Dialogue Should Be The Course of Action

As always, the country is being torn apart. The political groups are keeping distant from each other and want no collaboration. The so called leaders are accusing and blaming each other, but in reality, most want no serious discussion. The executive government is being accused of dictatorship, that cannot be disputed. There are no elections, and the president is waiting to govern by decree. The people have been protesting ceaselessly on the streets of the capital and other major cities in the country. We have an explosive situation on hands.

This is nothing new for Haiti. Throughout the history of the country, that’s generally the way it has been. Our people have been fighting among themselves and are not trying to accomplish anything of significance for the nation as a whole. We are still in a bestial stage, that we cannot unite with our brothers and sisters to work and develop a prosperous human society. Today, in the world of globalization, we should expect matters to be different. We should expect to be coming together, to be moving ahead. Too bad. It is not happening. We have the United Nations on the ground with a mission of stabilization. But, it appears that nothing is changing, and the past is going to continue haunting us for a very long time.

What do we do as members of such a decrepit nation? We don’t want our people to take the streets, protesting, and overthrowing government in place. We would prefer to collaborate with our leaders to work and build our nation. However, our leaders have failed us. They are not working. They are fighting against each other and cannot agree on anything. Very soon, the nation that is one of representation would be left with only the executive government, and the president as a king. We should say by this that the people are right to be upset and to take the streets to reclaim their rights. Still, we should not deter from our effort to bring the nation together. Do not cut heads and burn houses. The faction has been killing us for so long! We must strive now to turn to the right direction.

Dialogue should be the course of action. Even with a king Switmiki, dialogue would be better than the alternative. Of course it would be laughably upsetting for the nation to remain with only Martelly as ‘government’, and for all the posts to be filled with Martelly’s men. Yet, it would still be many times wiser to try to find a reasonable ground of negotiation. We would not discourage the people from protesting. They should always reclaim their rights. However, dialogue should remain the focus. We should not have a king Martelly. Haiti should not be going up in flame either.

It is unfortunate that the so called leaders have allowed the situation to touch this igniting point. Perhaps, this what the government was planning from the start. The people likewise remain with no choice than to protest. But, please keep in mind, dialogue, dialogue, dialogue.

Join the conversation. Connect with granmoun@hotmail.com, or Join the Facebook group: MKNA – All Haitians Together For A Better Haiti 

By E.C. GRANMOUN

E.C. Granmoun is the Author of: "Bully: A Novel"  ebook, on amazon.com

A Memorable Date In History

Liberty is the ultimate right and one of the most beautiful experiences of the human beings. The Christian concept says that God created the man in his image and granted him the freedom of living. The Haitian heroes who pioneered the liberty from mass slavery cried, it is either “freedom or death.” November 18, 1803 marked a decisive date in the struggle for the freedom of the Negro race and the liberty of all mankind. It is the date when the French military force of enslavement, the most formidable military of the moment, succumbed to the band of revolting slaves of Haiti and marked the end of institutional slavery of mankind.

Today, November 2014, a little over 200 years later, this date is much kept in the dark. Most Haitians are not aware of the importance of it; and, it generally not existed for the world at large. Yet, November 18 was the date when the enchained Negro race started to drop the yoke from its neck and the chain from its feet to never wear them again. In the Battle of Vertiere in Cap- Haitian, Haiti, the mighty naval forces of Bonapatre cried, enough! We give up.

It all started with the Negro General Toussaint Louvertre’s declaration of liberty from slavery for all in Haiti, in accord with the Declaration of the Rights of Man in France. Toussaint did not want Independence. He only proclaimed freedom for the slaves, as citizens of France. The colonial power could not consume the freedom for the Negroes. The dictator Napoleon Bonaparte deployed the largest naval forces ever, at the moment, to conquer the tiny island nation and return the Negroes into slavery. After much devastation, atrocities, treasons, diseases, deaths, and tragedies, the colonial forces met with the rebels in the Battle of Vertiere.

Legend has it that it was the most formidable battle. They started in the night of 17. They fought and slaughtering each other through the night and into the day of the 18. At a certain point in the mid afternoon, a General of Brigade named Capois Lamort, was advancing on his horse, and the animal was struck by bullets and fell down the ground; the General kept on moving ahead. Then, a bullet ripped up his hat from his head, and he brandished his sword, crying, “Keep moving ahead, keep moving ahead...” When the cruel French General Rochambeau saw that, he stopped the battle and commanded his troops to applaud the Negro General. Thereafter, the battle raged on, until the French capitulated in the middle of the night.

The important thing is, the French could no longer hold on their atrocious pursuit of the Negro race. They gave up; and the following days, they took up to the seas to whatever destinations that they could safely reach. At that point, all enslaved men and women of Saint Domingue or Haiti became free to never suffer the whip, the yoke, the chains, the rapes, and the evilness of the slave masters again.

Although it is true that Haiti has remained under much difficulty. The Haitians have yet to be unified from the slave system or mentality that had much divided them; there is still a great deal to celebrate. This struggle was not only for Haitians. It was for the whole Negro race and mankind at large. The liberty proclaimed by the Haitian Heroes gave courage to all those afflicted by slavery. It gave them hope. When we have Martin Luther King, Mandela, Obama; it is only the continuation of the seeds of freedom planted by Toussaint Louverture. Now, on 18 November 2014, 211 years later, the Haitians have only to continue building on this freedom. Our forefathers gave us the liberty. Now let us make it work for us!

Join the conversation. Connect with granmoun@hotmail.com, or Join the Facebook group: MKNA – All Haitians Together For A Better Haiti 

By E.C. GRANMOUN

E.C. Granmoun is the Author of: "Bully: A Novel"  ebook, on amazon.com

We Have To Learn To Live Together

At the moment, we have in Haiti what we may call a system of intolerance - Makout Versus Lavalas. Is it so bad that there are two opposing political forces in a country? No, it is  not. In fact, democracy is based on such a notion of different political weights to counterbalance fractious political positions. In the case of Haiti, however, Makout and Lavalas have remained more of obstructive entities rather than democratic power brokers. If Haiti is to move in the right direction, the political entities must look at each other as working partners. We must learn to live together.

How do we live together as one people anyway? We live together by unite and join forces to live and work as one nation, one people, to build a nation of prosperity for the whole. We have to start coming together and applying democratic principles, negotiating, collaborating, and advancing a progressive agenda. Makout and Lavalas do not have to be enemies. They have to be forces working together to balance the nation.

Some people may think, Makout has done too much wrong. Others may think Lavalas is not any better. Both could be true. However, what is important for us now is to not abide by the past, but to begin considering the best alternative to move ahead. And, how do we start? We must begin with our own selves, everybody, his or her own self; we have to take action. After all, what is Makout or Lavalas? Are they not some groups of individuals composing of us? Every Haitian must fit into one group, or some other lesser ones tearing the nation apart. What is important is that everyone starts considering how to join hands with each other for a better Haiti.

Haiti remains a too-divisive environment. You have the minority wealthy class versus the majority poor; the Mulatto versus the Blacks; the city dwellers versus the peasants; people from Port-au-prince versus the provinces; literates versus illiterates; people within the country versus the Diaspora; and you have all the religious conflicts. The fact is, we have to learn to live with all of them. It is a matter of taking strategies to incorporate and tolerate the others in our lives and our surroundings. (1) One of the first things Haitians need to do is to stop destroying government. The question of coup-d’etat, protestation, “cutting heads and burning houses” must stop. There should be enough tolerance to allow an administration to last its five years. Or, if an official or the government is outlawed, there should be some sort of judicial process – no coup-d’etat!

(2) The political forces must learn to tolerate each other, deal with each other, allow each other to participate, and allow the party in power to work. Again, there should be a judicial process to deal with parties that are out of the law. (3) The interest groups have to be fair. You may not like a certain group, but there should be a connecting point that could benefit all. We should reserve the right to bring others to justice when they are wrong; but, when they are right, we need to appreciate them and collaborate with them.

(4) Let us stop the fragmentation and start bringing the pieces together. We must recognize that we are all brothers and sisters under the Haitian flag, and we are condemned to live together according to the law of nature and of nation states. Therefore, please, let us come together and seek a common interest for all on our little territory on earth, that our 10 million brothers and sisters would ever be glued upon. Blacks, Mulattos, Whites, urbanites, peasants, port-au-princians, provincials, literates, illiterates, locals, Diasporas, all the religious groups; we are the ones who make the Haitian nation. And, if Haiti is to be better, it would take all of us. Each one of us must do our part to keep the nation working together for all of us. The next time you see another Haitian, don’t think of him as an adversary or something strange and isolated; think of him as somebody to collaborate,  work, and live with.

Connect with granmoun@hotmail.com or Join the Facebook group: MKNA – All Haitians Together For A Better Haiti.

By E.C. GRANMOUN

E.C. Granmoun is the Author of: "Bully: A Novel"  ebook, on amazon.com