The Diaspora a tool for nation-building and an instrument for market expansion: The case of Haiti!

1. The Diaspora a tool for nation-buildingand an instrument for market expansion:The case of Haiti!

2. By Jean-Hervé Charles MSW, JD • Sunday May 16, 2010

3. Strategic Plan for National Salvation • The PSSN and its world tour of education and penetration of the Haitian communities

4. Diaspora history • The Jewish Diaspora after the destruction of Jerusalem in 132 • The Black Diaspora through Slavery during 300 years • The Irish Diaspora due to the potato famine • The Chinese Diaspora after Mao’s cultural revolution • The Korean Diaspora • The Haitian Diaspora in the 1960s with the violence of Duvalier

5. Wide range of the Haitian Diaspora • One million in the United States • One million in the Dominican Republic • One million in the rest of the world in particular Canada, France and the Caribbean

6. Strength of the Haitian Diaspora • 300,000-strong in a demonstration to force the CDC to reclassify Haitian people in the AIDS debacle. • Forced the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti • Sending $1.4 billion to Haiti every year in remittances • Converging en masse in Haiti to help in the recovery from the earthquake

7. Successful models of Diaspora • Singapore • China, Korea, Malaysia, Israel, Grenada • On the other end of the spectrum: The Cuban Diaspora as an impediment to the end of the U.S. embargo

8. Criteria for successful role of Diaspora in nation-building • It must be country-driven, not Diaspora-driven • It must be give-give, the return must flow from both sides • It must be personal, although groups and organizations can pull together for specific projects

9. Diaspora role in nation-building as foreseen in the PSSN • A Creole cultural institute in each one of the major cities of the globe! • They will be a governmental- and Diaspora-run entities with high-level instruction in cuisine, art, language and dance from Haiti. The registrants will pay a fee to attend the sessions to make the venture self-supporting and sustainable.

10. Talent inventory A bank of exchange of grey material run by the Ministry of Haitians Abroad with an office at the Haiti UN mission in New York and at the embassies and consulates in other cities of the globe to catalog the Haitian and foreign experts desirous of offering their skills in the rebuilding of Haiti.

11. Business facilitation A development unit attached to the Office of Business Facilitation that will advise the Diaspora on potential investment opportunities, bids, and market offers in the infrastructure sectors, environment rehabilitation and the provision of services. By contrast, the Haitian remittances will be from the different transfer agencies through the Central Bank to insure credit on the financial markets for a positive balance of payments.

12. Dual citizenship At the Haiti Ministry of Justice a unit will be established to facilitate the speed-up of the process of double nationality for all Haitians with a foreign passport. It will work with the electoral board and legislature to facilitate immediately the registration and right to vote of Haitian residents with a valid Haitian passport.

13. Encouraging dual nationality • At the Ministry of Haitians Abroad a contingent of social workers will be deployed in the consulates to encourage Haitian residents to become citizens of their country of residence, to live as good citizens and to become a point of light for others to follow

14. Ensuring rights • These social workers will work with the private and public sector to ensure that the rights of Haitian workers are respected, their human rights not violated and their contributions to the society well appreciated

15. Opening up consulates Haitian consulates all over the world and the UN office in New York will be transformed into homes for Haitians to discuss issues of integration, harmony among themselves and development at home.

16. Hometown associations • They will get special attention to incubate their projects. • Mexico has offered three dollars for each dollar invested by its Diaspora in their home towns • The Haitian government through the PSSN will accompany the hometown associations from conception to finished project in each town and hamlet of Haiti

17. Courting Haitians abroad Retirees, senior citizens, the intellectually- gifted, athletes, children of the Diaspora, all qualified Haitians abroad will be courted to return home or bring their personal contribution to the motherland while living in foreign lands.

18. Marketing to Diaspora Agriculture and production will appeal to the nostalgia of the Haitian Diaspora. Organic produce grown in Haiti will be sold abroad with facilitation of the government in all the markets of America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.

19. Chain of solidarity Some of the Haitian interns who have profited from a free graduate education will be sent abroad with grants from the UN specialized agencies and other foundations to help in the development of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America to continue the traditional Haitian chain of solidarity towards others people of the world.

20. Thanking through art We will seek a way to express a sincere thanks in our art, which is so universally appreciated, to the countries that have assisted Haiti not only in the recent earthquake but throughout the long agony of dictatorship, ill-governance and a transition without end.

21. Conclusion • To conclude, the following poem reflects our sentiments and our hope for a better future with the contribution of the Diaspora...

22. I cannot forget you Haiti • As I depart from your weeping shores • I steal your salty air in my greedy lungs • I smell nothing but the scent of your sorrows and suffering • The memory of your unique cuisine resides permanently in my Mouth. Your sovereign soil deeply embedded beneath my nails • Home . . . I am home . . . Yet you continue to haunt me • Angel Aloma, executive director, Food for the Poor. Thank you.