16248: Senou: Haiti needs a friend (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Senou <senou@yahoo.com>

Haiti needs a friend

My friends you are your own friend and your own enemy.
Whatever you don’t want to make public must be between
you and God, anything shares with one or more people
may comeback to hunt you.

You don’t know when people in your inner circle are
going to rise against you; therefore, the best way to
deal with anyone is to treat everyone as a potential
enemy. You hear that often, my best friends betrayed
me since when and how many friends can you have during
your lifetime? Maximum Two if you are lucky, usually
one; and that person is not your wife or husband. Al
Collins was a truth friend of O.J. Simpson, he put his
life and career in jeopardy to save OJ, and this is a
test of good friendship.

Yes, OJ helped him out but how many times you help
people who are not merciful. If you are in difficulty
today, involve in something that can make others look
bad to represent you publicly, who can you rely on?
How many are going to say: Oops! Mwen te wè sa pou li,
mwen wè mouché vin-n nan ti bouk-la, lap maché sou twa
pye.  A friendship must be tested and he/she must pass
your own test before adding him/her to that
confidential list; make sure you read between the
lines and you have to be certain before making that
call and when you make that call; husband, wife, and
children are no longer a priority, that ultimate
friend will come to rescue you, will do the impossible
to assist you. This is why husband, wife and children
do no interfere with a truth friend. Again, Al Collins
left his wife and children behind to save OJ. When you
reexamine the OJ saga you see the naissance of what a
truth friend is all about. Do you have one?

How many times you see families take distance with
their own brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, father
and mother because they do not want you to tarnish the
name of the family. Do you have a friend? Do you have
a reliable friend who will put everything at risk to
rescue you or to salvage your career?
We are discussing a sensitive matter at a personal
level, now let’s go to a higher level or national.

Does Haiti have a friend? Does Haiti have a truth
ally? The Haitians people have been suffering for
quite some time and today the poor Haitians are
enduring the worst case of poverty ever sustained by
human kind. No country in the world can mess up with
the State of Israel without facing up with the United
States and the U.S. will do the impossible to protect
that Jewish state make no mistake about it. Who will
protect Haiti? Who will assist Haiti? Does Haiti have
a friend? I don’t think a friend will let you die with
hunger.

What about us Haitian nationals who are living in the
Diaspora, do we consider ourselves friends of Haiti or
a bunch of “appatrides” I refrain from saying that we
are brothers and sisters since we don’t act like one
and we cannot say that we are friends of Haiti
neither. How can we Haitians who are living in the
Diaspora stand and watch our brothers and sisters
dying with hunger, how come we stand and watch Haiti
becoming the poorest country in the Caribbean Sea?

During the Afghan War, we have seen the U.S. army
dropped food and bomb at the same time; during the
latest Iraqi War which is still on going, after
clearing the mines, we saw several ships unloaded tons
of food and goodies that were distributed freely to
the people. It is truth that Haiti has a political
dilemma that will not going to be resolved over night
but we Haitians who are living in the U.S. and Canada
or in the Diaspora have a duty to assist the Haitian
people in Haiti.  We are not fortunate to have the
State Department sending a fleet of planes and ships
loaded with food to our people, but we can do it.

We got together many times to make others respect our
identity, our name and our kids. We organized in the
late 80’s the biggest protest in our history against
FDA to remove our name from the AIDS’ list. At this
time, we saw Haitians from all classes, black, white,
yellow, blue, silver, poor and rich; intellectual and
illiterate, Boat and Boeing people gotten together to
force FDA to remove our name and it was done.
Our motto says: Union Fait la Force; my friends,
together we are powerful, alone or acting on
individual basis, we are weak.

I congratulate all of you who took part in this
historical protest.

Today, we need to join hands again; those who are
going to say that Haitians cannot stand each other,
Haitians are too divisive, be careful. Who forced FDA
to remove our name officially from that list?
Foreigners and the friends of Haiti helped us but it
was our initiative.  Who forced that firm to remove
that negative quote from “How Estella got her groove
Back” our friends and us but it was our initiative.
Others will help you, others will assist you but you
must be willing to start it.

Every single nation has its own dirty laundry.  We are
all different. If you go to a place and see everyone
always in agreement: something is wrong.

By nature Haitians are good and very sensitive people
and they don’t like seeing their children, their good
friends dying with hunger; they will help you out.

It is not the time to pay attention to divisive
individual since some people make their living on
division. I want each you to focus on good stuffs that
we have done together.  We were not there in 1803, but
we heard that our ancestors had made an Historical
Union at Arcahais and 6 months later we won a decisive
victory against the biggest army in the world and ipso
facto Haiti become the second independent nation in
this continent.

 A few months ago, we saw a new type of disease in the
World call SARS, we see a lot of damage control and
countries were removing from that list despite of
existing case. In the late 1970’s and early 80’s, some
countries accused us of bringing AIDS in the world.
It was a blow to the Haitian Economy, the Haitian
tourist industry collapsed overnight. Haitian students
were kick out from school, Haitian people were denied
Apartment, our blood was not accepted, some Haitian
nurses and those in the medical fields were not
allowed to touch some patients. We were living a HELL
life at that time. During a blood drive campaign that
was organized by the Red Cross at a catholic school
located in the heart of Little Haiti, that
organization has refused to accept the blood of
Haitian students. This was enough.

At that time we were a bunch of serious Haitian
college student in the US who determined to make a
stand. Humiliating Haitian kids is not allowed today,
tomorrow and forever and we organized the biggest
Haitian protest in our history. It was peaceful and
the world has seen the Haitian scholar in action. We
manage to bring White, black, Latino and everyone else
together and we caught FDA by surprised and within
days the name of Haiti was remove from that list.

This was another May 18 and that May 18 was not done
by Haitians only others did help us out.  During the
Period of slavery when Sonthonax gave us the fusils
this was a hint to tell you that he was against
slavery. As said eloquently Janvier: “ Nul ne peut
être jugé que par ses pairs”, yes, he helped us get
our independence. Whatever, you are going to do,
people from the inside must assist you; otherwise, you
will fail.

I hope this new generation can understand and pay
tribute to the hard work the people in the 1980’s had
done to make our lives better in this country.

Now we need to team up one more time to lift Haiti, we
need to use the same strategy that our ancestors had
done in 1803 and our big brothers and big sisters had
done in the 1980’s throughout the world. We need to
become friends of Haiti and ipso facto assist Haitians
in Haiti. You had seen live on TV Haitians kids and
pregnant women jumping off the boat to take advantage
of the wet/dry feet policy last year.  All of them
were returned, and this was wrong then and now.

Today our country is becoming slowly another Ethiopia
in the Caribbean Sea and we can do something to
prevent it. Other countries will come to assist us but
we have to start it. The Haitian in the Diaspora can
rent Boat and ship food and medicine that should be
distributed freely to the people for a short period of
time and I believe this will force the Haitians
politician to change their strategy in the handling of
this current political crisis. If the Haitian in
Montreal, NY, and Miami send large shipment of foods
to the needy, other countries in the region will
review and change their policy toward Haiti.  But they
see that we don’t care.

We need to come right now to the rescue of the Haitian
people, if you say that we have to wait until the
political crisis is resolved; well my friends, this
crisis has been with us since 1804 and it won’t be
resolved anytime soon. In the meantime, our brothers
and sisters are dying with hunger and you can do
something about it. At this present moment, we need to
keep these people alive, Hungry and desperate people
cannot think straight. So, we need to put them on life
support until we can develop a strategy to make them
selves sufficient.

Today Haiti has no season and no one celebrates the
end or the beginning of the New Year since everything
remains on a still position. We can talk about
Christmas in summer or Thanksgiving in August. Back
home, each day is the same day, each season is the
same season and the people are waiting for us who are
living outside to come to their rescue.

The Haitians in Miami, in NY and Montreal shall put
aside their political affiliation and see what they
can do for their brothers and sisters who are starving
in Haiti a small country located a few miles from
South Florida.  Haitian people, I don’t care where you
stand, I don’t give a … about your political
affiliation, I’m watching you from distance to see if
you are going to deprive Haitians in Haiti the
opportunity to celebrate their 200 years of freedom in
peace. Haiti the first Black Country in the region is
going to be the only country in the world that will
not capitalize on its bicentennials and this is sad.
We could have used this golden opportunity to
jumpstart the country, but instead we are focusing on
small details. In 1976, we saw Americans everywhere
jamming up to celebrate their bicentennials, T-Shirt,
monuments were built, tourists floated U.S. shores but
there were problems between black and white in the
U.S., the economy was not that good, people were still
recovering from Vietnam. But the Americans were united
and jumpstart their economy.

Today I urge Haitians in Haiti to put aside their
indifferences and enter into a historical compromise
to salvage what we have left. You can find thousand of
reasons to prevent a political compromise; you can
come up with thousand of excuses to walk away. But
this eternal Haitian crisis is not going to be
resolved without a compromise, without some
sacrifices.  Remember Toussaint Louverture, he was
doing “good” for himself but he put everything in
jeopardy to free you from slavery. Remember Daniel
Fignolé, he accepted the presidency with full
knowledge that he was going to be sent to exile but he
did so to prevent another occupation. If we are
talking about popularity, no one has matched yet his
popularity. Remember it does not have to be you and
sometimes one can be more effective in working in the
back seat.
---------------------  Joseph Alfred, Educator

Flash!!!  Flash !!!  Flash !!!

Symposium One in Atlanta

THEME: The Haitian Presence in the U.S. and the kick
off of the bicentennials Independence of Haiti and its
forcible impact on Haiti

WHEN: Saturday, October 4, 2003, from 3:00 PM – 10:00
PM

WHERE:  South Cobb Recreation Center, 875 Six Flags
Dr, Austell, GA 30168

In that regard, please feel free to invite others to
the symposium. If you do invite someone or a group,
please request that he or she sends an RSVP to Mr.
Alfred via hcrinfor@hcronline.org or by calling
770-438-0190.

Joseph Alfred, Educator
P.O. BOX 334
Smyrna, GA 30081

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