Category Society

If it is about issues pertaining to society -drug, crimes, prostitution, family, religion, culture, abortion, immigration, etc… -it will be found here.

May 29 2012

Towards A Renascent Haiti: It’s SECURITY, Stupid!

The sine qua non condition for the Haitian Diaspora to return home, foreign investors to come invest in our economy, and tourists to visit the country is to secure the nation. This is something most of us agree upon. We disagree, however, on the steps to be taken to get to that.

We talk a lot about what is needed for Haiti to start being a working country again, but not so much about how to make it possible. Restoring a sense of security inside the country is not complicated, and that could become a reality in a year if we are serious about it. We simply have got to take these three bold steps:

  1. The institution of the Haitian military (a professional military) with a clear and well defined mission, which is to defend, serve and protect the nation at any cost against foreign invaders and domestic and foreign terrorists. We do not need to start in full strength. We could start small (500 to 1000 well trained and equipped troops) and expand as we go and as our means allows.
  2. The institution of a structured and professional intelligence agency to be the eyes and ears of the government on matters pertaining to our national security. We must get these domestic terrorists terrorizing the population at their points of planning before they could carry out their missions or hit their next high-value targets (HVTs).
  3. The institution of capital punishment by means of “Pe Lebren” to punish these terrorists is paramount.

These terrorists are not to be played with; rather, they ought to be captured and brought to justice. And we can only be effective in our engagement when these three instances –the police force, the military and the intelligence agency –could operate in unison towards accomplishing one clear and well defined mission.

We need to take “Pe Lebren” off the streets and turn it into a punishment to be administered by the judges in the justice system. No one citizen will have the right to “Pe Lebrenize” another citizen. In other words, self-procurement of justice will automatically place the citizen in violation of the law. And anyone who does that will be dealt with in accordance with the legal treatment your case necessitates.

We need to “Pe Lebrenize” these terrorists in broad daylight so we could send a clear message to those who are contemplating on ways to hit their next HVTs. Such deterring measure will tell the next or aspiring terrorists that if they do not stop, if they persist in their mischievous operations, they are destined to face the same fate.

We are not the ones to believe in the rhetoric that poverty breeds crimes. Being poor cannot be a justification to commit crimes as one can be poor in dignity. So the notion that these terrorists cling to their criminal activities because of their socioeconomic situation is preposterous and does not resonate too well with us.

We are not aiming at seeing the emergence of a crime-free Haiti. That is not what we are aiming at. We have got to be realistic. What we want to achieve, however, is to put these terrorists out of their nuisance state. So we have a choice to make in this situation: either we regain control of the country so the Diaspora could return home, foreign investors could invest in the economy, and tourists could vacation in Haiti again as it used to be back then or let these terrorists have their way and turn the place into a crime state.

A renascent Haiti is possible if we all believe it is and accept to do what is necessary to make it happen. Everything starts with securing the country. So the security steps we will be undertaking in the days, weeks and months to come will determine the type of Haiti we want to have. Make no mistake that we have to work hard, diligently and intelligently to strengthen our economy through a job creation strategy. But that will not happen if we cannot secure the country and protect the people’s lives, investments and properties.

May 19 2012

A Haitian Hospitality Call To All Millionaires And Billionaires Of The World

Sean Penn & Prime Minister Lamothe of Haiti

As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. While my home country Haiti is gasping for investments from people with capital to help jump-start its economy, other countries are giving them hell. When it comes to wealth creation, I go by one simple rule: if you amass your fortune legally, you deserve to live with it in peace.

So I am making this hospitality call to all you millionaires and billionaires in the US and other parts of the world, those of you who are running for your lives because the media is out to destroy and bring you down. I want to let you know that Haiti is waiting to welcome you and your money with open arms. Move there with your money and live in peace. Like Sean Penn, make Haiti your place of retreat, your paradise on earth, your home away from home. Say enough with the trips to the mental rehabilitation institutions because of the level of stress you are under. You did not become wealthy for that wealth to become a matter of torment for you and your loved ones.

Once you move to Haiti, and I am encouraging you to do so, you will never want to return home. You will have everything you need at your disposal -a variety of succulent and delicious tropical fruits and foods, the nice and pleasant tropical weather (it is summer all year long in Haiti), our beautiful beaches, the culture, the music, the people, and most importantly your peace of mind.

Because I am Haitian, you may think, rightly so, that I am selling you something not worthy of the bargain. If you do think so, I am urging you to ask Sean Penn who is not Haitian. He will tell you from experience because he has been living in Haiti since after the earthquake of January 12, 2010. And there are many like him over there -who are not in the spotlight like he is.

I am about to make a bold statement, which some may find disagreeable; I will understand if they do: I guarantee you if Michael Jackson had moved to Haiti, away from all the stress the media was bringing into his life, he could have still been alive today. Being wealthy does not mean that you and your loved ones have to be tormented and harassed by a media watching your every move. And the more they report on your private life, the more money they make. Move to Haiti with your fortune -away from all the paparazzi -and live in peace. So Haiti is waiting with open arms to welcome you and your money.

Mar 30 2012

Calling On Former High-Ranking Haitian Military Officers

Members of the demobilized Haitian military

I understand that these demobilized military guys want the return of the Haitian military. I do not think anyone with the Haitian blood flowing through their veins could ever reject or oppose to that. The return of a professional Haitian military is paramount to the country’s national security and prestige.

The argument is not whether the return of the Haitian military is feasible or not as it is recognized in the Constitution of the land; it is, rather, how should we proceed and what should be its mission and purpose.

I have heard many making the argument that we do not need to return with the Haitian military. I must ask these people this simple question: If you say we do not need our own military, what do we still need MINUSTAH troops in the country for? They are not there working for free; they get paid for what they do. Would it not make sense to replace these foreign troops occupying our land with our own folks -who know our culture, speak our language and are from us? I doubt anyone would disagree with that.

So until someone can show me how it is not going to be in the country’s best interest to reactivate or reinstate the Haitian military, I am standing strong and resolute for the return of the Haitian military as stipulated in the 1987 Constitution.

The way these so-called former members of the armed forces are proceeding to make their voices heard, however, is not going to help their cause. Rather, it will turn off people with the pen power to satisfy their concerns.

In terms of public relations, they are doing their movement a disservice. They are not being properly represented and portrayed in the press nationally and internationally. When I and most people look at them, to be honest with you, it is disheartening, appalling and disgusting. We look at them as a group of armed thugs in the heart of some jungle receiving military training for the sole purpose of terrorizing their own population of civilians -raping, killing, kidnapping, destroying, stealing, etc… Not a good image to project and promote when you want people to listen to you.

So I am calling on former military officers in the caliber of General Herard Abraham to come to the rescue of these so-called prior service military personnel. They will constitute a sort of a leadership council to represent these guys and push to the forefront their revendications. In other words, this body will play the role of a lobbying team to talk on behalf of these guys -whom no one in the international arena will ever sit down to talk to.

It is imperative that certain well respected former high-ranking military officers come forward to form this lobbying body to represent these guys. We all know that nature abhors a vacuum. So if nothing is being done urgently to structure and galvanize this movement and give it an allure of serious, I guarantee you someone from their ranks will emerge and proclaim himself or herself the leader of this movement. And when that happens, it will be very hard to ask this self-proclaimed leader to step aside and allow someone with the leadership skills, education and knowledge to lead the movement. Meanwhile, they have weapons in their hands; no one can foresee what may happen. It is very dangerous to allow someone with demands that cannot be met to have a weapon in his hand and become bitterly frustrated. You can expect the unexpected to occur. So we do not need to let things get to this point of no return, especially when we could do something to prevent that.

Mar 25 2012

The Trayvon Martin Case: Newt Gingrich Did It Again

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich

NEWT GINGRICH, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, is on the wrong side of the debate that surrounds the killing of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black high school student from Sanford, Florida. In a statement made over the weekend, he literally went after President Obama for saying “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

“What the President said, in a sense, is disgraceful. It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe. Period,” Gingrich said. “We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background. Is the President suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot that would be okay because it wouldn’t look like him? That’s just nonsense.”

Basically, what the former Speaker is implying is that Obama is trying to interject race in this issue. If this is not about race, what is it about, really? His argument is that it does not matter the color of the skin, killing any human being -White, Black, Yellow -is wrong; we all should be safe regardless our ethnicity. I do agree with him in that no one should be killed like Trayvon regadless the color of the skin. However, that’s ideal, not what the reality entails.

Trayvon was unarmed and did not constitute a threat to Zimmerman -who still felt threatened, followed the boy (in spite of a direct order from the dispatcher at the police station to stop following him), and shot him dead on grounds of self-defense. Self-defense? Are you serious?

If this case goes to court, I do not think the “stand your ground” law will sustain as a convincing defense as Trayvon was unarmed and did not do anything that could be considered a threat to Zimmerman, per the police report. The only thing that seemed to be a threat to Zimmerman, I would say, was Trayvon’s skin complexion, nothing more and nothing less. In fact, Trayvon was not following Zimmerman with a weapon; it was the other way around. So how could it be acting on self-defense? Defending the self against whom and from what -from the bag of skittles and the iced tea that Trayvon had in his hands?

The president is right on target in his statement, though guys like Speaker Gingrich are trying to blame him for saying it. Yes, indeed, Obama is the president of the United States. But let his daughters walk outside right now, they would be Black girls, and that alone would be grounds for them to be shot dead, raped or lynched.

What we ought to be asking ourselves in this whole saga is this: What if it was the other way around, what would have happened? What if it was Trayvon who shot and killed Zimmerman -given the circumstances we all know -would he be allowed to walk away free with his weapon in his hand as if nothing happened? I strongly doubt it. There would be an arrest, and he would be fighting tooth and nail to use the “stand your ground” law in his defense in court.

Newt Gingrich -a Southern White male -will never understand the daily dire reality of living Black in America. I understand he is so desperate right now trying to make a comeback in the GOP presidential primary as things do not look good for him at all, but that does not mean he has to lose his dignity and say these irresponsible and reckless things. He is known for making these types of remarks. He is someone who wants to fire school janitors and hire their kids to replace them. So you can have an idea who this man really is. President Obama pretty much knows what he is talking about because he is a Black man; he can relate to Trayvon. There is no playing politics in this. And Newt Gingrich must be ashamed of himself.

Feb 23 2012

Sex Affair: This Lady Came On My Show To Denounce Her Pastor

The Sunday night just passed, I had on my radio talk show this lady who was in a clandestine relationship with her divorced pastor. She said she kept it clandestine upon his advice because he would not want her to go public with it.

She came on the show to testify how she caught him in his house having sex with this other woman, who is a deaconess in the church and whose husband has an immeasurable trust in him.

She used her cell phone to film the lady and the pastor together. She made a big scene inside the house and even threatened to beat the crap out of the lady.

Two Sundays before she came on the show, she went to church as though nothing happened; he stopped and told her she was not allowed in and in the vicinity of the church anymore.

After she was denied entry, she left to go sit inside her car parked on the road passing in front of the church to talk to a friend on the telephone. As she was talking, a cop came to question her about the exchange she just had inside the church with the pastor. That’s when she found out that he (the pastor) was the one who called the police on her.

She said she is not the first to have fallen in the pastor’s prey. For that reason, she has been touring all the media outlets in the Haitian community in New Jersey to denounce the pastor’s mischievousness so other women will not have to experience the same setback.

What happened to that lady is nothing new. Some of these guys have been doing that for some time now. They have been preying on women in their congregations, causing many families to be destroyed. It was about time someone, a victim, as courageous as that lady could come out to blow the whistle on these kinds of sexual abuses these pastors have been perpetuating on the women in their congregations.

Feb 21 2012

My Encounter With This Nigerian Lady

A group of of Nigerian women

Culture is no joke. Saturday night, in my socialization, I was talking to this nurse from Nigeria who migrated to the United States with her kids a few months ago to be reunited with her husband who has been in the country for years.

In that encounter, I must admit that I learnt a lot from her just by talking to and asking her questions about her culture, which is different than mine, of course.

Talking to her, I found out that in the Nigerian culture, the wife is like the husband’s property; she is owned by him. She must be submissive and obedient to him at all times. That is expected of her.

She also told me that regardless the woman’s social status, academic background and professional life, her socially expected role is housewife. Her presence is in the house and kitchen as she is expected to clean the house, cook and feed her man and family.

I asked her how a Nigerian woman would react if she finds out with convincing evidence that her man has cheated on her. She said she would have to accept it as polygamy practiced by the men is legally and socially accepted.

We were talking about domestic violence and what the law says in Nigeria to that respect. She said that he, being like the owner of his wife, is allowed to discipline her physically. And if she reports that to the police, they will tell her that this is a family-related issue; therefore, it should be addressed in the family.

She said to me that a woman who does not birth a son to her husband has no value whatsoever, and that husband can leave her for another woman just so he could have that son. I asked her why it is so important for the husband to have a son. She said that when or if the husband dies, all his estate goes to his son(s), none to the daughter(s). She said the only thing women in Nigeria have is an education from their parents, nothing else and nothing more.

We went on to talk about sex and how in the States it is considered rape if a husband forces sex on his wife who refuses to have sex with him. She said that the Nigerian woman is to please her husband sexually whenever, however, wherever and for however long he needs sex; she cannot dare telling him no, regardless how tired she is.

She also told me that in the Nigerian culture, the woman’s money belongs to her husband; he can do whatever he wants with it. After she said that, I felt compelled to ask her if she is allowed to send money back home to his relatives. She said yes, but she must tell her husband, whose only decision matters, to validate the gesture as she is taking his money to give away.

Isn’t culture amazing? Well, that’s the beauty of it all -no one culture is inferior or superior to another. We just have to respect and tolerate them all. Despite our many judgments we may have about her for being different than most of us, she told me she loves her culture and would not trade it for anything in this world. I would love and not trade it for anything either as a people without its culture is nothing.

Feb 17 2012

CONTRACEPTION: The Republicans’ Scapegoat To Take Us To Medical Dark Ages

Foster Friess, a billionaire backer of Rick Santorum, a Republican candidate, was on Andrea Mitchell’s program on MSNBC yesterday complaining about today’s high-cost contraception; he was also promoting cheaper contraceptive means. He stated on the show: “On this contraceptive thing, my Gosh it’s such [sic] inexpensive. You know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”

 

Aspirin in between the women’s knees as contraception, is this guy serious or what?

I think I got it now. The plan of the Republicans is basically to take this country back to the medical Dark Ages. At a time when we are talking about serious breakthroughs in the science of medicine, these guys are talking about inserting Bayer aspirin in between women’s knees as contraception.

How did we get to this debate shift today where, instead of debating how to fix this economy, we are talking about abortion, contraception and religious freedom?

Last year, as part of the health care reform law the president signed, it was required of all insurance plans to cover preventive care at no cost to the insured. When it comes to women’s health, however, the concept of “coverage of preventive care” does incorporate coverage of contraceptive services, including birth control.

While the president was making sure that women’s contraceptive needs are covered in the health care reform law, he realized that another principle -religious liberty -was being compromised. So he came out last week to rectify that so he could guarantee the inalienability of this constitutional principle of religious liberty we hold so dearly in this country. How did he rectify it?

The compromise the president has reached with the religious institutions and charities is that women will still have access to preventive care at no cost to them, which includes contraceptive services, no matter who their employers are. However, if a woman’s employer is a charity or an institution that objects on religious grounds to the provision of contraceptive cervices as part of their health plan, the president makes it clear that, under the new rule, the insurance company, not the charity or religious institution, will be required to offer free-of-charge contraceptive services to that employee.

Last I checked,  we’re living in a democracy in this country, not a theocracy. Therefore, whatever one’s religious views on contraception for women are, these views must not be forced upon others as not everyone may share them. 

So we need to be very careful as we are following this debate over religious freedom, abortion and contraception to make sure that we don’t get distracted from the real issues affecting lives in this country and, as a result, let these republicans take us to the medical Dark Ages.

Dec 10 2011

HAITI MUST NOT BECOME A CRIME STATE

The only way for our laws to be respected is by forcing the prospective violators to respect them against their will. The question is, how can you do that? You do that by instilling in them fear of violating them. Again, how can you instill such a fear in the violators? Simple. You achieve that by punishing them SEVERELY when they do violate these laws. In other words, you make an example out of anyone who is brave enough to violate them.

Lawlessness and impunity are prescriptions for chaos and disaster. How can you possibly build a society of humans where people can do whatever they want, however and whenever? How can you possibly build a society in this 21st century where life holds no value? I don’t see how that can be possible. Well, those of you believing otherwise, maybe you know something I don’t know; I would love know it, too.

We cannot let these terrorists in Haiti have their way. Yes, criminals do have rights that must be respected and protected; however, so do the law-abiding citizens they are kidnapping, raping and murdering. Yes, these terrorists do have rights, except that the right to kidnap, rape and murder innocent citizens is not one of them.

How can you inspire safety and security in the investors (foreign and national) to come to invest in your economy when there is a high possibility for their kids and even them to be kidnapped, raped and even killed? Let’s not be dreaming; it will not happen. Business people are like migratory birds. They build their nets and lay their eggs wherever they can find their peace of mind. So if you want to attract them, you create the environment suitable for that.

Poverty is not an excuse to commit crimes. You don’t be going out there raping our women, kidnapping and murdering our innocent citizens to take away from them what they have worked so hard to accumulate over the years because you are poor. Haiti should not become a crime state. Therefore, all this nonsense going on over there MUST stop.

We cannot and must not be playing games with these terrorists terrorizing the population. When we do capture them, we have to make sure they get a fair trial because everybody, at the very least, deserves that. In the event that they are found guilty of the crime they are accused of, they must pay for it with their lives. We need to take them to a public place reserved just for that and set them ablaze or set their bodies on fire in broad daylight. Now we have a choice to make.

What impact is that going to have on the next person contemplating ways to rape another one of our women, kidnap and murder another one of our decent citizens? It is going to have a tremendous psychological impact: it is going to instill in the rest of the terrorists fear of carrying the next deviant and criminal act because they will forever know that the probability for them to get caught and receive the same treatment is highly likely.

Dec 8 2011

THE PLEA FOR A MONOLINGUAL HAITI

Culturally speaking, the French are losing ground in Haiti; the Americans are killing them. The Haitian society is at a stage of cultural reengineering. How long it is going to take for that to settle in is beyond my pay grade.

50 years from today, I think English could become a national language, which to me would be ridiculous. It would be really revolting. That’s why I have been advocating for a monolingual Haiti -a nation of one national language.

Language is the gateway to the world. The more language our kids can effectively speak, the better off they are. Therefore, while Creole should be the sole language officially recognized by our Constitution, since the world is becoming more and more inclusive and integrated, we also must prepare our future generations to compete globally.

We must strongly enforce the teaching of these three foreign languages -French, English and Spanish -in our schools as early as possible to the very last level of the student’s academic journey.

Such measure will be in Haiti’s best interest because, with that, we will no longer have the language-based divided society as we have it today, making most of us Haitians a bunch of foreigners in our own country.

Let’s say 50 years from now English becomes a national language just like French is one today and 200 years from now Spanish becomes overtly influential in Haiti, are we going to keep amending our Constitution to make languages national depending on which one is up and which one is down? That to me would be preposterous. That’s why it makes sense to have a monolingual nation to spare us all this ridiculousness.

Only when we all speak the same language and everything that we do as a nation is executed in that language will we begin to talk of a united Haiti, and only then will we see that all of us Haitians able to come together as one to do what we must do to better our country. Until then, keep dreaming.

Dec 3 2011

IS TI JOE ZENNY HOMOPHOBIC?

Ti Joe Zenny of Kreyol La

What’s the beef between NU LOOK’s ARLY LARIVIERE and KREYOL LA’s TI JOE ZENNY really about? I guess this back-and-forth nonsense between these two is taking a whole different route, apparently.

I was reading Kompamagazine and stumbled on an answer given by Fabrice Rouzier to a question on the nature and significance of the beef between the aforementioned two; he said: “Ti Joe is walking on a wire with this one. Yes , he is the actor with the funny lines and all but i think the homophobic line may get him in trouble. If i were Arly, i’d ask him what his real problem is with gay men or women?”

How did I miss that homophobic remark of his? I guess I did not dig deep enough. Did he call ARLY a “masisi” (Creole word for gay) or something? Okay… if so, so what ARLY was gay!!!! Does his gayness impact his ability to produce hits after hits on every single album? Does his gayness make him less of a human being to dare taking on TI JOE as a challenge in a trash-talk contest? I don’t think so. So what does his homophobic remark have to do with any strife between him and Arly?

This is the type of ridiculousness we need to correct when these guys tend to forget that they cannot be saying things just for the fun of saying things. When you are an artist, a public figure for that matter, you are so influential that your words, statements and behaviors can negatively or positively impact an entire society because you have people looking up to you. That’s why you have got to be ultra careful.

I did not read TI JOE’s homophobic jab thrown at ARLY, but I do trust FABRICE’s honesty in his reference. I think TI JOE needs to exercise a little bit of political correctness next time, if he needs to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to himself and the band he is a member of.