Should dessalinianism be an alternative to nationalism?

[Marcien Toussaint*]

With all due respect, Sir, I discount your question as one of the most irrelevant and outrageous one a true Haitian and intelligent patriot may even consider.

Time has changed, Sir. Time has changed. We are facing more enemies in multiple front and the most dangerous ones are among us, and pretend to be like us--very concerned citizens who just want to help, not do their duty. Haiti needs help. For them, that's a major concern. It looks like Haiti does not need patriots, people who are willing to live free or die. She just needs help according to them, and that notion is extremely dangerous.

But it is totally unwise and dangerous to approach our problems by answering a question such as yours.

Best regards,

[MichelNau*]

Marcien, please just call me Michel. We are among Haitians and friends here and I consider you and the other members here as my virtual friends. We are here to look for and bring solutions to our problems and I believe that my question “should Dessalinianism be an alternative to Nationalism” is a legitimate question.

One of the raisons that I brought this question on the table Marcien is because I see at the horizon a tendency of some members of our intelligentsia who think that they are more patriots, and more Haitians than the rest of us, they feel that they are transcended by the spirit of the father of our divine country, they feel like they are the chosen, and in a mission by trumpeting, shellconching, “lambifying” very loud this ideology, live free or die (dessalinianism) as an alternative to solving the problems of the Haitian people.

You have answered the question when you said that “Time has changed which is true—Haiti needs help, which is also true, and she needs help according to them hum-- I pass on that one—and that notion of resurrecting the Dessalinesism ideology in our modern time of globalization is extremely dangerous, which is again true”.

Therefore, you and I agree that Haiti can not, and shouldn’t isolate itself from the rest of the world.

[jafrikayiti*]

Michel,

It is beyond me, how you can, from a discussion on Dessalinism, arrive at this kind of statement: "Haiti can not, and shouldn’t isolate itself from the rest of the world".

Was it not Dessalines, the father of our nation, who on January 14, 1804, offered 40 piastres to any U.S. ships carrying African slaves to buy the freedom of each of as many human beings as he could?

Dessalines (respè pou li pou tout tan gen tan) was not an isolationist. On the contrary, he was a great man whose vision of humanity was not only larger than the island of Haiti but it was far in advance of that of most of the world leaders of his time.

Also, the neighbours of Haiti, needed no help from us to decide on the isolation of the "Black Republic". No more than, today, Baby Bush needs help to decide on the takeover of OPP (other people's property).

Finally, I would encourage you to take a look at the 1805 Constitution of Haiti, in which Dessalines gives further insight into his universalist and progressive vision, including modern values like freedom of religion etc...

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/ ... -const.htm


May Dessalines' spirit be with you my brother!

[jafrikayiti*]

Having taken yet another look at this 1805 Constitution, I am particularly impressed by the 28th and final act:

"At the first firing of the alarm gun, the cities will disappear and the nation rise !"

How blessed we would be, if we could prove true today that: "At the first firing of the alarm gun, the political parties will disappear and the nation rise!".

Jaf

[DPean]

"At the first firing of the alarm gun, the cities will disappear and the nation rise!"

I am impressed by it, too. Too bad, our subsequent leaders chose not to put into practice. Boyer, for one, chose to capitulate to France, and chose to cough up the so-called debt of independence which mortgaged the future of the nation. Was it practicality or cowardice? I chose the later. What do you think?