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HaitiXchange received this letter in an email and thought it would make for an interesting discussion:
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An Open Letter to All Haitians in the Diaspora
Dear Friends,
This letter comes to you at a time when our Nation’s crisis would seem to have reached a very dark day. We should all be crying out in anger, shame, frustration, depression, and utter bewilderment. How long are we going to stand by in our self-imposed exile before something happens?
By "something" we mean a concerted, all out effort by all of us together to make everyone recognize that we are in the midst of the worse period in our history, to mobilize ourselves into this great movement to retake our country and make it what it is capable of becoming and leave behind our shameful position of "most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere."
Unfortunately there are too many of us who don’t know what’s going on, or worse, who act as if they don’t know what’s going on.
All of us, however, must do everything in our power to make everybody: our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers, our community, our churches recognize the frightening living conditions of the Haitian people. We must orchestrate this concern locally, nationally, globally; wherever Haitians live and work, and pray that the whole world understands what is happening to us as a Nation and as a People. We must make it hard for any Haitian to live without the torment of the following questions: How many more must die of starvation or in high seas trying to get out? How many more must live like dogs in the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, or in slavery-like conditions in Immokalee, Florida? (See the New Yorker 4/21/03) How many more must die of disease, before an effective plan of attack is begun? Not enough of us are concerned about this; and that’s part of the problem.
We need to prioritize our battles in the right order. There is only one thing that is going to save us as a Nation and as a People that is our commitment to take back our country. And we’re not fighting that battle. We fight furiously among ourselves for meaningless reasons but we are so passive when our future as a Nation is at stake. Our primary objective should be to initiate changes that would help improve the living conditions of our fellow Haitians in Haiti and address the many human rights issues facing them. The majority of the Haitian people have no right to a decent and peaceful living; they have no right to speak freely about their grievances. They have limited access to electricity, no access to clean water, health care, decent housing. Unemployment (outside the government) is at 80% the other 20% who work don’t get paid, those who are lucky only make a per capita income of $180 a year. Thousands live on the streets of Port-au-Prince, bathing and washing in sewage-filled gutters. Haiti is plagued by infectious diseases. Measles, diarrhea, tetanus, and tuberculosis are child killers there. Two hundreds fifty of every thousand children die before reaching the age of five. The number of HIV/Aids cases in Port-au-Prince is going up. Four-fifths of all Haitians in the country are illiterate. Cost of living is at an all time high. Dear friends these are not statistics but facts.
The situation has deteriorated to this point only because we are runners, not fighters. Collectively we ran away from Haiti and because of our absence and by adopting a policy of "say nothing-do nothing" we have allowed the leaders of Haiti to become masters of our destiny: Where we live. Where we work. Where we raise our children and eventually where we die. By our passivity, we are actively colluding with, and participating in our own demise as a people.
After 200 years, what do we have to show the world? What have we accomplished? We have squandered our opportunities. We have taken a Nation that was once called "The pearl of the Antilles" to make it the "most impoverished Nation of the Western Hemisphere". It’s time to stop blaming the whole world for our problems. We need to look at ourselves for the cause of the failures. Have we done anything significant since the early 1900’s to be proud of as a Nation? Yet history will show that since the early part of the 1900’s we have had an uninterrupted succession of governments who came to power with leaders of modest means and by the time they leave office or booted out of office are classified millionaires. To most Haitians, elected office is synonymous with a license to steal and kill. Our leaders were beggars’ vis-à-vis the World Bank, the United Nations, Care, USAID, The German Federal Republic, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and countless foreign missions in all the provinces.
How many public schools have we built to keep pace with the population? How about infrastructures like roads, hospitals, public transportation, monuments? Could it be that the reason other nations are reluctant to help is because they have come to the sad realization that the money they were giving or lending us was not really being used for the benefit of the country and the people but rather to make millionaires out of corrupt politicians? A recent World Bank study found that three fifths of government expenditures were untraceable. Estimates of the money stolen range as high as 1 billion dollars. This in a nation with annual revenues of only 205 millions dollars. Somehow we need to step out of the box and see things as they really are and not as they seem or as they would want us to believe. Our nation has been raped by our leaders and cast away to wither in the Caribbean sun.
It goes without saying that we desperately need everybody’s participation in this. This is not about replacing a government by another; this is about the salvation of Haiti as a free Nation and about us as a free People. More than ever before we must fight together (last time we fought together for our liberation was in 1803) now to help those who can’t help themselves, those who are already dying, those without hope and to ensure our own future on this hemisphere.
If this letter does not make you want to get involved, we are in real danger. If this letter does not rouse your anger, fury, rage and action, if it does not provoke a positive reaction from you, we as a People have no future in the West Indies. Our continued existence depends on just how involved you get. On the eve of our 200 year anniversary of independence we have never before been in all our history so close to nothingness. Every Haitian who is unable or unwilling to come forward and fight to save our Nation is truly helping to kill it.
There is only one thing that is going to save Haiti from that slippery slope and that is our very presence in the country in big numbers and being perceived as united and a threat, bureaucracy only responds to pressure and that pressure has to be exerted from within; not on the radio or newspapers in the U.S, Canada and Europe. We have a right, a moral obligation if not a duty to be an instrument of change in our own country, why aren’t we doing it? Why are we sitting on our hands? Haven’t we had enough? Are we waiting for a special invitation from the leaders? Keep waiting.
I know that unless I fight with every ounce of my energy, I will hate myself. I hope, I pray, I implore you to feel the same. Get with your group of friends, your club, your organization, your church etc…Examine the content of this letter, talk about it. Know that if we don’t act now, then we face our approaching doom. We have to do it ourselves or it won’t get done. We need to ask ourselves: Is the road of progress really that hard to find? Why doing the right thing seems so impossible to some and overwhelming to others? All our leaders from the early 1900’s have had no difficulty accomplishing their tasks of killing our parents, our brothers, our friends and neighbors. No difficulty in destroying the socio-economic infrastructure of the country. No difficulty in destroying the fabric of our society. Yet the majority of us are left unmoved by their actions. Have we lost our will to fight or do we want to be left alone in our comfort zone? Our belief system is such: if we wait long enough, someone else will do it. In the meanwhile we limit ourselves to talking nostalgically of the Old country and sigh. This is our battle to fight; this is about our respect as a People and our dignity as a Nation.
Nothing else should be more important to any group or organization than this. This letter should be part of your next meeting agenda. We now have dozens of Haitian organizations/clubs spanning the globe, duplicating, in many cases, each other’s activities. The time has come when we must consolidate; we need to speak with one voice. We need one "focal point": HAITI
History teaches us that after the war, the Jewish leaders who were still alive, came together in one room and determined that what happened must never happen again. They vowed they would speak with only one voice, and they would keep their arguments in the confines of that room and the world would never see their divisiveness in public. And they pretty much operated successfully in that fashion ever since.
We need to look within ourselves for an answer to the question: Why is it that separately we have abilities to do a lot, but collectively we fail miserably time after time after time? We don’t seem able to put aside our petty differences and work together for the betterment of our Homeland. On the eve of our 200 year anniversary we are faced with the same situation of 1915. We can either do it ourselves or (as many hope) some foreign entity will come again, occupy us again and (maybe) do it for us, thus violating our right to self determination as a free country.
My dear friends, here we are on the eve of a very important date in our history Year 2004. Two hundred years ago our forefathers with only one goal in mind put aside their differences and organized a united front to defeat the enemy and forged us a free Nation. They understood then the necessity to get together for the greater good of all (History not to be forgotten) they wanted something greater than themselves. They wanted freedom; their differences at that point were minute when compared to what was at stake. They wanted for the world to treat them with respect and dignity.
Unfortunately since then our history of a free people has been that of our divisions. Slowly we drifted away from the idea of freedom and dignity, by the thousands we abandoned the motherland never to return. We show very little respect and admiration for each other, here even in our self imposed exile we continue to foster divisions among ourselves, divisions based on such trivial matters as material means, province of origin, shades of blackness and education. Each one of us sees himself/herself superior to the next person when in fact we are all in the same boat. We all came here for the same reason and that is to seek freedom, opportunity and better living conditions. We have a country that we can no longer call our own; conditions are so bad that we can’t even dare go for a visit without running the risk of being victimized. Haiti is quickly becoming a lawless zone. Life for the majority of those left behind is hell, poverty is rampant, a people without hope. Their only dream is to leave the country. No I am not using emotionalism here for the triumph of guilt. This is reality.
We must realize that none of us is smarter than all of us and yet all of us together are smarter than those incompetent kleptomaniacs ruining the country since the early part of the 1900"s. We need to go back home in large numbers and create a powerful private sector to deal with the problems of Haiti. We need to create a united front to force our so-called leaders to face the plight of the Haitian people and get their priorities in order. We need to organize a campaign of patriotic mobilization for the economic liberation of Haiti.
We need to get organized. How do we organize? Well you start with a few friends, and they get a few friends, and then you get all of them to get a few friends. You go from neighborhood to neighborhood, from one church to another, from city to city, state to state, and then duplicate the same effort in Canada, Europe and Africa. Wherever Haitians are living. It is a slow, thankless, but necessary work. Join a club, an organization, a church or any group and start to implement changes from within. Make Haiti the focal point and ask the question often: Why are we here and not there? What do we do about it? Organize brain-storming sessions among the members. Keep everyone active, busy, interested and committed.
Establish goals, challenge yourself to try to do more and more, reach further, fight harder. Constantly remind yourself of what it’s all about. Connect your organization with another organization that has been growing in membership. This is called networking, and historically Haitian organizations are terrible at it. We’re simply never been able to get along. It is only through a massive organization that we could achieve most. Togetherness is numbers. Togetherness is unity. Unity is strength. Strength is power. Power is acceptance. Acceptance is a certain kind of Equality among us all.
Failure to act responsively will result in the eradication of any pride we once had as a Nation and as a People. Dear friends, if you think of this as only pipe dreams, then continue to live your life with your own selfish dreams and aspirations; continue to organize gatherings to discuss the next dance. Continue to have those clubs where membership is denied to those who don’t look like you, talk like you or less fortunate than you are, continue to promote what divides us rather than embracing what unites us, continue to blame the world for our numerous problems. The cries of genocide from those left behind will continue to remain unheard. And our noble and enfeebled Nation of the weak, the dying and the dead will continue to grow until as a Nation and as a People we are diminished.
With will power and determination, everything is possible my friends. If you think you’re valuable, then you’ll think others are valuable as well. If you think you can make things happen, affect change, then you’re more likely to step in. People who truly participate are those who have learn empathy and social responsibility. They have a sense of justice and a self-confidence that they can make a difference.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Share it with someone you care about.
Carlo W. Paul
Cwpolo@aol.com |
Topic: Open Letter to Diaspora
