Au pays des Aveugles Le Borgne Est Roi

Today I have a complaint. The world is changing and it is changing really fast. It appears to me that most of the people in our community are sitting around expecting everything to remain the same.


Food for Thought - As a Haitian Thinketh...

We are not slaves anymore but...
did we really stop the rich from getting richer?

Of course not!

Nowadays one machine can do the work of a thousand men.

I can't help but notice that year after year we complain about the same things.

As Haitian Americans, we are caught between trying to keep up with society's demands and the primitive culture of our parents.

I say primitive and I have my reasons.

Haiti was born out of a slave revolt.

You know, we had to chop off some heads to be free (Coupe Tete Boule Kay).

We traumatized the white man, we had to scare the living daylight out of our potential masters.

"Hit the road jack, don't you come back no more, no more, no more!"

We scared them alright!

They all ran away and they left us in a cage by ourselves to figure things out by ourselves...

While the developing world is evolving on a daily basis, we're still using the same tools that the French masters gave us to cut sugar cane with.

In essence, Haiti as a whole is still in the whole.

How do we get out?

It's simple!

Send your people to other lands to learn their crafts, learn their skills, steal their technologies, find out how they do things, and most importantly, make sure your people come back to tell those who never left what they learned, to share the knowledge with those who never left.

Eske-w la?

Give really smart people from other lands incentives to come to your land to teach your people how to be really smart people too.

It's been over two hundred years and I am the first generation to leave the nest.

I love my father dearly and I don't mean to disrespect him but I have to tell you the truth. Everytime we talk he tells me how wonderful it was back then: "Ti moun pat kon-n gade gran moun nan je" and "Le mari est le chef de la maison".

LOL!

Unfortunately I grew up in a country where they tell me to: "Look at me when you're talking to me" and women have equal rights... Sometimes I think they have more rights than men but that's not important!

There is a new generation of Haitians growing outside of Haiti. Strange as it may seem, we are not welcomed back home. We can send money there, but we cannot be president there.

You set foot outside of Haiti and your become a foreigner just like those who came with Columbus. Green card or not...citizen or not.

You are now call a "Diaspora", the Haitian outsider, he who left.

For all the Haitian Philosophes out there I have a surprise for you:

A "Philosophe", by Haitian standard, is just a high school graduate.

I repeat: PHILOSOPHE = HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE While "Je Suis Philosophe" is such a big deal in the country were I come from, in the country where I live, it is a requirement.

In order to work at McDonalds you have to have a High School Diploma or a GED (a Good Enough Diploma) but in the country where I come from, the entire population is left uneducated so the few people with the "Good Enough Diploma" can become senators and presidents.

Great!

Now that I am smart enough to understand that Philosophe is just a minimum requirement, I am a diaspora, so I better shut up!

What a life!

Au pays des aveugles, le borgne est roi

Cela signifie que quelqu'un qui a un savoir, une qualité particulière, peut briller parmi ceux qui ne l'ont pas. Ce "roi", a atteint ce savoir en visitant une dimension supérieure, peuplée de voyants. Il est ensuite redescendu dans sa dimension d'origine, car il préfère ètre roi parmi les aveugles que dernier des voyants. (rafaelation.over-blog.com)

I don't speak French but "Je comprends"

Tu Comprends?

Oh! Hell! I'm just talking trash. Ignore everything I said.

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Franck says...

I told you already it is a pleasure to read your editorial because you make sense, keep up the good work. By the way, Today Legislatures did something very good for our Immigration people.

If the bill pass, that will free a lot of Haitians to start working and going to school right away instead of waiting for years to get work paper and social security.and within 8 years we will have more Haitians with a larger economic development and that is a good news. Everything, start with money first of all. I know Haitians with faculty de Medicine diploma that have to work under assume name for 3 years before getting a paper on the name to start going to school for English.

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