The author, from Montréal of Haitian origin, graduate in Communication Sciences from the University of Montreal, explains here that the shortage of residences in Haiti is so serious that even Haitians of the Diaspora, generally more fortunate, who would like to return to the country or to go there for visit, cannot find there suitable housing.

HOUSING CRISIS IN HAITI

Following the recent voyage in Haiti of the Prime Minister of Canada the Right Honorable Paul Martin in November 2004, many Haitians of the Diaspora propose to return in their native country where, among other challenges, the possibilities of comfortable dwellings do not fail to be lacking. But one expects that this housing crisis becomes even more alarming as political stability in Haiti settled and that more significant waves of wealthy Haitians, and North-American tourists will flow towards that country.

Without falling into a happy optimism concerning the near possibility from a durable social climate, economically and politically healthy, the housing market, which is hardly negligible, deserves as of now some attention.

Dissatisfied market

Admittedly, Haïti is known as one of the poorest countries of the hemisphere. The great majority of the population can thus hardly hope, in the short or mid term, to be housed decently. There are, however, significant customers, financially sound, but who do not yet find an answer to their housing needs. Those customers, first of all, consist of professionals Haitians, of the Diaspora, who return to the country to remain there permanently ; those customers consist also of those who annually spend there their holidays with their family.  We also know that a potential mass of North-American tourists, and mainly people from Quebec, do not wait until the situation is favorable to enjoy the sunny beaches of that area of the Caribbean.

Concerning professionals Haitians, members of the Diaspora, who return to the country temporarily or who are reinstalled there with their families, their life style, to which they were accustomed during their long stay abroad, creates in them needs for a type of housing that they cannot currently find in Haiti. As for the North-American tourists, the hotel infrastructure, still very unsatisfactory, is more and more worsened by the complete absence of accommodations, requested by the people who want to take their family with them for vacation. Solution : the condominium.

This type of housing, the condo, is also very in demand by the Haitian customers. It meets the needs for quality of life, sought by the often numerous Haitian families coming for their holidays, but being able with difficulty to remain, either at their parents’ place, whose residences are generally very tiny, or in the rare residences available, whose comfort leaves something to be desired. It also meets the demands of the families who are eager to settle permanently in the country. The dwellings traditionally built by the local promoters not only are far from adapted to the life style of these customers, but also, they are built with a distressing slowness and insecurity.

Generally, Haitians of the Diaspora as well as all the North-Americans would like housings whose space is well arranged, and preferably located near the sea.  That is what the condo offers.  And Canada already proved to be reliable in that field.

Assets of Canada

In the field of the condo built on the tropical shores, Canadian successes, for a few years, have been recorded.  The case of builders from Montreal is very significant.  One of them, the Group Lépine, has built a whole complex of condominiums on the beaches of Florida.  Known in Quebec particularl- for its Pyramids of the Olympic Village, its Sanctuary of Mont-Royal, its Sir Robert Peel, its recent "1200 Ouest de Maisonneuve" -  in Montreal - as well as its Laurier Tower in Ottawa it was, as well as others, spear heading that sector where Canadian builders followed the lead, its achievements having borne their fruits.

It is thus to be anticipated that, once political stability in Haïti is established, promoters of that category will be interested in addressing the expectations in that country in regards to condominiums.  The Canadian expertise in that field is not any more to show and the capital is far from missing.  Moreover, the market will certainly not fail to be extremely lucrative, the more so since the formula of the condo is not yet really established in Haïti.

Other assets come to militate in favor of the promoters from Quebec  :  the public image of Canada as it has just been underlined over there, membership of Haiti as part of the French speaking countries and strong concentration of Haitians in Quebec.

In Haiti, the marvelous sites ready to accommodate the establishment of such projects are still very numerous. It is enough to think of the Anse d’Azur in Jérémie, of Kyona not far from Port-au-Prince or, towards "Montrouis" close to Saint-Marc, of that splendid white sand beach where the sunny sea so limpid and calm is called Amani-y-les bains!  Moreover, labor is cheap there in this "Taiwan of the Caribbean", and local customers will without any doubt be interested in this type of dwelling, the condominium.  In exchange, Haiti will be able to inherit housing complexes which adequately meet the needs of the tourists, as well as the needs of Haitians.  Some people of the country will also be able to possibly profit from technical training in that sector.

Thus it appears clearly that there is an increased request for condos in Haïti, which waits to be satisfied only once political stability has been established. Canada seems to be best placed to meet such a need, provided that it does not remain eternally in a waiting mode, whereas the international competition is increasingly pressing. In this field, more than anywhere elsewhere, the co-operation between Canada and Haiti will not fail to be profitable for the two partners.

 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 

Courtesy of the president Rene G. Lepine

Pictures : Lucien Bonnet
Groupe Lepine’s Web site : www.groupelepine.com

GLAZE STORM
 

LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF QUÉBEC
MR. LUCIEN BOUCHARD

Montreal, January 21st 1998

The Right Honorable Lucien Bouchard
Prime Minister of Quebec
Building Hydro-Québec
75, boulevard René Lévesque Ouest
Montréal (Québec)
H2Z 1A4

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

"It is in adversity", I was going to say in “darkness", that one recognizes true friends.

In this national test due to the shortage of electricity because of bad weather, each one of us, in Québec like elsewhere, recognizes in you the Statesman, the friend very sensitive to the needs of the Québécois.

In solidarity betwen us in this shortage, we are also in solidarity with your energy, your will to build and rebuild.

Energy of the Sixties tested, confronted by the Ice storm crisis, what does Science hold for us in this field at the crossroad of the third millennium?

Each of us should express solidarity, according to his means.

My contribution, apparently futuristic, refers, Mister Prime Minister, to an inexhaustible source of energy, which one should tame now.

In a book with limited publication, translated in English for the needs of the cause, entitled "BILL A RI And There Was Light", addressed during his last American election campaign to President Bill Clinton who acknowledged having received it, I dared to tackle this subject.

A second copy of that manuscript reached 24 Sussex at Ottawa, intended for the Prime Minister of Canada, the day before the visit of the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien at the White House.

As for the French original version which entitled then "Haïti ! Que La Lumière Soit !", it was given in person in care of the Canadian ambassador to Port-au-Prince, Mr. Hubert Feuillé, to President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

It's like to say to you, Mister Prime Minister, that in the exceptional circumstances in which Québec lives today - in the point of view of energy - no exploration in the mid or long term, by the expertise of Hydro-Québec, of an additional source of energy, at the same time safe and profitable, should not be ruled out. The Chairman and managing Director of the Hydro-Québec Company, who assists you so admirably, will assist you even more, I hope, vis-à-vis that new perspective.

In my letter to President Bill Clinton as well as in the one to your federal counterpart Mr. Jean Chrétien, I brought up that prospect to them. Who can guess, vis-à-vis this posssibility, which one of them would be the first to take advantage thereof.

There is no witchcraft at all involved in all that, Mister Prime Minister. In spite of my Haïtian ascent and my carefully phrased remarks. It is undoubtedly so when a taboo should be broken through; a taboo of magnitude, Mister Prime Minister, I admit it; a “scientific" taboo, seldom encountered.

Why did that happened to me, in such a way, like an ice storm, camera in hand, in full darkness? -
" The taboo arises as a negative categorical imperative," affirms Roger Caillois. It is not saying little. Especially when it is a question of adequately correcting the theory of Newton on light and colors.

What an ungrateful work, what an irony, what else? Above that, for more than twenty-five years. However, at the dawn of the twenty first century, to denounce this taboo, to reverse it, should I say, what an asset! Moreover, at the same time the multiple taboos grow blurred which surround another phenomenon of the highest scientific range, the well known phenomenon under the abusive name of "Black Holes", synthesis of light and colors. Indeed Newton, in good faith undoubtedly in his time, really reversed the interpretation of the phenomenon of light. He took the part for the whole ! So much and so well that today like yesterday, the visible appears so much more tempting. Physicists say it: "ninety to ninety nine percent of the matter of the universe is made up of a dark matter, invisible, which generates, propels and surrounds the visible, like the sea surrounds the continents". Scientists such as Stephen Hawking affirm it. The Hubble Telescope confirms it. But theoretical Optics is stagnant.

My intervention, here, Mister Prime Minister, would mean that. It is possible to use another form of energy. By decoding the Black Matter. By the expertise of Hydro-Québec which has proven itself in many occasions. Without a play on words. Theoretically initially. While “returning the elevator to Newton”. Because, today, Hydro-Québec is well informed and with full power ! Forgive, this time, this very small play on words, intended to pay homage to you. For the Act which consists in making an AMENDMENT TO THE LAW OF NEWTON ON LIGHT AND COLORS.

Presently, why should we take the result instead of the cause?

— Objectively and in a pragmatic way, by a new synthesis; consequently, what a liberation ! At the threshold of the third millennium, let light live, invisible by synthesis, visible by analysis.

"Synthesis and analysis are two wings of the same bird, the rythm of the universe`s heartbeat, tamed inside the infinitely small having mass. Successively contracted and deployed. In the benefit of humanity." One small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind - I also said myself - in “ BILL A RI and there was light !... "

What an unfortunate ice storm, certainly ! Versus illumination. Versus vivifying heat. Unfortunate, yes, but how much a convenient storm if I dare say, which invites us to explore other avenues, other concepts and, therefore, other resources so far neglected. Invitation to go from the invisible to the visible and vice versa. Taking advantage of the sequence of colorless and colored luminous speeds. In order to better understand the Universe. Where Law and Order prevail. Just like in Democracy !

Energetic formula with a unique character !

In the name of Science and Technology, vapor is being reverse !

A winning formula !

In Québec !

By Hydro-Québec !

As for the concept which enabled me to carry out this research, to draw certain conclusions and thus to propose its application, allow me, Mister Prime Minister, in spite of your many obligations and concerns, a small and fast digression.

1972. A young talented lawyer. I consult him on the royalties, the intellectual property, and the legal protection. He collects data, consults his fellow-members, at the Bar. Days, months pass. I call and I recall. One year, two years. I insist. I persist, as a condition to pay his fee, in obtaining an answer. He proposes, in private, a verbal report. I tell him the importance which I attach to a written report. Obviously not at ease, reluctantly, he gives me, on August 16, 1974, a letter! You are, Mister Prime Minister, the very first one to receive today, here included, a copy of it.

As for the verbal report mentioned in the letter which I address to you today, it was around a glass of beer – from the well-known MOLSON Brewery , I still remember, that the young and talented lawyer, well in spite of himself but in all respect and friendship, delivered to me the verdict of his elders, his fellow-members of the Bar:

"You are", they say, "an illuminated Black person !"

Pretending to be under the effect of a certain euphoria to which the famous beer MOLSON gets one discreetly, I told him on a hardly exalted but sincerely happy tone:

"I, Lucien, from the Latin Lucianus which, from the root Lux, Lucis and any other variation reminds me FIAT!, then FIAT Lux! Let us raise our glass to your Bar and Let there be light ! "

"An Illuminated Black person !", I suddenly told him again, "in the white ceremony where the snow and the wind intermingle, in this country of blowing snow..." sung by Gilles Vigneault, what a spectacle !

Homage to you, Mister Prime Minister, because today like yesterday, in the Country sung by Gilles Vigneault, thanks to you, to your collaborators, to all the people of Québec, and to the "Father" who had house built, "the guest room, it is beautiful! "

How not to think of René Lévesque, during a meeting before the first "Parti Québécois referendum " on a Saturday, in company of Doctor Camille Laurin, of Doctor Denis Lazure, of Father Jacques Couture, of Gérald Godin of venerated memory, without forgetting the former deputy Pierre de Bellefeuille. Facing him that Saturday, illuminated by I do not know which obscure clearness, I gave to him in person a summery of this subject which I have a chance to entertain with you today. One sentence condensed its content. He promised me to read it all in his limousine, on the way back from Montréal to Québec. The following day, on Sunday morning, I knew that he had read it.

With you today, Mister Prime Minister, I repeat this sentence, more than twenty-five years old, but always, in my opinion, carrying the same message that I wish more and more positive for the years to come, in the third millennium...

"On the cosmic scale as on the terrestrial scale, darkness or blackness forms an integral, sine qua non part, of color and light pocess".

Is it still broad daylight
in the shadow of the black sun?

Yours truly,
Lucien BONNET