A beautiful funeral doesn't guarantee heaven.

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On January 1st, 1804, Haiti proclaimed its independence.

The Haitian Revolution may have been the only successful slave revolution in history.

However, the successes of the Haitian Revolution were short lived.

They had to pay the French millions of gold coins for the land and the right to be left alone.

What a beautiful funeral this revolution actually was. As the sounds of celebration faded into the Caribbean they were quickly replaced by the returning cries of injustice.

Dessalines began a campaign of genocide known as the French Massacre.

On the 22nd of April, 1804, when Dessalines believed he had succeeded in killing all of the white men and women and children who remained in Haiti, he exaltedly declared, "If I die at this moment I will go to my grave happy.

We have avenged our brothers."
The Haitian Revolution was ultimately a failure because the climate of oppression and exploitation the Haitian people so valiantly fought to destroy persisted far beyond independence.

Many of the policies implemented by Haiti's past and present leaders were motivated by greed and self interest.

The greed of Haiti's rulers had devastating consequences for the nation.

In Paradise Lost, Girard highlights the negative impact of Haiti's leaders:"When the war ended, Haiti's rulers could have turned Haiti into a model of individual freedom in the New World.

Instead, they maintained an oppressive labor code on the plantations that was not abandoned until the 1820s.

(Dessaline and Christophe) The corvee (temporary forced labor on public projects) and the restavek system (child slavery) survived into the twentieth century and beyond." Source: Girard, Philippe.

Paradise Lost: Haiti's Tumultuous Journey from Pearl of the Caribbean to Third World Hot Spot. New York: Polgrave Macmillan, 2005. (52) Girard, 54.

The horrors of colonialism and slavery have permanently permeated Haitian culture, and no amount of revenge have yet succeeded in healing the wounds of the nation.

The horrors of slavery undeniably warranted retaliation.

But do the black majority nowadays in Haiti, have a right to avenge themselves against the minority elite by words or deeds.

They have been stealing from the national coffers for decades, while the elites have been working for their money.

Let us reverse the situation for an instant.

Do the minority elite have the right to avenge themselves in this century for the wrongs committed against them by the black majority for decades.

This constant bickering about the elites of Haiti and the past is senseless and useless.

Educated men and women should never stoop this low on this blog.

Claude, May 28 2008, 6:50 PM

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