Flag of Haiti

5.18.16 - Collier County, Florida. Six children sent home from school for wearing t-shirts with the Haitian flag and national coat of arms on Haitian Flag Day.

Five school girls were sent home for wearing T-shirts with the Haitian flag and national coat of arms on Haitian Flag Day, because it was a breach of the Collier County school district's student code of conduct. However, according to such code of conduct, only four flags can be worn in school: The United States flag, the POW/MIA flag, the Florida state flag, and the school's flag... but no Haitian flag. The POW/MIA flag was designed during the Vietnam War, as a symbol of national concern about U.S. military personnel who were Prisoners Of War (POW) and those who are still Missing in Action (MIA). The students later said, they felt discriminated, because, their parents were from Haiti. The Haitian Flag day is indisputably a symbol of general pride for all people of Haitian descent. Every year, it is observed in Haiti and in a number of U.S. cities with large populations of Haitian Americans. It marks the day (May 18, 1803) when the first Haitian flag was flown during the slave revolt against the French that led to the nation's independence. The school is situated in the town of Immokalee, Florida, where 8.9% of the people are Haitian descent.

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Here is a case where authorities at Orange County Middle School told a Haitian student to remove Haitian flag bandana at school.

Mitchpaelle Quetant, a student at the Meadowbrook Middle School in Orange County was upset when she was told by the school administrators to take off a bandana of the Haitian flag while she was going to celebrate the Haitian Flag day on May 18th. She was sent to school suspension when she refused to take off the flag. As per the school authority's dictum, the national flag was not the cause of the problem, but wearing bandana on campus was against the conduct of the school. The school principal has shown the Eyewitness News representatives that there were many students wearing shirts showing the Haitian flag and they were never asked to change. However, frustrated Quetant has said, the authority don't let us come to school and display our pride for our country.

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Haitians looking at Estonian E-Governance system

Recently, a team of Haitian delegation headed by Uder Antoine, General Coordinator of the Office of Management and Human Resources (OMRH) has left for Tallinn in Estonia to get an overview of the functioning and management of the Estonian E-Governance system "X-Road" which is the backbone of e-Estonia and to seek required technical advice on its installation process in Haiti. Since 2009, Estonian experts, with the support of the Soros Foundation, have been advising the government of Haiti on the development of an electronic-governance system, or "e-governance". "X-Road" is a rapid information exchange software which is convenient, cost effective, people oriented, real time public services and sharing of information through electronic media. "X-Road" is expected to be functional in Haiti by the end of this year.

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Here is a picture of the Haitian Flag flying in Germany on October 29, 2014 side by side with the Germain flag. This took place during a visit of President Michel Martelly to Germany.

Today, we can all be proud of this. As you can see, the Haitian Flag flying very high there. This is of historical proportion. The Haitian Flag has not always been given this high respect by some Germans. We need to go back in history to December 6, 1897 and read Luders Affair to understand the issue between Haiti And Germany.

Germany bullied the tiny island of Haiti in 1897 in an incident called the Luders Affair, which began when Germany became insulted by Haiti pledging its allegiance to Germany's enemy in the French-Prussian war. Germany began its campaign of humiliation by coercing Haiti to start repaying its debts to German merchants, easily accomplished since Germany held Haitian warships hostage until Haiti's debts were cleared. When the Germans finally returned the warships they had desecrated the Haitian flags with feces.

But the Germans weren't done punishing Haiti yet. A Haitian-German, Emil Luders, was arrested on Haitian soil and convicted, sentenced to 30 days in jail for assault and battery on a Haitian soldier. Luder appealed his conviction and his sentence was extended a year beginning October 14, 1897. Infuriating Germany's Charge d'Affaires, Count Schwerin, he ordered Luders be released immediately, also demanding President Simon Sam pardon Luders.

It got worse for Haiti. Two of Germany's warships, the Charlotte and the Stein, sailed into Port-au-Prince harbor, demanded a 21-gun salute without giving one in return, and extracted $20,000 in ransom money for Luders, and a vow he be allowed to return home. Schwerin also wanted an official letter of apology from the Haitian government. If these conditions were not fulfilled within four hours the German warships would bomb the harbor. The Haitian government had no time to seek foreign aid, so it was forced to fly a white flag at half-mast to indicate its compliance with Germany's demands

Read Luders Affair here:
haitiobserver.com

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Let me make this clear. neither Francois Duvalier nor his son Jean Claude Duvalier created the new Haitian flag.

In 1964, the Haitian Dictator Francois "Papa Doc" decided to abandon the Red and Blue flag that has been adopted by haitians for over a century and return to the black and red colors. which was flown for the first time by Jean Jacques Dessalines, the founding father of the nation.

From 1964 to 1986 the Black and Red flag was the official flag of the nation. It would not change until the end of the Duvalier reign, when Jean Claude Duvalier went into exile in France. At that point, it was restored to red and blue.

Throughout the history of the Haitian flag, whether the colors are red, blue or black, it has remained a symbol of pride for many Haitians. Some would make you believe that the flag is deeply rooted in the Vodun religion and Jean Jacques Dessalines was in a temple of the religion in Merote, Haiti when he created the flag. Following the death of Dessalines, the country was divided with Henri Christopne in the North, holding on to the Black and Rd, while Petion in the South, red and Blue flag

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