25247: Senou: (announce) Creating a Working Alliance in Metro Atlanta (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Senou <senou@yahoo.com>

Creating a Working Alliance in Metro Atlanta


Ladies and Gentlemen:
Metro Atlanta offers tremendous opportunities to
uplift Haiti in the world of nations and our presence
in this great metro is not going to be only in numbers
but in every facet of life in the area. We need to
interact with each other and with various ethnic
groups in the area. We need to organize activities
that are appealing to all sectors and invite others
and various ethnic groups to get involved. And
definitely, we need to get involved in the political
arena du milieu.

In order to do that, we need to create a base and this
can be done via a serious alliance among us in the
metro. Your sons, your daughters or even you may have
a desire to seek public office. They know clearly that
they cannot rely 100% on the Haitian Community to get
elected but they shall be able to rely on the
community support whether it is moral, financial and
other form of assistance. A step further; Haitian
Nationals seeking public office shall be able to rely
on Haitian-Americans within the continental of the
United States.  In order to accomplish that, after
creating an alliance among us in the metro, we shall
join with other groups throughout the United States.

We will never have a Haitian strong hold anywhere in
the metro like Miami and New York. Haitian Nationals
relocating in the metro are not new comers and they
are very different from the early refugees. They are
not a burden to the state and the taxpayers; most of
them are homeowners, which is a sign of stability.

We have seen the emergence of various
organizations/Associations such as AHAD, HASCO,
Camaraderie, Haitian Community Relations (HCR), the
Gwinett Community Center and so on; also we have seen
an increase of various churches in the metro. Today,
there are over 25 Haitians protestant churches, 7
Adventist churches and one Haitian Catholic Community.

We shall refrain from repeating the Miami and New York
mistakes in Atlanta where we have seen a repetition of
various groups that are doing the same thing. If we
are going to do something, we need to use the Jew’s
approach. Otherwise, it is not going to work. Take a
look at various events that took place within the
community: most of them have a poor attendance and
there is a reason for that: people living in the
community do understand the concept of teamwork, they
are tired of individualisms and they want to see
collaboration and alliance.

If a group is providing a service, join it or/and that
group shall open itself to others. Too many
organizations are not a sign of progress or democracy
but it is a sign of people of the same ethnic group
who refuse to collaborate among themselves. Today, if
another ethnic group wants to invite the Haitian
Community to take part in its event. Are we going to
be represented as a community or the group who has a
close relationship with that organization?

My friends, there is an urgency to create a working
alliance among us which shall be based on mutual
respect, skills and abilities.  We are living in the
metro but remember you are in Georgia a southern
state. The beauty of Miami and New York, each Haitian
has what I call: the community support. What happen
today if you are a victim of a police brutality,
discrimination or whatever; you cannot fight it alone,
you will need community support. My friends, numbers
mean something. They start listening to us after we
shake the Brooklyn Bridge and after we rallied over
250,000 Haitians in Miami demonstrating against FDA to
remove our name from the AIDS list.

Each of us has a certain skills and abilities and if
we put them together we can take this community to
another level. We have been using “I” for the past 200
years and it is counter productive. Today, we need to
change our approach, we need to start saying “We”; we
need to share glory and defeat together. We have seen
the tremendous progress of the Jews and the Cubans in
this great country; we need to imitate them.
Everywhere you go, you see a major Jew organization
and these folks provide quality service to their
people. Everywhere you go, you see 10 to 15 Haitian
organizations in the same city and none of them can
provide quality service to the needy Haitians and 99%
are a duplicate of an existing organization or
association.

As an ethnic group living in this great metro, we need
to make an attempt to establish a working Alliance
among us and ipso facto pave the way to a prosperous
Haitian community in the metro.

NB: This memo is being sent to you as a key person
living in the community; Upon agreeing to build the
Alliance, we together will put in place a steering
committee and work on the details.  We have
Protestants, Adventists, Catholics, Jehovah Witness,
Voodooist, Muslims and so on who are living in this
great community and I do know that Faith plays a major
role in most people life. If you receive this
invitation, you shall know that your faith is
respected 100%.

Phase 1:  Collecting all (Yes): 7 to 14 Days
Are you interested: Yes or No
And/or do you know anyone who might be interested? If
yes, please reply with his/her contact information to
joe_alfred@yahoo.com

NB: Very Important: as a key person you may have
people who may answer positively to your request;
please ask him/her to respond to you personally and we
will work diplomatically to bring down the barrier.

Joseph Alfred, Educator
P.O. BOX 1022
Douglasville, GA 30133
joe_alfred@yahoo.com




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