By Dennery Alain Menelas
Earlier this week, Pakistan experienced another
terrorist attack. The day before, violence planted its bloody flag in an Iraqi
football stadium. The Islamist have struck again. We count the dead but also
questions the lack of media coverage of these attacks; perhaps we had forgotten
for a short while that, in the West, we do not feel so affected by this part of
the world. For over a decade, the world has learned that there were Muslim
extremists whom, in an anachronistic interpretation of the Koran, still believe
that sharia should be the law of the entire planet.
In our “exiled Haitians” heads, these
global concerns quickly give way to our main concern. How is Haiti doing? The
country is finally getting over the near-simultaneous disasters that have
recently shaken the nation. As Haitians, we are trying to internalize the
concept that we should not have fire near a gas station, or that our
infrastructure must be inspected from time to time. Yes, this is how Haiti is
doing; International terrorism is not our business. Besides, to think of it, we
have designed our own terror. A youth without a future, a moribund economy and
the lack of a plan for a better future can only end in an explosion.
The politicians of the past fifty-nine
years have built their bombs with the full knowledge of all. No need to hide
these explosive devices in an airport or a bus station, their existence does
not worry many people. We mention them from time to time, just enough not to
address them. We are used to it by now; notice that we still have fire in the
vicinity of petrol pumps. But let’s refrain, for a moment, from these unnecessary
comparisons with the world's problems. We want to talk about Haiti.
We finally have a government! Our
parliamentarians cheered, in near unanimity, the general policy of the Prime
Minister Enex Jean-Charles. We will point out that the man of consensus is yet again
a veteran of the political scene; when it comes to breaking a political deadlock,
it is to the decried traditional politicians we return. The slope to climb is
steep however, this new government will need to clean up the mess left by the
last president, assess the recent presidential elections and hold acceptable polls.
And all this in less than a hundred days!!! But we should not worry, in Haiti
we are used to these impossible missions; we are on the right path because we
finally have a government.
In the depth of this euphoria, we find
yourself wondering if we wouldn’t be better off without a government; a bridge recently
collapsed and no one bears any responsibility. "Thieves stole the
bolts" they say. This is common in Haiti but see, we are not interested in
the character who bears the direct fault. We want to know who is responsible
for our bridges; whom, during the last decade, had the mission to ensure that
our bridges would stand firm. In Haiti, it seems that we call the "
ministers"; but where are they? Why, honorable members of parliament, do
you not bring these great gentlemen to face their responsibilities? See, we
were right a little earlier; we could be better off without a government since
nobody is responsible in the end. But let’s look at the positive side of
things; this government will probably do better than the previous one. In Haiti,
hope is cheap if not free.
It feels good to talk about Haiti, but the
world keeps turning. The international community, which we love to hate in the
presence of cameras, will never let us down. In the shadows of the press, we
tacitly admit that "white men" are condemned to help us, to finance
elections doomed to fail because we hold dearly to our electoral shenanigans.
However, we tend to forget, through laziness or malice, that priorities change
over time. Terrorists will no doubt continue to hit and if international
security continues to fester, our fratricidal struggles will inevitably be
relegated to the background. The world will continue to turn without us, but we
still believe we will be fine because Haiti is comfortable in its little corner.
