Reflections of a Haitian night

Dr. Patrick Treacy reflects on a night spent up in the mountains of Mirebalais in a Christian village before he opened an orphanage the next morning
By: Ailesbury Media
 
Jan. 8, 2014 - PRLog -- As I look back at the stars in the Haitian night sky, I know there's history in these mountainous hills around Mirebalais. Two hundred years ago Toussaint Louverture fought the English in this village and helped to free the slaves. In 1803, he wrote a constitution founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. The Haitian Revolution of that year struck a blow against the institutions of slavery and racial hierarchy. The constitution of the nearby United States, although drawn up some years before in 1787, spoke of freedom but left thousands of blacks remaining in servitude, denying these Americans the rights of citizenship. In contrast, the Haitian constitution drawn up in 1805 proclaimed that slavery was abolished forever and distinctions of colour must stop.

When the Haitian uprising began in 1791, the world’s attention was focused on another revolution that was happening in France. Two years earlier, on 14th July 1789 the Bastille in Paris was stormed. From there, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was issued. It proclaimed that men are born free and equal in rights. However idealism and aspiration did not come to fruition. The French revolutionaries were torn between their assertion that freedom was a universal right and their equally strong belief that France needed overseas possessions to maintain their power and the prosperity. While wrestling with the problem of reconciling their principles with their countries national interests, Napoleon seized power in 1799 saying the ideals of the revolutionaries were incompatible with political stability and social order. He had no sympathy towards building a new society in France's Caribbean colonies and he pulled his Generals away from the coasts of Ireland where they were fighting the English.

Tomorrow I have been invited to open an orphanage in Mirebalais. It now stands behind me gleaming under the moonlight. There are fires burning in the nearby hills, probably farmers making charcoal for sale. This practice was not allowed in the days that Papa Doc' Duvalier, was the President of Haiti. He ruled as a dictator from 1957 until his death in 1971. The orphanage will house twenty five children and be run by Bishop Dorcilien and his wife Gladys. The Bishop played a prominent role in telling the world about the Haitian earthquake some years ago when he addressed an audience of 100,000 people in Times Square. They later came to visit me in Dublin and when we walked together along the Famine Walk in Doolough some years later. The monument in Doolough valley has an inscription from Mahatma Ghandi: "How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings?" I reminisce for a while and smile to myself, remembering that day when I had to diplomatically guide them away from taking a photograph in front of a statue of the French General Humbert when we visited Westport. Little did they know that Napoleon had taken this famous soldier from the French landing at Killala Bay to become the new Governor of Haiti and he was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of their ancestors. Like the recent death of Nelson Mandela, it gave a whole new meaning to one person's freedom fighter is another person's terrorist. Napoleon's attempt to defeat the Haitian revolution provoked a violent backlash that foreshadowed his defeats in Spain and Russia a few years later. It is interesting to think that the events in Haiti in those years probably influenced Tchaikovsky to write one of my favourite pieces of music the '1812 Overture', playing on my iPhone in the background. It signified Napoleons retreat from Moscow. I listened to it a little longer not wanting to use the battery that I had waited all day to charge from a solar panel, There's no electricity in the mountains and I still had my Facebook to check over.

I look again into the night sky. I thought about the Haitian revolution and how it had affected the whole of the western hemisphere. It may have been the inspiration for uprisings that led to the independence of other surrounding countries, especially that flame that spread through South America in the period. It happened at a time of great upheaval throughout the world, the growth of capitalism, the unfolding of revolutions on many continents, and after years of delay influenced President Lincoln to free the slaves in America. Two hundred years indeed had passed since Toussaint Louverture freed the slaves, yet in my humble opinion their heirs, their grandsons, were still not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this nation, for all its hopes and aspirations, will not be fully free until all its citizens are properly educated. In my estimation, this was the greatest problem of the Haitian Revolution. Half a million slaves were freed but without education there were no people in the resultant hierarchy to develop the economy, to enact government policies and build a stable society. The poor baby born in Haiti today, has about one-tenth as much chance of completing a high school as a rich baby born in the same place on the same day. There is a 78% chance they will be born into a family earning less than US$2 a day, and a 54% chance they will live in extreme poverty, which is globally recognised as living in a family earning less than US$1 a day. This was an island, which in reality had failed to live up to the promises of equality or freedom.

It was now time to go to bed because it has got dark and there are no lights in the village. The burning grasses in the mountains behind me dance through my window on the recently white-washed wall. I know the Bishop and his wife have tried their hardest to make me feel at home. I look over at the presents that I will give them both in the morning. Appropriately enough, it is two Belleek pottery crosses, one of St. Patrick and another of St Kiernan, part of my own homeland taken now deep into the mountainous hills of Haiti. When I was a child, my neighbours in Garrison, Fermanagh had maintained the skills to make these beautiful ceramic ornaments. Now, they had passed this legacy over to the children of another generation. I hoped the Bishop would hang them in the classrooms in memory of Ireland's great contribution to Christianity. My hosts were people of great vision. Someone once said that the future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of a new society. These were the type of people needed to create a new Haiti

The orphanage was built by donations collected by the Michael Jackson Legacy Group

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Source:Ailesbury Media
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Tags:Patrick Treacy, Haiti, Humanitarian
Industry:Non-profit, Religion
Location:Ballsbridge - Ireland
Subject:Events
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