Tag Archives: Haiti

Jan 29 2011

A CONVERSATION ABOUT SEX FOR GROWN-UPS

Sex is a major component in determining one’s level of happiness with life. Many aspects, such as socioeconomics and psychosociology of sex, can negatively impinge on one’s sexual life.

In Haiti, for example, one (male or female) could be in their mid or late 20’s and never have to experience the beauty of sex. And socioeconomics, determining the level of privacy a person can have, has a lot to do with that.

More than likely, if your parents are not financially fortunate enough to have the luxury of possessing a sizeable house, where you and your siblings can have their own rooms and all, you may end up having to share a room with four or six siblings, sometimes indiscriminately of gender and age. In such environment, the probability that you have this room all for yourself to spend quality time with your partner is very negligible to the point of nonexistent.

Another aspect of the issue is the psychosociology of sex. Most of us Haitians don’t look at sex as a need to be satiated; we see it as an insulting, derogatory and shameful act. In Haiti, having sex in your parents’ house (knowing that there are people around) is a NO-NO. That cannot happen. It is viewed by most as disrespectful and a violation to the rules of the household. It is unacceptable by all standards for one to even be with their partner in their own room and have the door shut.

Here, in the US, it is not the same. Privacy in the American society is a big concept. Parents start instilling that value in their kids as early as 2 or 3 years old. And the reason for that is because of socioeconomics, giving them the financial easiness to afford such lifestyle.

Also, here in the US, once you turn 18, you don’t have to live at your parents’ house. They would have to beg you to stay. You can have a job and enjoy the privacy of your own place, move out and stay in a college dormitory, or leave your parents’ house to go to the military. You have so many options to choose from, it’s not even funny.

In this country, they have a more liberal and open-minded attitude towards sex than we Haitians do. Here, sex is being looked at as a need. And at 13, 14, or 16, some parents won’t mind if they are to find out that their sons or daughters have been having sex. They will make sure they teach or remind the kids to always protect themselves. Some of them, the more open-minded and liberal ones, not only will they be concerned if they know that at a certain age their sons and/or daughters don’t be having sex, they will even buy them condoms to use when or in case they are having sex.

Unlike in the US, in Haiti, privacy is a matter of luxury, which only the very fortunate few can afford. Unless they can afford a hotel room to have some privacy with a mate, which is very unlikely, or they have a friend that can make his/her bachelor setting or dwelling available to them, don’t be surprised to find out that they are in their mid or late 20’s or even 30’s and have never had sex.

Between the Haitian lifestyle and that of the Americans, I would not claim that one is better than the other. BUT, for the sake of enjoying the beauty of privacy, if most Haitians were asked to choose one that is more appealing and suitable to them, I am sure they would settle for the American way.

Jan 19 2011

J-C DUVALIER: A NEW CLOWN ADDED TO THE CIRCUS

On the quiet afternoon of Sunday, January 16, 2010, as I was at my desk in front of my desktop computer putting the

J. - C. Duvalier, former dictator of Haiti

 final touch to the transcript of my radio talk show to be aired at 10 PM that night, as I was multitasking navigating between that and answering to comments from people reacting to my Facebook statuses, I kept reading on Facebook the feeds about the unconfirmed news of Jean Claude Duvalier’s return to Haiti after 25 years living in exile in France. I did not want to be bought into what I instantly called the biggest hoax and joke for this new decade because, so cynical and nonsensical it sounded to me, I just could not believe my eyes.

When the news I considered to be the biggest hoax and joke of the new decade was finally confirmed by the Associated Press and Agence France Press, I automatically found myself in a state of shock, speechlessness, disbelief and confusion. I literally got up and walked around as a way to check myself to make sure that I was conscious and that I was not dreaming. Well, it was real; Jean Claude Duvalier, the former dictator of Haiti who ruled the country ferociously for 15 years, has returned to the island.

Ever since the news of Duvalier’s return broke out, we all have been asking all types of questions just to try to get this new development of reality to make sense to us, for the Preval administration could not even come forth to address the nation and shed some light on the nature and significance of his return to the country. This is another piece of evidence added to many of Preval’s politics of nonchalance and absenteeism. The entire nation is left desperate for information and isolated in a vast ocean of confusion to swim its way out to the safety field of accurate and timely information.       

In politics, nothing happens in isolation, meaning there is a reason for and a motive behind everything. Though our long list of questions, unfortunately, has been disregarded and dismissed by the Haitian authorities, one thing we all can agree upon is that the determination of the return of the former dictator at this juncture in the country’s political life and after 25 years of exile has got to have the seal of approval of some powerful invisible hands outside the know of the leadership inside the country.

We have been starkly divided on what to do with Duvalier physically inside the country. Some argue that he must be kicked out, many want him released and not to face prosecution, a large group wants him to take over the leadership of the country, and others just want him trialed. I am going to address each and every single position to the best of my ability.

  • Exile for our former heads of state is not the solution, and I am against seeing them being dragged out of power and trashed in the dumpster of exile. Let’s be clear on that. Jean Claude Duvalier is in his country, how can you kick him out? Let’s assume he is being accused of many wrongdoings. You do not kick the accused out of the legal space where the legal offense was committed; you trial him there.  If President Obama is being charged of any wrongdoing while he is in office, for example, he is not going to be asked to leave the country; he will, rather, be held and trialed in the United States. So the notion that Duvalier must be kicked out of the country simply because we do not have a working justice system to trial him is extrapolation at its best.

 

  • We cannot be saying that he must not be arrested and trialed IF there are charges against him. It’s either we want a democracy or an anarchy. Democracy is all about allowing the democratic institutions to breathe on their own. Duvalier cannot be above the law. I am for his return to his country. Haiti is his homeland –not France, not the United States, not Canada; therefore, he has all the right to stay in his native land. However, if there are legal charges held against him, they MUST be addressed in court. That is how it should be. Otherwise, how can you hold our elected officials accountable for their mismanagement of the nation’s business during their terms in office if we don’t have a functioning justice system to give them a clean bill of service? If we want to enjoy the beauty of democracy, we need to strengthen our institutions. That’s what we ought to be   doing. We need to let the institution of justice in the country decide on his fate. That’s how democracy works. Well, I hope I am not mistaken; democracy is the system of government we claim having in Haiti. 

 

  • Should he be arrested and trialed, demagoguery or not, that must be within the realm of application of justice. If there is a warrant issued for his arrest, he must appear in court with his lawyer to answer to the charges; he deserves a fair trial. It’s a matter of principle. He could be in custody, but that would not mean he is guilty of anything. He is innocent until proven otherwise. However, justice MUST pursue its course.

 

  • Many of you are so naïve calling for a takeover of the country by him -someone who cannot even speak clearly, walk around with a steady gait, and raise his hands. In other words, you need a sick man, who is in no shape or form to lead, to be on the wheel driving us to safety. Other than the same old politics of the past, what new if anything would he bring to move the country forward? His politics is just as archaic as he looks aged. We must not be turning back the clock, and we must certainly not be living this new millennium with a mindset buried in the past. We need to retire all these old-timers and embrace the emergence of a new generation of leaders to lead this nation in this 21st century. So the notion that he must return in politics to lead the country again is just retarded and ridiculous.  

 In conclusion, Duvalier’s return to the country has surprised all of us; we did not see it coming. It took most of us by surprise. One thing we all can agree upon, regardless our politics, is that it did not occur in isolation; there is a reason why it happened when it happened. I see it as a political card used exactly to achieve a political end. It will be exploited by some political powers on the country’s political playing field to capitalize on. However one wants to look at it, the reception the former dictator received upon his arrival at Toussaint Louverture Airport in Port–au-Prince and beyond testifies of the failure of our political class and its repudiation by the people. So we need a new way with a class of new generation of leaders to turn things around in this country. To call for a takeover of the country by Duvalier is to turn the clock three decades back, and that is not smart politics. I am against exile for our heads of state. As far as I am concerned, all of them –from Raoul Cedras to Jean Bertrand Aristide –currently living in exile have their full irrefutable and inalienable right to return to their home country. As Haitian citizens, no one can take that right away from them. However, if there are charges held against them, they need to answer to them in court, and they do deserve a fair trial. As of yet, they are all innocent until otherwise can be proven. In the meantime, let me sit back with my popcorn watching how interesting this political circus in Haiti is going to be with this new clown added to the mix. I hope you too will have fun watching it.

Jan 13 2011

MENTAL HEALTH AS PERCEIVED BY MOST HAITIANS

Why is it that in our Haitian society seeking mental counseling has always been given a negative connotation? Not only do we not believe in mental health, we also assume that the person seeking help for his or her mental condition has got to be “crazy” because, in our minds, mental counseling is for “crazy” people. Well, today, I am writing this piece to challenge and refute such mindset.

One does NOT need to be “crazy” to seek mental counseling. Since mental health is a component of our overall health, the same way we would go for a physical on a regular basis, our mental health needs that same level of attention or care.

To be aware of the importance of maintaining one’s mental health, to know that mental health is an integral part of one’s overall health, that requires a certain level of education and social sophistication, which the majority of the people do not have.

Some of the things we believe in are really having a toll on the way we care for ourselves. The notion that mentally challenged people must be possessed by some type of a demonic spirit is just unfounded, baseless and ludicrous. Because of such ridiculousness, we are facing a community health challenge, where many mentally ill people in our society are going with their illnesses “undiagnosed” or misdiagnosed.

As a result of a death in the family, for example, a person could be displaying signs and symptoms of severe depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or whatever the case may be. What do we say of the person’s condition? We say that “sé mò a k ap fè l” or the dead is doing that to him or her. Sometimes, if the person has some known or unknown ties with the Vodou religion, we would hold that some ancestral spirits or “lwas” are persecuting him or her because they have been neglected. And the remedy to that is to call for a Vodou ceremony if the person is a Vodou believer, or engage in all sorts of prayer rituals to “exorcise” the demons if the person is a Christian. Meanwhile, the person’s condition is deteriorating.

Furthermore, there is this stigma we attach to mental illness in our society. We look at that as shameful, disgraceful and appalling. When someone is mentally ill in most of our families, like a family member who contracts HIV, we tend to vilify that person because in our eyes he or she is a disgrace, a subject of shame to our family. What do we do to handle the situation? We try to keep it into hiding as much as we can or send the person away to a member of the family in the countryside. Hence, that person is doomed; he may never get to receive any type of treatment whatsoever for his or her treatable condition.

Growing up in Gonaives, specifically near the community marketplace, I had seen it all -schizophrenic patients, bipolar patients, delusional patients, etc… Most of these people were not from the city; they probably came from the outskirts of town. It would be fair to say that that part of the city was the dumpster for mentally challenged people. Some of these individuals were extremely violent and represented a danger to themselves and others. They should have been admitted, not left unattended to be roving around as though nothing was wrong with them. Then again, if we were to admit them, where would we be putting them, especially when we know that the city’s only public hospital –Providence Hospital -was not equipped with a psychiatric ward to cater to their needs?

The January the 12th earthquake makes matters even more complicated than they already were. It is going to have a negative or devastating long-term effect on the psyche of our nation. Having to deal with the toll of the disaster -300,000 human lives wiped out, thousands of physically paralyzed or traumatized citizens, over one million people living in tent cities with no hopes of a better tomorrow, women being raped on a daily basis, the list goes on and on and on… -this is not going to be a simple task.

There cannot possibly be a Haitian society without the Haitian people. So to rebuild Haiti is to rehabilitate its people physically and mentally. And to mentally rehabilitate the people, these misconceptions surrounding mental health talked about earlier must be addressed comprehensively and systematically.

How can you change the mindset of the people to make them more receptive to the realness of mental illness? In other words, how can you effectively treat someone’s mental illness when that person deeply and strongly believes that his or her condition is the result of some type of unexplained supernatural occurrence? Those are some very steep challenges health care professionals (mental health experts), the Haitian authorities and the international community must tackle should they really want to rebuild the country as they promised to do.

Finally, one does not need to be “crazy” to seek mental counseling. Mental illnesses are real; they have nothing to do with supernatural occurrences. In my opinion, supernatural explanation to mental illness is the easiest way to satisfy our ignorance or limited knowledge. We, medical professionals and educators, have a lot of work to do to challenge these myths and misconceptions killing our people. If education is the key to and essence of life, ignorance is the poison that can destroy it.

Jan 8 2011

“PE LEBREN” TO BE ADDED TO OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM

On Friday, June 18, 2010, at 02:52 AM (EST), on my Blackberry phone, I received this text message from CNN: “CNN Breaking news – Death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed at 12:20 a.m. (MST) by a firing squad at Utah State Prison.”

Mr. Gardner, after being trialed for a crime he was accused of, was found guilty. And the only way for him to pay for that crime, according to the law in Utah, was for him to be executed by a firing squad. To that, everybody said justice has been served.

See, that’s in the United States, and most of us Haitians would accept it, and rightly so, as a matter of justice. Yet, if I were to propose media-covered death by fire or “Pe Lebren” in public for anyone found guilty of committing gruesome acts such as -the killing, kidnapping and raping of another citizen; committing treason against the republic of Haiti and/or stealing the people’s money -most of you here reading this would raise hell as though one way to die is inferior/superior or more/less civilized to another, without taking into account that death is death regardless the means by which it is inflicted.

We need to be burning alive these criminals for two main reasons:

  1. Budget wise, it does make sense. We don’t have the budgetary luxury to house these criminals and keep them alive. It costs us money to keep a criminal in jail. We cannot even find the money needed to spend in social projects to better the lives of our people, yet the little that we have, we want to spend it on caring for criminals having no business to be living.
  2. Psychologically speaking, it does make a lot of sense. Burning these people alive will discourage others, who may have been contemplating ways to carry out these shameful acts, from actually implementing them. That will get them to think twice about the consequences of their actions before they act.

Whether you call it death by fire or “Pe Lebren,” the end result, which is death, remains the same. So the issue, in my humble opinion, does not lie in the name used to identify the practice but, rather, what may come out of it.

We need to take the practice off the streets and place it in the hands of the judges in the courthouses to administer. In other words, we need to institutionalize it and work on the applicability and practicability of our system of justice.

The administration of justice should and must be made the sole responsibility of those officials recognized by the Constitution of the land to carry out. No one citizen should have the right to self-procure justice. Otherwise, unless acting upon self-defense, the individual must be addressed within the realm of our legal recommendations. Having said that, the only way we can prevent self-procurement of justice is by making sure that the citizens have faith and believe in our justice system. Otherwise, we can forget about it.

We cannot and must not let these criminals have their way and thereby turn our beloved Haiti into a crime state. We have to do whatever is in our human power to prevent that from happening.

To any drastic situation, we must always adopt drastic interventions. And death by fire is one of these drastic measures that must be implemented to turn things around in the country. On a long run, such measure will have a positive effect on maintaining a sense of order and security, which is paramount for the safeguard of our citizens, our sovereignty and our national security.

It is a national security issue when economically speaking we are vulnerable. And the only way we can counter that economic vulnerability is by maintaining political stability, protecting private investments, and instituting a culture of order and respect of the law, which will attract investments and keep them within our borders.

After all, death by fire or “Pe Lebren” could be a good thing to remove Haiti from the abyss she finds herself today. Crimes and political instability are two types of cancers that are destroying our nation. Therefore, we must do whatever we can to prevent them from getting to a point of no return or irreversibility. Our aim is not to have a crime-free Haiti, which, by any standard, is not a realistic goal; we only hope, rather, to see the country doing better, which will be beneficial to all of us Haitians.

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 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 14 2010

SONSON OF T-VICE AT THE CENTER OF A PR STORM

Sonson, the drummer of T-Vice

I did not know anything about this controversial statement by Sonson, the drummer of the Kompa band T-Vice, until a friend of mine suggested that I watch the video interview and address the controversy. I did promise to her that I will, so here I am placing it under my microscopic lens.

Patrick Desvarieux of Kompamagazine.com, during a three-question video interview published on Sunday, December 12, 2010, had this exchange with the drummer.

P D: Are we better off being occupied by the United States, or let Haiti do what they gotta do?

Sonson: Hey, you really don’t want me to answer that question. No disrespect to the people over there, but I’m a United States citizen. Whatever happens over there happens over there; it happens for a reason. I always say everything happens for a reason. I think this is God doing his job or he’s doing his work because Haiti needs some real help… I live in the United States… I’m handling my business. Whatever they do there, they do there. I’m doing me. That’s it.

P D: So you don’t care about Haiti right now?

Sonson: No… no! I take care of my peoples in Haiti which are Lagonave –which is far away from all that trouble and all that BS. I take care of them; that’s it. Whatever happens to Haiti… if/whenever I go to Haiti, I go to Haiti to make my money and I leave. That’s it.

You can watch the complete video clip by clicking on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElOJXZ4Nmi8

Well, well, well… this is really sad for him to feel this way about Haiti. Though he makes himself a convenient target or a perfect prey for media assassination or crucifixion, I am not going to be too harsh on him. Being harsh on him, what for? Like most of us, I don’t think he was born and raised in Haiti to know much about the country, enough to develop a certain level of affinity for it.

I cannot blame him for feeling the way he does about the land of his mother and father. Listening to him, anyone with a great acumen can depict this degree of disconnect between him and Haiti. It is that obvious. For that, I don’t think he should be blamed. It is like asking him to care about Sudan -a country totally foreign to him, which he may not know anything about. Rather, I would definitely hold his parents accountable. For him to express such sentiment of insensitiveness towards Haiti, the country that gave birth to his father and mother, it could be that his parents have never wanted to see him associated with it.

Apparently, he does not feel related to Haiti in any shape or form, other than traveling over there to milk the cow. It is sad, but what can we do if the man was not raised to know about and appreciate his roots? For many Haitian parents, it is a step-up to raise their foreign born kids in complete ignorance of anything having to do with Haiti –the Creole language, the music, the lifestyle, etc… so that they can be proud -whenever they are talking to their friends and relatives -saying to them that their kids don’t speak Creole; “se blan yo ye wi. Yo pat fet Ayiti non. Yo pa konn yon mo Kreyol la kote w we yo ye la.”

Yes, he could have displayed more of a sense of maturity and been more politically correct like the rest of his bandmates in the way he formulated his answers, but then again you cannot ask the man to give something he does not have. Not everyone masters the skills of political correctness and media relations. Not everybody knows how to handle the media. Some people talk to the press like they are talking to their pals in the ghetto or in the streets. No, you cannot do that. There is a certain protocol to maintain. Konpa is not Hip Hop. We hold our artists to a higher standard. Some missteps will never be tolerated. So he needs to see this experience as a major PR setback so that he could allow himself to be schooled and grow. He is not alone in the category he finds himself. Many in this Kompa landscape would have done even worse. I hope they learn a thing or two from Sonson’s PR gaffe.

After damage control, on Monday, December 13, 2010, the artist issued this apology statement on Kompamagazine.com to “clarify” his slip of the tongue. Read below his complete apology statement:

“Hi Pat,
I want to clarify some things that I said in my interview. I know my comments may have raised some concerns. First and foremost I want to apologize if I came off as being harsh and insensitive. I also want to apologize if my comments may have offended anyone, that was never my intentions. But I must admit that I’m not very good at expressing myself in front of a camera which is why I normally opt out to do interviews

I do care about the country in which my ancestors came from and my family who are still living there. When I made the comment about ” not caring”, it wasn’t in reference to Haiti; I just don’t care to comment on the political aspect of Haiti. In all honesty it really saddens and irritates me at the same time to see how our country can’t become one and we’re always ready to tear each other down. We’re always ready to destroy any possibility of good that we may have coming our way just because we have strong difference of opinions and so forth….

I really think that it would be a great idea if the US did step in to help create some type of order and put Haiti on the right path to becoming the old Haiti that our parents use to talk to us about. But its up to the old and young generation to get together instead of being against each other to fix our country. I’ve seen how rich this country (Haiti) really is in terms of resources but its a shame to watch how poor we’ve become!

Son Son

Source:

Retrieved on December 14, 2010 at 04:13 AM EST from Kompamagazine.com: http://kompamagazine.com/kmboard/viewtopic.php?t=33010

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.

Dec 7 2010

PREVAL THINKS HE IS SLICK

Rene G. Preval, president of Haiti

The word out now in many political quarters in the Diaspora and inside the country is that PREVAL is succumbing to the intense pressures from the Haitian people and the international community to bypass his protégé, JUDE CELESTIN. He is now turning to both MARTELLY and MANIGAT for the next round. Though I do not have a political problem will such result, I still will not accept it.

It is a political trap, and I hope they (Manigat and Martelly) can be politically clever enough to see that. He will make sure he fills the legislative branch with none other than his cronies to prevent the next president from properly administering the country. Let’s face it… how effective can a president be when his/her hands are tied? If we sit and let the legislative branch be kidnapped by PREVAL and his cronies, it will be the same as having them in power.

When/if his party holds total control of both chambers of congress, the executive branch will be stalled, meaning nothing will get done in the country for the suffering and struggling majority. It will be business as usual. We cannot be walking on the same path of social and economic stagnancy as the one PREVAL had taken us for five long, disastrous and chaotic years. 

We need change in Haiti, not the perpetuation of the obsolete and ineffective status quo. So we still stand behind our firm position –we demand that the November 28 elections be annulled, and we will not bow down, not when we stand on principle. 

We need fair and honest elections in Haiti. At least, that’s what we the people of Haiti deserve. We are not going to let our vote be stolen from us by PREVAL, not this time. These masquerade elections need to be annulled. The only way to effectively deal with PREVAL beyond his term as president of the country is to make sure he is politically powerless, and we are working on that.  

PREVAL, you cannot outsmart us. I told you we already saw the cards in your hands. There is nothing you can possibly do. Did I not tell you that we got you exactly where we wanted you? When I said that the evening after the elections, I bit you did not believe me. You probably thought I was just blowing hot air. Bypassing CELESTIN to give us MANIGAT and MARTELLY to move on to the next round only to pacify us is not going to cut it.