19613: Nlbo: Haiti's changes begin in the Haitian mind (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nlbo@aol.com

If we are ready to build a better nation, a great nation, changing
governments or individual leaders is not the solution. We need a second revolution, a
Social Cultural Revolution that will erase all the mental slavery illness that
causes so many of us Haitians to hate one another.”

This is an excerpt that someone under the name of Kwame  sent to
windowsonhaiti. I would like have his permission to use his this quote to frame my
perception on Haiti’s crisis. My living and being active  in the Boston Haitian
community since I was a teenager helps me synchronize the root of this chaotic
crisis in Haiti.  I call it “an episode of a 200 year saga”. One doesn’t have to
go to Haiti to have a sense of the behaviors, the patterns , the mindset set
that put Haiti where she is now. I firmly believe  anti-intellectualism, lack
of interest in learning, reading or the printing world, dependency on others,
lack of  self confidence or trust on other Haitians, lack of communication
among ourselves, the overt tendency to always “feel good”,and lack of vision are
among fundenmental causes rooted on what put us where we are today.  By being
too emotional in a rational culture, once we “feel good,” many of us don’t
strive for anything else. We don’t see the number of our Haitian men in jail,
the number of Haitian children as black are failing in schools or in national
exams, for instance the MACS in Massachussets. We are attuned to everything that
makes us “feel good” even though it is bad for us. Thus, many of us don’t go
anywhere, especially the “ leaders” or read anything that would help us
realize  there are a lot of problems in the black communities. We are happy and
feel good where we are. One can’t imagine how many Haitians have said they
don’t care about what’s going on Haiti today.

Listen to the radios, the clergy members, try to give most Haitians something
to read, mail him/her a letter, try to talk about continuous learning,  or
have  educational programs for the youth; talk about vision, long term planning,
set goals, being involved in this country’ s civic life, learn about this
country’s history and culture. Examine the response, the attitudes that one gets;
observe most Haitians in the presence of a foreigner vs. a Haitian like
him/herself. After you have done all theses observations, multiply that by 2 to 8
million people behaving in those manners over a 200 year period, think of what
you get . L’histoire continue...

Bless, love, and love one another forever. Support each other and consider
how you fight self hatred or promote self love in your ways everyday.

The last  paragraph with some minor editings is  from another writer mayina
in windowsonhaiti. I hope he/she did not mind.

I hope as the world is looking at us, and I have been writing for the last
two years, we in Boston can come around the table, to build the community, to
have the second generation, and the Haitian brains who are drained from Haiti
involved in the Boston Haitian community.    What I saw today in the screen is
not the first joyful manifestations in our history. We have been celebrating in
the streets for the last two hundred years. But Haitians of all parties have
not come yet around the table of dialogue and communication. Though living in
a pluralistic society, many of us Haitians have not yet seen what other
cultures are doing, or heard common adage, such as “agree to disagree”.  We need to
come to terms with our ego and who ever the leaders are, be it in the
churches that see most Haitians, or the media whom many Haitians listen to, we can
not let this moment go by without coming together around the table of solidarity
and show the world that like Miami, New York, Long Island we in Boston can
come together.
NL