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Jean-Bertrand Aristide
25 quotes
“If I hadn’t asked the question in 2003, probably in 2015 François Hollande wouldn’t have admitted to the debt...That was a step. It’s not finished.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: interview quoted in "Demanding Reparations, and Ending Up in Exile" (May 20, 2022)
“We feel deeply and profoundly that we should be there, in Haiti, with them, trying our best to prevent death...We cannot wait to be with our sisters and brothers in Haiti. We share the anguish of all Haitians in the diaspora who are desperate to reach family and loved ones...It is a tragedy that defies expression, a tragedy that compels all people to the highest levels of human compassion and solidarity”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted in "Haiti's exiled former president vows to return" (15 Jan 2010)
“The people are bright, the people are intelligent, the people are courageous”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted in "the massacre of the poor that the world ignored" by Naomi Klein (18 July 2005)
“The fact is, there was a political abduction...This unfortunately has paved the way for occupation and we launch an appeal for peaceful resistance...I'm choosing my words carefully: for a peaceful resistance...I am the elected president and I remain the elected president. I am pleading for the restoration of democracy”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: speaking at press conference while exiled in the Central African Republic, quoted here (8 Mar 2004)
“Reparation!...What beautiful schools, universities and hospitals we will be able to build for our children!...How much food we will have in abundance!”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2003 speech quoted in "Demanding Reparations, and Ending Up in Exile" (May 20, 2022)
“Days come and go...Today is Oct. 15, 1994, the day the sun of democracy has risen and will never set. Today is the day for justice to open its eyes and never close. Today is the day for security for all of us, morning, noon and night...We too have a dream," said Aristide, after quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "Today, in our beloved Haiti, the dream of democracy has become reality. This restoration of democracy brings reconciliation for all, and respect for every single citizen.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted in "ARISTIDE RETURNS TO ACCLAIM IN HAITI" By Douglas Farah (October 15, 1994)
“We have to swear 70 times 7 times that never, never, never, will one drop of blood fall in Haiti...We all want peace. Let all weapons be silent. To all of those who question their dreams, remember Oct. 15. To all of those who are discouraged in the pursuit of their dreams, remember Oct. 15.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted in "ARISTIDE RETURNS TO ACCLAIM IN HAITI" By Douglas Farah (October 15, 1994)
“What we have learned in one long year of mourning after Haiti's earthquake is that an exogenous plan of reconstruction – one that is profit-driven, exclusionary, conceived of and implemented by non-Haitians – cannot reconstruct Haiti. It is the solemn obligation of all Haitians to join in the reconstruction and to have a voice in the direction of the nation.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As I have not ceased to say since 29 February 2004, from exile in Central Africa, Jamaica and now South Africa, I will return to Haiti to the field I know best and love: education. We can only agree with the words of the great Nelson Mandela, that indeed education is a powerful weapon for changing the world.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(Do you still consider yourself President of Haiti?) JBA: Yes, because the people voted for me. They are still fighting in a peaceful way for their elected President. I cannot betray them. That’s why I do my best to respect their will...(Do you want to return immediately to Haiti?) A: If I can go today, I would go today. If it’s tomorrow, tomorrow. Whenever time comes, I will say yes, because my people, they elected me.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will continue to believe that we must invest in human beings. We must invest in education and health care. This is what will bring peace. Because peace is not an empty word. It has to be full. Investing in education and health care, bring the real peace to the country, and what they call peace is not the real peace. It is violence. It is kidnapping. What we call peace through education is telling the world that we are right.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I say it, and I say it again, the Haitian people are a non-violent people. They voted for democracy. They will continue to fight in a peaceful way for democracy, and I will continue to be faithful to them doing the same. The peaceful approach, fighting peacefully for the restoration of the constitutional order.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(What do you think people can do in the United States?) JBA: I think they can continue to mobilize human resources to help bring peace for Haiti—democracy for Haiti. This is what the Haitian people want: Peace and democracy.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The people write to me with the hope that I can solve their problems. But since neither the problems nor the solutions begin and end in Haiti, I feel I should forward some of the contents outside of Haiti.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On behalf of the Haitian people, I extend again our profound gratitude to all of our friends outside Haiti who have supported our struggle through the years, and particularly to all of those who mobilized, pressured and worked to make the restoration of democracy in 1994 a reality.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Through this letter we would like to open a window for you, a window through which you may see something that touches your own life.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I see my people there is a question that always arises. How can they survive with so little? How do they create hope where there is no hope? How do they create a way where there is no way? This way that the poor are creating, where there is apparently no way, is what we call the third way.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Part of this challenge involves dramatically changing global spending priorities, which are so grotesquely skewed. It is estimated that only 10% of development aid goes towards meeting primary human needs (education, health care, clean water, and sanitation). This amount represents less than what the industrialized world spends on athletic shoes each year. It would take six billion dollars a year, for three years, in addition to what is already spent, to put every child in the world in school. Does this seem like a lot? It represents less than 1% of world military spending.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“one thing is certain, to get there we will have to take risks. We will have to assume them. And to assume risks requires faith If you cannot cross the visible to what you cannot yet see, you will be stuck in doubts, pessimism, and defeatism. Faith arms you to believe and to assume risks.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You and I together, fingers of the same hand, are called to build a more human world in this new century, to bring the thumb and the little finger closer together, so the hand may be strong and whole. I am certain that we can and that we will.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The exceptional resilience demonstrated by the Haitian people during and after the deadly earthquake reflects the intelligence and determination of parents, especially mothers, to keep their children alive and to give them a better future, and the eagerness of youth to learn – all this despite economic challenges, social barriers, political crisis, and psychological trauma. Even though their basic needs have increased exponentially, their readiness to learn is manifest. This natural thirst for education is the foundation for a successful learning process: what is freely learned is best learned. Of course, learning is strengthened and solidified when it occurs in a safe, secure and normal environment. Hence our responsibility to promote social cohesion, democratic growth, sustainable development, self-determination; in short, the goals set forth for this new millennium. All of which represent steps towards a return to a better environment.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I didn’t leave Haiti because I wanted to leave Haiti. They forced me to leave Haiti. It was a kidnapping, which they call coup d’etat or [inaudible] …forced resignation for me. It wasn’t a resignation. It was a kidnapping and under the cover of coup d’etat...I did not resign. I exchanged words through conversations, we exchanged notes. I gave a written note before I went to the press at the time. And instead of taking me where they said they were taking me in front of the Haitian press, the foreign press, to talk to the people, to explain what is going on, to call for peace. They used that note as a letter of resignation, and I say, they are lying...We talked with them somehow in a nice, diplomatic way to avoid bloodshed, we played the best we could in a respectful way, in a legal and diplomatic way. Because they that told me that they were going to have bloodshed. Thousands of people were going to be killed, including myself. As I said, it was not for me, because I never cared about me, my life, my security. First of all, I care about the security and lives of other people. I was elected to protect the life of every single citizen. So, that night I did my best to avoid bloodshed and when they took me, putting me in their plane, that was their plan. My strategy was then all I could [do] to avoid bloodshed.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Peace means for us, in this time, education and investment in health care. In my country, after 200 years of independence — we are the first black independent country in the world–but we still have only one-point-five Haitian doctors for its 11,000 Haitians. We created a university, we founded a university with the faculty of medicine that has 247 students. Once U.S. soldiers arrived in Haiti after the kidnapping, what did they do? They closed the faculty of medicine and they are now in the classrooms. This is what they call peace. This is the opposite of peace. Peace means investing in human beings, investing in health care, respect for human rights, not violations for human rights, no violations for the rights of those who voted for an elected President, and this is what it means. It means that, for humans in the world, today this is their day, [inaudible] men in the world, all together, we can all work hard to restore peace and constitutional order to Haiti.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What do we mean, meaning democracy. What do we mean, we need to invest in human beings. Therefore, to go back, we should not send wrong signals as they did. They went to Iraq. We see how is the situation in Iraq. They went to Haiti. We see how is the situation in Haiti. Pretending they are imposing democracy with people killing people. Why don’t they change their approach to let democracy and the constitutional order flourish slowly, but surely. After imposing a criminal embargo on us being, from the cultural point of view, very rich from a historic point of view very rich but from an economic point of view, very poor because we are the poorest country in the western hemisphere, after imposing their economic embargo upon us, because the people wanted one man, one vote, so equality among us. Then they use drug dealers, they use people who are already convicted, pretending to lead the rebellion, while they went to Haiti killing people in Gonaives, killing people in Cap Hatian and killing people in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. And now they continue in the face of the entire world, blessing impunity supporting those killers. My god, I have said it’s really ugly that image they project in the face of the world. Now it’s time for them to change, to respect them but we will also respect the truth. That’s why respectfully, we are telling them the truth. I said, when someone is wrong, the wrong way to behave is to continue to be wrong. The right way to behave is a move from wrong to being right. Now, it’s time to move from being wrong on their side to become right by supporting the constitutional order.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What will 2004 look like to them? I see for them a country with 85% literacy, rather than 85% illiteracy. Cooperatives flourish in villages and in the informal sectors of the cities. Water is flowing through the fields of the countryside-where food enough for all of Haiti's people is growing. Creole pigs are seen more and more in the countryside, the descendents of those few that the peasants hid away and saved from extermination. Seedlings are beginning to take root on the mountainsides. The seedlings have a chance at survival because the people are no longer in misery, but are already on the road to poverty with dignity. There are primary schools and health clinics in every municipality of Haiti. The schoolbooks are not just half-price-they are free, in accordance with Article 32.1 of our constitution which promises a free education to every Haitian child. The children and young people are actively engaged in the changes sweeping their country. Radyo Timoun can be heard throughout the country, and people begin to feel it is normal for children to have a voice in national issues. The bayakou and the bouretye still labor, but the weight of social exclusion has been lifted. The restaveks are eating at the table with everyone else. This is our challenge for the new century; this is the challenge of 2004. We assume it. We are living it right now.”
Jean-Bertrand Aristide (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source