By: Staff Writer
September 17, 2021
Caribbean literature is seeing a renaissance in this COVID-19 era as new and not so new authors are offering up gem after gem of priceless Caribbean storytelling.
Next up on the list is a contributor to our news site with his telling of the five axes that must be solved for any country to turn itself around from the edge of blight and chaos.
Jean Charles, a Caribbean Magazine Plus columnist, told us that his new book, “For the country. For the homeland” is a book about how his home country of Haiti can become rich and independent.
Mr Charles said: “I wanted to write the book because I saw there was no end to the problems of Haiti. I want to solve definitively the problem of Haiti and I saw the problem of Haiti integrated with the problem of the world. Haiti is a microcosm of what’s happening in the world.”
Explaining what those problems are, Mr Charles opined: “I came up with five axes on how to solve the problem of Haiti and also to solve the problem of the world, because the problem is nation building at the root.”
Mr Charles added: “They completely depleted the government and it can no longer support the national population. You have the absence of a culture of wealth creation for all in the face of the de facto apartheid system against the world, against the women and against the urban ghettos.”
Mr Charles also said: “You also have the moral and ethical erosion of the Haitian ethos in all fields from policy, economic, social relations, and socialisation and even in religion.
“You have the lack of healthy and efficient institutions and also the infrastructure to care for the internal and the external migration of the Haitian family of size to the urban area, witness of the country, that we rented from it using what is called transition, this is for the continuity of the state.”
Saying that this countrywide erosion of principles is causing the country to not transition properly for the continuity of the state, Jen Charles says that a “lack of vision” on what’s important in the world as a core root issue behind all of these issues that renders Haiti and the rest of the world from solidifying on sound ideals for a better world.
“We have to find the weak links in our institutions and build them up,” he also said.
Elaborating on the five axes, he added: “The first axis is we need to build a nation with sense of belonging that people can have a shared vision for the country. You have to have people feel they belong to the country.
The second is we need to build infrastructure and institutions everywhere so the people will not be nomads in their own country.
Three you have to help denigrated segments of the society. In Haiti you have the countryside, the urban areas and the women
“Four, you have to look for the vision of the society. Haiti is alleged to have very little vision. It is an emancipatory nation which bodes to the internal risks of the country for internal strife.
“Lastly, you have to give the youth a better education, with resilience, with creativity, in order to pull them higher and higher.”
It took Jean Charles a year to put the entire book together, which he said was bubbling inside of him for years prior but this time he had a chance to sit down and put all of his thoughts together after a recent trip back home.
The book is only available by request to Jean Charles and is not available on Amazon or on any bookstores yet. If you are interested you can buy a copy either in Creole or in English by emailing Jean Charles at: jeanhcharles@aol.com.