While it’s highly convenient to blame the international community for Haiti’s woes, it is more legitimate that we as Haitians accept responsibility for our ill actions and nonactions. We who hope for Haiti year after year, we who expect the foreigners to “save” us, we who exploit Haitians and we whose primary profession is reiterating that Haiti is a failed state. In reality, we are the ones who have failed Haiti.

If Haitians cared about each other, I would not be writing this. It is evident Haiti will require a coherent action plan and collaborative leadership from Haiti’s native and foreign-born intelligentsia to nurse the country back to health. However, to create and operate a healthy and just society for all Haitians, we must, in the words of Bob Marley, emancipate ourselves from mental slavery.

If previous Haitian governments cared about Haitians, I would not be writing this. Haiti would have been built (I dismiss the word “rebuilt” as Haiti was never fully built in the first place), the international media would have to look for another sexy country to report on religiously (Greece, anyone?) and the mere mention of Haiti would not elicit synonyms such as “dangerous,” “cheap labor” and “poor.”

If Haiti’s economic elite cared about Haiti (and themselves), I would not be writing this. Last I learned, monopolies don’t help anyone, let alone a country.

Understand, I am all for folks making money — in fact, lots of it. And that is why I say if you (and your country) want to amass more wealth at the end of the day, it would be wise to invest in the knowledge accumulation of your people, though you may lose your indentured servants and chauffeurs in doing so. By partaking in such smart partnerships, citizens en masse (many who could one day run their own successful enterprises) will ascend the economic ladder, Haiti will bid farewell to NGOs that have overstayed their welcome and you (and loved ones) will no longer need to drive in bulletproof cars. It’s not that complicated.

Haiti has no hope of fully resuscitating from its comatose state. However, whether it chooses to rest in peace or rest in sleep, it’s worth noting a few Haitians who have chosen responsibility as the preferred (and logical) method for delivering intensive care to a country crippled by devastation and degradation.

There is Max, a wise and humorous agronomist who, at 104 years old, is putting his remaining efforts to leave a better land for the next generation. There is Yanick, a passionate Jaspora working to mold young Haitian leaders who believe they must offer Haiti something despite being given scraps at birth. And there is Jean-Eddy, a globetrotter and internationally renowned sculptor who is teaching a few little ones the magic of art, while inspiring them to dream about what their version of Haiti would look like. These are just a few of the many Haitians who’ve committed class suicide. They have surpassed the superficialities of social grade, language and melanin, and have placed their fellow citizens above themselves — a true sign of human progress.

The most challenging obstacle in laying a new foundation for Haiti lies in the ability of Haitians at home and abroad to deconstruct the non-progressive mentalities of the past and forge a blueprint for the nation’s future. If Haitians — meaning the government, the citizenry and the diaspora — truly wanted a renewed Haiti, they could have accomplished this in 1804, 1915, 1956, 1971, 1990, 1994, 2006, 2010 and every year in between.

Although we have failed Haiti, it is never too late to move beyond the past and rise above our circumstances.

**Yasmine Abellard is a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at New York University. She grew up in Haiti and the United States.

*YASMINE ABELLARD, ya443@nyu.edu