Democracy - Haiti Observer Blog

For the past two years, Senator Moise Jean Charles has not been moderate as to the various labels he has attributed to the government of Michel Martelly. Names like drug dealing, corruptions, dictatorship and racism are often words used by the Senator of North to describe our president. Do you think that the ability for Senator Moise Jean Charles to criticize the government of Michel Martelly is a proof that Democracy exists in Haiti?

At least the Haitian president believes that his government has exercised tolerance, a requirement for Democracy. During a visit in the city of Cap-Haitian on Thursday, January 23, 2014, President Michel Martelly confirmed that Senator Moise Jean Charles is a vivid proof that Democracy exists in Haiti.

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It is always thought wiser to teach a man to fish than to hand him one. This is a sentiment that Jean Dominique shaped his career around upon returning to Haiti from private school in France. Working with the poor, he took his training in agronomy to teach the peasantry how to sustain themselves through skillful use of the land.

Because of his efforts, which included showing peasant farmers how to avoid being in debt to wealthy landowners, Dominique was imprisoned for six months due to the connivance of the landowners who convinced the authorities to jail him so they could hold on to their control over the peasants. Upon his release from jail, he became a fierce detractor of François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier and his militant regime.

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A writer from London's Independent stated that Jean Dominique has given one final service to Haiti by perishing 'in a hail of bullets', explaining that the life-long advocate of building democracy in Haiti by eradicating corruption at all levels had managed to turn the eyes of the world to a country only noticed when the bodies start to pile up.

On April 3, 2000, having arrived in the courtyard of Radio Haiti Inter, the station he founded in the early 70's, Jean Léopold Dominique was killed as a result of 4 shots to the chest. The attack, which also claimed the life of a station employee, was carried out before the early morning show Dominique was slated to begin.

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