Category Society

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

Jan 6 2011

THE MISCONCEPTION OF MARRIAGE

We were not born to be married in order to be happy. We came to this world alone, alone we shall leave. So marriage is nothing more than a social obligation; it is not a life fulfillment. In other words, you don’t get married to live a happy life. Some people really misconceive the concept of marriage.

We were conceived with the capacity to be living happily alone. Marriage, as I argued before, is a social realization. We do it to be in conformity with the established societal norms. It is a misconstrued idea to believe that you have to be married to be happy. That level of thinking is worrisome.

In my opinion, marriage brings more stress into our lives than anything else, and reason being is that quite often we allow our happiness in the marriage to be placed in part in someone else’s hands -our husband’s or our wife’s. I have heard some women saying: “Without my husband, I don’t think I will be able to live.” That’s scary! That’s allowing someone other than yourself to have a too strong of a hold on your life.

Like most things in life, if not everything in life, marriage is a gamble. If you are lucky enough, you will hit the jackpot of a successful and happy marriage. But do not make it seem as though your husband or wife is the essence of your life. Don’t get caught in that level of reasoning.

Like someone had said before, the idea that marriage is a lifelong legal contract is preposterous. It should be like a lease, which should be renewed as you go along. When the lease is expired, when the lease is no longer valid, the decision whether to renew it or not would depend on many variables.

Some people choose to stay married, in spite of all the tribulations, humiliations and abuses they have been victim of mainly because they cannot begin to imagine living life outside their marriage; they express a sense of worthlessness without that person in their lives. But if they could, they would leave because they are not happy.

The decision to leave a marriage of so many years is not a joke. People are afraid of the unknown. Because they cannot see beyond the brick walls of their marriage, they are afraid to leave. That’s a serious decision for any one person to make.

Al and Tipper Gore, after being married for 40 years, have decided to be separated from each other; they have decided to kiss their marriage goodbye. Some think of the separation as devastating, I think of it differently. I do believe that their concerted and talked and thought through decision to go their separate ways is the best decision they could have made, and I am sure they are happy about it. They were emotionally separated years ago. It is just that it was not made the press. They were constrained to stay in the marriage only to please a society that does not really give a damn about them.

So the point I am trying to make in this piece is that I encourage anybody who wants to be married to do so because, in terms of human relations, it is good to know that you are loved. But if it is not producing the expected results, if it is revealing to be a bag of stress, if it is not what you thought it was going to be, if it is or has become a pain in the rectum, do as the Gores did -get out of it (regardless how long you’ve been married) before it takes your life away. Remember, stress is a silent killer. It will sneak on and kill you silently.

Dec 29 2010

FRENCH: LANGUAGE OF BONDAGE FOR THE HAITIANS

The French language has been, is and will always be a language of bondage, domination and exploitation for the Haitian people. It is not the French using it as a tool to exploit and dominate the people of Haiti, as it used to be during colonial time; it is, rather, Haitians using it to dominate and exploit other Haitians.

When I was growing up in Haiti, some of the abuses I used to see perpetrated against some of the people were revolting, and I am still traumatized by them. I saw with my own eyes people being ridiculed and humiliated for not being able to express themselves in French. I saw people not being willing to get service from government employees in government offices for not being able to speak French. If they need to get service, they would have to pay someone, a “racketeer,” to accompany them inside and speak on their behalf.

All Haitians educated in Haiti are psychologically tortured and traumatized. In school in Haiti, a country where ALL the citizens speak Creole and only a very few speak French, the French language is made the language of instruction. The students are being forced to learn in a language they can barely comprehend. Subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry, for example, are taught to the students in French, but if they must understand and solve the problems, they would have to translate everything from French to Creole. Their research papers or “dissertations” ought to be written in French, yet their chains of thought are in Creole.

Let me tell you the real politics behind this language divide. The French language is made a national language along the Creole language to further divide the already divided Haitian society. It is not to be used as a tool of communication to reach out to people as that is the true meaning of language. Politicians make good use of the French language in their politics of bluff to impress and show off their so-called intellect. They do it because most Haitians see French speaking ability as being educated.

How is French being made my language and I do not speak it? And mind you, I did my primary and secondary education in some of the best institutions in Haiti. In fact, I used to be severely punished in school if ever I got caught in the act of speaking a word of Creole. Yeah, I know some of the Frenchies, broken French speakers, are going to blame me for not being able to speak French as they often do. Why is it that I have never seen me speaking French in my dreams, not even once? Why is it that after so many years living in the US, my Creole has never left me? In fact, the longer I live away from my homeland Haiti, the better my Creole gets. Well, the answer to these questions is simple. It’s because Creole is MY language; French is not and has never been mine. I have never seen me expressing myself in French in my dreams simply because my intuition or subconscious is not molded in French. 

In his masterpiece, The Haitians: Class and Color Politics (1983 edition), Lyonel Paquin, a privileged Haitian mulatto, whom I ADMIRE dearly for his insightfulness, frankness and boldness, had this to say about the French language, the Creole language and the Haitian elite:

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands -1980

Upon writing the book, I found myself facing several disturbing facts.

After living in the U.S. for more than 20 years, I had lost command of written and spoken French. The Haitian elite insist they control it; that is a fallacy. In the eyes and ears of a Frenchman, the Haitian-French is full of “creolism” and linguistic impurities.

Also in the eyes and ears of the Americans, it is more than obvious that I am still experimenting with their language.

So I was not only a man without a country, but also without a language. I truly felt at ease only in my native Creole, which certain people reject as a bastard tongue.

I was not discouraged. With certain bravado, I plunged into my self-imposed calvary, “So what!” I declared to myself “as long as I can convey a thought, that is all that matters. The finishing will come later.

Whenever I read this clause in the Constitution of my country, making French a national language, I think of how the so-called intellectuals -the politicians -are a bunch of stupid puppets. Here is what I am proposing as alternative of solution to this language nonsense:

  1. Amend the Haitian Constitution to make Creole the sole language of the land. Revise the nonsensical clause in the Constitution that makes of French a national language.
  2. Elevate the Creole language to a whole different level. Make it the sole official language for business and instruction in the country. It must be taught to our students at every grade level.
  3. Since we are evolving in a global environment, we must prepare our young Haitians graduating from high school and college for the global job market; learning many foreign languages is the gateway. That’s why I am proposing that French, English, Spanish, etc. be taught to our students as early as possible (kindergarten) to the very last day of their academic journey (university).

As you can see in my proposal, I treat French as a foreign language, and that is exactly what it must be for us Haitians. Like English and Spanish, it must be taught to our students, not as a national language of the people of Haiti, and certainly not as the language of business and instruction.

Dec 24 2010

CUT THESE PASTORS’ BALLS AND FEED THE DOGS

Less than a year ago, a pastor in Nairobi, Kenya -who was engaging in an aggressive campaign against fornication and adultery -was flagrantly and blatantly caught in an adulterous relationship with the wife of a police officer.

The people of his congregation, who found out about the malicious, deceitful and embarrassing act, took matters into their own hands. They stripped both of them naked, beat the crap out of them, and forced them to kiss (all these happened in public and in broad daylight).

This situation of married pastors messing around with members of their congregations is not happening only in Kenya; it is happening in many religious circles in Haiti. In fact, not only are these guys preying on the female members of their congregations, they also at times do get them pregnant.  And when that happens, they would find a way to throw the situation under the carpet just to keep their stature clean and revered. And these defenseless and voiceless women, vilified by the rest of the congregation and society as a whole, are left to live with shame and in despair.

That was a nice way to teach this hypocrite bastard a lesson of honesty, trustworthiness and dignity. I do believe such practice needs to be instituted in my own Haitian society. I say if we catch them, let’s cut their balls and feed the hungry dogs with them.
Dec 21 2010

MY POSITION ON THE CIPHA SOUNDS CONTROVERSY

People have been asking me to position myself on the Cipha sounds stupid and ignorant remark, where he said: “The reason I’m HIV negative is because I don’t mess with Haitian girls.” So, after thinking about it for days, I think I am ready now to come out of my silence to position myself.

It is always the same ineffective routine –getting infuriated and protesting for a few days -whenever we are being wrongly talked about, treated or discriminated against as a community. We need to change gear. We cannot be using the same ineffective approach over and over hoping to see better results.

I am not condoning the ridiculousness he had spewed out on the air last Friday about Haitian women on his show on Hot 97 WQHT, but I think, to some degree, we are allowing ourselves being distracted and not focusing on the things that really matter -the survivability and sustainability of our people.

The man had made a stupid joke, and he apologized for it. I saw the apology clip on Youtube. Without being judgmental, I think he was sincere. If he knew he was going to face so much heat for the controversial statement, I guarantee you he would have not made it.

Yes, putting pressure for him to be fired is okay, but how is that going to help cure the discriminatory disease going against us? He dropped the bomb already, and the damage has already been done. Having him fired will not take away the fact that our beloved Haiti is being constantly called the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere; having him fired is not going to efface the inhuman situations our people are living in back home; having him fired is not going to get the victims of the earthquake out of the tent cities; having him fired is not going to get Preval out of the leadership of the country; getting him fired is not going to get MINUSTAH out of the country; getting him fired is not going to address the cholera epidemic killing our people back home.  

This is a disease going against us, and Cipha’s stupid and ignorant remark is only the manifestation of that disease. Let us not get distracted by the symptoms. To cure the disease, we must use a causatic approach, not a symptomatic one. If our only focus is to take care of the symptoms while leaving the root cause of the disease untouched, we are doing nothing but cheating ourselves. In other words, we are jerking ourselves off for a quick psychological ejaculation.

The reason why he and many others before him could make those stupid, ignorant, disgusting and incendiary remarks about us is because we are a weak community, though we have potentials to be a strong one. We are not using our strengths effectively. This is the materialization of the “kabrit gade je met kay avan l rantre” philosophy.  

What we need to do now going forward is to GET THE DIASPORA ORGANIZED so that we don’t have to deal with another stupid, ignorant and ridiculous remark again from anybody. ONLY THROUGH A STRUCTURED COMMUNITY CAN WE BE STRONG, POWERFUL AND RESPECTED!!!

Dec 20 2010

WHAT ARE YOU GIVING HAITI FOR CHRISTMAS?

Earlier today, I twitted: “What are you giving Haiti for Christmas?” My friend Zaffa asked me for suggestions, which basically pushed me to write this piece. Some of you promised to give her clothes, money, bags of food, etc… Those are great!!! However, I think we can and must use a much better approach since we have been giving her those things every year and nothing has changed really. The reason for that is because those things are perishables. We need to be giving her durable goods.

The future of Haiti lies in the hands of the Diaspora. We outside the country are the only chance Haiti has, and we cannot afford not to deliver effectively and efficiently.

We are the brain and backbone of Haiti. In other words, we represent Haiti’s central nervous system; we are the reason why she is still standing, breathing and alive.

Let’s picture this battle-fighting metaphor to grasp the point for effective and durable action I am making. Haiti is on the battlefield fighting for her life, and the Diaspora is the only round she has in the magazine of her weapon to fire and make a difference; the enemy is furiously approaching. This has got to be a one-shot-one-kill type of situation. She must aim, shoot and annihilate the enemy. That’s how eminent the Diaspora is for her survivability and sustainability.

The question is now this: how can we transform the dormant Diaspora into a change engine to bring about the necessary changes our country Haiti desperately needs?

Right about now, we are scattered like a shattered glass. With such an outlook, there is no way we can be as effective in our delivery as we should. So it has become a matter of urgency to reconstruct and restructure the Diaspora into one bold and compact entity. Remember, only in unity there is hope and strength.

We need a bottom-up type of movement to start in the Diaspora. For that to occur, we need to start with each and every single one of us to integrate the ranks of a grass-roots organization. That is the very first step towards the reconstruction and the restructuration process. Once we do that, the next step should be to have all the organizations in each state to fall under one umbrella organization. Then delegates from all the state umbrella organizations are to convene in a general assembly to elect the Haitian leadership for the Diaspora.

Whether you want to admit it or not, politics is everything; therefore, we must do whatever we can to conquer the political landscape in the country. We do not have a people problem; rather, we have a problem with people in politics.

Every year, we in the Diaspora contribute $2 billion to the economy back home. So no need to mention that we already have the economic upper hand we need to give us the political leverage needed to impact the game of politics in the country. If we are structured and organized, then we will be able to endorse and finance the campaigns of candidates (running for the presidency and congress) sharing our political, economic and social agenda. Let us not fool ourselves thinking that the political takeover is not important. Yes, it is extremely important, for the decisions coming from the executive and legislative branches of government will determine the course the country must take going forward.

So as you are putting your thinking cap on to figure out what to give Haiti for Christmas, think of giving her durable, not perishable goods. We have been giving her perishable goods for I do not know how long; nothing concrete and positive has come out of it. So a change of strategy is urgently needed, and that change must pass through the restructuration and organization of the Diaspora to represent an economic and political force to propel the country forward.

Dec 13 2010

YOUR WHITE MASTER GAVE YOU HIS RELIGION TO PROVE HIS LOVE FOR YOU

Let me ask you a question; hopefully, you will use your brain, not your blind faith to dissect it. Can you please tell me one thing that is to work in your advantage as a Black person that the White man let you have without a fight?

If you look around or if you go down to dig into the historical archives, you will realize that everything we Black folks have for our own emancipation, we had to fight with our lives to earn them -for example, the independence of the Haitian people from the brutal French system of slavery in 1804, the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to abolish segregation and discrimination in the United States, the end of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994, etc… And even after we earn them, we have to be constantly guarding them so that he does not trick us and take them away from us. That goes to show you how much he cannot and must not be trusted.

Yet, without a fight, he brought you Christianity -his imported religion -and handed it to you. You embraced and made it yours. You are so much of a defender of his own religion, more so than he basically is, that you are willing to kill your own brothers and sisters over it –something that does not even belong to you.

You think he cares so much about you that he wants your soul to be spared. While you think he has got to care so much about your soul to be handing you his so-called soul-liberating religion, don’t forget that it was forced on you at a time when you were being treated worse than a pet, not any kind of pet. He submitted you under some of the most egregious and inhuman treatments ever. In spite of it all, you still believe he lets you have his religion because he loves and cares about you so much, huh?

When will you start opening your eyes to see and using your brain to start asking pertinent questions? Let’s use our ability to reason to brainstorm on this issue for a change. Do you seriously believe that the White man let you have his religion because he so much loves you and cares about your soul being spared? If his religion was as good as he told you, do you think he would have let you have it without a fight? And if it was to be working for you, why did he have to force it on you when you had to fight with your life to earn your freedom from him? Let’s talk. Maybe I am in the wrong. If so, please answer the questions and convince me that I am.

Nov 22 2010

IS RELIGION LOSING GROUND IN AMERICA?

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 -a scientific research study  -found that young Americans are remarkably less religious than their parents and grandparents were when they were their age.

The study also found that one in four American millennials -Pew’s name for those Americans who were born after 1980 and came to age around the millennium -are not associated with any religion. They see themselves as “atheist,” “agnostic” or “nothing in particular.”

When it comes to religion, these millennials have a different philosophy than most people. They believe that “there are ways of practicing faith and being religious outside of belonging to a religious organization or attending services.”

In your opinion, what has gotten the young Americans to be so less religious than their parents and grandparents were when they were young?

Nov 21 2010

CHRISTIANITY CALLS FOR DEATH PENALTY FOR GAYS

Both the Ugandan president, Mr. Yoweri Museveni, and Mr. David Bahati, a Ugandan lawmaker, are members of “The Family,” an American faith-based and anti-gay organization.

In March of 2009, after several members of the organization had traveled to Uganda for what they called the “Seminar on Exposing the Homosexuals,” containing claims that gays pose major “dangers” to society, and that a “gay agenda” was in the making to “defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity,” Mr. Bahati introduced an anti-gay legislation calling for the death penalty against gays in certain cases of same-sex intimacy.

Not only does that inhuman, cruel, insane and ridiculous legislation call for the death penalty for gay men repeatedly having sex with other men, and for HIV-positive men having sexual relations, it also calls for tough penalties for anyone who fails to report gays to the authorities.

This is what would happen to any human society where the practice of religion is not closely monitored and controlled to prevent it from interfering with the running of the state’s affairs.

This is another case of religious insanity, which we find almost everywhere around the world, particularly in the third world countries. This guy David Bahati needs to be ashamed of himself. I cannot believe he would allow these foreigners to travel thousands of miles to come order him (like a master would order his slave) to introduce a legislation calling for the death penalty for his own citizens.

Wait a minute! Let’s put things in perspective here. Don’t we have gays in the United States? How come these American evangelicals don’t push for their crazy and nonsensical agenda in their own country? They cannot be acting out of love for the Ugandan people. There is no way they could possibly love the Ugandans more than their own.

These Christian foreigners need to get out of Uganda’s socio-political life. They take it upon themselves to travel to other countries, with the complicity of their local slaves in the government, to act in ways they could have not possibly acted in their own country -the United States.

This insanity could have taken place in my own country, for these American evangelicals travel to Haiti every year to hold their “evangelical crusades” in an attempt to soil the soul of the people.

There is a good reason why you see them in countries such as Uganda and Haiti. And the reason is POVERTY -the best fertilizer for the seed of religion to grow. Wherever there is poverty, you can expect religion to mushroom.

The poverty in my country makes my people very vulnerable to the paws of these evangelicals to prey on. So we need to keep eyes on them so that, with the complicity of their political cronies in the government, they don’t turn Haiti into another Uganda, where politicians want to send gays to death row.

Nov 7 2010

WAS JESUS A SEXIST BY CONFORMITY?

Was Jesus a sexist by conformity, or did he have deep-rooted hidden issues with women? I personally have problems with his silence on and total disregard of women’s rights.

It is no secret that the role of women in his society was very limited to domestic obligations/duties and submission to a very patriarchal society. Women were treated as second class citizens, and they were subject to all kinds of physical and psychological abuses from their male counterparts. Yet, nowhere in his ministry has it been reported of his advocacy specifically for women’s rights. He addressed every single issue -taxation, law and order, governance, etc… -affecting his society, except that human relations glitch.

Also, how come his disciples, his pals or members of his immediate entourage were all men? That could not be a random misstep or a rare, simple and exceptional coincidence. What could it be exactly? Were the women not good enough to be in his close circle? What key role if any did women play in his ministry anyway?

I think the selection-elimination process by which he proceeded to select his disciples has got to be discriminatory or prejudicial. That was a well-thought-out decision to conform to the norms of his time. In other words, the decision to ostracize the women was not a simple and isolated coincidence.

I know some of you are going to use the storyline of the woman prostitute whose life he had spared from the people who wanted to stone her to death for violating an established societal law against overt and covert prostitution to rebut. Well, let me say to you that he did not defend her rights, which had never existed in and been recognized by her society to begin with. Rather, he wanted to pinpoint the hypocrisy that existed in the people of his time.

Maybe he was not an overt sexist, but he was a conformist who went silent on the ways women were being treated. The problems women were facing then are basically the same as the ones they are facing in today’s society. If he was alive today, how would he address unfair treatments of women in our society?

Nov 5 2010

WE NEED TO ELIMINATE PUBLIC EDUCATION IN HAITI

This is a public policy matter, and I do expect many to disagree with me. Public education in Haiti needs a total reshuffling; it must be incorporated in a comprehensive plan to reform our economy. We cannot be talking about reforming the economy if we do not address the problems with our education.

We need a new system of education to prepare our kids to compete for the jobs of tomorrow at home and abroad.

Public education is a total failure in Haiti, and things will not get better if we do not change course. We need to take government out of the business of educating our kids and let the private sector take over.

Is Haiti a socialist or a capitalist state? Maybe we need to be clear on the type of economic system we have and the type we really need for Haiti. I am a big proponent of capitalism, for it does make sense to me. Maybe that’s what we need for Haiti. Right now, whether you want to agree with me or not, we have a socialist state; government controls almost everything.  

Before we get further in this, let’s take a moment to explain what the job of government should be in a capitalistic economy.

The role of government in a capitalistic economy is NOT to create jobs and compete against the private sector. It is, rather, to enact policies that would encourage private sector jobs. It should work to strengthen the private sector, and the two must work hand in hand to get things to work for the betterment of our society. So needless to say, we need a strong private sector.

In Haiti, government is the biggest competitor we have in the market, preventing the economy from expanding because it stalls competition. It should not be this way. Government is not to compete against the private sector. It is to set the path for the private sector to walk on.
 
I propose the elimination of all the public schools or state-funded institutions of learning and let the private sector take over them. As we have them right now, they are ineffective and represent a symbol of failure because of a lack of competition within the sector of government. We need to get rid of that.

Government should not be in the business of opening schools. It needs to allow the economically disfavored students to attend private schools or the school of their choosing by making grants and scholarships available to them. Doing so will create a market of schools for them to choose from. Giving them the ability to choose the school of their liking will empower them, and that will fuel the competition needed to get the system to work.

If competition is the engine that gets the economy to move, choice is the ignition that gets it to crank up. When government gets in the game, competition is stalled; the economy automatically stops expanding. On the other hand, when you have the players in the private sector competing against one another, it is good for competition in that it results in quality production or quality education for the students. In such a competitive climate, only the best schools will stand. The subpar or mediocre ones will have to close their doors because they won’t be able to sustain the competitive wave. That’s the phenomenon of the “invisible hand” Adam Smith, the Father of Capitalism, talked about in his masterpiece entitled An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.    

In conclusion, we need to revamp the system of education in Haiti by allowing the private sector to assume its total control. The government should not be in the business of opening and managing schools. It should be there to subvention the economically disadvantaged students by providing them with grants and scholarships to attend the school of their choosing. Such a strategy will automatically fuel competition within the system, which, in turn, will produce the best educated kids to contribute in the economic and social development of their society.