Whats Going On In Hati?

In this episode of TMI, Tamika D Mallory and Mysonne discuss the importance of supporting black-owned businesses and the need for better customer service within the black community. They also highlight the power of education and the impact of rewriting history. The conversation then shifts to the current situation in Haiti, with guest Dr. Bertrude Albert discussing the crisis of gang violence and the role of US imperialism in the country. The conversation explores the historical context of Haiti's current situation, tracing back to its fight for sovereignty and independence from colonial powers. It highlights the role of the United States in destabilizing Haiti through isolation, invasion, and control. The conversation also delves into the issue of reparations that Haiti was forced to pay to France and the impact it had on the country's development. The future of Haiti is seen as one of freedom, with a focus on improving the quality of education and empowering Haitians to lead their own nation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika D.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Mallory and its your boy my Son in general.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are your host of Tami.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, motivation and Inspiration, New.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Name, New Energy. What's up my son Lennon?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Listen, you know we're back getting into doing what we do,
the TMI Show, the number one podcast in the world.
Get in tune, you better get in tune.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
Listen for I have folks asking how they can subscribe.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Sub subscribe to the podcast.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
I want to make sure y'all do that the information
is available, is in the caption, it is available on screen.
I want to make sure that you all ensure ensure
that you are subscribed so you can listen to the
whole podcast, the whole show, not just clips on social media,
but also when you subscribe, it helps us to grow

(00:58):
so that we can truly be the number one.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Podcast, Amber one podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
Right, We're just having to actualize. Yeah, So please make
sure you download wherever, wherever you listen to your podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
You want to download. You want to be a subscriber.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
You want to make sure that if you are, you
know if your thing is I want to support I
want to get the information and share it make sure
you subscribe to TMI. It is so important so that
we can show these folks that our people are supporting us,
and then we could keep.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Our number ones.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
But our number one, number one, number one.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
Speaking of support, today, I am rocking my black owned brand. Uh.
This is our brother applies this trucker hat and the
name of his brand is King Circle. So if you're
sitting here right now like, oh yeah, damn, I love
this hat, you should go and get love. But there
are others. They have freedom, they have different words quotes

(01:59):
on them.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
It is his trucker hat. You know.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Plauz is known for his truck of hats. He's also
becoming increasingly known for his political dialogue and his political
understanding and the political gems that he has been dropping
on socials. You know, I think it comes a time
in everyone's life. Doesn't matter who you are, if you

(02:22):
in tune what's going on in the world. You could
be an entertainer, you could be a stripper, you could
be a baker, you could be a teacher or whatever.
But if you have a platform, you become responsible for
educating yourself. And then at the point that you feel
you're properly educated, you should do what you.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Can to make sure that truth is in the atmosphere.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
I love it, I love applause. Does is what we
call entertainment. You know, it's education and it's entertainment. We
should try to get Plaza.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Say.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
He sent me all the flavors, several colors of these hats,
and so I've been rocking him.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
And today I was like, oh, let me throw this on.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeh.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Shut off the flies and stole a couple from me
because it's about ten of them. So I took one
of two of them. Yeah, to support, to support none beloved,
make sure you.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Send me a little kid package. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
But we love you, plies.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Keep doing what you're doing. It's making a different I
wrote a comment on his page. They tore me up,
but you know, I said, you know when it became
a preacher the man on there saying he hit the
specific thing, and.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
I saw you reshared it.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Uh. The specific thing he said was that they do
all these things to us, right like they banned the books.
They hurt us and harm us in so many ways
I can't remember, but he had a list of all
the things that folks are doing to us elected officials
and otherwise they talked about us, They treat us like nothing.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
And then they turn around and sit back while we
fight one another.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
We love fighting each other, but when it comes time
to fight the powers that be, we're not always that good.
Sometimes we are, most times we are, but we could
do better. We could do better, and we could spend
a little less time fighting each other, fighting one another,
tearing one another down, and put a lot more of
our energy and pushing back against the system and the

(04:23):
things that we claim we want to see change.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
So yeah, I think I think that that comes with growth.
A lot of us don't even understand that we've been
trained to fight against each other in these situation and
it keeps us distracted, right, you know, and we're not
really focusing on the real issues. You know, some people
are some people. But I realized what I do say
and we say this all the time, old skin folk

(04:48):
and kin folk, and the reality is a lot of
people are intentionally misinforming us.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Oh yeah, right there, Like I just put I.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Posted something from the Riza and it was talking about
but you know, growing up in the hood, it was
always the five percent. And you know, I used to listen,
and I just started to get in tune with mathematics,
and he broke down what mathematics was, and he was
talking about and they always talked about the five percent,
the five percent nation, and I just used to hear it,

(05:16):
and I just thought they was cool and they knew
all the big words, and they knew about the atmosphere
and the sun and all these things.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
So I like that.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
But when I was really listening to what he said,
it's what I feel like I'm experiencing right now. And
he said, the five percent of the people who have
the knowledge and understand what's going on, and they're righteous,
they want to give the people the knowledge, they want
to help people. They do it out of the kindness
of their heart. Then there's ten percent of people who
have the knowledge, but they utilize it to game and

(05:45):
scam people. Right, they know all of the things, and
they know how to say the good words, and they
know how to utilize you because they want to benefit
off you. They want to play on you. And then
the rest of the eighty five people just don't who
don't know you. As a five percenter, you're fighting against
the ten percent, and it's more of them than you,
and then you're fighting to try to educate and help

(06:06):
the eighty five.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
So your fight is really ninety five.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
You're fighting against ninety five percent of people because a
lot of the people don't know what they're being misinformed, right, and.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
A lot of Harriet said I I could have freed
a few more.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, especially so.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
They say Harriet said.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, Well, I believe she said because it makes sense
to say, because I definitely believe that. And she said
that I should have shot some of you niggas, And
I believe she said that too, because a lot of
these people, unfortunately, we got to get rid of them
because they're going to they're going to be to the
detriment of us.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Absolutely, I agree with you, So again shout out to
our brother flies. My thought of the day today. The
last two months, I have spent a lot of time
trying to just eat, be, see, live, support black businesses,

(07:04):
small businesses, and you know, and not just anybody small businesses,
pretty much our businesses. And my thought of the day
is asking a person like me, a person who has
a platform, how do we critique black businesses?

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Right?

Speaker 4 (07:24):
How do we and let me, well, I do guess
how it has to be done because we have to
make sure that we call our people to our greatst
self right. And you know, I think about last year,
I ordered a coke from Macage. I was out of
town for a few days. When I got back, the

(07:45):
coke came, like you know, it arrived early. They give you,
I don't know, exit whatever days.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
Let's just say ten days. Probably it's more than that
to make any alterations, changes or whatever, especially to get
a refund. I didn't want to refund. I thought it
was three days. In fact, when I posted about this,
I thought I was three days late, but once they
went through my transaction with me, I was actually two
days late. To get an exchange. I did not want.

(08:16):
This was a fourteen hundred dollars coade. I did not
want a refund. I just wanted the smaller size because
it was too big. Now I know for a fact,
no matter which business you're in, even with policies, policies
are meant to be altered, broken changed, depending on grass
depending on how much you are, how you're depending on

(08:40):
your customer service acumen, and how much you want to
satisfy and please the customer. Make sure the customer experience
is good, especially when someone someone is not coming to you.
I believe that if you request a refund outside of
thirty days, fourteen days, ten days, whatever the time period is,
you should not be allowed to get a refund because

(09:02):
that is a business model that you cannot.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Want to keep. We just want to make sure you're
not just getting your money exactly.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
You can't be coming back whatever.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
It's just I think that's true. But if someone says, hey,
you know, I just had a little situation. I was
out of town. I'm just back. I saw it arrived early.
I would like to just get the smaller sides, and
you have the smaller size sitting there with you. There's
no way that a business should not say, let me
make sure I get this to you so that when

(09:32):
someone sees you looking good and your smaller size, they
can go say to oh, yeah, of course, and I
tell you that customer service was amazing.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
They took care of me. Of course.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
There were some people in my This went on for
days and days, and it was a huge dialogue in
my comments section where people were like, oh, well, whether
it was some people it was very very rare, but
there was a few that were like you know. They
was like, hey, you didn't make the timeline and that's it,
and you got You know, I'm a stickler for the rules.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
The rules are the listen.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
Rules are broken in this world every single day. And
there is no such thing as a good customer customer
service process that does not have room for flexibility so
that you can accommodate, you.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Know, because nobody wants. Nobody wants.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Nobody wants to be with a company where you're spending
a bunch of money that isn't willing to try to accompany.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
And it's not just.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
So I put it on social media, people started tagging them,
which I didn't even ask for foksed to tag them.
I just basically said, this is what I went through.
So I'm just letting y'all know when y'all go to
buy something from this particular company, you need to know
what will happen. And of course people start tagging them.
And then they contacted me, which is a whole different thing,
and they sent this this small They told me they

(10:48):
wouldn't send the biggest size until I sent I mean
the smallest size until I sent the code. I did that,
they got it back. They issued me the new coat.

Speaker 5 (10:55):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
It was a simple thing.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
But you know, unfortunately the exposure them being embarrassed.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
But that's what it comes down, well, the fact that
you have proximity to a level of.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
I had actually follows, you know what I'm saying, because.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
If you was just a regular individual, then it wouldn't happen.

Speaker 4 (11:16):
Well, sometimes sometimes it does because no, especially on X normally,
Oh yeah, sometimes it does. Sometimes just tagging a business
in general will get you a response, even if you
have two followers.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
I've never seen that.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Oh no, I've yes, it works for people.

Speaker 4 (11:35):
It doesn't work all the time, and you might not
get the type of response that you would when you
have a platform. But it does not matter if you
use your social media and you just tag a business,
especially a business that they really monitor social media see
some of them they don't, and so when they start
getting hundreds of people tagging, and then that's when it's
like oh, red alert, red alert. But if they're if

(11:57):
they are a business like a Verizon. I remember when
I did not have a lot of followers at all
and I tagged Verizon about something and they were on
my line. But I will say a part of it
is also who's running your customer service, who's running your business,
who's handling your your you know, your back office. Because
I bet you that there was some senior level person

(12:20):
who's not involved in the mundane day to day operations
of the macas shipping and handling, who learned about it
because somebody probably said, Hey, I need to flag for you.
There's a big conversation about us going on on a
person's page that has over a million followers. And then
they probably said, what like this tour to get the
cold for the girl? Like, what are we doing now?

(12:42):
It brings me to my point. I spent I've been
spending a lot of time. I'm going to the restaurants,
I'm doing the things because I realized that, you know,
I am slightly bougie. I'm not going to you know,
I'm bougetto very much so, and I do go to places,
eat places, and go to places where I feel like
I'm gonna get the best, the quality customer service, the

(13:04):
best experience. I do do that, so I have to
constantly challenge myself.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
That is a part of growth.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
I have to check myself and say, yo, have you
supported enough black businesses this week? And I literally will
count like actually supporting our people mixing it in. We
have got to do better as black business owners. Okay,
restaurants with dirty dishes, you know, customer service issues, people's

(13:34):
sucking teeth. They it ain't got oh lord, they didn't
have no hot sauce at a restaurant last week, a
black owned restaurant with fried chicken. And I was with
some older, older, older women and they lost it. They
lost it what And they said they were gonna go
out and report it and say it. And I had
to stop them, stop and say, we can't do that.
And that's the question that I have today as a

(13:56):
person with influence right here, I am.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
I have all of these follows.

Speaker 4 (14:01):
And by the way, I find dirty dishes in the
big brand in the big restaurants too. Let me just
make sure to say that I'm just saying that over
the last several weeks that I've been out, I've seen
it a few times in our spots, you know. And
it's not just dishes, it's other things again, it's people's attitudes.

(14:22):
It's the response, the customer service time, the way people
are shout out to miss blame Miami. This is somebody
who when I've reached out to them with some issues
with some clothes that they sent and I wanted to
make some changes.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
They was on it.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
They emailing you back day and night. We have to
upgrade the ways in which some people will say here,
tell me, well, it's the resources. We don't have the resources. Man,
Your attitude has nothing to do with the resources. If
I tell you I'm gonna be at your restaurant with
a party of twenty at six o'clock and at six
forty five you still cleaning the bar and getting the

(14:57):
situation together, we got to do better. And I've I
respect the fact that we do need a lot more grace,
that we need to be more understanding of the situation,
and that we also have to be very careful about
how we expose our own people in the type of
harm that we could bring to a business that is
employing our folks, and that's a staple in our community.

(15:19):
I get that, But I also feel a way about
me putting my money down and I'm trying to have
parties and events and bring people into these spaces. And
here I am bringing my resources, my time, my attention,
and then when things go wrong or when people give
me attitude or they act like they don't feel like
being bothered when I'm telling them, Hey, this glass, I

(15:40):
can feel food on it, I can see lip marks,
like I don't want to eat behind the person who
had this glass before me. I don't think that's fair.
I don't think that anybody should have to pay for that.
You're not giving me anything free. But here I am
finding myself not willing to or not wanting to go
out there and say anything about it because I'm trying
to do the right thing.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
But then where is the reciprocation of that.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
But especially in the service world, it has to get better.
It has to because as we encourage people to patronize
our businesses. You know, my mama is who she don't play,
So you take her somewhere.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
She looking around. She want to see what's going on.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
She wants to make sure that it's a place that
it lives up to the standard. And no, I do
not feel that just because you're black or anything else,
or Latino or whatever, that I should be okay.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
With getting subpar service. No, I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
And now with that said, brings me to my music spotlight.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
In this time of music, where they celebrate people killing
and drilling and spinning and they got the blick and
all that and they're killing everybody.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
We want to highlight some positive music, and today's.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Highlight is a song that I found on Instagram that
I hope it's going viral. I've got thousands of comments
on people seem to love the song. It's called the
Honor Roll and it's about five or six kids on there,
and they talk about positivity, about how they own the
Honor Roll and how they got a's and how they're
being celebrated for doing good stuff in school. Ain't nobody

(17:19):
killed and it has the same energy as the drill
music and get up. Please support these young kids. They're
on my page, but it's pretty much going viral. You
can go. You can find it anywhere. I think it
started on TikTok the Boss that Daddy and this is
why I first seen it. I found it on Lovely

(17:41):
seven three two nine. That's that I've seen it Lovely,
but it's on my page. Yeah, you can find it there,
but just go support those because we do not support
positivity in that type of energy and those young kids,
like they got young kids that's ten and nine out here.
With guns and videos somewhere they're gonna shoot it, they're
gonna have sex, all type of ship.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
But get support. They literally got a lot of comment.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
They get a lot of support.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
They got record deal like, they're signed by big artists
who are actually in the videos with them while they
talked this kind of nonsense. So shout out to these
young kids who did something positive. They still dripped up
and they still risen up. It's not corny, it's not outdated,
it's not you know, something that's just positive. So we
just say, oh, we just want to celebrate positive. I

(18:28):
don't I don't want that. I want good music, I
want quality messages, I want I want good visuals. I
want things that can actually compete with the culture right now.
I want you to make positive music that's actually dope.
And these kids did that, So shout them out.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
That's what's up.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
That's what's up.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
All right, Well, let's get into our guests. So you know,
for the last five months, we've been heavily engaged in
the conversation around what's happened in to the Palestinian people
in Gaza. We have been calling for or a ceasefire,
which we will continue to do. We've taken a very,
very what I believe will be historic position that some

(19:10):
people have, you know, certainly found fault with us in that,
but I know that we're standing on the right side
of history. And one of the things that has continued
to be a part of the dialogue is the issue
around Haiti and other places, the Congo and so many
places where.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
People of super dark skin.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
Are also experiencing genocide and or you know, extreme poverty,
extreme depression, oppression and suppression. And folks have been saying,
why haven't you know, why aren't you talking about these things?
And of course violence, And they said, you know, why
aren't you talking about these things?

Speaker 1 (19:52):
I don't think that that it is.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
You know it well, certainly, I know that it's not
a lack of care, but sometimes a lack of information.
I know I'm learning a lot about the Congo. And
the reason why I can speak so well, the reason
why we can speak so well to what is happening
to the Palestinian people, is because we've actually walked the grounds.
We've been there, we visited Palestine, we visited Israel, and

(20:17):
we understand the issue. We understand the occupation. We are
very clear about what has taken place there because we
were there firsthand, and in the Congos specifically, we have
not been there, and so it is a process of
learning and trying to bring people credible information, credible messengers,

(20:38):
and I think today we have a very credible messenger
who's joining us to talk about Haiti.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Now. I have visited Haiti. Have you been Haiti?

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Been?

Speaker 6 (20:47):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (20:48):
So I visited Haiti.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
I went not very long after the earthquake, along with
doctor Ron Daniels and a number of individuals from African
Americans who went there to do very important work to
bring of course resources, we helped with the school there.
Several schools also went to feed the community and to

(21:10):
be one among the people and to learn the history.
And so this is an issue that I've already been
tapped in on. I understand so much about the people
of Haiti and what they have experienced. And so when
again talking about credible messengers, I'm excited, delighted to bring
on the show today to Tami, a young woman who

(21:32):
I found on Instagram. In fact, I made a comment
on someone else's page, on Teslin's page, Teslan Figaro, I
made a comment there. Yeah, absolutely, and you know one day,
she said, is anybody.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Paying attention to what's happening in Haiti?

Speaker 6 (21:47):
Like?

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Do we care?

Speaker 4 (21:48):
And I wrote that I'm watching images and learning and
this whole world just drives me crazy. It's just too
many things going on at one time. And someone said,
if you want to learn more, you should go to
this young woman's page, and I went there and for
the day, for the night, you know me, I was up.
I was watching videos, I was listening to her commentary,

(22:10):
and I found her to be an outstanding advocate, not
just for the people of Kti, but also for us
as black people, even here in America. And so I'm
excited to bring our guests. I reached out. She reached
right back. She said, let's get it on, let's talk
about it. And so today let me introduce to some
and allow others to be reacquainted.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
If you're already following her.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
Doctor Bertrude Albert, doctor okay PhD. Bertrude Albert, who is
the CEO and co founder of P four H Global,
And during her undergraduate agree she and another young lady
she was went to University of Florida, Miss Priscilla Zeala.

(22:55):
I hope that is an appropriate way, but I'm sure
she zeleyah zeleah Okay. They co founded pH four Global,
which was formerly Projects for Haiti, and they had traveled
to Haiti separately on several occasions and realized it realized
that they shared an unwavering passion for the Haitian people,
and so they decided to start this organization that she's

(23:18):
gonna tell us all about. Thank you so much for
joining TMI today, I'm saying, doctor Albert, but I think
it's okay for us to call you Bertrude.

Speaker 5 (23:26):
Yes, definitely, Bertrude. D.

Speaker 7 (23:28):
I am so honored and so thankful to be here
with you. You know, a special shout out to you all,
because with things going on in Haiti, I've been getting
like a lot of requests from a lot of stations
international and global stations to speak. And my fear has
been that people will just take soundbites that sensationalize Haiti,

(23:51):
that make things seem like they're not that don't really
get to the root of the problem. But when I
went and checked out t M, I'm sorry and I
able to learn about the work that you all are
doing and exposing and speaking truth. I said, this is
a platform DM I this is a platform that I
need to partner with, that I want to be with.
So thank you for this invitation, Thank you for allowing

(24:13):
me to be here and speak my truth, our truth today.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
Thank you well, thank you for being here. And I
just love the energy. You know what I'm saying, nothing,
You have a beautiful spirit and energy that's welcoming. So
we want to thank you for being here. I just
want to know, give us a little bit about yourself.
Just tell us a little bit about yourself, your studies,
how you got to what we are today.

Speaker 7 (24:37):
So I was born in Haiti, but then when I
was a baby, I came to the United States. And
it's interesting growing up in South Florida as a Haitian American.
I received there was a lot of bullying for Haitians
in South South Florida, sorry South Florida, and so it
was definitely a challenging time. Actually growing up, I kind

(25:00):
of hid the fact that I was Haitian. I wasn't
really truly proud of my heritage and where I came
from because I didn't know who I was. All I
knew was darkness, devastation, poverty. But then when I went
to college, when I went to the University of Florida,
Go Gators. When I went to college and I learned

(25:20):
that my people were the first free black republic in
the world. When I learned that my people created the
first nation to permanently abolish slavery in the Transatlantic slave trade.
When I learned that Haiti was the first nation established
in Latin America and the Caribbean. Haiti was the second
nation established in the Western Hemisphere. When I learned these
hidden gems, these hidden glories of my nation, I said,

(25:43):
what have I been ashamed of?

Speaker 6 (25:45):
What?

Speaker 7 (25:45):
From that moment forward, I knew that the rest of
my life would be spent towards seeing my country rise.
And so, I mean, since college up until now until
my dying breath, I am going to continue to fight
not only for but also for uh Tika.

Speaker 5 (26:02):
As you mentioned, the black race.

Speaker 7 (26:04):
I'm just fight for black freedom, liberation because we are
much more than this narrative that that just controls us
and suffocates us. We will rise and have victory. I
could go on for years, but I'm gonna stop there.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
No, I was with you, I was, I mean, you heated.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
Yeah, you know when I hear you talk about the
University of Florida, and I think about what is happening
in Florida right now, the attacks against DEI in educational
institutions UH, and just attacks against black history in general
and attacks against black people. It is very interesting and

(26:43):
I think a very big example you are setting here
of why it is important for the education system to
at least touch on touch upon the history of all people,
all people, because that is where you get a sense
of self. So imagine if that information was not presented

(27:06):
to you in college and then you went through life
continuing to sort of hide and diminish where you come from.
And so when we talk about those political those bands
and these political assertions, it is very, very dangerous.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
What would you say about.

Speaker 7 (27:21):
That history carries an important part of our identity, and
when we are rewriting history, when we're hiding parts of
like how gruesome and disgusting slavery was, how detrimental slavery is,
and how slavery still has an impact on American society
today on former colonies like Haiti. When we're hiding these truths,

(27:46):
we are impacting the psychology the minds of young black people.
We're not allowing them to realize how powerful, how great,
how strong they are. We're not allowing them to realize
that there are systems and structures that are in place
that hold them back institutionalized racism, that we're not allowing
them to truly understand the context. And as we do that,

(28:08):
the self worth begins to diminish. We begin to really
blame ourselves for certain things that are happening in this world.
And so I am an advot. I am a passionate
advocate for history, retelling history, ensuring that the narrative isn't
one that supports white supremacy and that perpetuates these ideas

(28:31):
of white supremacy, but one that shows the beauty of
the black race, black people.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
That's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
So just trying to get to understand is a lot
of people who, like Tamika said, aren't informed. They don't
know what's going on in Haiti, they don't know the history,
they don't know anything. So right now, what's going on
in Haiti, and try to give us a little bit.

Speaker 7 (28:52):
Of the history so as we know, like Haiti is
dominating global headlines, TV, social media, radio, podcast, Haiti is
dominating the news. Actually, I'm really surprised because there are
so many experts on Haiti now, people that probably can't
even pinpoint ten different cities on the Haitian map. And

(29:15):
yet everybody on TikTok, everybody on Instagram has become an
expert in speaking so floritatively about something most people don't
truly understand. Yes, we are seeing gang violence. Yes, we
are seeing a state of emergency in our capital, which
it is not the Republic of Quota Puts. Our capital

(29:37):
is Quota Puns. It is not the Republic of Quota Punts.
It's the Republic of Haiti. Haiti is much more than
just the capital city, all of Haiti, like where I
work in the north and where I live half of
the year in the north, we're definitely being impacted by
what's happening.

Speaker 5 (29:51):
However, the burning.

Speaker 7 (29:53):
Tires and the insecurity and the gang violence, it's not
widespread throughout the entire nation. It's really happening in the
ca capital. But as we're looking at what's happening in
the capitol, we're looking at gang violence.

Speaker 5 (30:04):
We're looking at.

Speaker 7 (30:07):
Gangs exerting control and force in Haiti. It's much more
than that. This is not a crisis of gang violence.
This is a crisis of US imperialism. This is a
fight for the sovereignty of Haiti, This is a fight
for national autonomy. This is a fight for Haiti to
rise up. And I'm gonna go in history a bit

(30:27):
for us to truly understand why this is. We're just
looking at symptoms of a much larger problem than when
we're looking at the gang violence. And certainly we'll go
into history to see that. But at face value, when
we look at these gangs, we have to ask ourselves,
where are these gangs getting munition from? Where are they

(30:49):
getting the guns from? Because Haiti doesn't produce these guns
and these ammunition. Where are they getting And not only that,
but who stands to profit.

Speaker 5 (31:01):
At the at the at the.

Speaker 7 (31:02):
Cost of so many Haitian lives. Who stands to profit
at the cost of the capital being held hostage? I
will tell you our capital is being held hostage because
our nation is being held hostage by the US government.
But let's let's dig deeper. Right now, in Haiti, gangs

(31:23):
are affiliated, they are supported, they are funded by political
by political parties. One political party right now, uh the one,
the ruling political party. They actually have power and they
have a puppet government that has been put into place

(31:43):
by the US government, maybe more specific aliel Angri, who
is he still is the current prime minister of hate.
He says that he'll step down, but he hasn't officially
stepped down. Aliel Angri was put into power by the
US government with one simple tweet. When the Haitian president died,
Jovan Nella Moisi died in July twenty twenty one, we

(32:06):
had a prime minister. But with one simple tweet of
the US representatives they said that they support a yell Anri,
and all of Haiti is like, what are you talking about?
He was not He's an illegitimate prime minister. He was
not put into power or voted in. He was not
legitimized by any legitimate Haitian board. It was the United

(32:29):
States that put him into power, propped him up there.
And so as we look at that for thirty long months,
the Haitian people really had this anger and this frustration
with al yel Unri, not just because he was incompetent,
which he certainly was, but they were upset because he
represented US imperialism. It was the United States who put

(32:53):
this man into power, who propped him up because he
would protect American interests.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Now, let's pause right there.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yes, let's just be clear for those people who are listening,
because I watched one of the spokespersons from the Biden
administration try to skip over the question when asked you
know several times, did you you know, does the White
House claim responsibility for this man taking leadership over Haiti?

(33:24):
And he kept trying to, like, you know, skirt around
it and dance that No, that's not the case. You know,
we want to make sure that Haiti is sovereign and
whole and da da da da da. But the White House,
we know them. We've worked with them for a long time.
I've worked with them, probably longer than both of you,
So I know them very well. Nothing that they do

(33:44):
is without thought and process. So they don't tweet just
on a humble They don't speak about you by accident.
If you might get in a room by accident, you might,
but they will correct it very qui And so to
try to ignore the US role in having this man

(34:07):
to take an occupancy of Haiti's government and become the leader,
you can't separate the two.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
I think that's what I hear you saying.

Speaker 7 (34:18):
That's exactly, that's exactly right. There is this this this
stance that the US government takes. It's like no Haitian
problems come from Haiti, and Haiti must lead and we
have always been supporting democracy. And I mean it truly
is a form of gas lighting because you don't have
to search far to see that Ali al Ali with

(34:40):
one tweet was put into power by the US government.
And so again we're out of place. And one might ask, okay,
be help me understand this. How does that connect to
gang activity? Let me let me draw the direct connection.
Aliel and his party have direct connections support activity. In fact,

(35:04):
one of the leaders of one of the gangs, Barbecues
is what they they they call him. He's gone on
in interviews referring to Aliel ari and how Aliel ARII
gave him the power, gave him the resources, but now
he's fighting to oust all yell Anui because of corruption.
And so historically, political parties in Haiti have funded gangs

(35:28):
in order to protect their interests, in order to make
sure that things go their certain way. But it's so
interesting to see how the US props up a government
and that government props up gangs. So familiar symptom of
a larger, larger problem.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
We understand, you just gave us a brilliant summarization of
exactly what's going on right now, but we know that
it didn't just start here.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
So where did this whole situation start.

Speaker 7 (35:54):
What we're seeing right now is a fight for Haiti's sovereignty.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
And in that same fight, when Haiti declared independence, when
Haiti said, we are a free, independent nation run by black,
a black republic.

Speaker 7 (36:13):
So in eighteen oh four, Haiti overthrows our colonial power,
the first and only nation to be formed because of
a successful slave revolt. And when Haiti did this, Haiti
became a threat to the world economy because slavery fueled
the economic growth of nations like the United States, like France,
and so this very existence of a black republic made

(36:37):
the United States need to intervene, need to undermine the
sovereignty and the independence and the freedom of this nation
because if there is this free black republic, they might
inspire slaver volts in the United States because the US
still had slavery in eighteen oh four. And so Haiti
declares independence and the US responds by isolating Haiti. So

(37:03):
destabilization through isolation. The United States did not recognize Haiti
as an independent sovereign nation until eighteen sixty two, nearly
sixty years after Haiti's independence. And so again, like it's
like flashbacks, it's the same fight. Recognize this as a nation,
Recognize our autonomy, Recognize that blacks can run a nation,

(37:25):
that we can be a sovereign nation run by black people.
And there was a refusal to recognize our nation. And
even in eighteen sixty two when the United States officially
diplomatically recognized Haiti as a as a sovereign nation, that

(37:46):
was only really just on paper, and that was only
really just for the sake of saying we were going
to send an ambassador to Haiti.

Speaker 6 (37:56):
We continue to fight, be nice to have our independence recognized.

Speaker 7 (38:02):
For example, nineteen fifteen to nineteen thirty four, the US
invaded and occupied Haiti. And in the occupation there is death,
there is destruction, there is robbery. In fact, a lot
of people don't know. To start off, to launch the
US occupation of Haiti, the US Marines went into Haiti's
national bank and they took they completely robbed Haiti's gold reserve.

(38:28):
They took that gold reserve and they brought it to
New York for safe keeping, but that gold never returned
back to Haiti. In fact, that gold was used to
establish City Group, the most well known and popular financial
institutions in the United States. New York Times did a
big article about that. Vlad from CBS recently was speaking

(38:51):
about that there has been a constant invasion meddling control
of Haiti over the years. But then we fast forward.
If you want to have a direct connection to us
undermining destabilizing Haiti, we've got to look at two thousand
and four. Pay In two thousand and four, there was

(39:15):
President Ali Stid. Regardless of where a Haitian stands on
the political spectrum, whether they love him or hate him,
Ali Steed was the first democratically elected president in Haiti,
and the United States had problems with Ali Steed. He
had been ousted before and then he was brought to
power in two thousand and four. You had problems with

(39:38):
him because Ali Steed went to the UN.

Speaker 5 (39:41):
He went to the.

Speaker 6 (39:42):
Probably fighting for paying that France.

Speaker 7 (39:47):
You made us pay the equivalent of twenty one billion
dollars for our freedom when we gained freedom in eighteen
oh four, you then in eighteen twenty five forced us
to pay what is now billions of dollars. You must
pay us the money back because it was illegitimate and
it was illegal, and so I used having this power
and having this voice. He presented a threat to the

(40:08):
United States and to France, because if Haiti can demand
for reparations, what about the other former colonies, what about
black people in America, We then too can demand reparation.
And so there are New York Times does an incredible
job outlining how I used. Seed demands this money, and

(40:32):
then the US orchestrates an overthrowing of his government. In fact,
a former French ambassador comes and he reveals, yes, the
US in France they destabilized Haitian, the Haitian government. They
undermined haiti sovereignty by overthrowing the government. And then not
only did they overthrow the government, but then in two

(40:52):
thousand and four, that same year they created what is
called the Core Group. And there's a lot of research
on Core Group. I encourage anybody that's listening.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
The core Group.

Speaker 7 (41:03):
The core Group, it's like the secret of politics in Haiti.
So the core Group, it is an informal group that's
made up of international diplomats that come from United States, Canada,
uh France. Already there's a problem like what So this

(41:24):
core group is in Haiti and this formal organization, maybe
the advice and Haiti really established democracy in Haiti. But
the reality is it's not about advice, it's not about
helping guide. The core group is the instrument that is
used in Haiti in order to select the president, in

(41:47):
order to select the leaders of Haiti. In fact, the
core group is the one that set the tweet we
support Alian he is going to be the next prime minister.
So the creation of the core group a lot of
a lot of scholars and they're looking and they're dissecting
this idea of the core group. They say that this
core group is what controls politics in Haiti, and politics

(42:09):
is what gives birth to gangs in Haiti. Again, I
hope that I'm making these connections that we appreciated.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
It's important.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
Well we know, I mean America has also helped to
back the gangs in the US. Forget about all the
other places around the world. But we understand what it
looks like for our government to destabilize communities, to destabilize
so many things in terms of our race, us as

(42:37):
a people, our communities, and we just think about the
black panthers. Right, Let's think about anything even in our
civil rights movement, anything that has happened that has been
about the betterment of black people or people of African descent.
The United States government, and we can go from president
to president to president and from administration to administration, has

(43:00):
had some role in the destabilization of those things because
there has to be a as we always say, in
order for there to be a top, there has to
be a bottom. And when you think about capitalism and
how all of this is driven by capitalism, it is
very difficult to maintain that without having a certain power structure.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
And I would venture to say even.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
Further that a part of ensuring the destabilization of people
of African descent means that you keep us uneducated and
unwilling and unable to fight, because we are the biggest, best, baddest,
most organized fighters against any type of injustice in this

(43:46):
world's history, based upon how we got here and the
struggles that it took for us to birth where we
are today.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
So you're you're right on it.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
I mean, in my judgment, so we don't want to.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
We don't want I mean, there's so much more.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
And I hope that what people get from this is
that they begin to not just follow you, but that
they begin to do their research of eighteen o four
to understand the connection and how and how Haiti has
continued to be And these are not my words, but
it is to give a description the bastard child of

(44:24):
the world. They are pissed off with Haiti for daring
to stand up to Europeans. And I want you to
talk about the reparations that Haiti has been paying out
of the there the bank in Haiti has been paying
the oppressor pay I don't know if it's still happening now,

(44:44):
but paying its colonizer. I mean, this this thing is,
it's deep, you know, so I want to hear about that.
But I hope that people will not just stop at
a podcast, but that they will actually do the you know,
do their work, their their recal because my son, well,
I'll say that I'll save it for after because we
don't want to put our politics on virtue.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
So go ahead, Burt.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
We talk about the reparations, which I don't even know how.
I mean that word is it is literal right. Like
people think about reparations, they're thinking about us as African
people being paid for our story. But there was an
actual reparation's payment to the colonizers, which was France by
the Haitian government.

Speaker 7 (45:29):
Let's go back in time eighteen oh four, gain our independence.
The US doesn't recognize Haiti, but it's not just the US.
The entire world doesn't recognize Haiti. And this is difficult
for Haiti in several terms, like not having diplomatic relations.
That impacting being able to shift, that impacts the growth
of the nation. So Haiti is really fighting to be

(45:53):
recognized by these world powers. Finally, in eighteen twenty five,
underneath Haitian President Boye France comes to Haiti and says
says to Haiti, we will recognize you. However, you will
pay one hundred and fifty million francs, which later gets
decreased to ninety million francs.

Speaker 5 (46:12):
But you will pay us.

Speaker 7 (46:13):
One hundred and fifty million francs in order to repay
us for our lost property. And part of the lost
property were our black bodies, like black people.

Speaker 5 (46:24):
You understand, you say, I want to saying.

Speaker 7 (46:26):
It's the wildest most absurd request, and some ask why
in the world did Haiti even agree to it. There's
I could take hours to really dissect why Haiti go agrees.
I mean, gunboats were being sent to Haiti, there was
threat for another invasion, and Haiti had just won this

(46:48):
thirteen year revolution. Didn't want to go into another revolution.
Not only that, this idea of reparation, it didn't just
start when why was there actually started with another president
Pitts you on. So there's a lot going on to
why Haiti actually caved into this pressure. But Haiti agrees
to pay one hundred and fifty million francs, it gets
decreased to ninety million francs. Haiti did not finish paying

(47:12):
France back until nineteen forty seven.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Forty seven.

Speaker 7 (47:15):
Let me say that again, nineteen forty seven. And here's
where the US government and I say this. I know,
I don't owe this explanation. I think that the United
States has so many opportunities for immigrants like myself, so
many opportunities for people, but US foreign policy historically just

(47:37):
chokes nations, nations that look like me. US foreign policy
needs to be dissected, and so this is not a
I hate America type of speech. This is a let's
take a look at what the United States is doing,
what the US government is doing, and let's expose it
because it's evil.

Speaker 5 (47:55):
So let's go back this. How is the.

Speaker 7 (47:57):
United States connected to France? Because it was Frances that
forced Haiti to pay this this one hundred and fifty
million francs, which goes down to ninety million francs, the
equivalent of twenty one billion dollars. Which side note, it's
not even just about the.

Speaker 5 (48:10):
Twenty one billion dollars that is important.

Speaker 7 (48:13):
But when you take Haiti's money like this, you take
money that we can be investing in roads, in education,
we can be investing in the very fabric of our nation.
But then you rob us of the opportunity to grow.
Oh it makes me so mad and then flourish.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
I mean, they say say poverty.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
The poverty is violence, you know, and rebellion is the
voice of the press.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
And it's like to not to not understand why gangs
exist in different nations, especially nations who have been, you know,
dealing with what Haiti has dealing with just all around
this nation and not and see this is what they
call the resistance. This you know it's there's no there's
no group of people that should be comfortable and happy

(49:06):
to be starving, to be crucified, to be living in
below humane conditions. There's nowhere in the world that should happen.
So I just want to know, like, what, what is
the future? What do you What is the future of
Haiti for you?

Speaker 2 (49:19):
What do you? What do you see? What do we
want to see? What do we believe? It should be?

Speaker 5 (49:24):
Freedom?

Speaker 7 (49:26):
The future of Haiti is freedom and uh and I'll
get deep into what I mean by that, but like
with everything in me, I believe that as far as
times may be and as as as tight as the
US's grip on Haiti's neck, is freedom. We're destined freedom.
In eighteen o four are our ancestors. They prove that

(49:48):
we can do the impossible. When all odds are against us,
We're able to come together and overthrow it. Where there
is oppression, there will be rebellion, there will be a revolt,
there will be victory. Freedom, I believe is our future.
And what does that mean? Freedom from imperial powers, specifically
the United States and Haiti. We will reach today where

(50:12):
Haitians will lead Haiti. It's crazy that It's as simple
as that. It's not even the biggest ask. It's like
just the recognition of our humanity, giving us the dignity
and the honor that we deserve as as a black nation,
allow us to lead ourselves stop meddling inside of Haitian affairs.
And I believe that that's going to be happening through

(50:34):
social media. Man, I'm I'm inspired when I think a
lean through s I need be some of these Haitian heroes.
But I know that today we have more power than
our ancestors did because we have their story to inspire us.
But in addition to that, we have social media. We're
able to expose what the US is doing. We're able

(50:56):
to expose with these with these Western powers are able
to do are doing in the United States. And as
we speak about it more like what you all are doing.
As we shine light and allow Black America and black
people around the globe and even our allies to be
aware of what's going on. We exposed and we bring light.

(51:17):
Freedom is our future.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
Well, please tell us Virtue as you leave, doctor Albert,
what does P four H Global do and how can
people support your work?

Speaker 5 (51:30):
So T for H Global, we.

Speaker 7 (51:34):
Are training teachers to transform Haiti. Our main goal is
education because at the end of the day, this crisis
we're seeing Haiti, it's going to go away. We'll have
other another crisis come in the future, but this current
crisis is going to go away.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
What we are going to need is.

Speaker 7 (51:51):
A strong educational system that develops Haitians, Haitian leaders for
the twenty first century, Haitian leaders that can really take
child Ouraiti leaders that have critical thinking, that have collaboration,
Haitian leaders that are able to lead Haitien to break
into that we have And so I believe, not just me,

(52:11):
the research shows that quality education is the prerequisite to
the development of any nation. And so even before this crisis,
I have been in the business of improving the quality
of education in Haiti. Sixty percent of Haitian students pop
out before they finish elementary school, and I want to
make that statistic obsolete. Six out of ten drop out

(52:32):
before finishing elementary school. Not with my not my people,
because knowledge is power. But I want to leave our
people with the power so that we can destroy the
system like we destroyed the system of slavery. So again
we do teacher training, a lot of organizations in Haiti.
They go, you know, they build schools. Haiti doesn't have

(52:53):
a lack of schools, an abundance of schools. The quality
of the schools is what is the problem. You could
build thirty million schools, but if students are dropping out,
why have these these schools? So I have a team
of about fifty full time trainers and we work in
all ten of hades departments. We travel to these schools.

(53:14):
We coach the teachers, coach the directors, coach the school inspectors.
We walk alongside of them to see the improvement of students.
You could actually, let's see this picture right here up
there of a student actually snap this photo right there.
So my goal is improving the quality of education so
that we can secure Haiti's right future.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
How do we support you?

Speaker 7 (53:38):
If people can follow our journey. We're on Instagram, We're
on Facebook. Certainly follow our journey and share our story.
Not just our story, but the story of other organizations
like on Safe White Season organization.

Speaker 5 (53:52):
I love.

Speaker 7 (53:54):
U n D these organizations that are investing in education.
I think that there needs to be more focused on
education after this crisis. Let's ensure that our educational system
is really really strong, so support us by sharing our story,
following along on the journey. Of course, financial support is
always needed for a nonprofit, especially during these times. People

(54:17):
are leaving Haiti left and right, and people that would
have donated have Haiti fatigued left and right.

Speaker 5 (54:23):
So supporting us financially is a really built.

Speaker 7 (54:26):
So again, social media financially supporting us. But then the
third and probably more important, most important way to support
work is help expose what's happening in Haiti. Continue to
talk about US imperialism and Haiti, because when we solve
this problem of US imperialism and meddling in Haiti, it

(54:47):
enables my work to go along a bit easier. Right now,
the five Departments of the South, we can't travel and
work with our schools. Many of our schools are shut down.
We can't work with our teachers, my work. It's almost
as if like you've got chains on our hands and
we can't work towards the development of Haiti because of
this crisis. If we can solve this crisis and expose

(55:08):
what's happening, you give me freedom to fight for the
freedom of my people.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
I know we could just go on and on about
this because you seem so well versed and knowledgeable and passionate,
you know, and I agree with you. Their freedom is
definitely the ultimate, you know, space for Haiti, and I
believe we'll get there. We're dealing with so many different
things in this nation right now and everyone is just
trying to figure out what we can do, you know,

(55:33):
and I just want to thank you for doing your part.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
You know, the way that.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
You inform on social media and utilize the platform. I
know that you know they're probably trying to shadow band
you and you get all of those type of things
because our pages have been shadowed. Band for just just
speaking truth to power, but continue to be that, like,
continue to speak truth to power even though you know
you're passionate about your people and about what's going on,

(56:00):
and Haiti, there's still this glow that you have right
you speak passionate, but it is not anger, and a
lot of people would be overtaken with angers, which while
we have gangs and you see the fighting and all that,
but just to seeing someone with the energy that you have,
it just it inspires me to continue on and want
to know what's going on and want to contribute to
the fight. So continue doing what.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
You do, Doctor Bertrude Albert, thank you so much, and
we want to continue to uplift P for H Global.
You continue doing your work. As my son has said,
thank you for coming on. And anytime that you need
us to share a thing, say a thing, say the
things you don't think you can say, because we are
already in trouble everywhere all the time, So let us

(56:41):
be your mouthpiece, let us be your foot soldiers to
get the work done.

Speaker 5 (56:45):
I appreciate you all so much. Thank you for this time.
Thank you for the space My soul needed this conversation
with you too today.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Thank you, thank you for joining T and I. I
like doctor Albert.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
I love her energy.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
She has amazing energy, like speak even speaking about something
she's passionate about and you know it's painful. She still
has just a joyous demeanor and energy.

Speaker 4 (57:10):
But she's also very educated. And you know, as she
was speaking, I was thinking to myself. As a young
person growing up in New York and Harlem specifically, I
met a lot of Haitians.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
They went to.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
Catholic school and I don't know one that is not brilliant,
like highly educated. You know that you know they spend
a lot of time, and I think it is a
part of Caribbean culture in general to ensure that you
are like more educated than any and everybody else so
that you can shine and sort of I guess, you know,

(57:44):
fight fight back against these narratives, these these negative stereotypes.
And I think that's a you know, you can see
that in her that her parents were like, you are
going to learn if nothing else, uh, And I love that.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
I love that about her.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
I want us to continue to work with her and
to support what she's doing because Haiti, when I was there,
it is a very challenging space to.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
Maneuver for a lot of different reasons. Of course the.

Speaker 4 (58:15):
Politics, the corruption, and of course the poverty. And then
also it has sort of thinking about us. You know,
we've been talking so much about the film Origin. It
has its own cast system, right, and so it's difficult
to navigate. But one thing I learned while I was
there is that of all the issues, I mean, they

(58:36):
were just out of a devastating earthquake, but what I
noticed is that every day, no matter what, no matter
where they live, no matter how depressing the communities, we cried.
You know, it was so heartbreaking because even before the earthquake,
they still had these horrific challenges. The kids would be

(58:57):
dressed beautifully on their way to school, all hair done, barets,
pretty baretts, looking good, haircuts, clean, neat, and it's almost impossible,
Like I don't know, and you know, I'm a clean
freak one hundred percent, but I don't know how clean
I could be if I was living in a situation

(59:18):
where I'm pretty much having because of again all of
the infrastructure issues, having to wash outside, like having to
literally wash clothes in the basin. You know, that's really
literally how some communities are living.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
And to see them get those kids shirts pressed.

Speaker 4 (59:36):
Get in to school every morning looking perfect, pristine, pristine.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
And that said a lot to me about the culture.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
Again going back to my point about education, that that
is something that they don't play. The dignity is incredible,
and I think that's what we sense coming from Virtrue,
that this.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Is a lot of pride.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
I have Haitian friends in Men, a lot of Haitian people,
and they have like a lot of pride. You know,
I don't know if they've all been brilliant, like you know,
like Kodak is a little crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
So I don't know, but I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
There might be levels of brilliant. There's levels because you
look at the.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
Level of talent, so there is brilliant and a lot
of times people just play a role because they understand
it's entertainment.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
And also your trauma the issue trus can suppress.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
Yeah, so we have those things, but overall, you know,
never being too Haiti. But there are a lot of
representation of Haitians that are positive, like and knowing that
they come from situations like that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
You know. But this is where they call shithole countries, right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
This is what Donald Trump called the Trump that's.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
Trump, It's the bastard nation of the world, right, the
bastard child of the world, because they want to sun
it and treat it different in other and not give
it the proper resources.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
And then people keep talking about gangs. We first of all,
who else they're gonna fight.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
It's not like the people that they're angry with American government,
our fall foreign policy, UH directors and all the people
who work there. They're not walking around the streets of Haiti.
So it's not like they could.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Go I don't understand why people don't understand the reality
of gangs.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Right. Gangs are formed out of desperation. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Gangs are formed out of lack of unity, out of
lack of resources, out of lack of opportunities. Gangs form
inside of impoverished communities because people need to belong, they
need to have resources. They align with other people who
are trying to get something that somehow appeal to the
need for unity, right, because that they lack those things

(01:01:49):
inside their community. You don't see gangs outside and outside
of impoverished communities where we're looking at exactly. But the
mobls came from were These were people that came from
Italy poor, right, and they've seen all the rest of
the nationalities excelling, and they came here and figured out
we we got to click up together because we're the

(01:02:12):
outcast here.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
People don't give us anything.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
They look down upon us, and they created their own finances,
they created their own ecosystem. And that's what that's the
only thing that happened with gangs when you have to
create your own way to survive, when you have to
protect yourself, when you know that we're the only people
that come from our country over here, and people are
we're the outcast and you know, and we have to
create something.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
Unfortunately, it comes from violence. Like we say, poverty is violence.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
And most of these every gang without the nation, if
you look at the if you look at the inception
of every gang in this world.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
It starts with poverty.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
So it's sort of like.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
It is, you know, it always starts with priety. We
look at the bloods and crypt in America, right, it
started as the answer to police violence in the communities.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
They started. They originally started because they is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
That poverty or is it oppression?

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
It's both, because poverty is all of those things. They're
all into change. Like when you only see oppressed oppression
with poverty exists, you can't oppress people that have the
resources to do whatever they want. My I don't get
it of today. It's something that you know, I've been

(01:03:30):
on social media. You know, I've been in a hood
pretty much my whole life, and we grew up with
this narrative, right, it's just free my mans, Free my mans,
treat my mans. And as I get older, and especially
I look on social media, I see this growing trend
with people who are doing heinous and egregious things, people

(01:03:50):
that are doing things that should go against the average
quote unquote real dude's moral compass, right, and they're saying
free him and free him, And I'm like, why are
we saying free somebody that we know stab the girl
or shot a girl, or did this and that or
harm the older person who robbed old people? Like, why
are we advocating that there's no accountability in our communities

(01:04:15):
for people that are really detrimental to the communities. That's
not because I understand and even though I don't agree with,
I understand certain things that go on on our communities.
There is you know, the streets, and when you sign
up for the streets, you and that person that deal
in the streets, you gotta deal with what comes with that.
But when you start, you know, you start harming civilians,

(01:04:37):
and you start doing things that's really detrimental to the community,
to the community, and you go against things that we
all should stand against as a man, and everybody's screaming
free him, and you don't want no level of accountability? Yeah,
support your man, right, Go give him, put something on
his books, go visit them, have conversations with him, help
him to be rehabilitated, help him grow, you know, and

(01:05:00):
hopefully when he re enters society after he's held accountable.
You know what I'm saying, he can move properly. But
I just I no longer subscribe that we should be
just yelling free him to everybody that's locked up. I
just don't subscribe to that no more. You know, And
I don't know, and I don't know why us as
And I think it's just about us growing. I think

(01:05:21):
as you grow and you start really paying attention to
certain shit, it's just like, nah, I understand, like I
love him, it's my man, but he did some shit
that he got to be held accountable for, and hopefully,
you know, him taking that accountability, he gonna make it
home safe, and he gonna come out and he's gonna
be a better person because he's held accountable for certain.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
Shit, well outside of rape.

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
And you know, of course murder, even in those two instances.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
I believe that prison should be abolished.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
So you don't think he should lock a rapist.

Speaker 4 (01:05:57):
Yeah, I do, But I still believe that they are
that could be done from childhood to address behaviors, especially
family trauma and other things that if again, if we
weren't spending our money on everything and doing any and
everything else, fattening people's pockets and dealing with other stuff
that has nothing to do with the actual strength and

(01:06:20):
success and health of our people.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
We might be able to.

Speaker 4 (01:06:24):
Get in front of individuals mental whatever they have going
on that causes rape and other things. Right, so we
don't focus enough on mental health in this country. Working
within the current system, if you rape a person, especially
a child, anybody, Yes, certainly I believe you should be
held accountable. You murder people, you should be held accountable.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
All of that. I'm not I wouldn't say no.

Speaker 4 (01:06:48):
I do think the system has to change because I
think there's much more preventative, many more preventative measures that
could be used.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
So that's one.

Speaker 4 (01:06:57):
But I also know and unders stand deeply that part
of the problem is our desire to fight the system,
not the people.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
So really.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
It's not even a desire to fight the system at
this point, just it's just to me, I believe it's
just celebrating bad behavior. I don't I don't see it
as yoa system.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
Is this and that, because right well, I don't know
if people are able to or even conscious of the
way to articulate it. But the issue is that it
comes from a mindset that the police locked them up.
The courts are bad, the jails are terrible, the system
is bad. And so when people start saying free my man,

(01:07:40):
they're not always considering the actions of the individual, but
more so saying out of this, you know, freedom from
the system. That's what I hope, because I see people
do it, and I'm sure I have I'm sure that
you know I have done that in the past. It
says I want to free my family member. But my
new posture with my family members is it he's soul crack,

(01:08:01):
or if he killed people, or if he was involved
in illegal activity, don't call me, right not to say,
don't call me to write a letter or send commissary
to your point, but don't be calling me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
Telling me, yo, man, they got man down.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
And that's what it is for me.

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
It's just like I just think, as we get growth
and you understand that their consequences and ramifications for actions,
and and I no longer want to just celebrate and
incentivize bad behavior and stupidity, right And because that's what's happening.
A lot of these young kids who are engaging in
this violence, they're seeing the celebration of the people, right,

(01:08:40):
they're seeing such and search go to jail for murder,
and everybody's saying free him. And it seems like he's
way more famous than he was in the street. Right
that you get you get this this level of notoriety
for for being notorious, and it's like it's not it's
not conducive to the you know, the evolution of culture

(01:09:00):
and for young people. So at this point, for me,
like I just don't get it, you know, and I
think we gotta we gotta pay close attention at the
message that we're sending these kids because they are watching
and just know, just listening to what they believe it's
protocol in the streets, and what they believe is should
be celebrated, how they believe they should move, and how

(01:09:21):
they how they really grasp this information and they got
it from this culture.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
It's really crazy to me.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
And I'm like, damn, we're really doing these babies at
this service, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
For me, that's what it is.

Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
Well, you know what, I'm very proud of the work
you've been doing, specifically of the boycott Black Murder work.
We have so many people pouring into that aspect of
what we do, and you really carry that on your back.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
Well, I appreciate it, and you know, I just want
to say thank you for allowing me and having faith
and believing in the abilities that I had to offer
to this movement and to our culture, and giving me
the confidence, you know, because I didn't always feel as
confident about what it is that I didn't believe I
belonged in certain rooms. I didn't believe that I knew

(01:10:10):
the stuff. And you know, sometimes I go and I'm
doing this work and we lose a child, you know,
we lose a young man, We somebody actually got killed
that I was just with that. I was trying to,
you know, help renavigate, redirect rather to a different direction,
and it didn't work.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
So it's always a process.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
But it's a give and take.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
That brings us to the end of another wonderful episode
of Tea My the number one podcast in the world
to make my sons information, truth, motivation and inspiration. We
want to think, I would guess doctor Bertrude Albert, the
wonderful She's amazing staying tune was going on in Haiti.

(01:10:56):
Pay attention. It's a lot going on in this world.
We gonna always be right and We're not gonna always
be wrong to me, it's gonna be wrong way more
than my song is, but we will both always and
I mean always, be authentic.

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
That's so.

Speaker 4 (01:11:20):
Check out the video version of TMO every single Wednesday
on Iwoman dot TV.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
That's how