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The courage and the fortitude of the Haitian people
By Jean H Charles
Posted: Sep 15, 2007 14:53 UTC
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BROOKLYN, NY, U.S.A. - This month of September commemorates for the Haitian people the saga of a continuous trauma that has now lasted fifty years.
Indeed, I was eleven years old on my way to a boarding school when Francois Duvalier busted into power on September 22, 1957.
There was sadness in my family because we believed then that Duvalier was a demagogue who would excite the dark spirit in the souls and bring the worst out of the citizens of Haiti. We have seen the avant coureur signals.
Edith, a godchild of my grand mother, used to offer her services for the many receptions we offered during the St Rosa Fiesta season. I was surprised to see Edith in front of the Duvalier mob carrying her flag with the slogan that “no cars will stop in front of their house anymore”.
In my village of Grand River, my grandfather and my grandmother were more in the tradition of the Grande Dame instead of the Queen of Mean. The sense of noblesse oblige was de rigueur in Haiti. Those who have, understood their obligation to come to the aid of those who have less. With Duvalier in power, the spirit of hope for the mass was soon vanished. Edith died some few years after, in misery. My family had to contribute to bury her remains. This story has been repeated a thousand times in Haiti during the long thirty-five-year reign of the Duvalier père and fils.
Chiefs of families had to desert their homes for political or for economic strife. During the 60s and the 70s there was a legion of doctors, lawyers, school teachers, nurses, who left their home country to establish themselves in the United States and in Canada. This first wave of regular migrants was followed by a second wave of farm workers who took to the sea in the 80s and the 90s at the peril of their lives to establish themselves in Florida or in the Bahamas.
The famous Fort Dimanche, the precursor of Abu Ghraib in Iraq, was the site of predilection for the Duvaliers and their sbires to torture kill and imprison all those who dare to speak up against the regime. Some thirty-five years later, the people of Haiti, armed with courage and fortitude, booted out Duvalier fils and his arrogant wife Michelle. The people of Haiti were expecting on February 7, 1976 the end of the dictatorship, and the beginning of democracy. They have instead lived under the long transition of military dictators that included the Namphy and the Cedras with, in between, the incompetent, vile and arrogant civilian chiefs of state, who could not deliver the minimum standard of good governance that would bring about jobs, security, public health and economic growth to the gallant people of Haiti.
They have experienced another setback with the advent of Jean Bertrand Aristide as president. Confident that they were on the right track they chose a young priest, well known for his stand against injustice. The Lavalas government (Aristide's political party) amplified the social erosion within the Haitian family. The shared vision of the future as a doctrine of governance was replaced by the doctrine of collective hate for each other in particular for those who have. They were the enemies that must be humiliated in the media and forced to leave the country while their property could be confiscated à la Mugabe.
Again, armed with courage and fortitude, the people of Haiti booted out Aristide, who is now in exile in South Africa. Their hope for democracy and economic growth is still in limbo. MINUSTHA, the UN occupation force, dutifully requests a prolongation of its mandate every six months. But in spite of the cry for help by the actual president of Haiti, MINUSTHA insists on spelling out that its mandate has nothing to do with economic development.
With France occupying the presidential seat at the Security Council for this fall season, it may seem appropriate if she could advocate the transformation of the UN mission in Haiti into an arm of development, hastening the end of the misery of the Haitian people. They have been longing for a decent job, a convenient habitat and access to basic services such as portable water and electricity for all.
Any person voire a nation living under such a constant trauma for fifty years would seek the suicidal path. On the contrary the Haitian people has endured their misery with wit, courage and fortitude while waiting and mapping their strategy to bring about at last, true democracy, after all they were the precursor of freedom ring. They shall overcome.
Mr. Jean H. Charles Commentaries Home
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