a1096: Re: 2004, Talk with Writer Emile Ollivier (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: karioka9@cs.com

2004 Initiative Launched; Hosts Meeting with Writer Emile Ollivier

Brooklyn, March 2, 2002.  On the eve of the bicentennial of Haiti's
independence in 2004, a number of concerned Haitians, who want to help their country move forward, have launched a new group, Initiative 2004, to
challenge the nation's conscience on the meaning of that independence and on the fate of Haiti today.

"How do we account as a people for the past 200 years of depredation? How do we account for Haiti's slow descent from the height of achievement into what is now an intolerable situation for the majority of its people?" asks the sociologist Carolle Charles, speaking on behalf of the new group.

Initiative 2004 members are actively debating a whole range of similar
questions. Who betrayed the Haitian revolution?  How can Haiti preserve its
independence beyond 2004? How best to celebrate the upcoming Bicentennial:
with official pageantry, or through a national debate over the nation's past, present and future? Is there a way forward for Haiti?

In order to facilitate the public debate over these vital questions,
Initiative 2004 will host a series of conferences and community meetings
throughout the next two years.  The first of these public forums will take
place on the campus of Medgar Evers College, 1650 Bedford Avenue, in the East Flatbush/Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, on Saturday, March 9, at 5 p.m. The featured guest for this event will be the award-winning Haitian
writer Emile Ollivier, who will answer questions on his work and on the
meaning of 2004.

Born in Haiti in 1940, Emile Ollivier is a writer of exile.  His celebrated
novel Mère Solitude (Mother Solitude) won the Jacques Roumain Prize in 1985. He was awarded the literary prize of the Journal of Montreal in 1987 for the novel La Discorde aux Cent Voix, and the Grand Prix Littéraire de Montreal in 1991 for a collection of short stories, Passages.  He has also authored or co-edited works on literacy and immigration, the politics of development, and the ideology of "noirisme" in Haiti.

Initiative 2004 is a group in formation.  It is open to anyone committed to a meaningful dialogue, to anyone who wants to see Haiti move forward in the
21st century.  Please contact us at (718) 284-2086 or by writing to
Initiative2004@yahoo.com.