7725: JBAristide on Brain Power (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <maxblanchet@worldnet.att.net>

1.   Aristide stresses the light of brainpower in address to Haitians before
summit


Aristide stresses the light of brainpower in address to Haitians before
summit
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 20, 2001

Text of report by Haitian Signal FM radio on 20 April; passages within
double oblique strokes in French

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was elected on 26 November
2000, left Haiti yesterday. He flew to Quebec, Canada, where he will take
part in the third Summit of the Americas.

In his message to the nation before he left the country yesterday
afternoon - and contrary to the statements by a member of his delegation,
who said that the president would talk about cultural aspects of the
continent - Aristide said that he was going to defend Haitian interests
throughout the summit. The head of state took the opportunity to call on the
opposition political parties once again for dialogue. He urged the Haitian
people to stand fast and to remain calm in order to overcome the various
difficulties they are facing. On the subject of the Summit of the Americas,
we invite you to listen to the statements made by President Aristide:

[Aristide - recording] //Dear ladies and gentlemen: On behalf of the first
lady and the prime minister of the Republic of Haiti, I have the honour of
addressing you in a cordial, [word indistinct] and patriotic salute before
our departure for Quebec, where the third summit of the heads of state and
government will take place. There, I shall be deeply united with all of you.
There, I shall be guided by your intelligence. The power of your
intelligence will guide us to defend the cause of the country. Indeed, the
weight of our skin is two times heavier than that of our brains.//

If we put somebody's skin one side of a scale and his or her brain on the
other side of the scale, the scale will show that the skin is twice as heavy
as the brain. However, the brain has much more power than the skin.

Haitian people, the power of your brain and the power of your intelligence
will guide you during my absence. When there are problems, when there are
difficulties, solutions are usually found thanks to this power of
intelligence. I salute this power. I salute your brains. I salute your
intelligence.

The more people there are somewhere, the more light you have to look for
solutions. If you look at the Third World countries which most resemble
ours, you will see that there are many people in the cities, and so many
brains. From 1950 to 1990, there are five times as many people and so five
times more brains living in the cities. That has happened in Port-au-Prince,
too. That has happened in Cite Soleil, where there are many people and many
brains which are looking for the light that will allow peace to be
established in both our minds and stomachs.

I count on you and you can count on me, too. This light is guiding me. My
light will guide you, too. From 1950 to 1990 the number of people in cities
in countries that most resemble ours has increased so much that the
population increased from about 286 million to 1.515 billion people, thus
1.515 billion brains. May the lights of all these brains allow us to find a
solution to our problems. Many people are living in Cite Soleil, and it is
difficult to reach. I count on you who are living in Cite Soleil, I count on
you who are living in Cite Soleil so that the light of your brains can help
you find the road to peace so that you are not involved in confrontations
with one another.

All of you who are living in the countryside, you are intelligent. You who
are living in the cities, you are intelligent. May the light of this
intelligence that comes from your brain allow you to find power during my
absence to resolve peacefully any difficulties that may befall you.

May the dialogue continue. May all the opposition political parties and we,
who are part of the government, keep letting the light of the brain guide us
so that dialogue can lead us in mutual respect to the political solution
that will bring an economic solution.

Source: Signal FM Radio, Port-au-Prince, in Creole 1230 gmt 20 Apr 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

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