A new book by Maryse Noël Roumain: Evocations of My Past by Paul Lambermont.
Maryse Noël Roumain’s Evocations of My Past begins as a remembrance of her childhood and adolescence in Haiti during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Evocation is a particularly appropriate word in this case as Mrs. Roumain uses sensory details to create a vivid picture of life and culture of Haiti during her youth. Beginning with her First Communion at age seven, Mrs. Roumain describes sight, smells and sounds to create not only a vivid picture of that day but also to discuss her growing relationship to her family, her community and to spirituality. This chapter sets the tone for the rest of the memoir.
As her narrative progresses, Mrs. Roumain reveals much of Haiti’s history and its impact upon Haitians today. In particular, the terrors and privations of the Duvalier era have imprinted heavily upon Mrs. Roumain, her family and those of her generation. As she wistfully recounts of the middle class Haitian Diaspora: “We love and are attached to our country of birth and should remain in it to have our life and contribute. This idea of preparing human resources that would constitute the workforce in foreign countries did not appeal to me. But it was the direction our society was going to.”
In the final three chapters of the memoir, Mrs. Roumain writes of her life in New York City. She has immersed herself in the cultural diversity of New York City, while focusing clearly on, and cherishing her Haitian identity and heritage. Reading Evocations of My Past helped me to understand a great deal about growing up in Haiti, about the history and culture of Haiti and shed a valuable light on the experiences of immigration.

Paul Lambermont (New York)
Artist, Museum Educator, and Literary Critic

Evocations of my Past est une autobiographie où l’auteur rappelle les moments signifiants de son enfance et de son adolescence (sa première communion, ses premières amours…) tout en décrivant l’atmosphère sociale, culturelle et politique d’une ville d’Haiti, Les Cayes, dans les années cinquante et soixante.

Des thèmes importants sont ainsi abordés tels les antagonismes de classe et de couleur, la dictature duvaliériste, et l’histoire politique de la ville provinciale, thèmes qui ont marqué la vie de l’auteur et font d’elle ce qu’elle est aujourd’hui, une émanation de l’espace et le temps dans lesquels se déroule son histoire comme aussi le produit de ses apports constitutifs et de ses relations parentales.

Evocations of my Past, seize chapitres d’une vie marquée dès l’enfance par sa singularité dans et hors d’un pays, Haïti, dont le grand anthropologue et homme politique haïtien, Anténor Firmin a dit qu’il était un “singulier petit pays”.

A travers ces “sketches de la vie d’une femme haïtienne”, l’auteur évoque aussi des évènements internationaux tels la mort du président Kennedy, les films hollywoodiens, la littérature française…pour décrire leur impact sur ses émotions, sa personnalité et son évolution intellectuelle.

Le livre se termine par trois récits sur la vie adulte de l’auteur à New York toujours à la recherche d’amitié et en quête d’intégration sociale dans les circonstances plutôt difficiles de l’émigration.

On sent qu’il reste beaucoup à dire, notamment sur l’histoire personnelle de l’auteur dans les années ultérieures. On s’attend à un second volume. Peut-être?

Maryse Noël Roumain a précédemment écrit : Life Goes On; A Reflective Diary, des récits autobiographiques et des commentaires politiques.

On GovernmeNT AND GOVERNING
Maryse Noël Roumain

The recent world economic crisis has forced significant interventions in the economy on the part of capitalist countries that were reluctant or unwilling to do so. However, the debate about government, i.e., its nature and definition, what it means to govern and the rights and responsibilities of those who are governed, is still going on.

In Haiti these questions have not been formally debated but they remain diffuse in political practices, opinions and discussion.

What kind of government do we need or have? What does it mean to govern in Haiti today? What are the rights and responsibilities of those who are governed?

Government exists since ancient civilization under different forms and it can be defined as the entity that provides for the maintenance of basic security and public order. The role of government is primarily to protect its citizens through the provision of security and the creation/enforcement of laws. Government also plays a role in managing the economy to insure an individual’s survival.

Anarchists have in the past questioned the legitimacy of government but today there is a general agreement that government is preferable to anarchy. An idea proposed by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes since the seventeenth century.

Ideally, government plays a major role in ensuring the health, education and welfare of its people and especially the well-being of its vulnerable population such as the poor, the elderly, the handicapped, women and children. It also ensures environment safety and engages in cooperation with international actors for the benefit of its citizens.

Communist states, dictatorships (civil or military), monarchies, theocracies, democracies are all forms of government.

A Communist State is characterized by single-party rule and allegiance to communism, i.e., Marxism, Leninism and/or Mao-Tse-Toung thought.

Under communism, a planned economy based on the ownership, control and intervention by the state is adopted. This is the system of “big government” with extensive social programs. However, China and Vietnam have introduced market reforms since the 1980s and allowed a private sector to develop as well as private foreign investment.

Civil and Military dictatorships imply an autocratic form of government unrestricted by laws or a constitution and controlled politically and economically by a small group of people.

Representative democracies are based on the principles of pluralism, free and fair elections. Elected individuals represent the people with the responsibility of acting in their interest and the authority to act. Most representative democracies emphasize individual liberties such as free association, speech, freedom of the press etc… In representative democracies, abusive power and impunity are prevented through the acceptance and application of the rule of law what we call in French L’Etat de droit.

Representative democracies are different from direct democracies. In representative democracies, elected and nominated intermediaries act on behalf of the people. These representatives or intermediaries represent people’s will and channel their claims, desiderata and needs. However, people’s watch and mobilization are also needed especially in the transition to a democracy and beyond to ensure it’s taking its right course.

In Haiti, our society is struggling to bring about a representative democracy. First and foremost, elections must be free and fair, organized and decided by a neutral Electoral Council. Second, the three “powers”: the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary must function effectively and democratically. Third, pluralism must be respected to ensure the free expression of different views and solutions, healthy debate and competition in the political class. Fourth, we must take steps to prevent abuse of power and impunity at all levels of government and the civil society.

While in a representative democracy there is a majority as determined by acceptable elections, there is also agreement that the minority be respected and able to express its ideas, views and proposed solutions through constructive criticism.

Those are some of the forms of government that exist today. There are others. Since the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, representative democracy has been brought to the fore as the alternative to ensure that people are governed. Consequently, some of the former communist countries as well as some of the civil and military dictatorships have turned to democracy. Populist states also propose a form of democracy although more direct than in a representative democracy.

While it is admitted that communist and socialist states are big governments where the government owns and provides, capitalist countries especially in times of non-recession and prosperity have debated about whether government should be big or small. In particular, there has been a partial privatization of programs such as health care…that are not considered the business of government. In poor underdeveloped countries however the issue of “big” or “small” government is not very relevant since those states have not been able to provide basic services and infrastructure as well as health and education programs that would respond to the needs of the people.

I argue that in such poor, underdeveloped countries, government should provide for the people. Similarly it should be a performing, productive entity, and have the authority it needs to be able to elaborate and implement policies may they be economic or social… on behalf of the people whose participation in decision-making must be ensured through procedures that are democratic.

In poor and underdeveloped countries such as ours, government employees should be busy working, policies implemented rather than being indefinitely debated and government accountable.

In poor countries such as ours (the poorest of the hemisphere), inefficiency of government should not be confused with “smallness” of government whose intervention must be solicited and is within the framework of our constitution.

A government that does not provide for the basic needs of the people, is considered to have failed; thus, the terms failed and fragile state.

The characteristics of a failing state also include a central government so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of its territory. Such ineffective and inefficient government is characterized by non-provision of public services, widespread corruption and criminality, refugees and involuntary movement of populations, and sharp economic decline.

Although it had been classified as a failed state in the past, Haiti is considered today to be a fragile state. A fragile state is “a low income country characterized by weak state capacity and/or weak state legitimacy. These countries are trapped in a vicious cycle of conflict and poverty facing a legacy of poor governance since many cannot deliver even the most basic services to their citizens. “
A crisis state refers to a country where institutions face serious contestation and are potentially unable to manage conflict. In other words, there is a danger of state collapse.
Just as a failed state can become a fragile state, the reverse can also occur or we can even go back to a crisis situation if the transition fails.
That is why to govern in a transition means to be able to weaken all aspects that hold us backward while consolidating all those that will take us forward.