16189: Karshan: President Aristide's message on love during his birthday gathering at Palace (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

July 15, 2003/ President Aristide's 50th birthday

His Excellency President Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Words from an Open Heart

Message of thanks from His Excellency Mr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the
Haitian nation on the occasion of his 50th birthday

July 15, 2003 National Palace

Excellency Mr. Prime Minister, Distinguished members of the Ministerial
Cabinet, Honorable members of Parliament, Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the
Senior Branches of the Civil Service, Mr. the mayors, Mrs. Delegate of the West,
Dear friends from the private sector, Dear fellow citizens,

You can guess how I am touched. Please let me show this emotion through a
word of gratitude.

Thank you Mr. Prime Minister! Thank you to all of you! Thank you, 50 times
thank you! Before I tell you 2004 times thank you!

Athens' legislator, Solon, in the year 594 BC had divided the year in 12
months. July is one of those months, it is not mine only, it is yours, many of you
throughout the country who were born in July. And whatever month you were
born in, I consider that today, it is everyone's birthday, and that's why the
First Lady and I are as one to wish all Haitians, all my sisters, all my brothers
who are born from January to December, going through July:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS!

When the joy is so great, you can't keep it for yourself, you share it.

When a fish is born, it knows how to swim. When a spider is born, it knows
how to spin its web. When people are born, their heart is all ready to love.

It is a matter of knowing who we love, what we love, how we love and how we
can learn to love.

On this day of my birthday, like every year, I take the occasion to meditate,
to think and see how I can grow in love and wisdom. To grow in love is to
learn to love more, it is also to learn to be loved.

Since this morning, I am praying, I am thinking, and one of the pages of deep
meditation that leaves its mark on me is:

Love despite diversity, love through diversity!

Minouche and I are different from A to Z, like two twins are different from A
to Z. And when you are the Head of State, even though in politics, you talk
about law, about standards, about regulation, but not often about love, I can't
help but talk about love just like I can't help breathing because I can't
imagine that a human being can pretend to live without loving, without being
loved.

We say Haiti, like many other countries, is a mosaic, because of its great
diversity. We come from a continent, we come from many ethnic origins, and we
must manage this diversity day to day with love.

When I look at a small animal such as an ant, and I look at a bigger animal
such as the blue whale, which is the biggest animal on earth, it can measure up
to 33 meters long and can easily weight 150 tons. Despite the diversity
between the small ant and the blue whale, when you love, you love. You can love
both of them without wanting to bring the whale down to the ant's size.

Because the ant is small doesn't mean it isn't a great engineer, a great
architect. Ants build houses under the earth, they build tunnels, they build
streets, they build corridors. Ants organize themselves, yes indeed, there is a
police among them to look over them, to bring order.

They organize themselves. Some of them are the ones who go to the market. And
when ants find a black fly, they turn it into a milking cow, it gives them
milk to drink. And when scientists explain how ants take their two little
antennas to feel both sides of the black fly in order to make it give milk, you ask
yourself: But where is the corpse? A little bit like a person looks at me
wondering: But where is the corpse?

The policemen, starting from the head of the police, there are some who are
tall, like there are people who are short. No matter what the height is, when
we love, we love.

It's the same difference we see between a turtle who walks very slowly
compared to a swift, who can fly at 160 kilometers an hour. The bird that flies
faster than all birds.

It's the same difference we see between a turtle who walks very slowly and a
cheetah who walks on earth and when it walks, it walks fast. It can go up to
95 kilometers an hour.

In spite of the difference of speed between the turtle, the swift and the
cheetah, we can love them all. It depends on the heart, it depend on how we
cultivate love. And it's the same thing with a turtle and a mayfly. A mayfly lives
only a few hours. And the turtle is the animal that lives the longest time. It
can live up to 100 years old. They even say that the turtle can live up to
150 years old.

No matter how long it can live, some people like turtles, and others like
mayflies. It depends on the heart.

Today, while we explore the diversity that goes through our dear Haiti, I
tell myself that every day, I continue to love my country, to love the Haitian
man, the Haitian woman, us, Haitians, despite our differences, so that there is
a reconciliation beyond our differences that will allow our country to
depolarize and move forward.

A great man said : (for some people, he was a great man, for others, he
wasn't) "The heart of a Head of State is in his head". I chose to leave my heart
where it is. And to leave my brain at the heart of my head.

All this to accomplish my State duties without forgetting to love you and to
love you sincerely.

The two lessons I learned this morning, among many others, come from two
persons that I love, that I love very much. This morning, Minouche told me: "You
will get a phone call from your mother. Don't forget, if you don't hear from
her, call her. Because she may get in a traffic jam. Which was true, when she
asked me how I was, I answered her: I'm fine. She said: "I knew that's what you
were going to say."

"Even if you are not fine, you won't tell me you're not fine. I knew you were
going to say you're fine." She knows her child, she knows that. I tell her
I'm fine. And she added: "Hold on, you must remain fine, because people are
hungry and you need to give them courage. You must remain fine so that through all
the problems people are going through, you remain faithful to them."

I don't know how many times my mother talked to me about the need for me to
remain faithful to the people. She is from the people, she knows the people's
pain. And it's not because her son is President that she can't give him a
lesson. Even though it's the same lesson she gave me many times, I always listen
because it helps me continue to learn to love and learn to love in order to
fulfill my duty better.

A few minutes later, Mgr. Romélus was on the phone. He is in New York. He
just had an operation that went well, he is also fine, despite the operation. But
I wasn't expecting him to call me today, because we talked on the phone last
Friday. While I ask you to have a loving thought for a great man like Mgr.
Romélus who just had an operation, I will thank him in public for the lesson of
love he once again gave this morning on the phone. He told me: "Tonight, we'll
have a communion of prayer and love", because he will celebrate a little later
tonight.

All this to say that I continue to love in the university of love and you are
all my teachers. Whether you are a peasant, and you think you are small
compared to a person with a big diploma, like the small ant is little compared to
the big blue whale, you are my teacher also.

Whether you think that you are in the opposition, you are not in Lavalas, so
I don't have the same heart to love you, I will tell you again: you can be my
teacher also. And you are my teacher even when you criticize me in a way I
can't love. Because then, you give me the occasion never to cultivate hatred, but
to listen to you respectfully without necessarily welcoming what you are
telling me.

So, in a certain way, my sisters and brothers from the opposition, you are
among those who can teach me what I ignore and those who give me another
occasion to learn more. In this sense, today, I tell you, friends and brothers from
everywhere, in the Tenth Department as in Haiti: Thank you form the bottom of
my heart. For the gifts received, for the calls received, for the calls that
were made but that I couldn't answer because there were too many. Thank you for
your understanding. Thank you for your patience. To everyone in the country
who would like to meet me in person to wish me a Happy Birthday, I say thank
you. And even though I don't know everyone who is far away, the minute you think
about me, you may think that I think about you too like a person I will always
want to hear, like my mother asked me to do so I can do better, so I can love
you more because the more you love, the easier it is to give yourself and to
serve.

It isn't a speech, it is the heart that opens up to speak. And the heart
chooses to end with two words, two words that I write at the plural:

Thank you, Love!