Desras Wants To Boycott The Talks Only To Destabilize Haiti

Senator Desras, the president of the Haitian Senate

Senator Desras, the president of the Haitian Senate

 

Senator Desras has decided not to sign the El Rancho agreement -even after President Martelly has published in the country’s gazette, Le Moniteur, the names of 7 of the 10 judges designated by the Senate to permanently sit in the Superior Court of Auditors.

The ball is now in the senator’s court. If the president does not publish all the names, because he has reasonable doubts and objections on the qualifications of 3 of the 10 judges, does that mean the nation must come to a standstill for that? I do not think so.

The president’s action to publish 7 of the 10 names attest to his political will to be part of the solution, not the problem. All Senator Desras needs to do now -if he wants to show that he is not a destabilizing figure -is to get with his peers in the Senate to choose 3 other members with proper credentials to complete the list. I don’t see what the big deal is.

Senator Desras is dragging his feet because he knows Monsignor Langlois will be traveling to the Vatican on the 22nd of this month to be anointed Cardinal by Pope Francis, meaning he will not have that much time to dedicate to the negotiations anymore.

Desras needs to stop being a caucus leader so he could start being a statesman [a person who exhibits great wisdom and ability in directing the affairs of the state or in dealing with important public issues, according to Webster]. It is time that he makes such a distinction.

As president of the Senate, he is in this position because of his leadership [I presume] to lead the Great Corps. So as a leader, he needs to do what is right, not what his Lavalas caucus tells him to do.

I learnt that his decision not to show up at El Rancho Saturday afternoon for the signature of the agreement -when Monsignor Langlois, President Martelly and the representatives of the political parties were waiting on him -has been largely influenced by the members of his Lavalas caucus in the Senate.

The nation and the international community must take note that Senator Desras has stopped the process with his intransigence. He is the person who must be held responsible for anything that may happen up to now. He is placing partisanship and ideology over the prime interests of the country.

WARNING: President Martelly Is Flirting With Danger

President Martelly and Monsignor Langlois

President Martelly and Monsignor Langlois

 

President Martelly is flirting with danger if he thinks he can refuse to not publish in the nation’s gazette, Le Moniteur, the names of the members of the Superior Court of Auditors, which, from my understanding, he had initially promised to do in the El Rancho negotiations with the opposition.

According to the Constitution, it is in the Senate’s prerogative to choose the members of this said institution, not that of the executive branch. The president’s office can only vet the members and communicate its decision within a time frame to the Senate. In the event that the time to do so has elapsed, the president will have no other choice but to publish the names.

So since the president, for whatever reason, let the limit expire, he MUST publish the names. And if the senators make the publication of those names their sine qua non for their endorsement of the tripartite compromise resulting from the El Rancho negotiations, no one can blame them for that.

President Martelly must not be flirting with danger. He MUST publish those names since he let his vetting prerogative expire. I trust his political judgment, so I don’t think he will make such a reckless mistake of not publishing those names. I am sure he is aware of what is at stake. Should he choose to not publish them, he will make a catastrophic mistake, which will have serious political consequences.

The Commonwealth of Virginia Stands For Gay Marriage

Virginia

 

On Thursday, February 13, 2004, a federal judge declared unconstitutional the Commonwealth’s ban on same-sex marriage, making it the most recent state in the union to embrace and take a clear stand for marriage equality.

So I congratulate the Commonwealth for this important step, and I hope more states can follow suit.

As I respect everyone’s view on this matter, I do strongly believe that marriage is between two people who love each other, not between a man and a woman as the religious folks want to make believe.

Gender has nothing to do with marriage, which is simply a matter of the heart.

Gender matters only when procreation comes into play as, biologically speaking, there need to be a male and a female for reproduction to take place. But when it comes to marriage, it is more about love than gender.

People get married because of love, not because they want babies. So they don’t get married for procreation purposes. In fact, not all married heterosexual couples want kids. So the main purpose of marriage is to make both individuals feel loved, not to procreate.

I am a proponent of same-sex marriage just like I am a proponent of interracial marriage. I don’t think people should be going around telling other people who to marry. People should marry the person they love regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, creed and religious beliefs. That’s what I believe.

Darguste, Mezile and Racine seek to police behavior in Haiti

Josette Darguste, Minister of Culture

Josette Darguste, Minister of Culture

You have 3 women at the highest level of our Haitian government -Josette Darguste, Yanick Mezile and Magalie Racine -respectively Minister of Culture, Minister of Women’s Rights and Minister of Youth and Sports, who probably are in their 50s, thinking that they can police behavior in the country. They are trying to tell women how to dress and dance “appropriately” in public festivities.

This is a war they are not going to win because wars against time can never be won; time always comes out victorious.

What these ministers need to be reminded of is that morality cannot be regularized, for what is perceived to be immoral for them may be moral for others. Haiti is not a theocratic state; it is, rather, a secular state. Therefore, they cannot be going around telling people what to wear and how to dance in public. This is absurd.

What is going on in the Haitian society today is what we call in sociology “clash of generations,” which we witness in almost every human society. The older folks always believe that their generations were better than the emerging ones. And that in itself is a misconception.

Yanick Mezile, Minister of Women's Rights

Yanick Mezile, Minister of Women’s Rights

The emerging generations are not “bad” or “deviant” as some want to believe; they are simply different than their predecessors.

These folks who now think they can police behavior in our society, at some point in time, their generations too were viewed as “bad” in the eyes of those from the generations that preceded theirs.

So instead of badmouthing these young women for the way they are, thinking that we are or were better than them, we need to understand and embrace them as they are NOT going to change; they are not going to be like Darguste, Mezile, Racine and the rest of you conservative-minded Haitians want them to be.

Magalie Racine, Minister of Youth and Sports

Magalie Racine, Minister of Youth and Sports

These young women will be at the Carnival in their tank tops and boy shorts or “pantalon san fouk” doing their Dutty Wine. Those of you who don’t welcome or like the way they are, go ahead and arrest them to see if that is not going to cause an international outcry, enough to embarrass or shame the entire nation.

We act like we are living on an isolated and remote planet called Haiti all by ourselves. The world is forever connected more than ever before, so cultural protectionism is not the way to go as it will render us outdated and out of realm. Even Cuba is now trying to open up because these folks have finally come to the conclusion that cultural protectionism or isolationism is hurting them tremendously.

Parents: Discipline Your Kids So They Don’t Make You Cry Tomorrow

Time-out-chair

It is important that you parents discipline your children as early as toddlerhood (age 3 to 6) if you want to instill positive values in them.

Child psychology dictates that if you fail to change the behavior of your children before the age of 7, you cannot change it during adulthood.

The extreme physical disciplinary measures some of these children have been subject to are abusive and not warranted as there are better and more effective ways to rectify negative behaviors.

Time-out is a great disciplinary measure approved by some pediatricians and developmental psychologists for education and parenting.

Its main purpose is to enforce rules and set guidelines in children. It is by far the most effective form of child discipline in existence.

Time-out is a form of punishment where a child is temporarily separated from an environment where inappropriate behavior has occurred.

For the time-out, the child is sent to a designated area [often a corner or a similar space] where they are to stand or sit for the  entire period. And you parents must be firm  and unwavering in enforcing the punishment as they will try to patronize you and buy your sympathy.

Talk to kids

After the time-out, it comes down to you parents to talk to the child being disciplined to tell them what they did wrong and how you do not approve of the behavior -whatever the negative thing they did. Keep in mind that the purpose of time-out is to address negative behaviors and enforce rules, not to punish a “bad” kid.

How long should you keep your children on time-out? It is recommended that you keep them on time-out one minute per year of age. For example, if the child is 5 years old, you keep him or her on time-out for 5 minutes.

It is imperative that you discipline your kids if you do not want to see them become deviant elements, and if you do not want to cry tomorrow. When you discipline them, you must focus on the negative behavior -the wrong you want to rectify, not them per se. They are not bad, their behaviors are.

Nicolas Duvalier Possibly Running For Office Gets Lavalas Going Ballistic

Nicolas Duvalier posing with kids at a toy distribution event for Christmas.

Nicolas Duvalier posing with kids at a toy distribution event for Christmas.

These Lavalas folks are in a state of panic attack –after they got the news that NICOLAS DUVALIER, the son of former President Jean Claude Duvalier, could be running for some type of elected office in Haiti. They are now making all types of nonsensical statements to prove that him running for office is an insult to the Haitian people.

Now I feel compelled to really talk to these folks. History is there to judge all of us, not just the Duvaliers. Don’t judge Nicolas based on his dad’s political accomplishments or report card, which he has absolutely nothing to do with, when you did not do any better when you had your chance to run the country and make a positive difference.

Lavalas came in power in Haiti after the fall of the Duvalier regime and spent 20 years destroying everything Duvalier had left behind. The 20 years of the Lavalas regime [1991-2011] had moved the country 50 years back. We are now in the past playing catch-up towards the future. And you want to blame all the problems and setbacks of the country solely on the Duvaliers? When will you be bold enough to assume your part of the blame?

Lavalas has the nerve badmouthing the Duvaliers because they ran Haiti with an iron fist -a dictatorship so to speak. Well, at least we knew we were dealing with a pure dictatorship, not one with a mask of democracy -like Aristide had it.

Lavalas came in power in 1991 and did the exact same thing they are now blaming the Duvaliers for. You would be a fool to believe that under the Lavalas regime Haiti had a democracy. Aristide had his armed thugs [chimè, rat pa kaka, etc.] on the streets terrorizing the population; muzzling the press; lynching journalists, professionals, business owners, etc… He had plunged the country in a total state of institutionalized lawlessness and chaos. That’s what had gotten the people to come together on their feet as one to drag him out of power in 2004.

You are accusing the Duvaliers of emptying our treasury, right? Show me that you Lavalas did not do just as worse. Your administrations were corrupted. In fact, Aristide came in power as a poor defrocked priest who did not even have an income, he left multimillionaire. We are still waiting on him to tell us what he had done with the money of these poor Haitians who had placed all their hard-earned earnings in “cooperative” investments. He ransacked all these accounts. He is a crook in disguise.

I could go on and on, but I am going to stop here for now. But don’t assume that only the Duvaliers have a past. You Lavalas have one, too. In fact, yours is recent history, meaning fresh in our memory bank. Yet, in spite of all, your organization [Fanmi Lavalas] is still trying so desperately to make a comeback. And you have the nerve telling us that NICOLAS DUVALIER running for elected office is an insult to the Haitian people? How dare you!

All I am saying to my Lavalas folks is this: you should be the last group of people in our political world to be judging Nicolas Duvalier. If he meets all the requirements set by the electoral organization, only his constituency can determine if he is not good enough for them. Meanwhile, if he decides to run, instead of wasting your time judging him based on his father’s report card, which I think is futile -since he has nothing to do with that, you better get yourself ready to send someone capable and qualified to challenge him. Otherwise, he will be elected, and that will be your worst nightmare.

Lavalas: Rache Manyòk Pimal Pase Kolera

Lavalasyen frè ak sè mwen yo sipoze sispann pèdi tan yo nan yon mouvman rache manyòk ki pa p abwouti a anyen, e yo konnen sa pibyen pase m paske reyalite jeopolitik nan mond la pa p pèmèt sa fèt. Alòs, olye ke yo chita ap envesti tout tan ak enèji yo nan yon mouvman ke pèson moun pa ka wè ki kote yo pral avèk li, m panse li t ap fè plis sans pou yo ta fikse zye yo sou 2016 –ki, dayè, pa twò lwen –pou yo komanse ap prepare yo pou yo pran pouvwa a.

M pa p ba nou manti… bagay rache manyòk yo a ap fè anpil moun kanpe lwen yo, espesyalman lè yo pa gen okenn altènatif a Prezidan Martelly. Yo pa janm kapab di kisa k ap vini aprè rache manyòk yo a –pou evite peyi a tonbe nan yon tchouboum ki san fen.

Mouvman rache manyòk la, ke moun Lavalas yo lanse andedan peyi a, bagay sa a pimal pase kolera ki t ap touye pitit pèp la nan kat kwen peyi a tèlman li pa bon. Li se yon manjezon ki vin pou detwi nou. Alòs fòk se enbesil sèlman pou noumenm –ki gen yon sèvo pou nou reflechi –ta enbesil pou nou ta monte nan batiman rache manyòk yo a avèk yo. Si yo vle ale nwaye tèt yo sou dlo a, sa a se zafè k gade yo. Men yo pa p jwenn moun tankou m ki pou swiv yo.

Moman an rive pou nou mete emosyon nou akote, pou nou itlize sèvo nou pou nou fè bagay yo yon lòt jan. Ou pa pran desizyon [sitou desizyon ki gen a wè ak peyi] nan emosyon ak voye monte. Dosye sa a twò serye pou nou antre nan kalonnen, voye monte avek li.

Prezidan Martelly ap fè 5 lane li a san manke yon yota. Aprè sa, l ap òganize eleksyon pou nou asire kontinwite demokratik la kòmsadwa.

Prezidan Martelly gentan antre nan dezyèm pati manda li a. Li pa rete anpil tan pou li fini epi pou nou antre nan eleksyon. Avan nou bat je nou, l ap gentan lè pou nou kòmanse ap chofe nou ak soulye foutbòl nou nan pye nou, abiman nou sou nou pou nou ale monte teren eleksyon an pou n al chwazi pwochen prezidan an ki pral pran mayèt la nan men Prezidan Martelly a.

Lavalasyen frè ak sè mwen yo sipoze ap travay kounyè a nan mete bon estrikti nan pati yo a, devlope estrateji pou yo kapab rale moun sou yo. Si yo pa fè travay preparasyon sa yo kounyè a la, olye yo chita ap gaspiye tan nan rache manyòk, kilè y ap kòmanse fè l? Y ap tann se lè eleksyon pral fèt pou yo fè l? Lè sa a, l ap twò ta. Si ou bezwen pran pouvwa a tout bon vre nan eleksyon [aprè Prezidan Martelly], se depi kounyè a wi pou w mete w sou travay.

Eleksyon prezidansyèl 2016 la sipoze enteresan, istorik ak san konparezon nan eksperyans demokratik nou antanke yon nasyon. Nan espri sa a, nou fèt pou nou ankouraje meyè nan jèn politisyen nou yo pou yo antre fon nan batay la pou yo kouri pou prezidan. Sa ap pèmèt nou bay deba politik ki gen pou fèt yo nan sosyete a bon jan jarèt, e se sa a tou k ap pèmèt noumenm antanke sitwayen avize pou nou kapab fè yon chwa ki eklere pami jèn kandida sa yo ki gen pou kouri pou chèz boure a. Nou sipoze chwazi pami jèn politisyen sa yo kandida ki pi kapab la e ki montre nou ke [de pa kalifikasyon e eksperyans li] li kapab kontinye kondi peyi a sou wout devlopman an.

Ala bèl sa ta bèl pou n ta gen sou tab jwèt la kandida tankou Laurent Lamothe, Dr. Garry Conille, Edmonde Supplice, elatriye pou nou chwazi pami yo moun ki gen pou ranplase Prezidan Martelly a –aprè manda li a fini an.

Se pou nou sispann antre tèt nou nan lojik fè politik demagojik nèg yo toujou renmen fè a –pou nou serye avèk pèp la. Nou sipoze angaje nou nan antame bon deba politik ki fè sans –kote n ap ekspoze pwoblèm yo, n ap debat altènatif yo epi n ap chwazi ki altènatif k ap pibon pou peyi a.

Popilism se yon bagay ki trè danjere pou peyi a; se yon manjezon sa ye paske li toufe tout posiblite pou bon deba serye pran jarèt nan sosyete a. E depi nou pa ka byen debat pwoblèm yo kòmsadwa, n ap pran vye desizyon tèt chat k ap mete nou nan kouri pita.

Sa k bay demokrasi jarèt se posiblite ke tout moun alawonnnbadè nan sosyete a genyen pou yo ekspoze pwoblèm yo k ap brase bil sosyete a, pale de yo, analize yo, trete yo epi vin ak solisyon pou nou rezoud yo. Se konsa sa fèt isit Ozetazini ak tout lòt peyi nan mond la kote demokrasi ap byen mache e byen fonksyone.

The Way To Beat Lavalas In The Next Elections

elections-haiti

Lavalas knows very well that “rache manyòk” is not feasible, so their mobilization on the streets is nothing but a part of their campaign strategy to imposingly win the next elections.

They were very dormant for the past two years, so they had got to find a way to wake up their troops and get them on their feet once and for all.

The Tèt Kale camp needs to take this wave of sporadic protests very seriously. They must not play the game of their opponent. Otherwise, they will know an embarrassing defeat.

The Tèt Kale Political Action Committees (PACs) must not let their camp lose the political edge to the Lavalas sector -if they want to outperform them (the Lavalas sector) in the next elections. Be mindful of the fact that the main purpose behind all these protests is to win the political edge.

By definition, a Political Action Committee (PAC) is a type of organization that gathers campaign money from members and donates those funds for the purpose of influencing an election. It may engage in unlimited political spending independently of the campaign to campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.

How to prevent Lavalas?

Effective political campaigns cannot be possibly run without money. So you need money to effectively campaign against your opponents. The game has long changed.

If the Tèt Kale PACs want to capitalize on the next elections, among many things they need to do, they need to wage an aggressive and brutal media war against Lavalas.

The Tèt Kale PACs, with small 30- to 60-second political spots (audio and video), need to hit the mainstream radio and TV stations in Haiti and the Diaspora and all the social networking sites. The content of these spots is what will determine their effectiveness. So expert advice is highly warranted to put these spots together.

The purpose of these spots is to highlight the reasons (based on historical data) as to why Lavalas is bad for the country in this era of modernization and social and economic development and why their candidates represent what the country needs to keep moving forward.

Also, the Tèt Kale sector needs to select winnable candidates with a clean record to represent them in these elections. That means a vetting committee needs to be instituted to thoroughly examine the records of these potential candidates before they are selected.

Lavalas can be beaten easily. It will depend on the game plan of the Tèt Kale sector. As I often say, when the playing field is leveled for all the players, the team with the best strategy is the one poised to win the contest.

Civic Education: A Must For A Better Haiti

Students at the Istitution Saint-Louis de Gonzague, on June 29, 2010, thousands of displaced earthquake victims are living on the school grounds while students continue to take classes in tents. Here elementary school students studying their vocabulary. Left to right are Elysee Pasquy Anderson, 10; Antoine Marco, 9; and Josiuf Dave, 9. AL DIAZ / THE MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Here elementary school students [at the Institution Saint-Louis de Gonzague] on June 29, 2010 studying their vocabulary. From left to right: Elysee Pasquy Anderson, 10; Antoine Marco, 9; and Josiuf Dave, 9. AL DIAZ / THE MIAMI HERALD STAFF

When I was at Cyr-Guillo [commonly called Ecole des Freres des Gonaives] for my primary, elementary and junior high school education, because the school knew they were preparing young kids to become responsible citizens of tomorrow, the curriculum was shaped to reflect that vision.

After spending 7 years in that institution, upon graduation to move on to high school,  we could proudly look at ourselves and say that we are prepared for life on every front because the foundation upon which the house of life is to be mounted or erected is strongly engineered.

In the curriculum, there was this course called Civic Education -a required core class we had to take for 2 years or so -conceived to teach us students how to love our country unconditionally, respect and love each other as brothers, be good law-abiding citizens by respecting established authority, the law of the land, etc.

I do strongly believe that Ecole des Freres des Gonaives was not the only institution in the country then to have instituted Civic Education in their curriculum; other schools had followed the same Education Department guidelines.

Unfortunately, at my great astonishment, some genius who took over the Education Ministry had removed Civic Education from the curriculum. I know you may be asking the same question everyone with some sense is asking: “why is that?” Well, that’s beyond my pray grade. I am just as dumbfounded as you are.

What a brilliant decision that was! No wonder we have today all this nonsense going on in our society.

Today, these young Haitian kids are growing up with no foundation in civic education. And we are acting so surprised to see the results of our recklessness and irresponsibility -delinquency, child prostitution, the zokiki phenomenon, disrespect for established authority and the law, the list goes on and on and on.

Why acting so surprised? We should have expected these results to emerge some day. That’s what happens when leaders fail their citizens -you have a chaotic and dysfunctional society because the young citizens have grown to become chaotic and dysfunctional citizens.

I heard a while ago that Mr. Varnneur Pierre, the head of our Education Ministry, was bringing back Civic Education in the classroom, I don’t know if he has ever delivered on his promise.  But I pray the Martelly administration could make a difference in the right. The teaching of civic education to our kids is a must. Making the right investment in the education of our kids of today is the only hope we have for a better, secure and sustainable tomorrow.

Carimi’s Invasion Has Irritated Many

Carimi

After CARIMI, a New York-based Konpa band, has dropped the music video for the song KITA NAGO off THE INVASION, their latest album, the critics on the conservative side of the musical spectrum did not waste any time to gear up and go on the counterattack. Their most vicious and debilitating attack to date is that that CARIMI is not playing Konpa; therefore, they are destroying the music.

I don’t know what these critics’ motives are, but to suggest that the band is destroying the music because they sound different and unique, I think that is taking the criticisms a little bit too far.

Here is the video for the song KITA NAGO that is causing all this traffic, all these chatters and jabbers. They dropped it in prelude to the release of the album, a way to introduce THE INVASION. Whoever produces it did a tremendous job. It is very mainstream -out of the ordinary for a Konpa music video. Check it out for yourself.

I don’t see them destroying our Konpa at all. I only see a music that is mutating the same way it did in the late 80’s and early 90’s with bands such as Papash, Zin, Zèklè, etc.

When these aforementioned bands were making the twist back then, they were being slammed left and right with the same illogical criticisms as the ones CARIMI is facing today. In fact, some prominent Konpa show hosts on the radio would not even play their songs on their shows; they were being penalized simply because they sounded different and wanted to revolutionize the music.

I hope these conservative-minded folks did not expect the Konpa CARIMI is playing to sound like Meridional des Cayes of the 80’s.

Music is like culture in that it cannot be enclosed as it tends to evolve. Otherwise, it will cease to exist.

Our music has to change because our musicians are being exposed to all sorts of influences, which is a very good thing. And that happens with every genre of music -Rap, Jazz, Blues, R&B, Rock & Roll, Reggae, etc…

If you listen to Tropicana, one of the pillars of our Konpa music, you will realize they too have changed for the better. The Tropic of the past decades does not sound the same at all as that of today. Being able to change at the rhythm of time is exactly what has blessed them with such a longevity. And the same goes for Tabou Combo.

The criticisms CARIMI is facing from these conservative-minded folks is just normal. We should have expected them to show such degree of reluctance. But nothing is wrong with the band per se. If anything, they are the ones with the problem. Carimi is playing KONPA DIREK -a different kind, of course.

Some people are afraid of change because they see that as a menace to an established order. They will resist anything that is asking them to move out of their comfort zone. So their issue is purely psychological.

I go by a different philosophy. I see change as a growing process. You have to change in order to grow and exist. Otherwise, you will die. The forces of nature will eat you up.

So CARIMI was forced to change their style of Konpa to stay relevant in the Haitian and international markets. On that, I congratulate them on their latest album. I am proud of them because they represent us in the Northeast with flying stars. They are working tirelessly to make my dream come true -to see New York reclaim or regain its title of “Mecca of Konpa Direk in the Diaspora” like it used to be back then, before Florida snatched it from us. To all you critics, THE INVASION has just begun. If you cannot join in, I suggest you get out of the way so you don’t get crushed. And that is a fair warning, not a threat.