Barack Obama
for President of the USA!
Support Rally
Wednesday, Oct 1st, 6-9 pm
for President of the USA!
Support Rally
Wednesday, Oct 1st, 6-9 pm
Café Terrasse
Rue Grégoire, Pétionville
Entertainment, Cash Bar, Speeches, T-shirts,
Obama-Mania !
As a reminder, registration and absentee ballot deadlines are approaching. If you are an American citizen living in Haiti and need to register/request and absentee ballot, go to www.fvap.gov. If you have friends or family living in the US, encourage them to go to www.voteforchange.com, to register to vote in the US on election day. If you need assistance with registration or sending your completed forms to the US, email haitianamericansforobama@gmail.com.
Rally invitation attached – please feel free to print and share!
Reply from one of my listserve members:
how about rallying and fundraising for the hurricane vi ctims in haiti? people in haiti are now suffering and rather rallying for the haitian gov to makethe’re rallying for Obama. this is so ignorant. let america take care of and rally for Obama. post it on peyi Ayiti
Responses to Comment 1:
1. I could not help myself but to comment on this one:
Its wonderful when people can galvanize for a great cause like the reconstruction of Haiti after being hit by four consecutive hurricanes in less then one months time. And if you are someone who feels like rallying and fund raising for hurricane victims by all means do that. Set a date, pick a venue, get the proper paper work filled out and spread the word. But do not criticize and judge your peers for taken initiative for a cause they believe in because it does not align with your civic priorities. Whats ignorant isn’t Haitian-Americans taking a part in the U.S. political process, rather its the ideology you posses; waiting for someone else to act and plan on your behalf. I am not saying this to offend but instead I hope this can encourage you to act when you believe something needs to be done… rather then wait on others, do it yourself.
Eunice C.
2. I think the audience lives in the hyphen of the Haitian-American identity. Therefore, most of the people who can do something to change Haiti, live outside of Haiti. It is not so ignorant to fight for a Presidential candidate who can possibly help to remove the dark cloud from Haiti as the former ousted rebel colony.
Emmanuella R
3. Taking a closer look at the comment, having a fundraiser for the victims of the hurricane in Haiti is just a bandage to solve the current problem at hand. But for the long run it’s actually genius to help vote in a nominee into presidency to help build political alliances and maybe generous in providing not only foreign aid but put in place policies such as increasing importing and exporting goods. That will boost the Haitian economy on multiple levels, and as a result will have far larger of an impact then I’m sorry, a fundraiser.
Jasmine L.
4. It is not ignorant for Haitian-American to rally and fund raise for Barack Obama. Americans of all cultural background especially in Europe and Africa have been fund raising and advocating for Senator Obama. As for helping Haiti after the unprecedanted devastation it suffered, how about once and for all holding the Haitian goverment accountable. When aid is sent to affected area they can’t even provide a minimum of safety to the people bringing the aid. How about the Haitian goverment stepping once and for all for the Haitian people. Stop being the thugs and robbers, start really thinking about your own people as fellow citizens in need of help. Not as an unfortunate group to expliote and enrich yourself. Haitian-American
must support BARACK OBAMA either by fundraising, organizing voters registration drive in their community and most of all vote in November. It is a right and a privilege that those before us fought for and died for.
Respectfully submitted
Karine L
5. Successful political rallies are synonymous with successful political fund raisers. Politicians and candidates pay attention to rallies when one of two things happens: One, money is raised for the candidate preferably lots of it. Two, a voting (legitimate) block is consolidated and delivered to the politician as a result of the rally. The gathering in Petionville accomplished neither of the above.
Whether we are living in the diaspora or the mother land we have to look in the mirror and asked what can I do as an individual to help improve the situation of Haitian living in my local community as well as those living in Haiti. For us living in the diaspora, we can start by reaching out to those in our local community who are less fortunate then we are. We can donate to organizations that are doing work in the local Haitian community or in Haiti. We can reach out by tutoring our young brothers and sisters who are much in need of mentoring and guidance. Too many of our young Haitian brothers and sisters are going up in environments where they have very little to no access to successful Haitian/Haitian-Americans. This my friends does not require a lot of energy and money. Like other immigrants and descendent of immigrant who came before us, we tend to leave the Haitian community as we gain a certain amount of financial freedom. As we move out to more affluent suburbs, we tend to have little to no interaction with the community (driving in for pate and akasen on Saturdays doesn’t count).
As for the work that needs to be done in Haiti, we can help by being vocal about the situation in Haiti and standing proud of our heritage. We have to begin the process of working to consolidate our collective voices in the diaspora on issues concerning Haiti so that we are heard by our local and national elected officials. As we know, in American politics, it is the squeaky wheel that gets all of the attention –just look at the Cubans and their influence on the political landscape.
Let’s organize ourselves and be heard!
Dimitry P.