Feb 7th
Jean Charles
Thanks’ God we Have February 7th!
By Jean H Charles
The Republic of Haiti has several pivotal dates that shape its history and national identity: the day of independence celebrated on January 1st, the battle of Vertieres remembered on November 18, and the creation of the National flag commemorated on May 18.
Luckily, we have also February 7th, the date the Haitian people boot out the Duvalier regime from the seat of power after 33 years of dictatorship.
The Haitian people have a capacity to endure injustice for a long time. It took them four centuries (400 years) to get rid of the white colon that kept them in slavery in an inhuman and abject condition. And yet they were the first and the last one to undertake such epic stories. It took them thirty-three (33) years to get rid of the Duvalier and another thirty (30) years of endurance of illiberal governments that rest on corruption, ill governance and plain theft of public assets.
Thank God February 7 is at the horizon. Will it be more of the same! Or this time will the Haitian people rise up and boot out the gangsters and the politicians that sustain them. A wind of hope is blowing all over the world:
- in Iran the people are rising up against the Kowmini that govern the country for the last thirty years.
-In Venezuela the arrestation of Maduro by the Americans on charge of exporting cocaine to the United States gives the Venezuelans to bring about regime change.
-In Bulgaria the Gen Z generation forced the Prime Minister to resign after weeks of street protest to complain about corruption and ill government.
President Jovenel Moise did not care respecting the fatidic date of February 7th; nature and the gods that protect Haiti manifest their discontent. In a month, the CPT that did not advance democracy for one iota in the country will have to make a decision to quit or to stay at their own peril.
Visiting Haiti recently I had the opportunity to watch de visu the inability of those in control of the country to make the least good decision for the people of Haiti. The road from Cape Haitian to the town of Grand River a portion of which is the highway 3 linking Port au Prince to Cape Haitian is in a state of a middle age status that indicates 30 years in such disrepair.
Yet the country is capable of returning to the state of glory of the colonial time when it was dubbed the pearl of the Antilles. A benevolent government would organize the peasants into cooperative mode to produce the fruits of season for the great markets of London, Paris or New York. Oranges in winter (Grand River in its rural county of Bonamy has the best oranges of the world,) Soursop and cherimoya in the spring, mangoes, apricot and passion fruit in the summer (Haiti has the best mango- (mango Francis) in the whole world) Avocados and quinoa in autumn.
In its mountain after mountain Haiti can become the king of lumber of the world with mahogany and cedar forest that transform Haiti into an instrument of wealth traded on Wall Street bringing more profits for the Pension Fund of the World than all the gimmick of bitcoins.
Haiti betting on its epic history, its mountains and its cultural heritage of Middle Ages feast of the saints can build a touristic path that equal Bali in Indonesia.
As a matter of fact, travel connoisseurs indicate that there are only four lost paradises on earth: Kerala in India, Bali in Indonesia, Hawaii in the Pacific, and Haiti in the West Indies.
Yet the Haitian politicians insist on keeping Haiti poor and desperate with the majority of its people jumping ships to find a more pleasant place to grow their children.
February 7th is advancing at great speed, will we have a government at the measure of Haiti past leaders such as Toussaint Louverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe!
May St Chablin the saint of a thousand of miracles have a compassionate eye for Haiti that this February 7th will be a veritable turn for the best for a country that suffers ignominy for the past 500 years?
Jean Hervé Charles LLB, MSW JD was a presidential candidate in the elections of 2016 in Haiti. He can be reached at jeanhc...@aol.com cell 646 248 1171