How about Du Bois's talented 10--for Haitians. As I do not...

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How about Du Bois's talented 10--for Haitians.

As I do not believe in appropriating already existing models, I use Du Bois only as a lead to say that I think we should start our own Think Tank, but one that would be structured to meet Haitian needs.

Our group should not have 10 but 12. That is simply because, when Du Bois came up with his "10" the African-American population was not divided like ours is. They basically all had the same problems.

We in Haiti are divided into four (4) groups.

The peasant/rural people, the town/city poor masses, the small but powerful affluent (well-off) top tier, and those like me, living in limbo between two countries, the one I love and the one were I have had to make a life for myself due to the political instability in our country--the diaspora.

So our Think Tank would have three (3) smart, but mostly WISE individuals representing the needs of each group.

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB OF THOSE IN THAT GROUP WOULD NOT BE REPRESENTING THEIR TIER BUT PUSHING FORTH FOR THE OVERALL WELLBEING OF THE COUNTRY AS ONE UNIT. The individuals from each group would not have to be from the same fields, but instead would complement each other.

For example, you could have one or two attorneys that are experts in different aspects of the law. You could have one or two engineer, one or two cultural specialist who is able to deal with not only the internal cultural issues, but who knows enough about other cultures as to be able to gage how to get them to meet our needs, or what might turn them off from us. We should have one or more economist.

Some of our talented members should be able to speak other languages fluently (and I don't mean what some Haitians like to think of as fluent).

I mean that these individuals should already be in the habit of giving long lectures or speeches in the other language.

A person representing us in France should speak French fluently--not what many Haitians pretend to be French.

A person representing us in the US should speak English flawlessly, so on and so forth.

That does not mean that you go get some air head who cares nothing about the country or its people just so that you can have someone who speaks well. The person should have another major skill besides being a good PR mouth piece.

The most important thing to remember about building a coalition of talented people is that these people need to be able to work together.

The Haitian ego (and I hate to say this the Haitian male ego) tends to overshadow every group's ability to constructively debate things.

There are also hot heads and over-enlarged egos in our female population, so the idea is to get people together that can put their own agendas aside and put the country first.

Finding those qualities in the Haitian population will be the group's hardest task. And the first question that would need to be answered is how to fund this group, which in other countries would be funded by the national government or those of the elite classes who want their people as a whole to strive forward.

We know that the elite group in Haiti is selfish to the point of stupidity.

They are to stupid to know that to protect their own interest they must also, at least partly, protect the national interest.

(For those who are going to start yelling at me about why I keep calling that group stupid, let me tell you now that my family and friends are part of that affluent group and so I know from personal contact with many of them how stupid they are. So don't bother with the offensé responses).

Linda, November 7 2007, 10:44 AM

Topic: Haitians from everywhere unite!!!

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