Haitian Quotes - Page 2

• The lessons are, unfortunately, that a small weak country that is facing an extremely hostile and very violent superpower will not make much progress unless there's a strong solidarity movement within the superpower that will restrain its actions. With more support within the United States, I think the Haitian efforts could have succeeded.

  Noam Chomsky

  Country, Strong, Thinking

  "Chomsky on Haiti". Interview with Keane Bhatt, www.counterpunch.org. March 9, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We still have our people working in the cane fields in the Dominican Republic. People are still repatriated all the time from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. Some tell of being taken off buses because they looked Haitian, and their families have been in the Dominican Republic for generations. Haitian children born in the Dominican Republic still can't go to school and are forced to work in the sugarcane fields.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Children, Taken, School

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I see the sharp inequality between how Haitian and Cuban refugees are treated in Florida. Both groups come here because their lives are equally desperate. But on arrival, the Haitians are incarcerated, and some are immediately repatriated, whereas Cubans get to stay and are eligible for citizenship.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Florida, Groups, Citizenship

  Interview with David Barsamian, www.progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sometimes we mask ourselves to further reveal ourselves, and it's always been connected to me with being a writer: We tell lies to tell a greater truth. The story is a mask; the characters you create are masks. That appeals to me. Aside from that, too, in the carnival the masks were beautiful, and offered a vision of Haitian creativity.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Beautiful, Lying, Creativity

  Interview David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The whole military structure in Haiti that existed until the early 1990s was put in place by the American occupation. At the top there were Southern white officers, who led an army that crushed the indigenous resistance - the cacos. A high-ranking U.S. officer said when he arrived, "To think these niggers speak French!" Later, Haitian officers attended the notorious School of the Americas at Fort Benning. The threat from the U.S. is something that is always hanging over people's heads: If we don't behave, we'll have occupation again.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Military, School, Army

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• In Haitian mythology there is the figure Ghede, who in West Africa, is Iku, whose role is to show "each man his devil." He's represented by a figure wearing a top hat and smoking a cigar. That's my gig.

  Ishmael Reed

  Men, Smoking, Devil

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every time there has been an effort by the Haitian people to overcome the misery and poverty that comes from 200 years of bitter attacks, really bitter, the U.S. steps in and blocks it.

  Noam Chomsky

  Block, Years, People

  "Noam Chomsky on Civil Rights, Obama, Latin America, and the History of the U.S. in the Middle East". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. February 17, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I came into the music world in 1988 with a song called Ooh La La, that was like a breath of fresh air in Haitian music.

  Michel Martelly

  Song, Air, World

  "Haiti’s Michel Martelly: Wyclef’s Presidential Opponent Speaks". Interview with Tai Saint-Louis, allhiphop.com. August 6, 2010.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Haiti is always talking about decentralization and nothing has been so obvious, perhaps a weakness, as the centralized nature of Haitian society as being revealed by the earthquake. I mean, they lost all these medical training programs because they didn't have them anywhere else.

  Paul Farmer

  Mean, Talking, Earthquakes

  "Q&A: Dr. Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl on recovery efforts in Haiti". Interview with Molly Hennessy-Fiske, latimesblogs.latimes.com. January 29, 2011.

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's very difficult to get any movies done about Black heroes - Haitian or American - in Hollywood. The argument in Hollywood is that there is no market for those movies, and that is not true.

  Jimmy Jean-Louis

  Hero, Black, Hollywood

  Source: www.ebony.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Haitian rice farmers are quite efficient, but they can't compete with U.S. agribusiness that relies on a huge government subsidy, thanks to Ronald Reagan's free market enthusiasms.

  Noam Chomsky

  Government, Subsidies, Agribusiness

  6 Copy quote

• Jeremy Popkin's collection of first-person narratives of the Haitian Revolution is an extremely valuable work, accessible, sound and intelligent. I only wish such a book had been available fifteen years ago when I was in the early stages of researching my series of novels. Popkin has been deft and tactful in stitching together these excerpts, and as a result, he manages to tell a complete version of the Revolution almost entirely in the words of the people who experienced it-this book engaged me deeply.

  Madison Smartt Bell

  Book, Intelligent, Years

  4 Copy quote

• There's also the tradition of voodoo, the Haitian magic arts, in New Orleans. And because New Orleans is below sea level, when they bury people in New Orleans, it's mostly above ground. So you have this idea that the spirits are more accessible and can access you more easily because they're not even buried.

  Sam Trammell

  Art, New Orleans, Sea

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• When you put more than a million kids in school, you take a plane today and go to Haiti, you cannot see the results. You will see the results in 30 years when you see a different type of Haitian.

  Michel Martelly

  School, Kids, Years

  5 Copy quote

• The Africans were oftentimes allied with the antagonist of the Republic. Now, you may want to step back and ask yourself why that might be. It may lead you to a reconsideration of the origins of the nation now known as the United States of America. As opposed to seeing it in the same vein as the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, you might see it in the same vein as the revolt against British rule in Rhodesia in 1965, and, if so, that might help to shed light on why conservatism is so deeply entrenched in this republic.

  Gerald Horne

  Light, America, Veins

  Source: politicalaffairs.net

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• At one point, we were stuck at the border of Peru and Colombia and met this large Haitian population that was stranded there without passports and couldn't move. We had this revelation that, as tourists, we were so free to move, and here was this other population who couldn't cross borders.

  Sam Pressman

  Moving, Tourists, Population

  Source: www.indiewire.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Barack Obama's administration responded to the Haitian crisis within 24 hours. Here comes the soldiers, here comes the food, go go go... Rush Limbaugh told his multi-millions of listeners that Obama only did that to gain favour with black people in America. This is the kind of idiocy that I have to deal with in my country.

  Henry Rollins

  Country, America, People

  4 Copy quote

• I think it's hard for an outsider to capture the flavor of a community and all its nuances, so ultimately Haitian-Americans need to start sharing intimate accounts of their stories.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Thinking, Community, Nuance

  "Edwidge Danticat: The “Create Dangerously” Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. November 23, 2010.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would hate for people to generalize about every Haitian from something that one Haitian did, or a group of Haitians did.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Hate, People, Groups

  "A Voice in Haiti’s Chorus". Interview with Elizabeth Gettelman, www.motherjones.com. 2010.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• As a foreign worker in Haiti, speaking for myself, speaking for the workers, our organization is about 95 percent Haitian, but even foreign workers driving through, we have had very minimal security issues.

  Sean Penn

  Organization, Issues, Haiti

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A person deprived of beauty and pleasure puts me in mind of the Haitian notion of a zombie - a person disconnected from his or her soul, a person who works for others' profit but never his own, a person who mindlessly does the bidding of the boss and exists in an emotional and mental limbo.

  Ben Fountain

  Emotional, Boss, Soul

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source