[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
#3700: GU's Creative Survivalism - Antoine comments (fwd)
From: Guy Antoine <GuyAntoine@windowsonhaiti.com>
Of course, to people who are new or relatively new to the list,
this will appear like a new discussion, and they are entitled to
hear from fresh new voices... and I certainly welcome Gina's
(what a poet!)
Poincy, in my opinion, lives in a world inhabited not by people
with flesh and bone and blood, but only in a world of ideas
that do not have the proverbial snowball's chance of surviving
in hell. Though I often disagree with his logic, but have no
absolute pretense that my logic MUST be the right logic, I can
see clearly that he is a man who wants the best for Haiti, but
with an autocratic model of government and absolutist ideas
of how people properly behave. I wonder if it ever occurs to
Poincy that he could be wrong, but I do know that his chances
of making a mark on Haiti's future are certainly no greater than
mine. Poincy appears to see people only as abstract entities,
who ought to behave robotically for the good of their society,
like in an ant or bee colony. People are anything but.
Of course, when Haitians do not behave according to the
constructs of Poincy's logic, and his idealized system of
government, he labels them as behaving irrationally (what else?),
and often displays in his writings to the list an astounding lack
of compassion or respect for the individual, for the conditions
in which they live, for the choices they feel they have to make
because they somehow did not get trained in Poincy's rigid
school of thought of how people ought to behave.
In other worlds, in Poincy's world, there is no room for the
heart, only for reason and logic, and the certainty of his system
of logic, above all others, a system that he would not refrain
from imposing by all means necessary... as Papa Doc did
before him, and he often and brazenly chooses that government
reviled by most Haitians as a model of government to follow by
(of course) a well-meaning leader. But let me emphasize for
those of you who are new to the list that everything that I have
said here is based on Poincy's writings to the list over the last
several years. I do not know the man, I do not know where
he lives, I do not wish to disrespect him in the least. In fact, I
do not even know his real name. So, please do not read into
my comments a personal attack, which I could not even
formulate, were I inclined to do so. I often think to myself,
here's a man that I could not possibly disagree with more...
and yet, when someone had the wild fancy to propose a
government formed of Corbettland writers, Poincy seconded
the choice of my being the prime minister of that government!
What a laugh! Go figure... What a mystery that man really is!
(Of course, since he does not disfavor coups d'etat, this
might have been part of a wildly fanciful but machiavellian
plan! Thank God I have never wished to live the life of a
politician. I know that this is an uncommon Haitian trait,
but hey, there are exceptions!)
I think that Gina's poem sends us a significant message,
particularly to middle class Haitians who were born into a
world of privileges, sons and daughters of medical doctors
and what have you, who have never tasted what it really is
like to live like a peasant, and yet prominently profess our
expertise (as well as disdain) about those poor people who
are too lazy, who lack any sense of initiative, who are too
hungry to ever think beyond their stomachs, who do not
seem to have the capacity to behave rationally, who must
truly be a disgrace to the minority of their compatriots who
"think well", and would of course only do the right thing by
those idiots, if only they would let them.
Gina's poem sends the right message, but will they understand it?
Hmm... Just follow the threads.
Guy S. Antoine
Have a Proud Flag Day, Haiti!
http://windowsonhaiti.com