Opinion | We Are the Solution We’re Waiting For

Money is not the only resource. Anyone with a skill set, lived experience, or knowledge is a resource

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I keep hearing about the need for a Haitian solution, but in Haiti and elsewhere I’m hearing the same conversations. There is a call to the nebulous “civil society” to do — something? A call to the private sector about jobs and investment in a context that has forced countless businesses to shut down and abandon their assets. Where are these jobs supposed to be located? In Ti Lapli’s domain? In Barbecue’s?

Everyone has someone to blame, and everyone is scrambling, but no one is proposing anything.

We are collectively too tired, too hurt, and too traumatized to see a way out of this. Nevertheless, we remain capable of compassion. Toward our neighbors, toward the police whom we have always distrusted, toward the communities we have historically marginalized, even toward some members of armed groups.

There was a time when all I ever heard about the police was that they could not be trusted. They never did what they were supposed to do. But today, I see more people pulling over to greet police officers. I see citizens pooling funds and materials to send food, gas, or water to officers in their neighborhoods. I see us collectively mourning fallen officers and organizing collections for their families.

There was also a time, not so long ago, when everyone associated with a gang was considered trash. Inhuman. But more and more, I hear people talk about bandi and say, “Mezanmi, podyab ti mesye sa yo.” Or they say, “Yo pa t merite sa.”

I can’t keep hearing about private sector engagement when the only conversation taking place is about job creation and investment. And I can’t keep hearing that Haitians have no solutions. We do, but we have been subjected to so many cycles of abuse and violence, and to narratives that make us devalue ourselves, that we have forgotten our strengths as a culture and as a people. We reduced them to “degaje.”

I will not attempt to propose a solution, but as an observer of our country, allow me to offer an overview of possibilities — with our own resources, assets, and strengths.

Let’s get this out of the way: money is not the only resource. Anyone with a skill set, lived experience, or knowledge is a resource. If you can read, you are a resource. If you can cook, drive, care for children, draw, organize, or use a phone, you are a resource.

Furthermore, if you have land, tools, equipment, books, cookware, sewing machines, or knowledge, you have assets. If you have people around you, if you have your wits about you, you have strength.

Now, if we want to create a solution for ourselves and our country, let us ask: what can we do with what we have right now? At this point, we need everything, so we all have something to contribute. Before we were taught to be so distrustful, and before we suffered so much and became so angry, we worked together to build our lakou and practice konbit and solidarity. That is in our blood and cannot be erased.

Before we begin, we need to acknowledge something. Even with the best intentions, the government and the systems meant to make it function — from hiring practices, salary allocations, documentation and archiving, to office management — are too far gone. That does not mean they cannot be fixed, but we should not expect any administration to turn everything around at once after decades of dysfunctional and corrupt operational models. As we face this reality, we will not, under any circumstances, compare ourselves to “lòt peyi.” Lakay se lakay, and this mess will require an all-hands effort to clean up.

For this, I propose that we remember konbit and strengthen our collective practices to support one another wherever we can, based on our individual and collective assets. What skill sets do we have that can be leveraged to carry out a task or meet a need in our communities? What assets do we have that can be activated or strengthened?

I know this is the point where everyone gets upset and says the government should be doing this or that, but they can’t. Not like this. And don’t feel overwhelmed, as if we must reinvent the wheel or start from scratch. We are already doing many of these things. Neighborhoods already have associations with bank accounts and collection sites that can be used to strengthen hospitals, help people transition back to their homes, collect clothing and toys for orphanages, volunteer to host events for children, sponsor neighborhood sports leagues. We already do this. How can we do it more?

We can offer support to police officers in the form of school tuition discounts and materials for their children, discounted services and products.

This is a small contribution to complement their low salaries and reduce their cost of living as they face the impossible weight of their jobs — and to reduce their vulnerability to corruption.

At the same time, other citizens with motivation and skills can mobilize to push the government to create better working conditions for police officers. Perhaps some of us can volunteer to train officers on how to advocate for themselves. That is just a few hours of someone’s time. We can do that.

Nothing needs to happen first for us to do any of these things. We do not need a large project. All we need is the willingness and the choice to act. We do not need to wait for this or that precondition. We do not need to build coalitions and committees that require elected officers, bylaws, and logos — but if that is what is decided, fine, do what you can. Just please do not get lost in the democracy and the formalities.

I have seen how young people organize in this country, and I have never met a Haitian in their twenties who was not part of two or three — sometimes six — social groups. They organize in their neighborhoods to conduct cleanups, summer camps for younger children, storytelling sessions, fairs, book clubs, debate clubs, civic clubs — everything. Because of this incredible power, I know without a doubt that if I call any of the hundreds of young leaders I have engaged with over the years and ask for 100 volunteers tomorrow, it is not unlikely that I would get 200.

I have never seen a Haitian move up in the world without reaching back to pull at least ten others along. This is our power. We just forgot.

The time for finger-pointing has long passed. We know there are some among us who have harmed us — individually, collectively, nationally. We know. But we do not have the luxury of merely placing blame and demanding justice in an unjust system. If we aspire to justice, we must create the foundation for it — and that foundation is us and our ability to live constructive, joyful lives. Let’s help one another do that, and we will find within ourselves the capacity to genuinely rebuild our country.

We have to do this for Haiti and for each other. Because if today all the gangs were to disappear, we would not be ready for what comes next. The disappearance of gangs is not peace, nor is it security, because the conditions that led to their existence would still be here — and that is something we can fix ourselves.

Today, right now, we must begin the difficult conversations about what we have lived through, what we need, what we are capable of, and what we can forgive. Peace begins now — with us acknowledging these realities so we can transform our anger into healing, and our healing into the work required to repair our country.

I promise we are capable of these things. We are the birthplace of human rights. We are the descendants of the army that humbled Napoleon. We are the people who frightened the world so much with our power that they tried to erase us. They tried to destroy us. They turned us against one another. But we are not passive victims of other people’s fears.

We are the active creators of the future we want — and we can build it, all of us together.

By : Isabelle Clérié