EDUCATION IS HAITI'S SALVATION
EDUCATION IS HAITI’S SALVATION
“Action Plan for the Recovery and Development of Haiti” is title of the document put together by the government. You will find it in whole at: http://www.haiticonference.org/Haiti_Action_Plan_ENG.pdf
The Vision as conceived by President Preval consists of the following 4 parts:
1. Territorial rebuilding, including identifying, planning and managing new development centers, stimulating local development, rebuilding affected areas, implementing economic infrastructure required for growth (roads, energy and communication), and managing land tenure, in order to protect property and facilitate the advancement of large projects.
2. Economic rebuilding, which, along with developing key sectors, will aim to modernize the various components of the agricultural sector, providing an export potential in terms of fruits and tubers, livestock farming and fishing, in the interests of food security; develop the professional construction sector with laws and regulations relating to earthquake-resistant and hurricane-resistant materials and implementation and control structures; promote manufacturing industries; and organize the development of tourism.
3. Social rebuilding to prioritize a system of education guaranteeing access to education for all children, offering vocational and university education to meet the demands of economic modernization, and a health system ensuring minimum coverage throughout the country and social protection for the most vulnerable workers.
4. Institutional rebuilding that will immediately focus on making state institutions operational again by prioritizing the most essential functions; redefining our legal and regulatory framework to better adapt it to our requirements; implementing a structure that will have the power to manage reconstruction; and establishing a culture of transparency and accountability that deters corruption in our country. This ideal, to be reached within 20, years calls for the mobilization of all efforts and all resources to……” continue.
Do you see yourself in this vision?
Personally, I think #3 is weak and vague; so I will pick on it 1st. The Action Plan allocates $470 millions to be spent on education for the 1st 18 months, which is the legal amount of time this Government will run the recovery effort as per the recent senate vote. The bulk of the money will come later. Excellent! But hold on, the devil is in the application. We (Haitians) must see that this money gets spent right; we are all liable. I would add above the campaign to guarantee education to all young people, a re-education of the public and private employees to instill in them a sense of moral, duty, and honor. Our compatriots, young and old, need to be thought the notion: “an honest day’s work for an honest pay”. Bluntly, they need to know that stealing and is not a virtue, and taking bribes for services that they are being paid to provide in the first place is the type of corruption that we need to rid of our society before we can join in the league of modern nations. It does no good to teach the whole population about the wonder of mathematics, physics, or any other disciplines if our young people only have thieves and dishonest public servants for role model. Next to television, our secondary education system plays an integral role in shaping the life of our young people. That system needs to be revamped with a strong emphasis in making model citizens out of our young people. They should be thought to realize the unambiguous line between right and wrong. The current generation (les Brasseurs) has been bombarded with programs about the rich and famous from cultures unlike ours. At home, they watch with envy corrupted public servants and others with homes and cars totaling 10, 20, and 100 times what their official salaries can potentially afford them. They can’t wait for their turn. They need to understand that, while that money is feeding and clothing them, their parents are nothing but thieves. The senate must vote starchier punishments for the violators, for they’re not just robbing the government, they are in effect robbing Haiti of any progress or advancement toward a more modern and value based society. A climate where whistle blowers are encouraged should be the norm and a fair judicial system should be put in place to jail the guilty. No thieves should be allowed to keep their jobs.
The world is watching us. Some wants us to succeed but, there are plenty of doubters. The latter does not think we have the will, or the capacity to change. So much of our own culture has been neglected that we barely know where we came from. Without advocating a return to the young days of the republic, our secondary education should renew efforts to build an intellectual based as if it never existed. A call to arm to our overseas’ brothers and sisters should be lunched. I have come across lots of our brilliant minds abroad; they would welcome such a call. The present secondary school system put too much emphasis on the French Literature at the expense of our Demesvar Delhome or Emmanuel Edouard, Massillon Coicou and Tertulien Guilbaud, etc. A look inward at such a young age will give our young men and women a sense of pride and self worth. There will be plenty more times for those who want to pursuit higher studies in the language of Voltaire and Victor Hugo. A bust of Desilus Lamour should be erected in the middle of the floor of the new “Palais Legislatif”, to show our senators what a true statesman look like. At the University level, a law degree should be held at the highest esteem; right next to the much more exalted Medical and Engineering degrees. We need lots of qualified lawyers in order to have a fair and independent judicial system. Just as you cannot have a healthcare system without doctors and nurses, you cannot have good buildings and roads without producing lots of engineers. While you can hire outside firms to build them, you need qualified local engineers to maintain them. Moreover, this is the 21st century; the internet must be an integral part of any educational system. That will require fiber optic lines and a dependable power grid. These things should not come as an afterthought; they must be in the plan in bold texts, right now.
Education is our salvation. Over and over this has been repeated and not acted upon. Today is the day and our young should not settle for less. I could go one for ever but, I think it is best if you hear the last word from one of my Haitian Heroes, Antenor Firmin: “In sum there are savage nations and civilized nations. Naturally, the former are inferior and the latter superior. Race has nothing to do with it; civilization has everything to do with it. Despite the state of deep degradation in which the savage races are believed to be, they have not lost the right to partake in humanity’s common patrimony, that is, their right to progress. It is never too late to commence the marvelous march upward to travel the same road that led the civilized nations to their current level of achievement. They need only to discover or rediscover the secret behind the esthetic transformation of the physiognomy of those who now lead humanity because they are the guardians of civilization. This secret is not difficult to discover says Paul Broca: “Education, education, in all its forms, this is the intelligent force which allows a society to improve a race as it fights against the summary methods of natural selection. Education is undoubtedly the most effective means at a society’s disposal. Add to it equitable institutions that allow each individual to occupy a position consistent with his qualifications, and you will have done more for a race than the most ruthless natural selection ever could.”
“Action Plan for the Recovery and Development of Haiti” is title of the document put together by the government. You will find it in whole at: http://www.haiticonference.org/Haiti_Action_Plan_ENG.pdf
The Vision as conceived by President Preval consists of the following 4 parts:
1. Territorial rebuilding, including identifying, planning and managing new development centers, stimulating local development, rebuilding affected areas, implementing economic infrastructure required for growth (roads, energy and communication), and managing land tenure, in order to protect property and facilitate the advancement of large projects.
2. Economic rebuilding, which, along with developing key sectors, will aim to modernize the various components of the agricultural sector, providing an export potential in terms of fruits and tubers, livestock farming and fishing, in the interests of food security; develop the professional construction sector with laws and regulations relating to earthquake-resistant and hurricane-resistant materials and implementation and control structures; promote manufacturing industries; and organize the development of tourism.
3. Social rebuilding to prioritize a system of education guaranteeing access to education for all children, offering vocational and university education to meet the demands of economic modernization, and a health system ensuring minimum coverage throughout the country and social protection for the most vulnerable workers.
4. Institutional rebuilding that will immediately focus on making state institutions operational again by prioritizing the most essential functions; redefining our legal and regulatory framework to better adapt it to our requirements; implementing a structure that will have the power to manage reconstruction; and establishing a culture of transparency and accountability that deters corruption in our country. This ideal, to be reached within 20, years calls for the mobilization of all efforts and all resources to……” continue.
Do you see yourself in this vision?
Personally, I think #3 is weak and vague; so I will pick on it 1st. The Action Plan allocates $470 millions to be spent on education for the 1st 18 months, which is the legal amount of time this Government will run the recovery effort as per the recent senate vote. The bulk of the money will come later. Excellent! But hold on, the devil is in the application. We (Haitians) must see that this money gets spent right; we are all liable. I would add above the campaign to guarantee education to all young people, a re-education of the public and private employees to instill in them a sense of moral, duty, and honor. Our compatriots, young and old, need to be thought the notion: “an honest day’s work for an honest pay”. Bluntly, they need to know that stealing and is not a virtue, and taking bribes for services that they are being paid to provide in the first place is the type of corruption that we need to rid of our society before we can join in the league of modern nations. It does no good to teach the whole population about the wonder of mathematics, physics, or any other disciplines if our young people only have thieves and dishonest public servants for role model. Next to television, our secondary education system plays an integral role in shaping the life of our young people. That system needs to be revamped with a strong emphasis in making model citizens out of our young people. They should be thought to realize the unambiguous line between right and wrong. The current generation (les Brasseurs) has been bombarded with programs about the rich and famous from cultures unlike ours. At home, they watch with envy corrupted public servants and others with homes and cars totaling 10, 20, and 100 times what their official salaries can potentially afford them. They can’t wait for their turn. They need to understand that, while that money is feeding and clothing them, their parents are nothing but thieves. The senate must vote starchier punishments for the violators, for they’re not just robbing the government, they are in effect robbing Haiti of any progress or advancement toward a more modern and value based society. A climate where whistle blowers are encouraged should be the norm and a fair judicial system should be put in place to jail the guilty. No thieves should be allowed to keep their jobs.
The world is watching us. Some wants us to succeed but, there are plenty of doubters. The latter does not think we have the will, or the capacity to change. So much of our own culture has been neglected that we barely know where we came from. Without advocating a return to the young days of the republic, our secondary education should renew efforts to build an intellectual based as if it never existed. A call to arm to our overseas’ brothers and sisters should be lunched. I have come across lots of our brilliant minds abroad; they would welcome such a call. The present secondary school system put too much emphasis on the French Literature at the expense of our Demesvar Delhome or Emmanuel Edouard, Massillon Coicou and Tertulien Guilbaud, etc. A look inward at such a young age will give our young men and women a sense of pride and self worth. There will be plenty more times for those who want to pursuit higher studies in the language of Voltaire and Victor Hugo. A bust of Desilus Lamour should be erected in the middle of the floor of the new “Palais Legislatif”, to show our senators what a true statesman look like. At the University level, a law degree should be held at the highest esteem; right next to the much more exalted Medical and Engineering degrees. We need lots of qualified lawyers in order to have a fair and independent judicial system. Just as you cannot have a healthcare system without doctors and nurses, you cannot have good buildings and roads without producing lots of engineers. While you can hire outside firms to build them, you need qualified local engineers to maintain them. Moreover, this is the 21st century; the internet must be an integral part of any educational system. That will require fiber optic lines and a dependable power grid. These things should not come as an afterthought; they must be in the plan in bold texts, right now.
Education is our salvation. Over and over this has been repeated and not acted upon. Today is the day and our young should not settle for less. I could go one for ever but, I think it is best if you hear the last word from one of my Haitian Heroes, Antenor Firmin: “In sum there are savage nations and civilized nations. Naturally, the former are inferior and the latter superior. Race has nothing to do with it; civilization has everything to do with it. Despite the state of deep degradation in which the savage races are believed to be, they have not lost the right to partake in humanity’s common patrimony, that is, their right to progress. It is never too late to commence the marvelous march upward to travel the same road that led the civilized nations to their current level of achievement. They need only to discover or rediscover the secret behind the esthetic transformation of the physiognomy of those who now lead humanity because they are the guardians of civilization. This secret is not difficult to discover says Paul Broca: “Education, education, in all its forms, this is the intelligent force which allows a society to improve a race as it fights against the summary methods of natural selection. Education is undoubtedly the most effective means at a society’s disposal. Add to it equitable institutions that allow each individual to occupy a position consistent with his qualifications, and you will have done more for a race than the most ruthless natural selection ever could.”
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