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Bahamas Blog International
Cape Haitian notebook
Related to country: Haiti
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By Jean H Charles:
Cape Haitian, akin to New Orleans, Louisiana; Charleston, South Carolina; Old Town San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a living museum site where the residents are privileged to be the custodian for future generations of a bygone era. New Orleans was destroyed in part by Katrina. It is slowly being rebuilt. Charleston as an aged grande dame is, as beautiful as it was a century ago. Old San Juan is going into a renaissance that will set it up for two more centuries. Cape Haitian is crumbling under the weight of a demographic explosion, poor governance, myopic vision and a lack of civilian and governmental leadership.
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Jean H Charles MSW, JD is Executive Director of AINDOH Inc a non profit organization dedicated to building a kinder and gentle Caribbean zone for all. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol. |
When I visit Cape Haitian, I live in one of those grand old mansions so common in that city. The front side balcony takes the full length of the house. Sitting there in the morning for breakfast, contemplating the sun piercing through the mountain is one of the delights of life in the islands in general, in Haiti in particular. As the sun makes its chart towards the sea, the back porch with its inside courtyard provides a nirvana where the soul is confusing earth with heaven.
Cape Haitian has been for centuries the pride of colonial Ayiti. Its streets well designed, its magnificent grand houses have endured the test of ages. Henry Christophe, the commander of the city, did not hesitate in 1801 to burn his own magnificent palace to demonstrate to the returning French troops that the taste of liberty was too sweet to return back to slavery.
Some fifty years ago, a son of the city who became president, Paul Eugene Magloire, brought Cape Haitian to the modern age with paved streets, sewer construction and other amenities, such as parks and potable water. The proud citizens of Cape Haitian have since developed a very low tolerance for poor governance. They have been penalized and have suffered in the last fifty years of neglect by successive Haitian governments that care very little for the welfare of their own people.
The construction of the international airport has been halted; the sewers have not been cleaned for the past forty years. The municipal iron market, a national treasure, is in a state of such decay and in such poor hygienic condition that a reasonable city mayor should close it from the public. Labadie, the most prized vacation resort of the Caribbean, is located at only fifteen minutes from Cape Haitian, yet 12,000 tourists will visit this enchanting part of Haiti every week starting December 9, without setting foot in Cape Haitian.
Labadie is now twenty years old, successive Haitian governments had all the time to clean up Cape
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A painting of typical Cape Haitian |
Haitian to make it hospitable to tourists and visitors, as such providing the means for its citizens to become as rich as Croesus. I have in mind Cozumel, Mexico, with its citizens tired of making money seven days a week with the constant flow of tourists! In a recent international meeting, I have suggested to an official of the government to transform the historic village of Labadie (1,000 people) into a showcase site where the tourists could come to enjoy the true spirit of Haiti. I was rebuked as an intruder to a family gathering.
Cape Haitian has been the refuge of thousands of citizens from Gonaives, who escaped the fury of the hurricane last season. They have invaded the surrounding mountains, causing further ecological degradation. The city, thanks to President Hugo Chavez, is enjoying six to seven hours of electricity through the Bolivar plant. My father of 97-years-old told me as a lad, circa 1930, when there was a black-out in Cape Haitian that lasted five to ten minutes, it was a big event.
The main boulevard of the city, Boulevard Espanola, (Spanish Boulevard) is as busy as Times Square at five o’clock in the afternoon. The kids coming out from school, merchants selling roasted pistachio, street kids hawking bottled water and the tap-taps (decorated small vans) fighting for passengers to bring children and their parents to the city suburbs, including the famous Vertieres village, the Waterloo of the French troops.
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House in Cape Haitian |
The city of Cape Haitian is in deep mourning this Saturday. The beloved maestro Ulric Pierre Louis, the founder of the 60-years-old big band Septentrional, has passed away. His fans have traveled from far and near to attend the national funeral. He had before his death organized a new generation of musicians to continue the musical magic of Septent.
This October, a group of city leaders will meet to map a renaissance of the city. It will need though a benefactor in the range of Commissioner Michelle Spence Jones of the city of Miami to help Cape Haitian to become a polished jewel or, rather, it needs Charleston, South Carolina, to lend a hand to a sister city that has much in common: the gracefulness of a past century frozen in each and every building of the city.
I believe Cape Haitian has a big future in front of it, with its proximity to the Dominican Republic (two hours from Dahabon), at the feet of the Citadel (one of seven world wonders), with its deep commercial and cruise ship port, a large population of half a million people willing and ready to work, its two century old stock of habitat. It needs a minimum of good governance to reclaim its seat in the rank of one of the five landmark cities of the world.
caribbeannetnews
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| September 19, 2009 | 12:01 PM |
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