Our Mission As A People...The United Haitian Students of Florida

As I sat on my meager 30 minute lunch break attempting to relax a little before going back to the jungle of incensed victims of Florida’s health care system, I read our company principles posted in our break room. Three of which could very well be applied to the Haitian and Haitian American diaspora as it relates to the current relief efforts in Haiti and the Haitian community as a whole.

The first is we must take ownership, we must own it, and we must solve it. It has now been a little over a month since the devastating 7.0 earthquake hit the city of Port-au-Prince Haiti, and I find myself more involved than ever in the efforts that are taking place to help those in dire circumstances in Haiti. I only hope that you too as an individual and others in our community have been just as active and doing whatever it is that is necessary to help out with the efforts. The current circumstances of Haiti have forced us as a people to take ownership of Haiti’s dire circumstances. While we may live abroad and may not reside in Haiti, this disaster has forced us to face the destitute state that Haiti has been subject to for far too long. While we may have not directly contributed to Haiti’s poverty and may simply be products of an impoverished country; remaining silent and inactive in this ongoing movement to uplift Haiti does in fact make you a contributor of the lack of resources, poverty, and inability of a country to sustain its people. Irregardless of how or why Haiti is in its current circumstances, we as a people must begin to take ownership and help solve the issues that have afflicted our native brothers and sisters in Haiti for so long. How do you help solve? You help solve by taking your craft and bringing it back to Haiti. No skill or craft is too little to help those who literally do not have anything.

Is There Still Hope for the 1st Independent Black Republic of the World?

Haitians Want the US to "Take Over" Governing the Country

As I read the words of Jean-Louis Geffrard, a laborer who lives under a tarp in the crowded square of Port-au-Prince, "I want the Americans to take over the country. The Haitian government can't do anything for us," I found myself flabbergasted. After countless conversations with family and friends about the state of Haiti and unanimously agreeing that the Haitian people would rather die than have the United States take over the country I am well beyond beside myself by the comments of Geffrard and others on the streets of Port-au- Prince. Is this what the sound of desperation sounds like in the face of extreme calamity?

I am really baffled! For Haiti to be the first independent Black Country in the world, L’Ouverture is turning over in his grave at the sound of his people saying that they essentially no longer want to be independent. I really can not emphasize how bewildered I am at the sentiments of those who may feel this way. Any statements of the likes of Geffrard, if these statements are in fact true, are not progressive at all as it relates to the state of the Haitian people.  If the majority of the population are dissatisfied with their government than correct it, don’t simply hand over your country to foreign hands who have never had the interest of the people in mind and who may in fact have always played a role in the plight of Haiti.

I am beginning to think that we as people, who come from warrior stock are beginning to or have lost hope in our country and what Dessalines, L’Ouverture, Pétion and so many others fought and died for.

The People Speak Mondays

How would Dessalines and L'Ouverture respond to the US taking Control of Haiti?