Jean-Marie Florestal - 01 Jan 2000, 11:44:41:

Happy Birthday HAITI!!

196 years ago, you were born prematurely because you were so strong and so fearless. Your birth, as the first independent black republic in the world, made you a pioneer of human rights. Your courage and sense of fairness inspired respect even from those who were more powerful and more resourceful. You were a leader to those who were still in forced servitude, the corollary of which is that you should not have survived your birth.

At 196, you have survived all the forces in the world that considered your birth a bad omen. But what a toll this fight had taken on you. Today, you are frail and in constant need of those who, 196 years ago, denied you the right to continue to live. Like it happened 196 years ago, you are at your best when you are down. Let them count you out, like it happened then. And like then, you will rise again when you get the sense to realize that “L’Union Fait La Force.”