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Haiti Quotes

Browse 201 quotes about Haiti.

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Haiti Quotes

“The worst feeling was poor. Because in Haiti, so many people are poor, it's nothing to be ashamed of. And there's always a way to degaje, to get by, even when you have nothing. But misery in the United States is harder than misery in Haiti. You feel like it's your fault for being poor. And if you don't have any money, you can't eat. You won't have a house. If you fall, there's nowhere to go and no one to catch you. Everyone back in Haiti assumes that once you've arrived lòt bò, that it's a good life, that you're living well. And it feels so shameful to tell anyone that it's not true.”

PovertyUnited StatesHaiti
Book:Hold Tight, Don't Let Go
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“The two main criminals are France and the United States. They owe Haiti enormous reparations because of actions going back hundreds of years. If we could ever get to the stage where somebody could say, 'We're sorry we did it,' that would be nice. But if that just assuages guilt, it's just another crime. To become minimally civilized, we would have to say, 'We carried out and benefited from vicious crimes. A large part of the wealth of France comes from the crimes we committed against Haiti, and the United States gained as well. Therefore we are going to pay reparations to the Haitian people.' Then you will see the beginnings of civilization.”

WealthHistoryUnited StatesCrimeGuiltFranceImperialismCivilisationHaitiReparationsApologiesAmerican ImperialismFrench Imperialism
Book:Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World
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“Whenever the incentive to imitate the dominant race is removed the Negro or, for that matter, the Indian, reverts shortly to his ancestral grade of culture. In other words, it is the individual and not the race that is affected by religion, education and example. Negroes have demonstrated throughout recorded time that they are a stationary species and that they do not possess the potentiality of progress or initiative from within. Progress from self-impulse must not be confounded with mimicry or with progress imposed from without by social pressure or by the slaver’s lash. When the impulse of an inferior race to imitate or mimic the dress, manners or morals of the dominant race is destroyed by the acquisition of political or social independence, the servient race tends to revert to its original status as in Haiti.”

EvilRacismSlaveryColonialismEugenicsHaitiEvil QuotesNegroes
Book:The Passing of the Great Race or the Racial Basis of European History
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“El precio de una camiseta con la imagen de la princesa Pocahontas, vendida por la casa Disney, equivale al salario de toda una semana del obrero que ha cosido esa camiseta en Haití, a un ritmo de 375 camisetas por hora. Haití fue el primer país en el mundo que abolió la esclavitud; y dos siglos después de aquella hazaña, que muchos muertos costó, el país padece la esclavitud asalariada. La cadena McDonald's regala juguetes a sus clientes infantiles. Esos juguetes se fabrican en Vietnam, donde las obreras trabajan diez horas seguidas, en galpones cerrados a cal y canto, a cambio de ochenta centavos. Vietnam había derrotado la invasión militar de los Estados Unidos; y un cuarto de siglo después de aquella hazaña, que muchos muertos costó, el país padece la humillación globalizada.”

WorkSlaveryVietnamMcdonaldsHaitiDisneyTrabajoEsclavitud
Book:Patas arriba: La escuela del mundo al revés (Biblioteca Eduardo Galeano)
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“We are not meant to be in this country. We did not want to come. We were forced to flee or die. Americans perceive desperate brown masses swarming at their golden shores, wildly inventing claims of persecution for the opportunity to flourish in this prosperous land. The view from beneath the bridge is somewhat different: reluctant refugees with an aching love of their forsaken homeland, of a homeland that has forsaken them, refugees who desire nothing more than to be home again.”

LongingImmigrationHomelandRefugeesHaitiHomesickness
Author:Edwidge Danticat
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“I have been in many awful places, but have never seen such fear as in the eyes of those who are trying to survive in Haiti's indescribable slums during the Clinton backed terror, or such misery as among poor peasants in southern Colombia, driven from their devastated lands by US chemical warfare -fumigation- and much more like it around the world. Even after violence achieves its goals and it's relaxed, it leaves a residual culture of terror as the surviving Salvadorean Jesuits observed. Yet somehow, communities endure and survive.”

HaitiColombiaEl Salvador
Book:Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
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“Accident - A statistical inevitability. Some nuclear power plants are built on fault lines, but ever mine, dam, oil rig, and waste dump is founded upon a tacit acceptance of the worst-case scenario. One a long enough timeline, everything that can go wrong will, however small the likelihood is from one day to the next. The responsible parties may wring their hands about the Fukushima meltdown - and the Gult of Mexico oil spill, and the Exxon Valdez, and Hurricane Katrina, and Chernobyl, and Haiti - but accident is no accident.”

AnarchyAnarchismHaitiAccidentChernobylHurricane KatrinaCrimethincFukushimaExxon Valdez
Author:CrimethInc.
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“Academics keep writing about the glorious slave revolt of Haiti (1791-1804). As if it still is the best thing that could have happened to Haiti. But it is the worst thing that happened to Haiti. Ever since the slave revolt against the French, Haiti has been in chaos. Massive human suffering, lasting destruction. Why celebrate that? But no: Let’s hold another conference on that fantastic Haitian Revolution.”

FranceColonialismHaitiHaitian RevolutionFrench ColonialismFrench Colonial EmpireFrench Empire
Author:Bruce Gilley
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“No place in Haiti was easy to get to and to drive to their lodge would take a couple of hours, so they sent a van to pick us up. It was already evening and the sun had just set, as we made our way up into the mountains behind Port-au-Prince. As we bounced along the dirt road winding through the hills, I could distinctly hear the rhythm of drums and see fires on the distant mountains. Mrs. Allen, who was with us, explained that in the 1940’s devout members of the Catholic faith considered the Voodoo rites an abomination of their faith. They armed themselves and started to eradicate from Haiti what they considered a cult. The entire thing turned into a war! They burned voodoo temples and shrines, and killed some of the practitioners as well as voodoo priests. In the end, the Catholic hierarchy gave up and after a time reached a tacit understanding with them. They now allowed Voodoo drums and songs to be sung in Catholic Church services and ignored what they once called devil worship. At the lodge, we were assigned rooms with real beds instead of the cots we were used to on the ship. Dinner consisted of chicken in a hot tomato and garlic sauce, over rice, with a heap of picklese on the side. Picklese is a pickled dish or Vinaigre Piquant, indigenous to Haiti consisting of peppers, shredded cabbage, onions, carrots, peas, vinegar, peppercorns and cloves. The dessert was Haitian Flan. It could not have been better and I was glad that I had availed myself of this generous offer. After dinner we went outside to where there was a large fire roaring, surrounded by benches made of split logs. We were warned that it gets cool in these mountains, and I was glad that I had brought along a sweater and jacket. We seated ourselves on the logs around the fire and listened to a gaunt-looking old Haitian woman explain what Voodoo was. She sounded convincing as she told of the Grand Voodoo Zombie rituals that were held at “Wishing Spot,” and how snakes slithered about the feet of the young women dancers. She spoke reverently about the walking dead in the Lower Artibonite Valley and the Spirits trapped in bottles near Cape Haitian. It was all very spooky and gave me something to think about that night. However before her talk ended, she came directly up to me and, looking deep into my eyes, said that I was to beware…. “I would witness death before leaving the island….” Ouch!”

HaitiVoodooMma Captain Hank Bracker
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One"
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“The fervor and single-mindedness of this deification probably have no precedent in history. It's not like Duvalier or Assad passing the torch to the son and heir. It surpasses anything I have read about the Roman or Babylonian or even Pharaonic excesses. An estimated $2.68 billion was spent on ceremonies and monuments in the aftermath of Kim Il Sung's death. The concept is not that his son is his successor, but that his son is his reincarnation. North Korea has an equivalent of Mount Fuji—a mountain sacred to all Koreans. It's called Mount Paekdu, a beautiful peak with a deep blue lake, on the Chinese border. Here, according to the new mythology, Kim Jong Il was born on February 16, 1942. His birth was attended by a double rainbow and by songs of praise (in human voice) uttered by the local birds. In fact, in February 1942 his father and mother were hiding under Stalin's protection in the dank Russian city of Khabarovsk, but as with all miraculous births it's considered best not to allow the facts to get in the way of a good story.”

ReligionAtheismChinaMythologyRussiaRomeReincarnationSyriaEgyptNorth KoreaHaitiAncient EgyptAncient RomeBabylonBashar Al AssadJoseph StalinKim Jong IlKim Il Sung1942DynastiesFrancois DuvalierBaekdu MountainHafez Al AssadJean Claude DuvalierKhabarovskKim Jong SukMiraculous BirthsMount Fuji
Book:Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays
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“Haiti as an independent republic accepted the invitation extended to her along with other nations, and erected a building on the World's Fair grounds. She placed Frederick Douglass in charge of this building to represent the Haitian government. Mr. Douglass had been sent as minister to Haiti from this country a few years before this, and had so won the confidence of this little black republic that it in turn gave him the honor of being in charge of their exhibit. Had it not been for this, Negroes of the United States would have had no part nor lot in any official way in the World's Fair. For the United States government had refused her Negro citizens participation therein.”

Racism In AmericaHaitiRace In AmericaFrederick Douglass19701893 World S FairTo The Seeker Of TruthWorld S Columbian Exposition
Book:Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells
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“Conosco un paese che ha provocato ben due guerre mondiali in un secolo e ha proposto una «soluzione finale», e nessuno lo ha mai definito maledetto. Conosco un paese insensibile alla disperazione umana, che continua a ridurre alla fame l'intero pianeta forte del suo strapotere finanziario, e nessuno lo definisce maledetto. Anzi, si presenta al mondo come il popolo benedetto dagli dèi, o meglio da Dio. Allora perché mai Haiti dovrebbe essere maledetta?”

HaitiTerremoto
Book:Tutto si muove intorno a me
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“By creating a society in which all people, of all colors, were granted freedom and citizenship, the Haitian Revolution forever transformed the world. It was a central part of the destruction of slavery in the Americas, and therefore a crucial moment in the history of democracy, one that laid the foundation for the continuing struggles for human rights everywhere. In this sense we are all descendents of the Haitain Revolution, and responsible to these ancestors.”

DemocracyRevolutionHuman RightsHaitiHaitian Revolution
Book:Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution
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“Mijn argument in mijn boek is dat behalve de slavenopstand in Haïti de slavenopstanden niet tot slavenbevrijding hebben bijgedragen, maar dat de beslissing om er een einde aan te maken in de hoofdsteden in Europa is genomen. Nogmaals, ik denk dat het fundamenteel nadenken over slavernij echt iets westers is. En de slavenopstanden hebben daar niet toe bijgedragen.”

HaitiNederlandSlavernijNederlandse SlavernijSlavenbevrijdingSlavenopstand
Book:De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse slavernij in een notendop
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“A native man in his small wooden boat was hoping to make one last sale. He held up a woodcarving of a Haitian drummer and shouted up that I could have it for only $10. I wasn’t really interested and was ready to walk away when I heard him offer it again, this time for $5. Looking at an approaching police boat, I agreed to the deal, and lowered my $5 down to him in a bucket. He ignored the cops, who were ordering him away from the ship using a megaphone, and tied the carving onto the lanyard that, just before, had a bucket attached to it. The police warned him once more, to back away from the ship, but the deal was more important to him. Just as I pulled on the lanyard, I heard a shot go off. It took several moments for me to comprehend what had happened. The cop had shot the man I was bartering with! I could see that it hadn’t been a warning shot as blood came from an obvious wound right between his eyes! I continued pulling my carving up and over the railing. Looking down I saw the patrol boat heading back to shore. The poor vendor was floating face down, alongside his boat. As the ship started to pull away, I saw that he was adrift in a growing pool of blood, which was spreading out around him. Life was cheap here and I realized that the old woman’s prediction had come true. I had seen death before leaving Haiti!”

MmaHaitiBoatsShotCaribbean History
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
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“The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador attain liberty, and inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States' independence, cannot die. Today, this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to rebuild Haiti.”

FirstsStatesTodaySpiritDiesNationsBlackUnitedLibertyUnited StatesBloodIndependentIndependenceInspiredEmpoweringShedSolidarityUbuntuHaitiForefathersColombiaVenezuelaEcuador
Author:Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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“Haiti is the kind of place that grabs your heart, and never lets go ... When you arrive in Port-au-Prince, the first thing that strikes you is how vibrant the colors are. Buses, buildings, fences, clothing, everything is brightly painted in primary hues. On closer inspection, you see the reality behind this brightly colored landscape: a dark, grinding poverty, the worst in the Western hemisphere.”

FirstsHeartKindRealityDarkBehindsPovertyWorstBuildingColorLetting GoWesternStrikesPrimariesLandscapeBusClothingsFencePortHaitiHueCaribbeanHemisphereInspectionNever Let Go
Author:Andrea Mitchell
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