Organizing for America | Musings Of A Haitian Female: Haiti, Prez Obama, and I

Haiti, Prez Obama, and I

By Haitiana4Obama - Apr 14th, 2009 at 9:53 pm EDT

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Tags: Haiti, haitian, humanitarian, immigration

Now I know many Haitian people are exceedingly becoming more encouraged as President Obama rolls out his foreign policy as well as immigration plans. Especially those who have family or friends in this country illegally and pray that God continues to fill this American President with a compassionate and intelligent (yes) heart. While I think there's a lot that the Obama Administration can do to help Haitians as well as Haitian Americans succeed in this new century, we need to ask ourselves when is enough...enough? When will the Haitian people become tired of being Orphans to the Western Hemisphere? That is what we've become in a sense, hands out, ready to receive donations. Now a recent article came out saying America was ready to invest in Haiti once more, and a HuffingtonPost blogger wrote a piece, this blog was in part inspired by some of the statistics in the aforementioned blog, now allow me to opine:

I'm Haitian as my name insinuates and am very familiar with the plight of my country. While the statistics are very acute in some ways I think some of them are misleading as well. For instance many elderly Haitians live way past 54 years of age, I don't know where those numbers came from but elderly Haitians especially in rural villages live longer then the teens to 30-somethings who run with the chimes in the streets. Violence, malnutrition, and corruption are major issues in Haiti which need to be address, but so is education. While we follow the French style of education, it is a highly enriched and broad education system. Unfortunately there is no such thing as "public school" in Haiti; there's missionary schools, private schools and then there are some government (initiated) school programs. The one constant is that parents/families often end up paying about 500 Haitian Gourdes ($12) a week to send their child to school, and provide meals as well as transportation. On top of that no one works, no one has a job unless it's government for the most part...oh and musicians seem to thrive due to our cultural appreciation of all things artistic. The corruption is difficult to understand, it mostly stems from (the obvious) greed, desperation, and a sense that this current semi-stable government will be followed by unrest after the next election. My native country is one which is rich in culture, beautiful scenically, and complex in identity. I think it's good of the Obama Administration to renew efforts in developing Haiti, but the change has to come from within.

One of the main things I've argued for years is that Haiti needs to rely less on it's French roots, and moreso on its relation to Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole. We are the only sovereign nation which is part of Latin America with the exception of Brasil which doesn't use Spanish as an official language, yet we are surrounded by Spanish speaking neighbors! Similarly we also have to embrace our Arawak as well as Afro roots and stop trying to emulate the French in all aspects. The emphasis on Europeanisation is largely in part to the elite minority and a revolution on their part against the early Afrocentrism during the Duvalier and Trujillo "war" on the entire island of Hispaniola. There is a deep rooted effort on the part of the often lighter skinned Bourgeoisie to maintain control of the island, and they are usually safe in the mountains in their guarded chateaux. There is gross disparage between the classes, and a lack of push to close the gap. These are the problems of my country, and while humanitarian aid is welcomed, it will take people like Wyclef Jean, Garcelle Beauvais, and other notable Haitians as well as everyday people like myself to change Haiti. The world can not change Haiti, until the Haitian people and our politicians are willing to change as well.

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