As I walk around the city and particularly in my Harlem community, I have started to notice small changes that remind me of NYC in the 80's. There are three telltale signs that foretell what is to come: the garbage and littered streets,  the increase number homeless and mentally ill people in the parks and the drug addicts who are shooting up openly on the streets. These telltale signs are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. They are the witch brew that mixing mental health impact of quarantining, the anxiety induced by the sharp economic decline, and the absence of leaders who can help guide us through these challenging times.

Fact: To say that Haiti is not ready for the Covid-19 virus is to state the obvious. To say that this government is unable but worst unwilling to tackle the challenge is also obvious. Indeed, it doesn’t care.

I live in a small bubble in a blue state. And although I travel and meet with people from purple and some red states, my immediate circle is mostly made up of people who identify as progressives or center-left. Virtually all of the people in my blue bubble assert that no matter what happens they are ready to vote for a cardboard if that is the candidate running against President Trump.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a resurgence of insecurity, particularly in the number of kidnappings that have been reported.  Those who have political power in Haiti – I avoid calling them leaders because they are operating outside the laws or any norms – have decided that it was better to respond with a strategy of propaganda rather than develop and implement policies to protect the population. And yet, even with the best propaganda machine, the President, his de-facto government and interim police chief cannot refute what we all know, which is that all of Haiti’s indicators are on red. 

The actions of the government are yet again another topic of division amongst Haitians. As-is often the case in these debates, we have disregarded the impact of these acts on the rule of law and our country's judicial system. Lost in the fog is how this will push Haiti back in the Doing business index.

Many of my middle-class friends in Haiti as well as the states are often surprised when protesters have violent reactions and tend to destroy everything in their path. They genuinely ask: why are Haitians are destroying their own communities? And quite often, they use the harshest and most derogatory adjectives to describe “those people” who are out protesting.

There is a hot debate taking place regarding Bernie Sanders’s suggestion that people in prison should be able to vote. His statement is causing an uproar and I found that even some of my liberal friends whom I respect very much are strongly arguing against such policy.

Si Prezidan Ayisyen ta mande mw ekri diskou li a nasyon an, men ki sa mw t ap pwopoze. Konpatryot Ayisyen, se ak anpil imiliite mw vini pale avek nou jodi a sou sitiyasyon difisil peyi nou an ap traverse e kisa nou pral fè ansanm pou nou sòti ladan li.

We all agree that Haitian society is plummeting deeper into the abyss. This crisis comes at a time when there are very few people to whom the population would give credit as the deficit in leadership widens.

Nous sommes tous conscients que la société haïtienne s'enfonce profondément dans l'abîme. Cette crise survient à un moment où il y a très peu de personnes à qui la population attribuerait confiance à mesure que le déficit de leadership s'agrandit dans notre société.

It is a common theme among Haitian and those who care about Haiti to reduce the complex and difficult challenges Haiti is facing and lay them at the feet of the International Community (IC) and the International Non Governmental Organizations (INGOs).