#5271: What have you done for Haiti lately? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Sabine Albert <sabinea@yahoo.com>

What have you done?

This seems to be a reoccurring theme in the posts of
the last few weeks.   Well to those who continuously
ask this question I say “What’s it to you and will
conditions change once you find out what I have or
have not done?”

An illustrious Haitian reporter once asked me where
I've been, and what I had I ever done because he had
never heard of me therefore I must be one whose
involvement in politics is limited to my livingroom. 
My reply to him was that it is within my right to
define my political involvement and the manner that I
choose to express it. 

Does this mean that I begin to exist only when this
individual becomes aware of me?  Does it mean that my
opinion is less valid because it takes place in my
living room or my bathroom?  

It's arrogant of many on the list to presume that
their knowledge is the sum total of all occurrences in
Haiti.  What an elitist view point! Most Americans who
participate in politics do so every 4 years by voting.
 When they gather to show their discontent over the
work of an incumbent it would be absurd if someone
asked them what had they done to earn the right to
voice an opinion.  

It is my right as a Haitian national to voice my
discontent.  As long as there is freedom of speach
there will be dissent, and a government without
critism is dictatorship.  Let’s not forget that in a
democracy, the government derives its power from the
people, not from God, not from a particular class or a
group of fanatical followers. 

So I don’t HAVE to do anything about IT.   That’s
Lavalas' job.  That's why they were voted in office.  


But I reserve the right to do something if I choose to.

=====
Sabine Albert

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