Anst-Bidry Gelin talks about his native Haiti
Haitian Circumstances
Haitian Circumstances
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 2 of 2
The earthquake that hit ten miles away from Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12 did more
than destroy a city of three million people and disrupt the lives of an entire nation. It also exposed
the vast poverty of the island nation in a way that Hurricane Katrina exposed the poverty of the
United States back in 2005. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Caribbean and one of the poorest of
the world.
While the United States has been directly and indirectly involved in Haitian affairs since
Haiti achieved its independence in 1804 from France, Haiti is a relative mystery to many
Americans. America has militarily occupied Haiti four times since 1915, five times if you
consider the current relief efforts as a military occupation. 548,199 Haitians live in the United
States.
When Haiti achieved its independence in 1804 when the French were expelled from the
mountainous island nation, it was the first time that Africans who were enslaved successfully
revolted and created an independent nation. This revolution forged the Haitian national character
and made it leery of anything remotely resembling the former slave system. “Haiti doesn’t have any large plantations anymore, said Anst-
Bidry Gelin, a Haitian native attending the UW Medical School. “That is one of the results of colonization, in some ways. As we took our
independence in 1804, the idea was to get rid of everything that resembled colonization. One of the aspects of the colonization period was
large plantations. And Haitians during that time tended to basically get rid of those and make them into small farms where everyone farmed
to subsist to the next day. We have seen that progress throughout the years. I think one of the causes of that is that idea of not reliving the
colonial period again. Now families grow a bunch of little things. You would need a lot of organization to be able to assemble all of those
things and make something you could sell to the whole population in comparison to having 100 hectares of land where you could produce
one thing like rice and mass produce it. That’s not possible to do.” Within the global economy, Haiti’s agricultural system could not compete.
After Haiti achieved its independence, the European powers and the United States — leery of the repercussions of any successful
slave revolt — imposed reparations on the country in 1825, forcing the Haitians to pay France for their own freedom. “The reparations left
Haiti with no capital, Gelin said. “And once you start at that level, there’s no way to recover. It’s like you have a child and you broke his two
legs and command him to walk. It’s impossible to walk. And without proper medical treatment and he has no one helping him, he stays
there. And after a month or so, it stays the way it is. It heals with the broken bones and he stays at the bottom forever.”
The revolution itself as well as the forced reparations made the Haitian people highly suspicious of any foreign entity — public or
private — that wanted to influence Haitian affairs. “Haiti was considered to be the Pearl of the Caribbean during colonial days,” Gelin said.
“It isn’t anymore. We have a lot of natural resources like bauxite, some gold, a lot of natural resources. If somebody comes to get the
resources out of the soil, it may help the country. But you’ll find that Haitians tend to be protective, even if they can’t use it. We have the
same fear we had during colonization, which brought the country down.”
Gelin feels that Haiti is hurt and kept powerless because it isn’t able to internally create a societal structure that is also conducive to
democracy. Once the French were forced out of Haiti, what system would replace the colonialism with enslavement on large plantations?
And what did freedom all entail? Haiti has experienced many dictatorships since it achieved independence. With dictatorship came order,
but it came at the expense of freedom, which to many of the freed slaves meant no one telling you what to do.
“I won’t say if it is the leader or the people,” Gelin said. “It’s just not happening. Like now, with the democracy that we have, people
are not educated enough to understand democracy’s full purpose. I can say in a democracy that I can do whatever I want, but you cannot
just do that. You have to respect others. That leads some of us to believe in the earlier forms of government that had their own problem
also. But at least we had peace to some extent. And things were kept at a moderate pace.”
What has also hurt Haiti is a change in the nature of the political violence over the years. “During the revolution that took place in
2004, you could see that it was all ‘destroy, destroy, destroy,’” Gelin said. “That’s something that we did in our history in 1804. One of the
things was cutting the heads off and burning the crops. It was good at driving the French colonists out. Yes, they were killing, but they
made sure that if you were a doctor, a lawyer, a clergy member and people like that, they didn’t touch you. It was only the people who
owned slaves and land who were targeted. Now during the new Haiti Gone Wild, you see that everyone is getting killed. Doctors were
getting kidnapped for money. People who could help the country were being attacked. So that is the difference that I see from the old days to
the new days.”
The indiscriminate violence has caused much of the Haitian intelligentsia and others to flee Haiti, fearful of returning die to the
possibility of the indiscriminate violence flaring up once again.
In spite of her present state, Haitians on and off the island remain attached and committed to her. Once he graduates from medical
school, Gelin plans to spend at least part of each year practicing medicine in Haiti. Gelin sees a new generation of leaders arising in Haiti
to positively make an impact on Haiti if the rest of the world will give them a chance.
“I hope they can try to pursue independence more and depend less on the outside,” Gelin said. “I think because of our legs being
broken from the beginning, we’ve been in a state where we just like to get help and receive, receive and receive. I don’t like that. I prefer
that you teach me how to help myself instead of you helping me all the time. Hopefully we can use the help coming from the outside to help
us help ourselves in the future and not depend on everything coming from the outside. The way we receive the aid now keeps our legs
broken.”
It remains to be seen how that help will remake Haiti.
Bidry Gelin, a Haitian native attending the UW Medical School. “That is one of the results of colonization, in some ways. As we took our
independence in 1804, the idea was to get rid of everything that resembled colonization. One of the aspects of the colonization period was
large plantations. And Haitians during that time tended to basically get rid of those and make them into small farms where everyone farmed
to subsist to the next day. We have seen that progress throughout the years. I think one of the causes of that is that idea of not reliving the
colonial period again. Now families grow a bunch of little things. You would need a lot of organization to be able to assemble all of those
things and make something you could sell to the whole population in comparison to having 100 hectares of land where you could produce
one thing like rice and mass produce it. That’s not possible to do.” Within the global economy, Haiti’s agricultural system could not compete.
After Haiti achieved its independence, the European powers and the United States — leery of the repercussions of any successful
slave revolt — imposed reparations on the country in 1825, forcing the Haitians to pay France for their own freedom. “The reparations left
Haiti with no capital, Gelin said. “And once you start at that level, there’s no way to recover. It’s like you have a child and you broke his two
legs and command him to walk. It’s impossible to walk. And without proper medical treatment and he has no one helping him, he stays
there. And after a month or so, it stays the way it is. It heals with the broken bones and he stays at the bottom forever.”
The revolution itself as well as the forced reparations made the Haitian people highly suspicious of any foreign entity — public or
private — that wanted to influence Haitian affairs. “Haiti was considered to be the Pearl of the Caribbean during colonial days,” Gelin said.
“It isn’t anymore. We have a lot of natural resources like bauxite, some gold, a lot of natural resources. If somebody comes to get the
resources out of the soil, it may help the country. But you’ll find that Haitians tend to be protective, even if they can’t use it. We have the
same fear we had during colonization, which brought the country down.”
Gelin feels that Haiti is hurt and kept powerless because it isn’t able to internally create a societal structure that is also conducive to
democracy. Once the French were forced out of Haiti, what system would replace the colonialism with enslavement on large plantations?
And what did freedom all entail? Haiti has experienced many dictatorships since it achieved independence. With dictatorship came order,
but it came at the expense of freedom, which to many of the freed slaves meant no one telling you what to do.
“I won’t say if it is the leader or the people,” Gelin said. “It’s just not happening. Like now, with the democracy that we have, people
are not educated enough to understand democracy’s full purpose. I can say in a democracy that I can do whatever I want, but you cannot
just do that. You have to respect others. That leads some of us to believe in the earlier forms of government that had their own problem
also. But at least we had peace to some extent. And things were kept at a moderate pace.”
What has also hurt Haiti is a change in the nature of the political violence over the years. “During the revolution that took place in
2004, you could see that it was all ‘destroy, destroy, destroy,’” Gelin said. “That’s something that we did in our history in 1804. One of the
things was cutting the heads off and burning the crops. It was good at driving the French colonists out. Yes, they were killing, but they
made sure that if you were a doctor, a lawyer, a clergy member and people like that, they didn’t touch you. It was only the people who
owned slaves and land who were targeted. Now during the new Haiti Gone Wild, you see that everyone is getting killed. Doctors were
getting kidnapped for money. People who could help the country were being attacked. So that is the difference that I see from the old days to
the new days.”
The indiscriminate violence has caused much of the Haitian intelligentsia and others to flee Haiti, fearful of returning die to the
possibility of the indiscriminate violence flaring up once again.
In spite of her present state, Haitians on and off the island remain attached and committed to her. Once he graduates from medical
school, Gelin plans to spend at least part of each year practicing medicine in Haiti. Gelin sees a new generation of leaders arising in Haiti
to positively make an impact on Haiti if the rest of the world will give them a chance.
“I hope they can try to pursue independence more and depend less on the outside,” Gelin said. “I think because of our legs being
broken from the beginning, we’ve been in a state where we just like to get help and receive, receive and receive. I don’t like that. I prefer
that you teach me how to help myself instead of you helping me all the time. Hopefully we can use the help coming from the outside to help
us help ourselves in the future and not depend on everything coming from the outside. The way we receive the aid now keeps our legs
broken.”
It remains to be seen how that help will remake Haiti.
| Anst-Bidry Gelin, a first-year UW medical student, was born and raised in Trou-du-Nord, a city in northwestern Haiti. |
