I was born
in Haiti in 1952. Seven years later I left on a very scary plane.
Both my parents had already been in exile nine months but our family was
unable to obtain exit visas from Haiti for my older sister, myself and
our younger sister, who was then one year old.
So we were
stuck behind quite a while. The Red Cross made a deal with François
Duvalier: One second-hand ambulance for three third-hand kids, and off
we went.
I arrived
in Miami at the age of seven, big-eared, scared and scarred.
One month later
I stopped hearing Creole, two months later I stopped hearing French, three
months later I was in Primary School in English. I remember feeling very
different from the others when I entered primary school in the States.
First there
was that weird French name no one could pronounce, then there were
all those Americans and Cubans. There were almost no Haitians in Miami
then. We were among the first. No one knew at that time that a million
more would follow in the next ten years. Most of the first wave went to
New York, Montreal and Africa.
-
4Escape is a search engine that searches our network of websites each of
which shares a common theme: International relocation, living ? investing
overseas, overseas jobs, embassies, maps, international real estate, asset
protection, articles about how to live ? invest overseas, Caribbean properties
and lifestyles, overseas retirement, offshore investments, our yacht broker
portal, our house swap portal, articles on overseas employment, international
vacation rentals, international vacation packages, travel resources,
every embassy in the world, maps of the world, our three very popular eZines
. . . and, as they are fond to say, a great deal more.
Miami was just
beginning the feel the effects from the influx of Cubans that would forever
change its very nature.
The Americans
in Miami did not like the Cubans then, considering them an agitated, noisy
and oily subspecies.
Since I did
not speak English yet, the Americans thought I was a quiet Cuban. Since
I did not speak Spanish, then or now, the Cubans thought I was a smallish
American. Corn-Flakes deprived?
Boy did
I feel left out. I remember thinking to myself:
"Hey, what
did I do wrong?
Haitians don't
want me,
Americans
don't want me,
Cubans don't
want me,
Does anybody
want me."
It's funny
now, but at seven it was not as funny to live, as it is to recount today.
One year later,
I had completely forgotten about the existence of Haiti.
My parents,
no doubt in the midst of a traumatic upheaval never spoke to us of Home.
They realized we were well on our way to becoming "blancs" because
the prospects for a safe return were growing dimmer by the month. The light
at the end of that tunnel kept getting further away till finally we stopped
expecting it to be there.
But who understands
or cares when you're seven. I remember being extremely impressed with those
big 1 litter Coke bottles, then made out of glass. WOW! At seven that's
enough to make you drop your boots, and your roots, and run for the ice.
I spent
13 years in America, quite unaware of the existence of Haiti, drinking
lots of Coca Cola.
When I returned
after François Duvalier died I was a "diaspora". I didn't speak
a word of Creole, didn't speak a word of French, had no concept of Haitian
Culture.
Guess what:
"The Haitians didn't want me ". An exceptional story? Not at
all. A story similar to the ones of hundreds of thousands of Haitian families,
of millions of Haitians.
The moral of
the story is this: "Almost all Haitians grow up uprooted; uprooted from
Africa in the beginning, uprooted from our culture while living in Haiti,
uprooted physically from Haiti in the end. And then, when we return, we
don't quite fit in. Too many transplantations can kill even the healthiest
trees or at the very least breed a new tree based on a culture of rootlessness.
So what
does that have to do with the Internet.
There are over
one and a half million Haitians overseas. As much as 20% of our total population
lives full or part time in foreign lands surrounded by foreigners, speaking
foreign tongues and immersed in foreign cultures.
- Began Summer
1998 - Now with almost a half million subscribers, out eZine is the resource
that expats, and wantabe expats turn to for information. Our archives
now have thousands of articles and each month we publish another issue
to a growing audience of international readers. Over 100 people a
day subscribe to our eZine. We've been interviewed and referenced
by the Wall Street Journal, CNN, The Washington Post, London Talk Show
Radio, C-Span, BBC Click Online, Yahoo Magazine, the New York Times, and
countless other media sources. Featuring International Lifestyles
~ Overseas Jobs ~ Expat Resources ~ Offshore Investments ~ Overseas
Retirement - Second Passports ~ Disappearing Acts ~ Offshore eCommerce
~ Unique Travel ~ Iconoclastic Views ~ Personal Accounts ~ Views From Afar
~ Two things have ushered us into a world without borders... the end of
the cold war and the advent of the world wide web of global communications
? commerce. Ten years and over one hundred issues! We're just
getting started - Gilly Rich - Editor
They are strangers
in strange lands. This is one of our defining characteristics; as a country,
as a people, as a culture.
The vast majority
of us left because we had to for one reason or another. The vast majority
of us would like to come home one day full or part-time and we will.
In the meantime,
the Internet will carry us Home.
Is that a small
thing for a country with our specific history, profile and needs. I think
not. I think it's a real big thing. Better than that huge Coke bottle.
Within three
years at least half a million Haitians will have access to the Internet.
Where do you think they will be headed?
Home.
There are thousands
of people building the Haitian Internet at this very instant. They are
building, what will be for us Haitians, above all else:
