Common Visions for Haiti?

By Louis J. Auguste, MD

Despite the fact that Haitians from all walks of life, from the
motherland and from the Diaspora share a passionate love for our dear
Haiti, despite the fact that we are all proud of our Citadelle and of
our Heroes of the Independence War, Haitians these days do not seem
to have much in common. The recent elections just confirmed how
polarized our society has become. Not that we were ever perfectly
united. Prejudice seems to have always been part of our moral
fabric. Prejudice of rich against poor, light skin against dark skin
compatriots, residents of the cities against those of the hills or
the rural areas, inhabitants of the capital city of Port-au-Prince
against those of the different provinces, etc… These differences
have been exploited by politicians to divide the population and
establish their uncontested authority. Those shameless leaders have
used this volatile situation in order to satisfy their deep-seated,
psychopathic hatred for certain classes of the population. It seems
that our compatriots, suddenly drawn from their isolated state,
having opened the window of their minds on the world through the
magic of television, have only aspired to imitate the worse of the
world actuality. We were treated to an emulation of the Middle
Eastern chaos, thanks to the so-called Operation Baghdad. We have
heard threats and warnings of a possible repetition of the Rwandan
holocaust. However, one may ask what will be the ultimate outcome of
this social and political myopia. What positive gain can possibly
result from unleashing hungry, desperate and irresponsible
individuals against their own brothers and sisters?

None! None whatsoever, but misery, further deterioration of the
human condition in this once so proud nation and turpitude for the
Black Race. Haiti is standing on the edge of a cliff. The crucial
and dire character of this moment cannot escape our newly elected
leader, whomever he may be. Certainly, no one is expected to wave a
magic wand to make all our woes and ills disappear the moment he
enters the gates of the National Palace. However, it behooves him to
define what unites us, our commonalities.

As an expatriate who still loves his motherland, I would submit that
our priorities over the next four years should be: law and order,
education and demographic control.

The demobilization of the armed forces and the corruption of the
police have created a power vacuum where gangs have taken control of
the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Thanks to them, Haiti has the
highest number of daily kidnappings of the American Continent.
Thieves attack residential dwellings, kill, maim and rape with
impunity. No one is immune. These criminal deeds take place in the
cities as well as the countryside. Factories providing much needed
jobs have left Haiti towards more stable and peaceful shores.
Tourism is dead. Even the most faithful tourists, Haitians living
abroad wishing to explore their roots or willing to introduce their
children to their culture, have had to postpone their plans
indefinitely. Haitian baby boomers about to retire and in search of
warmer climates are obliged to abandon their dreams of ever returning
to their country and instead purchase homes in Florida or even the
Dominican Republic. Finally, the lack of military presence has
turned Haiti into one of the most important transition points for the
traffic of illicit drugs towards North America. In addition, the
drug culture has pervaded our entire society with all the evil
social, moral, criminal and economic consequences related to it.
Therefore, one of the most urgent tasks of the new government should
be to reestablish the control of the government, an honest government
over the entire territory of the Haitian republic.

Second, the road to development must pass by a massive effort of
education. Haiti with a literacy rate of 52.9 % ranks last on the
American Continent and places ahead only of a few African countries,
far behind Barbados and the Bahamas which have respectively literacy
rates of 99.7 and 94.7 %, far behind our neighbors to the east, the
Dominican Republic, which have a literacy rate of 84.7%. The
architects of our destruction have deemed preferable to give machine
guns to children of eight or nine years of age, rather than building
schools for them. An educated citizen is more responsible and more
productive. An educated person is less likely to be swayed by the
empty rhetoric of the demagogues. In addition, the job migration
from the USA to India was only made possible because it had a large
population of well-educated young people. Now India has one of the
fastest growing economies in the world. Contrary to the
recommendation of the International Monetary Fund that tend to
suppress social programs and particularly free state sponsored
education, our new leader should be able to stand up to the IMF and
defend the right of our brothers and sisters to the education that
frees the mind and opens the door to new possibilities.

Finally, our newly elected leader will have to face the inexorable
reality that the fertility rate of the Haitian woman is 5.02
children/woman, while the world average is 2.26/woman. With a
population growth rate of 2.25% per year, which is double that of the
world in general (1.14%), the population of Haiti will reach at least
10 millions by the year 2015. It is presently difficult to know for
sure the growth rate of the haitian economy. However, with the
flight of the assembly factories, the exodus of the small and big
investors, concerned for their safety, the regime of terror
perpetrated against the hard working peasant farmers by the criminal
gangs, it is reasonable to assume that Haiti must have a negative
economic growth rate. With the forecast demographic explosion, the
poverty level can only reach unprecedented levels, since a lot more
individuals will have to share the stagnant or decreasing gross
national product. Due to the numerous government changes over the
past 20 years, there has not been any steady policy for controlling
the growth of our population in function of the economic growth.
Instead, we have been at the mercy of international agencies. Under
pressure from the Christian Majority that played a prominent role in
the election of George W. Bush, all programs of population control
based on the use of condoms have been discontinued, since the
Christian Majority feels that greater emphasis should be placed on
sexual abstinence. These programs are doomed to fail and we will
leave to the sociologist to explain why it should be so. Let's note
that the fastest growing economy of our days, China has maintained a
tight control on its demographic expansion and India has had an
intense program of population control based on vasectomies.
We urge our new leader not to blindly follow policies dictated by
Washington, Paris, Ottawa, Sao Paolo or Caracas. The litmus test for
all government programs should always be the good of all Haitians.

Source: Haiti Connexion   __________________  Language Translation (Just Copy and Paste your text on the translator;accuracy not guaranteed)

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