LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Haïti is our brother

Many times I ponder when certain issues are spoken of publicly, whether it’s a performance exercise in political correctness, or putting a tick in a box, viz, duty done, record will attest. Haïti stands as a classic. The neighbour everyone wishes lived at the other end– the farthest end– of the longest block. The partner about whom most hold their noses and patronize. I see Americans and Europeans. I also see regionals and Dominicans.

On a poignant note, during a time of challenge and trauma, there were some Haitians, who were among the most steadfast in their devotion, a willing hand, a calling voice. Some things stick with us. So I say a word for them.

On the note of history, I parse pages and a people made an example of, when Toussaint L’ouverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christophe rose up against the foreign yoke, the tyranny of the ursurpers of liberty. On the one occasion that the Black man threw off the shackles of oppression, he has never been made to forget it. Indeed, Haitians have paid a terrible price, stands as a warning to all Black people who throw off the harness.

 Haitians had their heroes. Dominicans live with a word with the ‘h’ sound; but it’s one that begins with a ‘w’. Think of escorts and an old trade. Somebody in America or Europe always declares the best intentions for the people of Haïti. Somehow, they always end up in a more precarious predicament. The French and Americans have often wielded undue influence in Haïti. Dominicans should get a grip of this: in 1825, as part of a pact to have their Independence recognized, they had to pay reparations to the enslavers [to] the tune of 150 million golden francs -today’s equivalent of between 23 and 123 billion US dollars! What à paradox!! The enslaved paying the enslavers for their freedom! I call this sowing soil and soul with salt!

 Is this not how it has been done throughout Africa, India, and parts of Central, Latin, and South America, in some form or other, for centuries ?? Recall what the Romans did to Hannibal and Carthage. Then come down through the millennia.

 When I point to these acts, my own Black brothers tell me that I am the one with horns in my head.  The White man is so proficient in what he does that it’s a piece of cake,( a dollar or a quarter) to get many local scums, from top to bottom to do his dirty jobs that even untouchables would avoid and deride. For there was the French with their new enslavement, which was succeeded by the best in yankee creativity and regional hegemony: anti-communism.

 Under the Americans, a monster flourished. Enter Papa Doc. The criminel lineage did not end with Baby Doc Duvallier.

Dominicans had better sit up, come to their senses, and take note. The Chinese are here. Who are our leaders ? Whom are they selling to? And who is being sold down the drain in a relationship that is draconian and  secret at that- as the French foisted on Haïti ? I would make the case with my last breath that  Dominicans are paying a ransom to China under this ” Understanding “.

 I ask my fellow Dominicans to absorb and interpret the Haitian situation broadly, deeply, then conclude. Nothing is, as it seems. Who is genuinely for Haïti? This includes CARICOM, compelled to do something about what must be for so many in the regional brotherhood and sorority, a distraction, a nuisance situation.

 There the gangsters want to be part of the government,  with guns and grievous intent, here the gangsters in office wear suits, a smile, and with ordinances in their briefcases.

 The results are hardly different when there is scrutiny of who are the real powers behind the scenes. Any open-minded, clear-headed thinker who looks at the turmoil in Haïti, is sure to note, the not-so-invisible hands, and to where they have condemned a country and its inhabitants.

 The gunmen in charge of the streets are a by-product of the decades of destruction brought about by the policies of foreigners that doom places like Haïti. The more that places like Haïti seem to have to say, the less say they have with what has meaning for their affairs, determining for themselves, their own destiny.

 Two hundred plus years of unrecognized Independence, as blessed by former enslavers, and Haitians cannot find their feet. Notice the buffers/ divisions the outsiders created in Haitian society to protect their interests. Look at what is going on here. The recent CARICOM carnaval was an exibition of who is in, and who is out. Thus, seeds are sowed for later discord. When we lament over Haïti, concernedly or superficially, we must force ourselves to think deeply of our own Dominica.

For, in the final analysis, a heart that does not respond to misery, is MISERABLE.