Grogrenn, first let me just say compliments on your blog name

Relating to Lack of money and governance-part of the probl, Grogrenn, first let me just say compliments on your blog name. It made me smile.

On the serious side your analysis is right on target.

Often when I read the blogs, I find that there are so many great thinkers posting here. What you are saying goes directly to what I posted a long time ago. Today's Haitians no longer have that great self-respect and pride that the older generations had, that is why the fact that they are an occupied nation does not even seem to affect them. How sad that the white man has finally achieved its long term goal of "putting these 'gilded Negroes' back in their places, and proving to the world that we are indeed unable to self govern.

The new Haitians have no sense of their own history nor do they understand the trully great contribution to the modern world (as a social-scientist, I do not say "great" lightly).

On the other hand, Haitians from the older generation were sure of one thing--no one was better than a Haitian.

Many writers wrote about this in many different languages.

When all is said and done, that is all a people have, and it is only from that point that culture, society, wealth, and power are all built.

We as a people cowed down to no one. This same type of cultural pride and dignity is what enable the Chinese, the Japanese, the Turks and many other non-white nations that had been oppressed and impoverished by whites to reclaim the road to success.

Without that pride, Haiti is truly finished.

It is that pride that the new Haitians don't have. They don't have it because, whether they're in Haiti or elsewhere, they were not taught their history.

Instead, now the constant conversation is how best can we trash our ancestors.

I guess in the last 20 years the missionaries have finally done in Haiti what they could not do for the previous 100 something years since our independence--each us self hatred.

Many people have great ideas about how to make Haiti better.

What most of them don't realize is what happens to great ideas without great leadership; they stay at the level of ideas without ever developing, or they develop and only benefit a small group of people without really helping the nation as a whole.

We already have plenty of that in Haiti.

We have many foreigners and Haitians alike getting wealthy right now in Haiti while claiming that what they are doing is to help the Haitian people.

In the mean time the majority of the people are starving and uneducated.

Unless there's is a progressive government seriously monitoring the national progress and developments that benefit the country, than most of these individual ideas will end-up being self serving.

Thanks again for a great post.