UHSF presents: I AM…Interviews A FEMINIST MALE ACTIVIST

UHSF presents: I AM…Interviews

A FEMINIST MALE ACTIVIST

Christian Guerrier

                                                                    

In a male dominated society, it is not often that we as women find men who know the true worth and value of a woman. It is not every day that you come across a conscious man who realizes how much power lies within a woman. Essentially we women are life for it is through their wombs through which life exist and is brought forth into the world. So to hear a man refer to himself as a  feminist catches one off guard; let alone arouses one’s thought process, wanting to know more behind the philosophy of this feminist male. One such man who deems himself a radical feminist is Christian Guerrier.

Born in raised in Haiti by a single hard working mother, Guerrier was a very quiet yet high observant little boy. Raised by a single mother who as he puts it “made miracles everyday during the most difficult period of political unrest in Haiti to feed , clothes and educate {him} me” she became his life superwoman. Realizing at the age of 13, that his mother could neither read nor write at his requests for her to sign a form for him; he asked her why was that she could not do what so many take for granted. As relayed to him by his mother, her father deemed it a her job to take care of the home and cook and clean while her brothers were provided with her fathers blessing to attend school. Guerrier’s mother as described by him  “a natural rebel” abandoned her fathers home in the countryside, at 12 years of age and began a life independent to that of her father’s. Self-determined and self- reliant Guerrier’s mother created a life of her own, “working  tirelessly to make sure her {children} were fed, educated and safe”. These were the beginning of Guerrier’s feminist views and beliefs only igniting the flame within him to move and organize in mobilizing the world, specifically Haiti, in acknowledging the power of a woman.

My Op-ed on the Haiti Quake

 Courtesy of Ms. France Francois

AU asked me to write an op-ed on Haiti's recent quake for our department:

Relief. Renew. Rebuild.

By: France Francois

As the news coverage of Haiti wanes, Haiti should not ever again be reduced to a talking point: “The poorest nation in the Western hemisphere”. The millions of members of the Haitian Diaspora here in the U.S. only know it by one catch phrase: home. Thus, there are no words that I know of that can vividly capture the emotion I felt when word of the earthquake in Haiti reached me. Even the Creole word shagren which is used to describe a sorrow so deep that it causes one to wither away, cannot properly capture the feeling I felt at that moment. Stunned, I pulled the car over to the side of the road to digest what I’d just been told. Suddenly, I felt like the weight of more than 200 years of freedom, triumph, and tribulation pressing down on my chest. I felt inexplicably endangered; as if, by the stroke of a pen or the stirring of a strong wind, all my people were dying.

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?

 

Vive Tout Le Jour Dans Votre La Vie Avec Ayiti Sour Ta Couer

Just when you think that your tear ducts can no longer produce any more tears, you find yourself crying at the circumstances of our homeland and our people. We find ourselves asking God why and wonder if the small island of Haiti where so many of us call home can take anymore...for many these past 18 days have been hell as we've been left in complete disbelief of the 7.0 earthquake that  devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince. Despite the shock that many of us are still in we have summed up the courage to continue life not as we lived prior to 01.12.10, but have continued our journey with a new found purpose. Setting our tears aside and replacing them with hope, the hope that so many of the victims of the earthquake may have so very little of, we find ourselves donating money, clothing, food, water and medical supplies to those in need in Haiti. Some of  us have even found ourselves working relentless, as if trying to spare the lives of those with very little hope who are still under the rubble two weeks after the earthquake, volunteering during our spare time and partaking in fund raising events to help allocate the necessary funds to help alleviate Haiti's despair. Despite other's feelings of hopelessness, NOW is not the time to let our tears and feelings be in vain, yet this is the time to be PROACTIVE about what has occurred in Port-au-Prince. Don't let the 111,000+ lives that we lost be in vain, yet let us unite as one, commemorating their lives. For so long we as a people have forgotten about unity and the strength in our numbers that 01.12.2010 serves as a wake up call to our purpose in life...AYITI... a wake up call reminding us that we can no longer sleep on our people.

Vive Tout Le Jour Dans Vous La Vie Avec Ayiti Sour Votre Couer

In Honor of the NEW HAITI

The Haitian Movement: Fundraise for the cause, make aware, and make it national!

There is a need for a movement. It begins with a single idea; a Hatian youth program that gives Haitian American students the opportunity to return home, know their culture and know themselves. This summer, Adrien Tofighi, a Peach member visited the University of Fondwah. Lawrence Gonzalez, President of UHSF also visited Haiti. Both came back with a renewed sense of determination to help Haiti. Adrien created a fanpage to help bring awareness to a one of a kind University that holds many promises for Haiti;

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=149581120521&ref=ts.