Appendix 2: Opening speech of the
Secretary of State for Education, Haiti
Mr Director-General of Unesco,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In opening this meeting, and with the Director-General's permission, I invite the
meeting to observe a minute of silence in memory of all the unknown maroons, of all
our ancestors, and particularly of a greatly lamented 'Griot' François Duvalier.
We are grateful to His Excellency, the Life President of the Republic for having
extended his patronage to this meeting, and we sincerely thank him for all his interest
and support in connection with this meeting of experts jointly organized by Unesco
and the Haitian Government.
We are very happy and proud, Mr Director-General, to have you among us
on this occasion, and it is a great pleasure to be able to express to you directly the
respect, admiration and fraternal affection which, for many reasons, we bear you.
Your participation in this inaugural sitting is for us a major contribution which we
greatly appreciate.
Allow us, Mr Director-General, to present our respectful greetings to one of
our own people, your own wife, so modest and yet so distinguished. Both of you are
here among your own.
I now welcome the honourable participants and observers to the sunny and
friendly land of Haiti, the home of Toussaint Louverture, Boukman, Halaou, Biassou,
Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Alexandre Pétion, Henri Christophe and François Duvalier.
A visitor who sees Haiti for the first time from the air is bound to be struck by
the craggy nature of the country. If he comes closer, he will, if he looks carefully,
perceive the teeming of intense life, he will hear virile songs accompanied by drums,
which provide encouragement and support for those working on the land, according
to the fantasy of the combite musicians. Here and there, smoke rises from modest
cottages, from hamlets scattered on the tops of the mountains, on the hillsides, and
in the lush valleys.
The visitor then exclaims: 'This is Haiti', Haiti the country of plateaux and
mountains, Haiti the land of places of great suffering, glory and hope, and of unsus-
pected potentialities. The names of these places are Breda, Cormiers, Haut du Cap,
Arcahaie, Vertieres, La Crête à Pierrot, Gonaives, Marchaterre and Bonnet à l'Evêque
where rises King Christopher's Citadelle in all its majesty.