17593: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel-Miami's Haitians to Mark Bicentennial (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami's Haitians to Mark Bicentennial

By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
Posted December 31 2003, 2:56 AM EST

MIAMI -- Waiting to pass through a security gate at Miami airport, Pierre
Rosier described the mixed emotions among his countrymen as Haiti prepares
to celebrate the 200th anniversary of its independence from France.

Some people were excited, he said, but others were frustrated by the
country's struggles with AIDS, poverty and political instability.

"Because no matter how good the party is, they just have the same problems
when they wake up in the morning," Rosier said Tuesday as he returned home
to Port-Au-Prince.

Many questioned whether the bicentennial celebration planned for Thursday
was appropriate.

"The bicentennial should have been a great moment, one of our highest
points," said Raymond Joseph, who publishes the Brooklyn-based Haiti
Observateur. "But considering what's going on in the country right now, if
we go to celebrate, it's giving support to a repressive regime."

Haiti declared its independence on Jan. 1, 1804, after a slave revolt led by
Toussaint Louverture against the French.

Over two centuries, political turmoil and economic despair have plagued the
country. Most recently, Haitians have been divided between support and
contempt for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was first elected in 1990
after decades of dictatorship, deposed in a military coup, and re-elected in
2000.

As events for the bicentennial were planned, even the words used to describe
them became an issue. Organizers in Miami, in the middle of the nation's
biggest concentration of Haitians, insisted on calling the events
commemorations instead of festivals because of the strife, said Marc Paul, a
bicentennial planner.

"We're not going to dance. We're not going to party. We're going to
commemorate," Paul said. "We're going to bring our Bibles and pray for
Haiti."

The 2000 census puts the number of New Yorkers of Haitian descent at
118,000, while Florida is home to more than 233,000. Advocacy groups say the
numbers are higher.

But others, such as Floz La Combe, eagerly anticipated the celebration. The
22-year-old Palm Beach Community College student said as she waited to board
her flight to Haiti on Tuesday that she wanted to be part of history on New
Year's Day.

"I have family in Haiti. I go to school up here but I couldn't miss this,"
La Combe said Tuesday. "It's too important."

Monsignor Guy Sansaricq, pastor of St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church in
Brooklyn, a predominantly Haitian-American parish, said Haitian-Americans
are saddened by the country's troubles, but the occasion needs to be marked.

Jean Jean-Pierre, musical director of the orchestra Kiskeya, which will be
part of a celebration at New York's Carnegie Hall, said the bicentennial is
a reason to rejoice.

"The children of Haiti are contributing to societies all over the world.
That's enough for me to celebrate," he said.      Email story
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Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

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