid of “lamayot” that one day I came across one and literally defecated on me. My mother, who found out about the accident, felt embarrassed and decided to do something about it. One Sunday afternoon, she, who did not have any clinical psychology experience to know what she was doing, brought the “lamayot” in the house and had me face, touch and talk to him. And that was the end of my fear of “lamayots” until today. I say all this to say one thing: I want Wyclef to be back PREPARED in 2015 to face and overcome the challenge.

Wyclef is a golden bullet my generation has in its political arsenal which we cannot afford to see going into waste at this early stage in his political career. I do not know what the future has in the bank for him, but I want you to keep eyes on him. He will be back roaring stronger and louder than ever before.

Oct 6 2010

JIM DEMINT: FORNICATING WOMEN & GAYS BE BANNED FROM TEACHING IN PUBLIC SHOOLS

Jim Demint: Republican Senator of South Carolina

When you hear me taking some very strong and bold stands against these Conservative Republicans, I am sure some of you may be wondering why. Please do not assume a second that I am crazy. I pretty much have my own personal and ideological reason.

My fight against my Conservative Republican friends is purely ideological, nothing really personal. I believe they are great people who deserve to be loved and respected. However, I strongly believe they are dead and flat wrong on many issues, especially those having to do with abortion, gay rights, same-sex marriages, the DADT policy addressing the issue of gays and lesbians serving in the military and the list goes on and on and on and on. So today, we are going to zero on a very serious and specific issue -the issue of education and the social test teachers must be subject to in order for them to be allowed to teach kids in America.

 I want you to read this report filed in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal of South Carolina of Sunday, October 03, 2010 reporting about Senator Jim Demint’s plan to socially-engineer public education in this country. Before I get you to read the report, I want you to know that Republican Senator Jim Demint of South Carolina is the godfather of the Tea Party movement.  

The Spartanburg Herald-Journal reported: “Demint said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn’t be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who’s sleeping with her boyfriend –she shouldn’t be in the classroom.”

If that man and the rest of his Tea Party gang have their ways, my kids and yours will be indoctrinated with bogus ideologies to hate women, gays, lesbians, and basically American ideas.

According to Republican Senator Jim Demint of South Carolina, if you are gay or lesbian, you have no right to be in the classroom teaching American kids, and the same goes for you unmarried woman sleeping with your boyfriend. Jim Demint wants you to get out of the classroom; you should be out there doing other things, not teaching American kids.

Now, folks, as a Black man in this country, as someone whose people had been discriminated against for centuries solely because we look different than most (and such was legally accepted under the law), I cannot be staying mute, as though this issue does not concern me, in front of such a crooked and outdated rhetoric. Demint’s ideology is so un-American, it is not even funny. Since when had discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, creed, age, sexual orientation made a comeback? I guess I missed the train on that one. I thought we had buried and put that behind us a while ago? Are we now witnessing the recycling of a sad and shameful past in American history or what? That man had the nerves saying that if you are openly gay or an unmarried woman sleeping with your boyfriend, you are not good enough to be holding certain functions in America.

Now, my fellow Americans, these are the people you want to lead this nation going forward. You have got to be kidding me, really. If you are going to forget everything I said to you today in this piece, I want you to always keep in mind that we cannot be moving ahead looking backward. It is just impossible.