How did we get as low as a civilized people?
Boukan News, 03/03/2025 – Around 1859 Victor Hugo wrote a letter to the Haitian people exulting their prowess in guiding humanity towards civilization. We fought the French, the British and the Spanish to give them a lesson that all men are created equal. They must enjoy liberty elevation and above all, happiness as children of God.
Since then, we have descended so low, that today we are the laughing stock of the world, because whether you are dealing with the so called elite or the peasant from the rural world, the diaspora or the mother land, there is a dwarf of responsible Haitian citizen willing to lead the country in the beatitude of the civilized world where the citizens would enjoy peace and happiness.
Instead corruption leads the way in politics, business and ordinary human interaction. Those who control the rein of power are busy concocting how they can make a buck by selling their dignity for a fee. We cannot distinguish the bandits from the state agent, banditos is more profitable than having clean hands.
As such there is no end game in combatting banditos, some members of the police and the government are paid to intercept intelligence information and advert a coordinated guerilla to disband the bandits. The genesis of the problem lies in the fact that we have waited too long to kill the cancerous blood that circulate in the vein of the Haitian ethos. The thirty years of the Duvalier era added to the thirty years of the illiberal governments have mestizas the stock of the Haitian ethos that today it is difficult to find a non-gangrenous soul in the Haitian firmament.
Haiti is a country that must become a nation to enter into the kingdom of civilized people. The mass of Haitians who live in the country side as well as those who live in the slums of the cities must regain their dignity to enjoy the bliss of the middle class status to love Haiti.
Without that massive recuperation, we are doomed to endure a Haiti which is not governable in spite of all the international support. To put it succinctly we must begin to create Haiti from the bottom up. The 555 rural counties must receive an affirmation project to convert them into rural villages as we see in Switzerland with paved roads, excellent school, decent clinic- hospitals, and above all the technical support necessary to make each one of the peasant a farmer that contribute to the world market in organic produce that live Haiti every day for London, New York or Paris.
The development project will be directed next to the 150 towns to transform them into a heaven of peace and tranquility that is customary in any small town you see in the United States or Canada or England, with paved streets, sewer systems, clean market, good schools and decent hospitals. But above all with the means to make a living in tourism, small industries and commerce.
Having pacified the small towns we will embark on the project of urbanizing the 10 large cities making them as vibrant as Haiti was in the 1950’s with good universities, excellent hospitals and decent institutions that serve the people without corruption and with efficiency.
Last but not least we will embark in making Port au Prince a capital proud of its status as the womb of liberty for humanity. To conclude, only a program like that can elevate Haiti to the standing of a civilized nation and only a program like that can help Haiti to emerge from the status of a failed state to a free nation where the people enjoy to stay home to build their country for the futures generations.
Jean Hervé Charles
LLB, MSW, JD
