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It has now been a month and it is too long

2011-02-11 08:37:35

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In truth, when you’re writing a blog, you’re not supposed to do this. You’ll lose readers. They come back a week later, two weeks later, even three weeks later, only to find the same old text, and it’s not aging well ...

So I beg your pardon, and I send you my thanks as well. Thank you for returning to this blog, to this web page that bears the name I chose for it. Mwen Pa Fou. And so that I don’t make this same mistake again, I will produce a slice of life every week – though it might be a very little slice – so that I don’t fail in my duty.

I’ve been reading a newspaper from about a month ago so that I can pick up where I left off. The Courrier International, which I love, published a “2011 Agenda” in its January 6-12 edition: “The major diplomatic and electoral meetings, but also the biggest cultural, religious, and sporting events, scheduled for this year.” Here are some of the significant dates:

February 4 was World Cancer Day.

March 8 is International Women’s Day. I’ll write a love letter to my mom, who is currently in Africa (I get the impression that people in our family like to travel!)

On March 20, I’ll greet the International Day of the Francophonie with a big smile. The following day, I will celebrate the International Day of Poetry, organized by UNESCO, by reading from the works of (Haitian writer) Franketienne.

April 4 is International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. I will take a moment to remember the innumerable victims of human military intelligence.

April 29, I will chuckle over the wedding of the grandson of our Queen.

May 1, I will laze around in a hammock, celebrating International Workers’ Day.

May 3, International Day for Press Freedom, I will think about all the murdered journalists around the world, killed simply because they wanted to tell the truth.

On May 10, the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in France will catch my attention (and I will smile at the idea that it is in large measure thanks to countries like Haiti, free since 1804, that, today, we understand the meaning of a slave revolt!)

Jumping ahead to August, the 16th to be exact, we come to International Youth Day in Madrid.

In September, the 17th has been designated as Heritage Day in a number of European countries.

In October (the date hasn’t been set yet) the famous Nobel prizes will be awarded in the following disciplines: Medicine, physics, chemistry, economics, and literature. The Nobel Peace Prize will also be awarded, even though it isn’t yet a university discipline. (Have you ever seen a diploma in Peace? Not that it wouldn’t be useful, but I imagine the curriculum would be very difficult to grade!)

And December 1st is International AIDS Day.

And that’s it. The list of “Days” for this and that stops there.

I realized today that our handicap, in this cause we hold dear, is that we haven’t captivated the media universe or the collective imagination enough to make it onto this list of important dates for the year. It is a failure that is ours. Mine as well as yours. Because the battle against AIDS is also, and above all, a fight against the discrimination suffered by those who are affected by it. Just as International Women’s day only exists to remind us that women are still, because of the most incredible human stupidity, treated as inferiors in too many societies (not to suggest, at the risk of being polemical, in all ...?)

We struggle daily, in Haiti as elsewhere, to change the way the masses look at human fragility. Fragility that leads us right back to the solidarity between brothers and sisters. To open oneself to the Other, is above all, to accept the difference of the Other, whatever that might be, and to recognize that that difference is naturally and invisibly linked to our own difference. That different beings make up the human race, which itself is nothing other than a big soup of people looking at each other.

December 3rd is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The fact that a newspaper like the Courrier International doesn’t include it on its list of important dates for the year says a lot about the work we still need to accomplish to make our way into the collective imagination, to become a part of the world of ideas. And that gives me a push to become more serious about this blog—more regular in sending my dispatches.

Have a good week,

J

Jonathan Boulet-Groulx is a self-taught student of humanity, a reporter of joy, a wandering photographer, a writer about things human, an artist who captures human fragility. His blog, Mwen pa fou, dedicated to the cause of intellectual disabilities in Haiti, has become a touchstone for those who wish to follow the inside story of Haitian life since January 12th and, in particular, the situation of people affected by intellectual disabilities in the rebuilding of Haiti, his second home. Since May 2009 Jonathan has lived in the small community of L'Arche Chantal, in the Cailles region of Haiti.

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