This is a call and a challenge to all of us Haitians to set a goal that will bring some pride in ourselves and in our country. As it is, there is no need to remind you of the many ills affecting Haiti, our mother country, and looking at the situation, things will get worse, unless concerted positive action is taken to stop, and reverse this descent into hell. 2024 will be the two hundred and twentieth year of our independence, gained in 1804 with blood from our ancestors. We need to look at that year, 2024 as the time to show respect to ourselves, our environment and our ancestors. Let us start to gather our strength at all levels and look toward that year, 2024, as a time when Africa and the Caribbean will meet in Haiti to help and enjoy celebrating the two hundred and twentieth year of our revolution, which provided a call for freedom worldwide. It is this call for freedom, back in 1804 which echoed all around the world, and has engineered a coalition of countries, which dominated and are still controlling much of the world to ensure this never happens again. The so called international community stills wants to make us pay for foolishly thinking we could change the world order.
So, there are a lot of people who do not want Haiti to succeed, as a leading country in the Caribbean region. If you look at our geographic location, right in the middle of the Caribbean Islands with all major trade routes around the island, Haiti has the potential to be a major hub for maritime commerce in the area, as well as a gateway to Europe, much like the DR. Unless we look at ourselves and our country in a new way, we stand the risk of wasting generations of our people, as the rest of the world watches us in fake pity, while we’re being stepped on.
We need to set a goal for all of us who favor progress over staying on this suicidal course. I challenge all of us to look toward and beyond 2024. Whatever small action you can do, even talking about it now, in order to plan, let’s make 2024 a year where our country can be clean. You cannot invite people to come stay in your home if you have not cleaned it for awhile. The smell is offensive and you look ugly. As my friend Patrice Douge can attest, Haiti is a beautiful country, and from Grande Anse to Cap Haitien, he has taken beautiful pictures, some of which have been published. Patrice is a great photographer who needs to share more of his work with the rest of us, and he can attest to the physical beauty of our home, along with the beautiful people who live there. So let’s clean our country. This should be the first step toward bettering ourselves. I would like for all readers of this blog to think about joining a effort to stop the country from always being full of garbage, unchecked and unprocessed. I know you may think I’m going crazy, or wasting my breath, but there comes a time when we need to look in the mirror and hate what we see.
2024. Let’s challenge ourselves to bring change to a population that really needs it in order to truly be in the twenty first century. Three years to start a new revolution of the body and of the mind. It should be a year that either begins or continues huge work sites to build an environment that will help make the country not only a place where persons can live in dignity, but a place that will attract investors and cutting edge development. We have a lot of human capacities and abilities in Haiti and in the diaspora, so why is our country doing so badly? There is a reservoir of young persons ready and wanting to build a new country where they can live and contribute, rather than survive with no dignity.
2024. This is a goal we should set for all Haitians to come together and make our environment a nice place to live. A place we will invite the world to come celebrate our show of respect to our ancestors who fought to give us this beautiful land. Time to step back and stop going down. Time to clean up the garbage and remove all things that deface the environment and make our country unhealthy. Garbage brings bad health and ruins the environment. This should be our first effort toward 2024. Let’s clean up. We must look at cleaning our minds after we clean our streets, parks, rivers and beaches. Haiti needs all of us included in a massive joint effort to change our focus from denigrating ourselves to appreciating and loving ourselves. Starting with our language, Haitian Creole, which I prefer to call Haitian, continuing with our music and artistic talent we are a beautiful people with gorgeous creativity that only needs a catalyst to explode, just like the butterfly coming out of its shell into life. We must clean our minds after bathing our country.
Dèyè Mon 