Linda, I am one of those Haitians who lived in Haiti in the...

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Reply to Msg 10080

Linda,
I am one of those Haitians who lived in Haiti in the 1970's. But what I remember most about that time (granted I was a child) is that all everyone ever dreamed of was the day they could leave Haiti to go live abroad.

Over the years, that dream has been realized for many of us. The sad result is that in our rush to escape an intolerable political and/or economic space, we created a brain drain in Haiti.

Those who are the wealthy in Haiti today are either people who lived abroad, working under terrible conditions, saving all their money to return home. Or, they are people who earned their money by dubious (criminal) means.

The old money has long disappeared from the scene.

However, we should not overly romanticize our past either.

The old political elite sat by and allowed us to learn Haitian history in a textbook in which history ceased to exist roughly around 1957. The economic and political elite encouraged a system which divided the country by language.

They made Haiti a country where poor people could not access their own government because they could not understand its written laws. And, when things began to get tough, those wonderful elites took the first opportunity to bail out on Haiti.

What could we expect the end result to be other than what it is?

We should also be honest and admit our own culpability.

Those of us who can remember when things were better should admit that we are also failing Haiti.

We are talking about the boorish nouveau riche from a safe distance.

Why aren't we taking the responsibility to go back and reclaim it?

Pierre, August 1 2008, 9:13 PM

Topic: ELECTRICITE EN HAITI

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