By Jean Hervé Charles
July 9, 2021
On this day of June 24, like John the Baptist the forerunner, I announce the advent of a Messiah who will come and give us bread and honey in Haiti “as well as happiness for all” as Toussaint Louverture had drawn in 1796. I was (13) years old when I remembered praying God to deliver us from the yoke of Francois Duvalier. I am (75) years old today, I still pray the Good Lord to deliver us from the yoke of Jovenel Moise.
We Haitian people, have lived with relentless oppression on our neck for 62 years. Haitian people fly from everywhere: the Dominican Republic, the United States, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Guyana, and France etc. seeking refuge for a milder sky.
When François Duvalier died on April 21, 1971, the American Ambassador Everett Knox was there in the front row to validate that his son Jean Claude Duvalier, who was only 19 at the time, was to replace him. Our anguish was prolonged for 15 years until the day when the power of the people with their bare hands overthrew the dictatorial power of the Duvalier’s on February 7, 1986.
Still the long hand of the Americans came out to replace the civilian dictatorship with the military dictatorship which crushed the nascent democracy in the massacre of November 29, 1987. Gérard Gourgue the prospected winning candidate was too nationalist to be president. The popular government of Jean Bertrand Aristide did not last. He was replaced by Ertha Trouillot, who invited the UN despite the advice of its advisers, to come and settle in Haiti. And since then, it has been the UN Protectorate with all the misfortunes that will follow: the Cholera and the villainous governments of Préval I and Préval II, the earthquake, the theft of Petro Caribe, the theft of the recovery money, Michel Martelly and Jovenel Moise.
We have to understand why Jovenel Moise seems invincible. For this we have to go back to 1654 to the Treaty of Westphalia when the principalities of Northern Europe, Germany, and Sweden which were Protestant waged war with the Principalities of Southern Europe (France, Italy, and Spain) which were Catholic. Over 4 million people were killed. Famine raged. It was then that all the principalities met with the papal envoy Cardinal Chichi in Westphalia and drew up on October 24, 1654 the Charter of Westphalia which in other words declared the following principles:
- Rex est imperator in regno suo: The Emperor is king in his domain.
- The occupied territories will be restored.
- The liberty of religion.
- If a territory is invaded by an enemy, we will all come to its aid.
These are the principles that still rule the world today at the UN, OTAN, OAS and CARICOM. Article 5 that we hear about in the UN and NATO is all about that.
We understand why the CORE group and the UN and OAS have came to the aid of Jovenel Moise despite the fact that his term ended on February 7, 2021 and the people are rising up as one against him without success.
We Haitians, sons and daughters of Titans, we gave the world two universal gifts: the gift of deliverance from the yoke of slavery on January 1, 1804, and the gift of deliverance from the yoke of Dictatorship on February 7, 1986. We will yet deliver a third gift, the last one and the end of history the gift of True Democracy when we splash the odious regime of Jovenel Moise.
It will be a victory not only against Jovenel but a victory for the whole earth. We will show them that Democracy must bring peace and happiness into the homes. Notably the following five principles:
- the culture of belonging to each other in the same nation,
- the good infrastructure and healthy institutions everywhere so that the citizen ceases to be a nomad at home and then into a foreign country,
- the solidarity towards those who have remained behind, the women, the rural world and the world of ghettos,
- The solidarity for the peoples in internal struggle in the world.
- And the youth arming themselves with education, creativity and resilience to carry the nation ever higher.
In this debacle I am privileged, after serious study in Haiti (School of law and School of International Affairs) I have spent 40 years in the United States where I have obtained a Master degree in Social Work (Columbia University) followed with a Doctorate in Law (Tulane University). I have practiced law and I was Vice Dean at the City University de New York.
But the pain of Haiti was in my heart everyday. At the crepuscule of my life I have written a book. The good seed fell in the right ground. My book: For the Homeland and for the nation a societal vision that will make Haiti powerful, independent and rich is now the blue print for the new government that will restore Haiti’s honor: SOVE LONE.
We will re-ignite the vision of Toussaint Louverture who had an ally in the second President of the United States, John Adams to spread happiness not only in their respective nation but in the entire world. Thomas Jefferson, who replaced John Adams in the election of 1800, ended that dream. Toussaint Louverture was kidnapped. And since then the world has taken a turn for the worst.
We are going to take up history where it ended in 1800 to usher the true democracy. We will take the hands of the United States to rekindle the dream of Toussaint Louverture and John Adams in making this world a better world. By the way that is what Pope Francis said in the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti: Jesus the Christ did not come to earth to only redeem humanity but he did come to earth to teach us to live happily in this terrestrial paradise.
In the meantime, Haitian people have no fear, deliverance is coming soon!
(This op-ed was written one week before the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise)
Jean H Charles is an LLB, MSW, JD and is a contributor to Caribbean Magazine Plus
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