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The article below was written by UWI professor, Sir Hilary Beckles and it tells some of the hardships the Haitian people have enduored generation after generation.

I want to encourage readers to read the whole article and follow up with some research of your own in order to learn the true history of African salvery and the effect such a history has on our so called modern world.

You'll find that almost everything bit of history you learned from elemetary school to college is either incomplete or written for the writters' pleasure.

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme Rethinking And Rebuilding Haiti.

I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.

Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.

The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.

The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.

In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. The founding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.

The water was poisoned in the well; the Americans went back to the battlefield a century later to resolve the fact that slavery and freedom could not comfortably co-exist in the same place.

The French, also, declared freedom, fraternity and equality as the new philosophies of their national transformation and gave the modern world a tremendous progressive boost by so doing.

They abolished slavery, but Napoleon Bonaparte could not imagine the republic without slavery and targeted the Haitians for a new, more intense regime of slavery. The British agreed, as did the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese. Click here to read full article.

Dominica (pronounced dom-ah-NEE-ka) not to be confused with The Dominican Republic

By Thomson Fontaine

January 22nd 2010 : Repost

“In an editorial today you speak about Dominica meaning Santo Domingo. Dominica is a small West Indian island belonging to Great Britain and it is a gross error to call the large Spanish speaking island Dominica.

It seems to me that the American people display a wonderful ignorance of the chain of islands that lie at the door of the United States. Even the school geographies make gross statements regarding these. I know there are many American textbooks which term Santo Domingo Dominica, but that does not go to show that it is its proper name.”

This eloquent and unsigned letter pointing to the confusion in a New York Times editorial over Dominica and the Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo), was delivered to the papers and subsequently reprinted in the editorial pages on January 15, 1905.

Unfortunately, this eloquent writer did not sign his name but indicated that he was a resident of Brooklyn, New York. The fact that he refers to “the American people” displaying a “wonderful ignorance of the chain of islands” have led me to believe that he very well may have been a Dominican from Dominica.

Who else would so passionately and carefully bring to the attention of the editorial staff of the vaunted New York Times and readers around the globe that they keep confusing the two countries.

More than a hundred years after this letter was written, Dominicans today find themselves having to tell the world that they should stop confusing Santo Domingo (The Dominican Republic) with its smaller less known neighbor, Dominica.

The confusion over the name should not have been a big deal if not for the problems that it have created. For years mail to Dominica was routinely diverted to the Dominican Republic. Some of it eventually found its way to Dominica, others were forever lost. Sadly the confusion continues even to this day although to a lesser extent.

On a personal basis, some years ago I noticed that I was listed as a citizen of the Dominican Republic on a visa that I had received from the United States Embassy in Barbados

Where it becomes really interesting is when the press refers to residents of the country and not the country per se. So for instance, a Dominican from the Dominican Republic appearing before a court in New York is confused for a Dominican, from Dominica.

In my own research of articles from the New York Times, I found countless instances where confusion reigned supreme. No wonder the Brooklyn resident was so irate. Try doing a Google search for Dominican Newspapers. You would be searching all night for something from Dominica.

Most Dominicans can relate the experience of introducing themselves in a foreign country and having to say something like “my name is John or Jane and I am from the island of Dominica, NOT the Dominican Republic.”

Others can relate to doing a personal introduction and the person that they are being introduced to saying something like “so you are from Dominica, I see, the Dominican Republic.”, and you having to politely respond, “no , not the Dominican Republic, Dominica. You see, Dominica is English speaking, we even speak Creole and the Dominican Republic is Spanish, right next to Haiti.:

As for me, I have grown tired of correcting people. I travel all the time and all the time I would find myself after having made the introduction to clarify just where I come from, and even then they don’t get it.

Well, some time ago I just stopped altogether. When I say Dominica and they say “oh Dominican Republic” I just smile and move on. Why, you might ask. Well, it’s not because I think that everyone should know the difference, and that the fact I speak English without an accent (at least I think so), would be enough for them to know the difference.

It was for something far less benign. On one of my many overseas trips, I was attending a meeting with one of my colleagues. Someone who has been to my office, whom I’ve known for sometime and who I’ve even invited to visit Dominica. “You know that small island of 70 000 people wedged in between Guadeloupe and Martinique.”

So we are at this meeting and he is doing the introductions. After introducing himself, he turns to me and says, “and Thomson here is from the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic.” I vowed there and then to just let it go, give up. Clearly, no amount of making that distinction will make a difference for the millions around the globe who know of Dominica, the Dominican Republic.

I suspect many other Dominicans like me have started doing the same thing. Others though are taking proactive action. One of the more popular Face book groups where Dominicans visit is called ‘I Am From Dominica – No Not the Dominican Republic’. The caption reads “Dominicans.... don't you hate it when people always get us mixed up with Dominican Republic? lol just had to set the record straight!

Not content to just back down, many in Dominica have called for a change in the name of the island. The most popular suggestion is to revert to the name given by its oldest inhabitants, whose descendants still live among us: Waitikubuli – Tall is her body.

Others have suggested using the French version of the island’s name, Dominique. Yet others suggest Nature Isle and Land of Many Rivers. However, there appears to be neither the political will nor any strong grassroots support for changing the name. Not many countries have changed their names in modern times, and even when this is done it creates even more confusion.

Zaire changed its name to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), only problem is there was already the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville). Burma changed its name to Myanmar, very few people remember that. Kampuchea became Cambodia. A name change would put us among a unique group of countries worldwide.

Interestingly, the confusion is not limited to people outside of the two islands. Despite a very English looking website, The Dominican.net routinely gets queries in Spanish, which of course are immediately discarded. In spite of the Spanish name, my four years of high school Spanish still did not prepare me for understanding the language.

So here we are some five hundred years after Christopher Columbus called one country Dominica and the other Santo Domingo, still trying to differentiate the two.

Notwithstanding the great technological and information breakthroughs of the past hundred years, we continue to struggle with that issue and I suspect will continue to do so until the end of time or until one country changes its name, whichever comes first.

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Dominica (pronounced dom-ah-NEE-ka) not to be confused with The Dominican Republic

* American Red Cross

*Doctors Without Borders

*Food for the Hungry

*Samaritan's Purse

* Hands & Feet Project

* World Vision

* World Concern

* Compassion International

* Forward Edge International

* Operation Blessing

* Convoy of Blessing

* UNICEFUSA

You can also use your cell phone to donate. The amount will be charged to your next cell phone bill by texting to the charity of your choice, here's list below.

* Text HAITI to 90999 American Red Cross Donates $10

* Text HAITI to 25383 International Rescue Committee Donates $5

* Text HAITI to 52000 Salvation Army Donates $10

* Text YELE to 501501 Yéle (Wyclef Jean) Donates $5

* Text HAITI to 864833 The United Way Donates $5

* Text CERF to 90999 The United Nations Foundation Donates $5

* Text DISASTER to 90999 Compassion International

* Text HAITI to 20222 The Clinton Foundation Donates $5

LET US PRAY FOR HAITI