Last week, my friend Wolfred Wanch had published a post on one of his blogs about "10 most exceptional people in Haitian culture, music, sports and politics". That post had certainly generated various comments. Guess what! I too have my response to his post and to some comments made by obviously some Haitian bloggers. Please read my take on that topic and feel free to post your comments.
After reading this post and the comments, many things caught my attention. I will not expand on every blogger's comments. However, I want to point out that Mr. Wanch is entitled to his opinions. I do not believe this is accurate if we take into account the definition of the adjective EXCEPTIONAL. This list looks more like the author’s list of 10 favorite Haitians…
For those bloggers bashing Wyclef for whatever reasons you may have, tell me one other Haitian popular figure in his position who is not afraid of identifying him/herself with the Haitian root? Why blame him for choosing the styles of music he plays. Yes, he is known for being a Hip-Hop artist. Do you know of another who includes or incorporate Hip-Hop R&B, Reggae, Konpa, Rasin (roots), some Latin rhythms, African rhythms, in his/her musical works? I honestly, Wyclef should have done some Konpa (with English version) for the world market (not just for Haitians). We should have been really proud of seeing a Haitian just like ourselves doing all of this. I am not even going to touch his philanthropic works.
On another note, while I think it is respectable that Catherine Flon is remembered as the woman who had sewn our first flag, I do not think that make her exceptional unless she was the only woman who knew how to sew at the time and came up with the design and other details of the flag. The flag was primarily Dessalines’ idea.
Now, let me talk about François Duvalier and Jean-Bertrand Aristide. To me, they both had great and rare opportunities to contribute to the progress of the country and it did not happen under their respective presidency. This being said, if the list was about 10 best know Haitian politicians in world history both their name on the top. One could argue that Duvalier built schools, hospitals, health centers, and the lone (international) airport in Port-au-Prince. From what I understand, no one (that includes his son) came to power and continued or improved what he left behind. Despite all that, I would like to ask anyone to prove there was no absence of freedom when Duvalier and his son were in power. No political regime in Haitian history had ever persecuted its opponents than how it happened from 1957 to 1986. We could have seen something similar if Aristide was still dominating the political scene.
Talking about Aristide, how can someone mess up such a rare popularity, given the context of modern politics? I was never a Lavalas, but having the coup d’état in 1991 did not help Haiti a bit. You would think Aristide would learn from that. No he did not. He came back to the country having in mind that Haiti was his personal property. He chased in so many different ways his original backers and messed up Preval’s presidency 1996-2001. If someone wants to make a list of top ten manipulators, brain-washers, emotionally exploitative, bluffers, corruptors in Haitian political history Aristide would be there. Some day my brothers and sisters in La Saline, Cité Soleil, and other strongholds of Aristide will get to know the truth about Aristide. There is more poverty in those places now than there was before Aristide got into power. What did he do for them? I understand he was away from Haiti for 3 years because of the coup. We all know what he becomes in the early 2000. Please refer back to May 21 and November 26 elections, Les chimères, the contested Lavalas officials, etc…
As far as what happened, in February 2004, people can call it whatever they want. Of course it was not the end of his term. However, what is wrong with asking someone to step down if he is not producing positive results for the country. I see one blogger mentioned that USA, France and Canada kidnapped him. It does not matter what you called it. When people simply took on the street to protest against Lavalas practices and the attacks from chimeres back in 2002 and 2003; that should not be perceived as anti constitutional. Do I condone the armed uprising back then? No. But it surely contributed to driving him away. Who knows under what sort of chaos we would be today? Is the country doing great? No. However, there is no chimeres oppressing Lavalas opponents like they used to when Aristide was around.
For those of you who want to know, I am not a macoute, not a lavalas, I have no ties to FRAPH, no tie to Convergence, CPP, etc… I am not a supporter of Lespwa either. Let’s admit it however, out of the bad ones having been in power, they are probably the best (so to speak). Regardless, I think there is a great need for the country to have a new train of thoughts in Haitian politics.
To go back to that list, I respectfully think that it is a list of Mr. Wanch’s ten favorite Haitians. I recommend bloggers to leave him alone and create their own list and call it whatever they like.
Garry Moyiz, AAS, BSBA, MSOL, SWWC
