Oh Haiti, why you again?
WHEN it comes to Haiti all that can be said is, ‘Here we go again.’ How can one country continue to suffer so much turmoil?
When it is not about overthrowing a government or president, it is about killing, or, to use the appropriate word when it comes to celebrities — assassinating.
Luckily, at the rate at which Haiti has been going, the last assassination of a president occurred in 1950, but that’s nothing to brag about. The killing of President Jovenel Moise, regardless of what his opponents thought of him, was a disgusting act. As cruel as they may become over time, and we have seen some in recent years, no political leader deserves to be executed. Luckily, Moise’s wife, though harmed, is still alive, despite a suggestion to the contrary by Jamaica’s own minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, for which she has not apologised. But then, issuing apologies is not something that she is into these days, even when she is wrong.
Now Haiti, politically the most unsettled country in the Caribbean Community, will have to move forward with another millstone around its collective neck. I have been to the Frenchspeaking country twice — before, and after the devastating earthquake of 2010.
Although it is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti is rich in many ways. Its artisans stand out and, in my estimation, are ahead of the Caribbean, except for Cuba. When you walk the streets of Port-au-prince and see the carvings, paintings and sketches on display, you have to wonder if they were made by magicians.
Haiti’s talent in football is rich. In 1974 the team qualified for the World Cup Finals, becoming the second Caribbean side to participate in the tournament, although Cuba, when they took part in 1938, did so by default, following a boycott by some countries, and did not have to go through a qualifying process.
It is only because Haiti lacks money why that country’s football team has not qualified for more World Cup Finals.
In boxing, wealthy Haitians Jacques Deschamps Sr managed one of Jamaica’s finest, George Leslie “Bunny” Grant, and his son, Jacques Jr, was for years the manager of another Jamaican champion, Richard “Shrimpy” Clarke and also promoted Nicholas Walters, another champion.
Jamaica has always had a great relationship with Haiti going back to the days of Dutty Boukman, the Jamaican-born slave leader who played a major role in the Haitian Revolution during the 18th century before he was captured by French colonialists and beheaded. Through the times of Prime Minister P J Patterson, who stood up to the United States amid threats from former American secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, Jamaica maintained a friendship and gave support to ousted Haitian President JeanBertrand Aristide. The relationship has stayed on solid ground, even with the influx in past years of Haitians arriving in Jamaica by boat, and illegal guns coming from that country like sprats in a fisherman’s net.
Haiti needs a political chill box. Many of the people there are poor but they are not fools, and only need opportunities to lift the country of their birth. The young women there, in particular, as beautiful as they are, deserve a chance. The United Nations, as it has done before, needs to jump in again.