The elections of November 28, 2010 represent a watershed for the nation of Haiti. The government has tried to disrupt the proceedings through violence, manipulation and plain inept practice. Yet the people have stood fast to vote en masse for fundamental change against a regime that was neither communist nor capitalist but disguised with the veil of democracy while wearing the gangster suit of misappropriation, indifference to misfeasance and just plain arrogance.
This charade was facilitated by the international community that could not be naïve about the true colors of the Executive and the Legislative that seem to function just for their own insatiable benefit to the detriment of the needs and the interest of the people of Haiti. It has been as such for the past sixty years, to be exact, fifty four years, when the government of Paul Eugene Magloire was forced into exile in December 1956 while he tried to remain in power beyond his designated mandate. There were first the dictatorial regime of the Duvalier father and son that lasted thirty five years, than the military regime of Namphy, Avril and Cedras followed by the anarchic and demagogic regime of the Aristide and Preval, which is now twenty years old.
Throughout that ordeal, the Haitian people have suffered, repression, misery, exile, occupation, natural and consequential catastrophe, disease and major epidemic including this outbreak of cholera.
What’s next for Haiti?
This island nation that was once the pearl of the Caribbean for three centuries during the French occupation has known only hard times during its self governance, which is now two hundred years old. The only successful slave revolt to lead into a nation-building experience in the world, the Republic of Haiti was doomed to fail as it challenged the world order of black enslavement. From a de jure slave controlled entity it was transformed into a de facto failed nation where the majority of the people were subjected to the same humiliation and the same deprivation endured by their forefathers.
As in Africa, where black rulers contributed to the sale of their subjects for the perpetuation of the Atlantic Middle Passage, successive Haitian presidents have facilitated the degradation of the environment, the pauperization of the population and the brain drain of the best minds that could have build the nation and challenge the status quo.
Enter this era when Joseph Michel Martelly, a Haitian bad boy, iconoclast and true patriotic, stands ready to shake things up and bring about the Haitian Renaissance. He will need to call upon the vast reservoir of the Haitian Diaspora, dispersed as the Jewish population all over the world. He will need also to challenge the international community that used a wall of silence and accomplice to incubate a toxic transition at each window of opportunity from squalor to more squalor.
Haiti, well positioned as a pearl in the middle of the Caribbean chain, can become the catalyst for the true growth of the region. It has a natural physical beauty with a pastoral life reminiscent of Switzerland minus the snow but filled with sea sand, sun and surf. It has a large population -- ten million people -- that are creative, industrious and resilient.
They only need to be educated; a high school coupled with a technical component in each neighborhood shall be the staple for the basis of the country recovery. The first shift for instruction – 8.00 am to 12.pm -- shall be dedicated to the very young. The second shift -- 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm -- to the not so young, and the last shift -- 6.00 pm to 10.00 pm -- will be reserved for the adults.
Haiti was the product of its indigenous army; its very creation was laid down by its founder father the General Jean Jacques Dessalines as a gift that should be cherished with care and devotion. As such it cannot continue to exist without its essence. The new government shall invite the UN deployment force to leave the country so it can reconstruct its own army hopefully with the butin de guerre of all the war toys – tanks trucks and equipment -- brought into the country by MINUSTAH. This new army shall protect the environment, safeguard the population in case of disaster and facilitate the rebuilding of the country through technical assistance.
The successive callous governments have caused the population to become a nation in transit. From the deserted and abandoned rural villages the people have migrated to the small cities en route to the shantytowns of the larger ones, marching on to the capital causing environment disaster of biblical proportions. The audacious ones have embarked on leaky boats for illegal travel to The Bahamas, Florida and beyond in search of a hospitable sky.
The new Haitian government shall root its population with infrastructure and adequate institutions in their own locality. It shall have also an eye for leaving no one behind with an affirmative action program on behalf of those with no lineage pedigree.
Is Michel Martelly the black knight bent to avenge the nation and its people against the curse of misery, mistreatment and malediction? The next five years shall bring the ascent of a new and prosperous horizon for Haiti and for its neighborhood all over the remaining chain of the Caribbean islands. Haiti shall regain its tradition of enlightened leadership for the region and for the world!
December 4, 2010
caribbeannewsnow
