Blind to the Past and Vulnerable to Manipulation

In a 2021 blog post "A people with a great history but no memory," I raised alarms about President Jovenel Mo?se's actions. Echoing the tactics of the dictator Duvalier, Mo?se worked to weaken the democratic institutions. He politicized Haiti's security forces - the police and armed forces. He transformed the Protected Areas Security Brigade (Brigade de sécurité des aires protégées aka BSAP) into a repressive paramilitary force and created a secret police unit, reminiscent of the brutal "tonton macoutes" of the Duvalier era.

It has been only four years since I published the article, and it was disheartening to see the limited awareness among many Haitians regarding the BSAP, an unconstitutional paramilitary unit. It was shocking to hear my fellow citizens laud BSAP as the potential "military wing" of a democratic movement. This lack of awareness was evident at the canal project in Ouanaminthe, where locals welcomed BSAP agents as protectors against Dominican aggression, without questioning their origins, recruitment, training, or funding.

The proverb says "Rat konnen, chat konnen: barik mayi a rete la.” The rat knows, the cat knows: the corn barrel is safe.

Many of us blindly accept and entrust our safety and dreams to dangerous figures like Guy Phillipe and a troubling paramilitary group like the BSAP. Sadly, we rarely learn from history and continue to fall for the same "shiny object" tactics. This lets "forces of evil" wait us out or lure us with distractions. We keep repeating the same mistakes, weakening our movements and leaving them open to manipulation.

As I wrote in the blog's final paragraphs "Our nation emerged from the traumas of slavery and a ruthless dictatorship, further burdened by recent earthquakes, cholera, and gang violence. These experiences may explain the "repetition compulsion" phenomenon, where we repeat traumatic events. Christine Langley-Obaugh reminds us, 'We repeat what we do not repair.' We must stand up to break this cycle, preventing future generations from repeating our mistakes."

I will continue to write essays and articles, to break the cycle and prevent "future generations from repeating our mistakes."