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Camille Loty Malebranche, Christina Franklin, Haitian Heritage Museum, Myriam Nader, Festival Jacmel, Spanish Poem, Memory Lanie in Creole.

Vendredi 25 FÉVRIER 2005

"LE COIN DE CARL PARLANT ET ÉCRIT, DE TOUT ET DE RIEN," DANS UN VERBE D’ARC-EN-CIEL.

Bonjour Miami, ses alentours et les "internôtres" qui écoutent à travers le monde. CHAQUE JOUR EST À LUI SEUL UNE VIE. Dieu, le travail et la liberté. Et bonjour, bonjour la vie, bonjour l’amour, pourquoi pas? Moi’j vais bien et’j m’habitue.

Croire que la religion dans laquelle on a été élevé est fort bonne et pratiquer tous les vices qu'elle défend sont des choses extrêmement compatibles, aussi bien dans le grand monde que par le peuple.

Comme a dit l’autre: "Nul besoin de temples, nul besoin de philosophies compliquées. Notre cerveau et notre coeur sont nos temples."

LA QUESTION DE CLASSE ET DE COULEUR, IL Y AURA T’IL JAMAIS UNE FIN ???

REMARQUES DE CARL À CAMILLE LOTY MALEBRANCHE.- Attention à l’ami Loty et aux autres sur la même pente….Cette affaire de classe et de couleur semble être incontournable…. En l’an 2005 c’est impératif d’aller de l’avant…. Dans l’intérêt de la libre expression et du progrès, à cause parfois de propos fort judicieux, j’ai trié sur le volet en acceptant et j’accepte encore à publier ces articles de Loty sur le COIN DE CARL.

Cependant, sans crainte du sujet, je n’entends pas finir ma vie à piétiner sur le même terre-a-terre, non productif, à patauger dans les mêmes histoires qui ennuient à dormir debout, en ayant discuté toute une vie. C’est fouetter un cheval mort …Libre à d’autres de primer là-dessus.

Le COIN DE CARL est entièrement indépendant. Je ne suis candidat à aucune fonction et peux me permettre ce luxe de sortir de cette basse-cour, à ma guise. "Chak chen nishe sa nou konnen’an, jan yo vle." À bons entendeurs, salut! Vogue la galère, et toujours plus haut!

PROBLÈME NOIRS-CLAIRS, Attention au simplisme! Couleur, Elitisme, "Arab bwat nan do," etc. (Par Camille Loty Malebranche).

Le problème de couleur en Haïti est aussi un problème de mentalité (comme j'aime à le dire, il faut extirper les racines mentales et comportementales du multiple mal haïtien!) Tout le problème noir réfère aussi à une mentalité de complexe d'infériorité de la plupart des leaders noirs qui se soumettent volontairement au blanc ou à l'homme clair.

Cela m'a toujours intrigué d'entendre parler d'hospitalité haïtienne à l'égard de l'étranger alors qu'entre eux, les haïtiens ont bâti une société d'exclusion où la hiérarchisation "interclasse" (si classes il y a) voire interindividuelle est présente partout.

Il suffit d'une petite promotion, d'un changement de quartier, de l'obtention d'un emploi pour que le petit nègre ou mulâtre du peuple se croie propulser à un rang supérieur de son semblable. Comme j'aime à le dire, sans être une société de caste, un grand nombre d'haïtiens ont une mentalité de caste! Et chaque groupe a ses exclus, ses intouchables dans le sens indien.

Maintenant, le noir se ridiculise quotidiennement devant le blanc. Certes, les désaliénés éduqués (je ne dis pas scolarisés): les grands penseurs, les valeureux, les savants, eux qui, en général n'ont pas la médiatisation populacière des chanteurs populaires ou des sportifs et qui savent s'élever à la taille de l'homme au lieu de patauger dans la mare de l’ « aliénation raciale », n’ont malheureusement pas l’heur d’éduquer les majorités de leur congénères.

Car précisément on donne la parole et les écrans aux amuseurs publics, à ceux qui ne dérangent pas! Toutefois, ceux qui ont pignon sur écran, les Michael Jackson et autres boute-en-train, n'apportent rien comme valeur au jeune noir que celle de la suprématie blanche inscrite dans le système social même qui les propulse, les enrichit démesurément comme amuseurs afin de déplacer, voire d’altérer la vérité de la réussite sociale et de l’accomplissement de social de l’individu.

N'oublions jamais que les pires corrupteurs et bourreaux des noirs ont toujours été des noirs utilisés par les négrophobes, les colons esclavagistes. On a exproprié même les rêves du noir qui s'imagine réussir en milieu blanc par héroïsme et supériorité.

Cette aliénation susdite est la pire misère. Car un homme sans pain peut toujours par le travail ou l'aide d'autrui parvenir à assouvir sa faim mais un aliéné, parce qu’il s'ignore et se prend pour un autre, s'identifie au système voire visage du maître corrupteur programmant et renforçant son effacement.

Il suffit de voir l'obsession du noir pour la peau blanche, des hommes qui délaissent fiancées ou femmes uniquement pour avoir trouvé une représentante de l'ethnie des grandeurs tout comme l'attitude de la négresse qui obtient les faveurs amoureuses du blanc, le vertige qui l’accapare au point que certaines jubilent sur les ondes (j'ai déjà entendu au Québec, à une émission de télévision, l’appel téléphonique d’une femme s'identifiant comme noire et qui disait ne plus vouloir avoir affaire aux hommes noirs), pour se rendre compte que l'autodénigrement est une pratique courante parmi les noirs.

En Haïti, pays des amours-haines et des ambiguïtés de l'aliénation, la question de couleur remonte pour un rien en surface. Un choc entre deux individus de teint épidermique différent devient soudain une affaire de noirs-mulâtres. Pourtant, la couleur blanche est, avec la force et l’argent, l’une de ces rares choses que respectent les haïtiens tellement méprisant de l’humain.

Inaptes à apprécier le proche, ils accordent une valeur injustifiable à l'homme clair ou à l'étranger. Qu'un haïtien étaye une thèse scientifique ou philosophique sérieuse, il est méconnu, alors que le blanc de talent douteux et mineur qui reprend une partie de sa thèse est déifié! Car selon l’héritage des maîtres de jadis, l'esprit est blanc!

Et il faut avoir le seing du blanc qui autorise! Nous sommes des commandeurs volontaires qui tenons un fouet que personne, du reste, ne nous force à tenir et à utiliser comme nous le faisons nous-mêmes contre nous réciproquement.

Faites l’expérience d’une simulation de délit mineur à deux d’un noir avec indifféremment un blanc ou un mulâtre en Haïti, laissez venir le policier ou le militaire noir haïtien qui doit faire l’arrestation. Il y a de fortes chances que le blanc ou le mulâtre soit traité en homme avec respect alors que le noir sera bousculé lors de l’arrestation.

Pourtant, personne ne commande au policier ou militaire noir de bousculer son congénère! Le drame, la dévalorisation est d’abord dans le mental du nègre puis du mulâtre qui se pâment hiérarchiquement devant l’autre ethnie!

Voilà pourquoi quand je vois ces querelles sur la couleur et la candidature d’un homme clair ou d'origine arabe, je souris ironiquement, car c'est de l'incohérence pure et simple des majorités haïtiennes, (des noirs riches et pauvres, politiciens et intellectuels) que de d’abandonner les commandes l'économie de leur pays à des hommes de couleur claire et de leur refuser le pouvoir politique!

Il fallait comme eux investir, grands nègres noirs enrichis en politique! Au lieu de déblatérer sur la question de peau claire que d’ailleurs vous aimez religieusement en cherchant la mulâtresse ou la « grimmelle » de luxe!

À quand les haïtiens seront-ils unitaires dans leurs démarches? Autre aspect du problème « clairs-foncés », les foncés, les noirs sont ouverts plus que toute autre ethnie à l’autre ethnie de peau claire, il suffit de voir de près, la proverbiale ouverture du nègre au blanc pour comprendre que ce n'est pas de l'hospitalité mais du complexe d'infériorité ou autre pathologie d'une ethnie à peau foncée qui croit même inconsciemment que l'autre couleur améliore "la race"!

L'Élite haïtienne est à créer. Il n’y a pas d'élite sans projet de société, sans une vision assignant essence et identité politique et économique au social, sans assumation rationnelle de la gestion du pays, sans projection systématico-institutionnelle du mode social voulu. Il ne peut y avoir d'Élite informelle! Or notre pays baigne dans l'informel!

Nos nantis ne forment pas une élite, ce n'est que par lacune lexicale de la langue qu'ils sont appelés de la sorte. Il y en a toutefois des individus qui s’assument en personne parmi eux et qui sont de vrais éléments d'élite par leur vision quoique celle-ci soit réprimée par leurs pairs dans la fortune.

Nos "intellectuels", fors les rarissimes qui osent penser et garder une dignité d’esprit et de comportement social, sont plutôt des scolarisés, souvent bêtes à manger du foin et qui ne sont le plus souvent que le calque des penseurs classiques, sans nul effort ni volonté d'une pensée propre et autonome.

Versant fréquemment dans l'alignement idéologique par affairisme, facilement achetables, ils forment des clans sordides contre tout esprit libre qui ose apostropher le réel sans soumission à des modes préfabriqués de penser.

Ils essaient tout pour mystifier et discréditer ceux qui ne se contentent pas d'être l'écho de formules toutes faites qu'ils brandissent à des moins scolarisés comme leur propre trouvaille et pour les mystifier! Ah! Misère, Horreur! On confond scolarisés et intellectuels et c'est une méprise tuante pour les non avertis!

Nos politiciens - hormis certains éléments d’élite, car il y a vraiment peu de comportement d'homme d'État chez nous - se livrent, quant à eux, à toutes sortes de platitudes pour prendre le pouvoir et assouvir leur instinct de domination sans souci d'aucun État à bâtir au profit du peuple pour enfin créer l'espace institutionnel nécessaire à la vraie fondation de la Nation où enfin l’Haïtien pourrait vivre en Citoyen.

Sur un autre site, un compatriote qui vit au Brésil m'a rappelé que Lula, certes bien encadré de penseurs progressistes et de technocrates, est scolairement un primaire. Pourtant, il a le respect de son peuple et tente ce qui est possible pour donner une nouvelle orientation plus digne, plus proche de la Nation à l'État qu'il dirige!

Preuve donc que ce ne sont pas les diplômes et le gonflement stupide des grands scolarisés répéteurs, s'acharnant par grivoise aigreur sur Duvalier ou Aristide pour n'avoir - pour la plupart, pas été appelés ou n’ayant point eu la chance d'être eux-mêmes présidents ou même ministres - qui changeront quoi que ce soit du pays et de ses calamités!

Le problème est social d’abord avant d’être politique, il faut humaniser une société en grave déficit d’humanité! Il faut une fondation axiologique autre pour une autre société!

CAMILLE LOTY MALEBRANCHE

LETTRE OUVERTE À LOUIS-FERDINAND À Hambourg, Allemage (par le truchement du CDC)

Mon cher Louis Ferdinand,

En te lisant, j'ai ete tres attristé de connaitre tes désaventures, alors que tu m’erites d'avoir de bonnes expriences, quand tu retournes à ton pays natal. Bon courage, et j'espère que tu retourneras nous voir bientôt.

Il m'a pris un peu de temps pour comprendre ton intervention, lors de la conférence de Tatiana Wah, FNH au Montana. Effectivement, pour parler de création de richesse pour le pays, on doit d'abord faire l'inventaire de nos forces et faiblesses, donc de connaitre nos limites.

En connaissant nos limites, et notre potentiel, nous pourrons alors élaborer des plans de création de richesse.

En effet, nous les haitiens avons des limites, telles:

a- nous sommes ineptes à la démocratie.

b- nous ne savons pas g’erer un pays

c- nous n'avons pas le respect de notre pays.

d- nous n'avons pas la culture du beau.

e- nous n'avons pas d'excellent chanteurs, ni de bons musiciens.

f- etc etc

Nous avons par contre: une chaleur humaine, un carnaval, le folklore, la proximite'du marché am’ericain, une main d'oeuvre à bon marché, de tres bons peintres, des plages, etc etc.

Une ‘etude de nos limites et potentiels, nous envoie à une seule option possible de création de richesse: c'est le tourisme, à partir du folklore, de la peinture, et de notre passé glorieux lors de la révolution des esclaves.

C'est sur quoi j'ai misé en développant le concept du Montcel, l'Haiti de demain, ou tout est beau, avec les shows folkloriques, et les excursions

à cheval, vers la nouvelle Place Riobé, ou vers le cimetière colonial.

Le tourisme est notre porte de sortie, car il engendra le développement de l'agriculture, des hotels, l'artisanat, la peinture; bref un développement tant à Port-au-Prince que dans les provinces. Il suffit de déraper les infrastuctures aux abords des villes, déjà trop encombrées, pour y faire des excursions ponctuelles, et amener vers soi, tout ce qui a de vendable aux touristes.

Je te remercie de ton intervention, et de souhaite bonne santé et bon courage pour cette année 2,005

Salut amical

Philip

du Montcel@aol.com

Waste your money and you're only out of money, but waste your time and you've lost part of your life.

Michael Leboeuf

Dear Carl Fombrun,

What a surprise ! I can't believe you had my letter printed in your newsletter. My friends and I were so surprised.

What a nice person she seems to be this Arlene Magloire. I have received a letter from her that was so touching.

I am happy and do not mind receiving your daily letters at all. I may not understand all of it, like the Creole, but it can get translated for me.

We are still trying to get tickets to the gala. They seem to have run out? We will see.

Best wishes,

Christiana Franklin

Dear Christiana,

Thank you for your input; " je suis un homme de la foule" as Haitian poet Roussan Camille would say. I read all my all my emails but I do not post them all.

Please come to the gala at 7.00 p.m. sharp tomorrow. As an Executive Board member I will make sure that you get in. ( We need the "green stuff.")

Looking forward to meet you face to face.

All the best,

Carl

Dear Carl,

Thank you for sharing with your audience the list of Haitians Films. I am adding some that were not mentioned for your audience..

1- Bridging Generations Haitians Americans Young and Old

2- From Poverty to Humiliations Haitians in the U.S. by Bryan Mong and Carol

3- Haitian Revolution through the Arts of Rose-Marie Desruisseau

4- Haiti's Piggy Bank- The story of the Loss and Recovery of the Haitian Creole Pig

by Grassroots international 30M

5- Haitian Eksperyans -By the Secretary of State for Tourism of the Republic of Haiti

6- Restavek - A Production by UNICEF

Thanks for providing the forum and the opportunity to share.

Margaret Mitchell Armand

SOIRÉE DE GALA. Étant donné que ce sera un dîner assis, prière d’appeler pour inscrire votre nom au 305 571-7156.

LA SOIRÉE SERA FILMÉE ENTIÈREMENT PAR ISLAND TV.

Carl,

Thanks so much for wanting our presence at the Haitian Heritage Museum gala. See you there.

LAST NIGHT, IN CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH it was a pleasure to attend a reception at the Miami City Club’s penthouse with Rachel Moscoso Denis, and to broadcast from there, CARL’S CORNER, for RADIO CLASSIQUE INTERNATIONALE.

Exciting evening with a lively steel band in company of Mr. and Mrs. Marion Hill the hosts, Miami Dade Judge Fred Séraphin, Financial Advisor Bazil J. Billings, Sabrina Chassagne Attorney and Counsel At Law, Entrepreneur Jacques R. Laroche, Maud M. Bléus and Terry Granot, Brokers, Richard William, RNC, Poet, Singer, Anarchist (as he calls himself), and his business card reads: "Evil Flourishes when Good People do or say nothing. Silence is Consent. Actions speak louder than words."

A wonderful time was had by all with at least 300 guests present. Thanks to the Miami City Club for permitting Carl’s Corner to be broadcasted from their premise.

Rachel Moscoso Denis now has her own consulting firm: RD EVENT CONSULTANT & PLANNING CORPORATION at 6751 SW 88th Street, Suite A-102, Pinecrest Florida 33156-1748.

Thank you to Delancy Hil, a professional association of attorneys for their cordial invitation.

In the 1980s, Haiti's upper class constituted as little as 2 percent of the total population, but it controlled about 44 percent of the national income.

The upper class included not only the traditional elite, which had not controlled the government for more than thirty years, but also individuals who had become wealthy and powerful through their connections with the governments of François Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier. Increased access to education helped carry some individuals into the ranks of the upper class.

Others were able to move upward because of wealth they accrued in industry or export-import businesses.

The traditional elite held key positions in trade, industry, real estate, and the professions, and they were identified by membership in "good families," which claimed several generations of recognized legal status and name.

Being a member of the elite also required a thorough knowledge of cultural refinements, particularly the customs of the French. Light skin and straight hair continued to be important characteristics of this group.

French surnames were common among the mulatto elite, but increased immigration from Europe and the Middle East in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries had introduced German, English, Danish, and Arabic names to the roster.

The only group described as an ethnic minority in Haiti was the "Arabs," people descended from Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian traders who began to arrive in Haiti and elsewhere in the Caribbean in the late nineteenth century.

From their beginnings, as itinerant peddlers of fabrics and other dry goods, the Arabs moved into the export-import sector, engendering the hostility of Haitians and foreign rivals. Nevertheless, the Arabs remained.

Many adopted French and Creole as their preferred languages, took Haitian citizenship, and integrated themselves into the upper and the middle classes.

Formerly spurned by elite mulatto families and excluded from the best clubs, the Arabs had begun to intermarry with elite Haitians and to take part in all aspects of upper-class life, including entry into the professions and industry.

Source: U.S. Library of Congress

Only in America.....do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front. ….Only in America do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters....

Why don't we ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?.... Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?.... Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"? ….Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons? ….Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?.... Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour? ….If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Good morning Don Carlito,

It was really nice talking to you over the phone last night. I wanted to share with you some of the pictures taken during my visit to Madame Tussaud's , Wax Museum in New York. I had the time of my life around all those famous people as you can tell Talk to you soon.

All the best,

Myriam

GALERIE D'ART NADER
FINE ART & CUSTOM FRAMING
Where Art Is Simply Enchanting
1911 Ponce de Leon Blvd
Coral Gables, Fl 33134
Tel:305-444-1740 Fax: 305-444-1734
Appointments:305-409-7059
www.galeriedartnader.com
Email: galeriedartnader@aol.com

A remarkable event took place in a small south coast town in Haiti in July 2004. Over ten days from 9 July, the first Jacmel film festival featured 195 projections of 85 films shown free-of-charge at six different venues, including a large open-air public space for night-time screenings. More than 20 directors attended, with delegations travelling from as far as France and Spain, as well as Cuba, Jamaica and the United States, and some of these visiting directors hosted workshops on various aspects of film-making.

Offerings at the Festival included historical documentaries, short features, and full-length movies, including The Comedians, a 1967 classic based on the Graham Greene novel set in Haiti and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. However, the accent was on Haitian-made films, either by local directors or those living abroad. There were also a large number of documentaries about Haiti, covering topics ranging from art to politics, health to religion.

The staging of the event was remarkable for several reasons, not least that it happened at a time when the country was still experiencing significant political upheaval in the aftermath of the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his government at the end of February 2004. The implementation of the concept owed much to the courage and determination of the festival’s two main organisers, the Jacmel native, Patrick Boucard, and the US-born resident, David Belle.

Boucard, an artist from a notable local family, recently returned to his home-town after years studying and working abroad. In October 2003, he and his wife opened the Jacmel Art Centre in a converted coffee warehouse on the seafront. Belle visited Haiti for the first time in 1993 while filming a documentary about the military coup regime in power at that time. He subsequently decided to stay on and relocated to a village outside Jacmel, from where he has made a series of documentaries.

The festival benefited too from the absence of politically-motivated violence in Jacmel which remained relatively tranquil while much of the rest of the country was convulsed by clashes between protestors and police, and attacks on police stations by rebel forces.

As Belle explained to one of the numerous foreign journalists who covered the event, ‘There’s never been a proper film festival in Haiti, and never anything on this scale.’ The US$125,000 costs, which were met partly by Boucard’s own money but mainly relied on funds supplied by corporate sponsors, foundations and friends, were high because the organisers were determined that the films would be free so as to enable as many people as possible to view them. The vast majority of Haitians exist on an income of little more than a dollar or two a day, and spare cash for entertainment is an extreme rarity.

For Boucard, the idea of accessibility was a key one. He said, ‘We’re trying to get as many people to see (the festival) as possible. We’d like to change their idea of films, to show them that films are more than action movies.’

Capacity audiences

In the event, the public response – an estimated daily audience of around 3,500 people over the ten days – was hailed by the festival organisers as ‘overwhelmingly positive’. The New York based photojournalist, Tequila Minsky, who attended the festival, said that venues for nearly all the screenings were full, and that the audiences were keenly attentive and engaged. Over the two weekends of the festival, many visitors came from the capital, Port-au-Prince, a two and a half hour drive, and all the hotels and restaurants were reportedly full to overflowing.

During the week though, it was local people who filled the audiences. ‘Every night the main street of Jacmel, which was blocked to traffic, showed two or three films on a huge screen’, Minsky recalled. ‘The street was always full with curious Jacmelians’.

Local people were thrilled in particular to see documentaries featuring local people. At one screening at the town’s French Institute building, the well-known Jacmelian Vodou priestess, Madame Nerval, viewed the 1999 documentary about her and her life made by the French director, Charles Najman. Another notable instance of participation was the screening of La Vi Ka Bel Pou Tout Moun (Life Can Be Beautiful for Everyone), directed by the Haitian, Laurence Magloire. The documentary – which is a compilation of testimonies of the stigma experienced by those trying to live a full life with HIV/AIDS – was followed by a discussion involving a woman in the film who fielded questions from audience.

For many in the audiences, these were the first films they had ever seen.

Jacmel’s only cinema closed down several years ago, and there are few theatres in any towns other than the capital. Boucard stressed that one of the aims of the festival was ‘to show films to people who have never seen movies before’, and to this end, he and Belle even commissioned two taxies to drive into the surrounding countryside to bring people into town. Minsky remembers one example, ‘The two films about HIV/AIDS were viewed by an audience that included a group of 20 teenagers who were brought in from the remote fishing village of Cayes-Jacmel’, she said. ‘That’s an hour’s drive along the coastal road to the east of Jacmel.’

In a country where official estimates of adult literacy are around 50% but

those involved in the limited number of non-governmental literacy campaigns cite a figure of 20%, film has obvious merits as a vehicle for ideas and information. A further obstacle to communications, even by use of cinema, is the linguistic barrier experienced by the vast majority of the population whose only language is Creole – the educated elite traditionally communicate in French, thereby effectively excluding an estimated 90% of the population.

The first film drama made in Creole – and one that was shown at the Jacmel festival – was Rassoul Labuchin’s Anita. Made in 1980, it tells the story of a young servant girl who leaves Haiti’s countryside to work for a rich family in Port-au-Prince. Anita was one of the first Haitian films to assert a cinematic language rooted in the recurring themes of Haitian culture: the rural exodus, domestic life, class relations and the significance of Vodou.

Despite the example of Anita, during the 1970s and 80s most Haitian films

remained what Haitian director and producer, Richard Senecal, described as ‘intellectual films’, ones inaccessible to the larger population. In part this was a consequence of the brutally repressive Duvalier dictatorship that forced many aspiring directors into exile. The dictatorship would not tolerate the few films made by those who stayed if they appealed to the masses.

Using the Creole language

Films made by foreign directors and producers would have been able to escape the strict censorship but few, if any, used the Creole language. Leah Gordon, is a British film-maker, who co-directed the 1997 documentary, A Pig’s Tale about the 1973 eradication of the country’s entire pig population, a probably unnecessary response to an outbreak of swine fever which delivered a terrible blow to the rural economy and the two-thirds of the population who worked in it.

Asked why her original intention to make a Creole-language version for

screening in Haiti never happened, she replied, ‘The film was funded by British and French television companies, and they weren’t interested in a Creole version. We couldn’t find the money. It was as simple as that.’ However Gordon is proud to relate that although the voice-over is not in Creole most of the dialogue is, and as French or English sub-titles are used, there would still have been much to engage the Creole-speakers who viewed the film when it was shown at the Jacmel festival.

Clearly the only answer is for cinema made by Haitians for Haitians, and the Association of Haitian Filmmakers issued a special communiqué to commend the Jacmel Festival for being an important incentive to the local film industry. The president of the association is Arnold Antonin, a pioneer of politically motivated cinema, who spent 23 years in exile in Europe and Venezuela. He returned to Haiti in 1986, and since then has helped nurture a new wave of Haitian directors by organising film shows at the centre he runs in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Antonin said, ‘Our cinema is embryonic, but full of potential. Haitians don’t want to be invisible. They want to see themselves and their problems portrayed on the screen.’

Antonin claims that the digital camera has transformed filmmaking in Haiti in recent decades. He told the Miami Herald, ‘Before there were no financial means to produce movies in Haiti. Film was expensive in itself and you had to have it developed in a lab overseas.’ The advent of cheaper technology coincided with massive increases in the urban population creating a vastly enlarged potential audience.

Director Reginald Lubin took advantage of this conjuncture when, in late 2001, he released his digital-video feature La Peur d’Aimer (The Fear of Loving), about a young woman’s unplanned pregnancy. This film’s sensational success was due in no small measure to its use of techniques such as good cinematography and a strong script that up until them had been largely absent

from Haitian cinema.

In the wake of Lubin’s success, other filmmakers began to follow suit.

After making a series of documentaries, Antonin Antonin tackled his first

feature-length film in 2001. The satirical comedy, Piwoli and the Gangster, with a script written by Gary Victor, one of Haiti’s most prominent novelists, was released to critical and popular acclaim in 2002, and was one of the hits of the Jacmel festival. It was shot in two weeks but took three months to edit because of Haiti’s notoriously unreliable electricity supply.

Another director featured in Jacmel, and who is making waves in the rest of Haiti, is Senecal. He has recently made two very popular feature films,

Barikad, the 2002 feature about the problematic relationship between a servant maid and the son of the head of the house, and another problematic romance, I Love You Anne (2003).

For Seneca, the problems of raising finance for Haitian-made films remains pressing. He told the Miami Herald, ‘Banks and other businesses, obvious choices as prospective financiers, rarely invest in films. And when they do, they demand that the filmmakers feature their businesses in the storyline.’

The other constraint is the limited size of the Haitian cinema-going

audience. There are, according to one estimate, just 100,000 Haitians out of a population of over eight million who can afford to go to the cinema. Bearing in mind that patrons pay 60 Haitian gourdes – about US$1.50 at today’s exchange rate – at a top cinema such as the Imperial in Port-au-Prince, and about 50 US cents at others, there is clearly little in the way of a profit margin. The decline of the Haitian economy over recent decades has hit the industry badly, with seven theatres closing down, leaving only four open in a city with a population of around two million people.

In this context, subsidised film festivals in provincial towns like the one

held in Jacmel in 2004 can provide an essential boost to both existing

directors, and to those who might be inspired to creativity in this medium in the future. Boucard and Belle are vowing to try and repeat their success in 2005, with a longer-term plan to get government support to turn it into a regular annual event.

The arrest of Ron Voss (an ex-priest living in Haiti for the past 20 years is not as bizarre as some may think.I believe that the GOH is going after the sources perceived to be financing the sectors in the Catholic Church that still support JBA.The Parish Twinning project is probably perceived by the GOH to be playing such a role.

Given Ron's dubious background (see attached) I would not at all be surprised if the GOH were to use this pretext to expel him from the country, even if they have to overlook due process in so doing.

Max Blanchet

From: "A H A D ListServ" info@ahadonline.org (an extract)

A former priest accused of abusing eight male teenagers in Indiana

a decade ago poses an ongoing threat to children in Haiti, and the

Catholic Church should do something to stop him, a national

group that represents abuse victims said Friday.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP,

said Indiana's Catholic bishops also should do more to find others

victimized by Ron Voss, who resigned his ministry in 1993 and

now lives in Haiti.

Quiero ser parte de ti mi estrella

Quiero sentir todo el amor,
Que en tu corazón, tienes guardado para mí.

Que cada minuto de tu vida, lo pases junto a mí.
Quiero ser, el aire que respiras.
Quiero ser, la ilusión de tu sueño.
Quiero ser, parte de ti.

No solo un momento en el tiempo,
Quiero tu tiempo, solo para mí.

Quiero ser, el amanecer que ilumina tu vida.
El sol que calienta para ti.

Quiero ser, la luna que tanto amas.
Quiero envejecer junto a ti.


Quiero amarte, como no he amado a nadie
Quiero que tu amor, viva siempre en mí.

Quiero ser, tu mar y tu cielo.
El manantial de tu isla desierta.

Quiero ser, tu ilusión de vivir.
La luz que se refleja en tus ojos.

Quiero ser, el corazón que late en ti.
Quiero ser la primavera de tus días.
Quiero caminar siempre junto a ti.

E POU MWEN FINI ZANMI MWEN YO. KWEN KAL LA PLEN SOUVNI. MEN sa yon zanmi te ekri’m san li pa vle mwen nonmen non li.

Mon chè Kal,

Depi kèk tan mwen tonbe ap refleshi sou jan bagay te ye lan peyi dayiti lem te piti. Fok mwen di ou ke-kounye-an mwen gen 64 lane sou latè. Lan fe ekzesis sila’a, mwen vin ap sonje jan bagay yo te ye, lè sa’a. Konbyen lan nou ki sonje, tout teminoloji moute kap osno, jwet mab ? Eske nou sonje mo tankou "koule kraze", vonvon, zèl, lamp a tet keu,la souri, sakad bwa mitan, tet dodomea, etcetera?

Eske nou sonje jan sete yon plezi le dimansh apwe midi, nou tap moute kap osno grandou swa, sou plas osno lan bodmè ? Jwet mab menm te guin vokabilè pa li : mo tankou tout vis, tout konsisyon. Titile bo ronn, bika, shelènn, grizon, pilat, fe mashinn, mo red, etcetera vin disparet lan langaj tou le jou nou.

Ak disparisyon anpil lan mo sa yo, nou pedi yon inosans ak yon nayivte tou. Andire depi nou envante mo tankou makout, zenglendo ak lavalas nou tounen yon pèp meshan ki pa jam te gen jenès. Kal, pa dim ke paske nou ap evolue ki fe bagay yo ap shanje, paske si se ta vre, sa ta tris anpil. Si ou ka eksplike’m pou ki rezon nap pedi sa nou te genyen anvan, tan pri dim. Mwen koumanse kwè ke se rezilta "karma" pèp lan, ou konnen, som total eneji tout moun ki vin bay resilta negatif sila’a.

Petèt si ou pale de sa , nou ka jwen kèk moun ki pote limyè sou bagay sila, pou mwen. Mèsi anpil. Mwen pa vle bay non mwen..

REPONS KAL.- Mèsi, lami. Mo mwen sonje yo se boul fè, boul pik lekol Saint Louis nan jwèt mab ak grandou pou kap. Mwen pat vole kap bonmè men Kenskof ak manman mwen ki te kon voye moute de gwo kap grandou, ke li te fè li menm. Tou sa mwen ka di sou kilti peyi dayiti, olie nou evolue nap devolue.

Men lami, se pou nou remèsye kan menm Granmèt la ke nou ateri nan pli gran peyi sou latè. Mwen pa konnen pou zot men malgre tout move grenn kii nan peyi meriken guen anpil bon grenn tou.

MEZANMI se la map rete pou jodi’a. Bon weekend tout moun. Na pale lendi pwoshen si granmèt la vle. Kenbe.

KAL

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