Happy Haitian Flag Day!

Dear Readers, 

Today I celebrate the flag day of my country of birth as I sit here in the country I was raised. 

To share this celebration with you, this post captures a brief history of the flag. 

Hope it enlightens you.

Yours,

E

Brief History of the Flag:

The first Haitian flag was created on May 18, 1803

Catherine Flon, a seamstress in Archahaie (a town outside of Port-au-Prince), stitched together the first version of the flag

 Flag Day is a nationally recognized holiday in Haiti

Army General Jean-Jacques Dessalines made the first rough draft of a flag by grabbing France's red, white and blue, ripping the white stripe to pieces and joining the blue and red together.

This makeshift flag symbolized the union of the mulattoes and the blacks against the colonialist, pro-slavery France.

The arms are composed of a palm tree surmounted by the Phrygian cap of liberty and ornamented with trophies with a banner across the bottom saying "L'Union Fait La Force" (through Unity there is Strength). 

In 1805, after Dessalines proclaimed himself emperor, the Haitian flag colors were changed to black and red bands placed vertically, respectively.

After his death in 1806, the country was divided into two republics for 14 years. Henri Christophe and the northern part of the country retained Dessalines' flag.  

The southern and western parts of the country, led by Alexandre Petion, went back to the 1804 blue and red flag. This time a square patch was added to the middle that included the country arms and the L'Union Fait La Force motto.

The flag was in use until 1964 when Papa Doc Duvalier modified Dessalines' version by adding the arms of the Republic.  

After the fall of the Duvalier regime in 1986, the people took back the flag. They changed it to two-equal sized horizontal bands, a blue on one top and a red one underneath. The coat of arms of the Republic remained in the center. 

This is the version of the flag that is in use today.  

Catherine Flon

 

 

The version of the flag that is in use today. 

NY Times Mixed America's Family Trees

Happy Tuesday Readers!

It's still a cold, dreary, rainy day in NYC. Hopefully it clears up soon. I miss spring.

While on my random morning research run, I was excited to discover this interactive feature on the New York Time's site titled Mixed America's Family Trees.

The description for the site reads:

The United States is in the midst of a demographic shift. Driven by immigration and intermarriage, multiracial and multiethnic Americans — usually grouped together as “mixed-race” — are one of the country’s fastest growing demographic groups. Examine the mixed-race family trees submitted by readers and listen to them describe their families, then submit your own.

I especially love the trees with the audio files attached. Take a look and listen to actor Lou Diamond Phillips Family Tree.

This is probably the extra motivation I needed to go back to tracing my ancestral line. I took up this task in college but quickly gave up as I kept running into brick wall after brick wall. Multiple natural disasters and coups in Haiti do not make for expert record keeping.

I'll keep you posted on this journey. If you end up posting your tree on the site, please let me know. I'd love to feature it. 

Yours,

E 

Source: 
NY Times 
Google

I am a Haitian who CANNOT cook.

Dear Readers,

Before we even start, I'd like you to pinky promise that you will not share this post with my mama. She would take it as a personal offense that I'm sharing with the world wide web ("that place. you know, that Internet place" - as she refers to it) the fact that her Haitian daughter CANNOT cook. Somewhere all Haitian mamas stopped to wipe a single tear from their eyes.

Now that you've pinky promised (essentially a legally binding contract), we can talk. In an effort to free my meat-loving hubby from always being forced to eat fish and non-meat products, I decided to create a menu for the next two weeks that would incorporate more animal products. First up: beef stir-fry. In my mind (and in other people's reality) this dish is simple enough to make - especially with already pre-cut strips. Unfortunately, I have the reverse midas touch. Everything I touch turn to ash. This beef stir-fry dinner was not an exception. As you can see there are very few pieces left - had to throw out most of it.

My poor hubby mistakenly believed that the same culinary angel who blessed my grandma, mama and older sister had also touched me. NOT. He should have found himself a traditional Italian woman to marry. Too bad he didn't have a time machine to take him back to the old country.

Until next time,

E

Stir-Fry Dinner Epic Fail

Why is there no looting in Japan? aka Why are the Japanese so much more civilized than the barbarians of African ancestry?

A recent CNN article poses the question Why is there no looting in Japan? in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes and tsunami.

The article juxtaposes the behavior of the Japanese with that of the Haitians who also faced a devastating earthquake, and the Americans who faced the hurricane Katrina. The author asks people to weigh in on why it happened in Haiti and Katrina and not Japan. 

Some of the responses that are indicative of what little progress we've made in race relations are noted below:

Kim:
Because Japanese culture, unlike all other modern cultures, is based primarily on honor and dignity. Unlike our Katrina disaster, the Japanese don't see this as an opportunity to steal everything in sight. The so-called civilized world can learn much from the stoic Japanese. 

Natasha:
The Japanese are resourceful, innovative and disciplined people with a great sense of national pride. While they also have criminals and felons, it is not quite in comparison to the sleaze balls we have in our streets. It was disgusting to watch these scum bags loot stores in New Orleans during Katrina when they should have helped their fellow citizens in need. While watching the devastation in Japan is heart wrenching, it is so refreshing to see the civility of people within the calamity they are facing.

We have a theory of our own. 

EIRIC:

Maybe there's no looting in Japan because they have enjoyed a very prosperous economy for years and very few of their citizens know and understand what it means to live without food on a daily basis - even in the absence of a natural disaster or any other large scale emergency.

We're always interested interested in answering social science questions and hearing the perspective of others, but not when they're inflammatory just for the heck of it.

All photos courtesy of Google and CNN.