Having libraries in Haiti is a good idea. I think every city and school in Haiti should have a library. Haiti doesn't have libraries. Those who introduce us to writing, to print, who started "educating" us did not open libraries, did not open secondary schools, or universities. I have been to several countries in West Africa. I did not see libraries either or did not hear people talk or refer to libraries. So we are not familiar with libraries. Many of us living in the west where libraries exist, don't often use libraries. And if we had gone to schools that required research in the library, many of us once we graduate, say "good bye" to the library world also.

I support wholeheartedly Nadege and his father Pierre Clitandre’s project on building a library in Port-au-Prince. Maybe the Diaspora could think of sending more books (used or new) to Haiti in lieu of or in addition to Pèpè or other materialistic goods. Availability of books read without classroom pressure provide knowledge that help creativity. It helps to have other books besides those that are required for a class. Reading helps creativity that can help a country or a community grow, especially in an era known as Information Age, knowledge based society. Knowledge well applied, creativity, willingness to change, and vision will help Haiti get out its 200 year mayhem not those nice houses, nice furniture or cars we send to Haiti, not even the remittances.

Those of us who have books that we are not using can consider sending them to Haiti. I am an educator by training. However because of my frequent use of library books, reading and purchasing books, I am able to write talk and present about subjects that I was never taught in school. When domestic violence was a “sentimental issue” in the early to the late l980’s and women in my area would not address it, I was in the radio, giving data about domestic violence and talk against men abusing women. Nowadays there are women groups. But in 1980, 1985, l990 I was seen not in par with the common “ A bas Duvalier’ discourse or “rache manyok” after Baby Doc’s departure.

I believe even in the Diaspora, we need to make use of libraries, open and develop cultural centers. Besides Miami where you have a cultural center like Librarie Mapou , or Le Petit Prince group meeting, or Montreal with CIDICHA, there are not too many cultural/literary centers in the Diaspora geared to Haitians. Educa is the sole book publisher in the Diaspora. I would suggest that Haitians with means or business leaders would consider working with writers to invest in a printing company and producing more books both for Haiti and Haitians born outside of Haiti.

I wrote to two prominent Haitians on that idea of investing in a printing company and working with writers, educators , and the intelligentsia, but they never respond. If we don’t increase our mental, learning , or intellectual capacity and productivity both in Haiti and in the Diaspora, we will not grow economically as a nation or as a diasporic community. Haiti, Haitians as a whole will grow more and more into a marginalized group of people although a number of us occupy important positions in major industrialized countries.
Sometimes I am told I hurt people feelings when I talk about getting a library card, especially those who are apparently " leading" the community. There is money for public libraries to buy foreign books in this country. But sometimes I feel I am the only Haitian asking the libraries to buy French and Creole books, or English books about Haiti. Many times when I ask a librarian to purchase books, I have to make all the leg work and connections. I have to connect the Haitians book vendors with the library. Most of the time, I don't have even get a "Thank you" from either party. I do it all for free.

One day a librarian even asked me if I wanted my own shelf in the library. A lot of Haitians even if they are so called "educated" don't visit libraries once they graduate. The problem is profound. We go to school, to get a job, and improve our own personal lives, not our society, or community. I have commented a lot about “brain drain” in my posts. Even in the U.S communities, there is a “brain drain”. The intellectual elite, the professionals who are working in the mainstream are not in the Haitian community. The apparent leaders in the Haitian community don’t often make use of libraries, newspapers, or the print media.

I don't know of any after school or Saturday programs or Sunday schools teaching young Haitians our culture or the culture of adopted countries. We are not teaching each other or our young Haitians anything. In other words, learning is not part of a collective community.

I try to find a word for " “learning' or the idea of on going learning, be life long learners in Creole, I could not find it. Now I am questioning the whole cultural belief that Haitians value education. If we are observing this generation born in the last 10,15, 20 years, they are not doing well at all . A good number of Haitians are in college, but a significant percentage are falling in the hands of the police, the courts, and the prisons. We need documented research on what is happening to Haitians who grew up here or born here in the l980’s and l990’s. My call in the last decade to community leaders to start paying attention to young Haitians still has not been heard.

I am saying the same thing to new African immigrants. A significant number of African immigrants are in the same social and educational level that the first wave of Haitians were. Though I have met refugees from many war torn countries in Africa, the new African immigrant communities have largely educated members in their midst. But I am not seeing them envision and preparing for their next generation. They don't seem to understand the idea of paying attention to our young Black population. They have not seen what is happening to the African American community or the Haitians. Once they send their children to school, they think they have done their jobs which is not how things work in the U.S, in Canada, or Europe. You have to be involved.

Now what we see even though this generation of Blacks is the most educated generation that Haiti, Africa, African American (post civil rights era) had ever had, the Black world is in worst condition since post slavery and post colonial times.

Nadege and Pierre Clitandre, Keep up with the Good Job,
Nekita