The country is too often assumed to be a backward place: The First World has trouble remembering that Haitians were two centuries ahead of us in abolishing slavery and in extending full rights of citizenship to everyone, regardless of race.
The window will probably not be open too long. He will have to show some improvement in their lives. And he will need partnerships of Haitians with resources to do this.
If you include all the fraudulent documents, about 80 percent of Haitians have no reliable identity documents at all.
When I was a child, my parents took my brothers and me to Port-au-Prince during the summer so we could get to know the country of our ancestors. Because Haiti is an island, the beach is everywhere. Haitians are particular, even snobby, about beaches.
On February 7, 2.2 million Haitians went to the polls and exercised their constitutional right to select a leader. They went by foot, by tap tap and other forms of transportation, traveling hours and standing in line for almost a day to get to their polling places.
I believe Haitians should be treated like all other people who come to our shores,
Finally the elections took place and they are good elections of which all Haitians can be proud.
I ask all Haitians to work hand-in-hand to bring Haiti forward out of the crisis,
You know, I wish the world well. I want Iraq to have democracy and the Haitians to have democracy. I want the people of Afghanistan to thrive. Lord knows, we spend enough money there to help them. What about people at home? Isn't that our first responsibility?
I think it's really important for Haitians living abroad to go back and help with the development and infrastructure, especially because there are so many international people there.