Iddeenspeaks to my Melaninated Brothers and Sisters caught up in a man-made internal conflict of divide and conquer in their homeland, Haiti. My question is, how many times and for how long will misguided and conflicted young Black men bring fear, grief, trauma, pain, misery, and uncertainty down on their glorious and beautiful people? There is a better way to re-liberate your beloved Haiti and reintroduce it to your families, loved ones, and other proud Haitian citizens. Haitian people must no longer allow the elements of Delusions, Deceptions, and Distractions to divert their attention away from the intended focus required to bring a higher quality of life for the people.
You cannot continue to allow foreign entities to play an outside game with the intent to obtain control over your inside wealth. First, there is a BIG LIE that must be exposed about Haiti now. First, in 1804, Haiti became the world’s first African/Black-controlled nation when it declared its independence from France colonizers. Did you know that before Haitians liberated themselves, Haiti was, once France’s richest colony?
Haiti was a land long coveted for its riches of sugar, coffee, and cotton, brought to market by enslaved people, but there is more. Remember the January 12, 2010, earthquake that killed more than 150,000 of Haiti’s beloved people? The earthquake also unmasked some sinister secrets that most in the West have known for years.
The earthquake revealed that Haiti has oil reserves the size of Venezuela’s or larger. Moreover, Haiti also has gigantic resources of Gold and rare-earth minerals like Iridium. For many years the world community has labeled Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and at the time suppressing the news of its abundant mineral wealth.
Foreign nations and wealthy individuals have worked diligently to prohibit Haiti from using its natural resources to promote sustainable economic development benefiting the Haitian people have, in many ways, violated the spirit of United Resolutions 1803, 3171, and 3201. The world community must not continue to blame the victim, Haiti, for its economic underdevelopment.
Facts About Haiti’s Natural Resource Wealth:
Oil and Natural Gas:
Recent findings suggest that Haiti might have some of the largest oil reserves in the world. These oil reserves are estimated to be even larger than those of Venezuela. Close to the Greater Antilles, nations like Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti are believed to sit atop natural gas reserves of about 159 billion cubic feet and oil reserves of about 142 million barrels.
Undiscovered reserves could potentially hold as much as 941 million barrels of crude oil and natural gas, with an estimated total of about 1.2 trillion cubic feet.
Gold:
Haiti is thought to have gold deposits worth approximately $20 billion. These deposits remain largely untapped, but their potential could significantly impact the nation’s economy and improve living standards for its population.
Copper:
The Meme copper mine in Haiti was exploited in the 1960s and produced at least 2 million metric tons of 2% copper1.
Other Resources:
Besides oil, natural gas, gold, and copper, Haiti’s natural resources include:
Bauxite: Used in aluminum production. Calcium carbonate: Used in various industrial applications. Marble: Valuable for construction and decorative purposes.
Hydropower: The potential for harnessing energy from water sources.
Arable land:
Suitable for agriculture
Again, Haiti is poor by design. Historical exploitation, foreign interventions, and political instability have denied Haitians the ability to have sustainable development. Uncovering the potential of these resources will contribute to Haiti’s growth and prosperity and afford its’ 11,724,763 people a livelihood like the citizens of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
All Haitians must realize once and for all, that their glorious nation in the Caribbean is not poor, but very wealthy. The proof is as close as your computer and the internet. It is time for Haitians in the diaspora all over the world, many forced to leave their country, many under the Duvalier imposed fear of death, to work in unison with the majority of those in the country to ensure that Haiti’s natural resources are used to lift its mighty people that have suffered far too long. Haitians suffered many years under French rule and after the revolution, they suffered under the rule of foreign-appointed and/or endorsed dictators who showed the people no mercy, no respect, and no love.
Haitian people must not see the glass as half-empty; contrarily, their glass is truly half-full and growing fuller all the time. Additionally, Haitians have every right to stand tall and be proud of their historical past. The Haitian Revolution, which lasted from (1791–1804), was the only so-called slave revolt that led to the founding of a new nation. Haitians and people of African descent all over the world should be very proud of our Melaninated brothers and sisters on this small Caribbean Island nation for achieving a monumental victory over a powerful oppressor.
Most people throughout the world have no idea about one of the most disturbing twists in the aftermath of the Haitian revolution; that being, Haiti was forced, by France and its Western allies, to pay massive reparations to French slaveholders in order to receive French recognition and end the nation’s political and economic isolation. What a concept, the oppressed forced to pay the oppressor. These payments set back Haiti’s economic development for generations.
Fact: African Americans and our brothers and sisters throughout the Caribbean Islands are still fighting for reparations for enslavement, stolen labor, and brutal mistreatment of our forefathers and mothers in the Americas.
The French, like most colonial powers, who were democratically ruled at home, had no desire to see free Haitian/African people living and enjoying democracy for themselves. Just as they did in Africa, the French established a system of minority rule while maintaining a state of illiteracy and poverty for the majority of the Haitians. Colonial powers used minorities as allies in their efforts to find economic ways to exert continued imperial control. Light supremacy, a system of minority rule, generally by countrymen/women of mixed race, guarantees the development of an illegitimate apartheid situation.
Jean-Claude Duvalier and many of the elite in Haiti practiced a form of light supremacy (individuals of mixed ancestry). This Haitian problem mirrors Africa’s problem, in South America, and many other parts of the world. Globally, Melanin-Rich people must understand the origin of light supremacy assumed leadership and put an end to these kinds of morally forbidden systems. Africa, Haiti, and other marginalized majorities populations must take their rightful place ruling their societies as they did during the origin of mankind.
The final chapter for Haiti is to clean itself of the final vestige of the psychological effects of the European-French rule. It is a stench that remains in the minds of many of the elites that still participate in the continued disproportionate rule of Haiti. When the Haitians took their freedom from France, physical independence was instantly achieved; however, like most of Africa today, the Haitian people suffered from the lasting effects of colonial rule, and it still affects its people today. This too will end and end soon!
A very sick part of the French rule returned to Haiti on January 16, 2011, in the form of the murderous Jean-Claude Duvalier. He unexpectedly returned a year after the 2010 Haiti earthquake to pick the remaining bones of the Haitian people. Different from former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s brutal kidnapping, Duvalier lived lavishly in France for two decades in self-imposed exile. Duvalier, like many of Haiti’s elite, identified more with the French colonists than the Haitians. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was punished by Western governments and their Haitian collaborators for simply loving his people.
One of the most atrocious actions of Jean-Claude Duvalier during his 15-year presidency, besides selling Haitian cadavers to foreign medical schools, was his participation in the cover-up regarding Haiti’s resource wealth. It is well known that Jean-Claude Duvalier had verified the existence of a major oilfield in the Bay of Port-au-Prince shortly before his downfall. He is guilty of the continued misery, hardship, and impoverishment of the Haitians; hence, he is responsible for many more lost lives.
Revenue from oil profits will vastly enhance the lives of all Haitians and quicken the economic development of the nation. He must be punished severely for the multitude of atrocities he committed against his people. Duvalier’s actions are no less inhuman, sadistic, and/or reprehensible than those of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. Saddam used chemical weapons to kill his people as well as thousands of Iranians.
Duvalier used designer poverty to kill thousands of his people and negatively affected the health of thousands more while he maintained the continued support of Prime Ministers and Presidents from around the world. Duvalier did his dastardly deeds without any signs of remorse or regret and the Haitian legal system must punish him to the full letter of the law.
In closing, let us be clear, Haiti’s natural resources belong to the Haitian people period! Haiti’s diamonds and gold, natural gas, and oil reserves could dramatically accelerate Haiti’s economic recovery and enable the Haitian People to become self-sufficient. It would enable Haiti leaders to push for economic independence through trade and industry rather than promised handouts!
U.N. Resolutions 1803, 3171, and 3201 provide Haiti, Africans, and all other states permanent full title and ownership over their natural resources.
More to Come…