Concerning Haiti

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“I think this is an opportunity for you to gain knowledge, to speak with many people, to ask questions and learn.”

- Words from my host Felix Hazard to myself my first night in Petionville, Haiti.

 

I know now that no American can speak with any authority concerning Haiti. No man capable of disregarding his own culture and intimately understanding that of another can exist. An American can only speak with authority concerning the dignity and capability of the Haitian people, of the beauty and wisdom that exists within each if a bit disheveled from the greed and corruption of foreigners past and present. An American can only speak with authority concerning the problem of his own nation: the sick consumption that beats on like a black heart and bleeds down into the third world.