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This message is dedicated to my fellow[br]Francophiles

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who get alarmed or even offended at the[br]thought of eliminating French

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as one of the official languages of the[br]Republic of Haiti.

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I am speaking today as a Haitian who is

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truly madly in love with the French[br]language.

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I confess that my fascination for not only[br]the richness

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of the language but also for those who[br]master it without boundaries.

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However, these days, I reject the[br]language.

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I look down on it as much as some of my[br]fellow Haitians

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look down on the Creole language.

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Thus, I have a lot of trouble expressing[br]myself in French.

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Some may even say that I’m losing my[br]French.

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I think it is sad how Haitians always think[br]they are able to lose something

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that in no way and at no point in time[br]belonged to them.

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I say all that and still today I’m pushing to[br]deliver this message in French.

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It’s because I’m targeting those of us who[br]would be hard-pressed

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to take me seriously if I had chosen to[br]share my ideas in my maternal language.

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I want you to understand the damage you[br]are causing to your country,

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to be fully aware of this damage and I[br]hope I’ll manage to do that, in French.

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What I observed especially from the[br]Haitians living in Haiti is that

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French isn’t a tool for communication that[br]allows the exchange of ideas,

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the passing of customs and culture or the[br]expression of convictions.

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On the contrary, it strips away the most[br]remarkable and precious

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of human experiences from us,[br]conversation.

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It has become nothing more than one[br]more way

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to segregate the Haitian population.

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To be able to tell from the get-go who[br]deserves your good manners

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and who you will snub, who you will barter[br]with, and who you will charge double.

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So it really doesn’t help us to communicate properly.

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I’ve also witnessed the mistreatment[br]Haitians receive in Haiti

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simply because they cannot speak[br]French; a colonial language,

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a language that we don’t even teach to[br]most of our people,

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a language that is so foreign to us,

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a language that despite the fact that it[br]has dominated our educational system

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for over two centuries is still lost among[br]our people who are far from mastering it.

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So that is rather deplorable.

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