Speaker 1: I'm Tamika D.
Speaker 2: Mallory and its your boy my Son in general.
Speaker 1: We are your host of Tami.
Speaker 3: Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, motivation and Inspiration, New.
Speaker 1: Name, New Energy. What's up my son Lennon?
Speaker 3: Listen, you know we're back getting into doing what we do,
Speaker 3: the TMI Show, the number one podcast in the world.
Speaker 3: Get in tune, you better get in tune.
Speaker 4: Listen for I have folks asking how they can subscribe.
Speaker 1: Sub subscribe to the podcast.
Speaker 4: I want to make sure y'all do that the information
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Speaker 4: that you are subscribed so you can listen to the
Speaker 4: whole podcast, the whole show, not just clips on social media,
Speaker 4: but also when you subscribe, it helps us to grow
Speaker 4: so that we can truly be the number one.
Speaker 1: Podcast, Amber one podcast.
Speaker 4: Right, We're just having to actualize. Yeah, So please make
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Speaker 1: You want to download. You want to be a subscriber.
Speaker 4: You want to make sure that if you are, you
Speaker 4: know if your thing is I want to support I
Speaker 4: want to get the information and share it make sure
Speaker 4: you subscribe to TMI. It is so important so that
Speaker 4: we can show these folks that our people are supporting us,
Speaker 4: and then we could keep.
Speaker 2: Our number ones.
Speaker 1: But our number one, number one, number one.
Speaker 4: Speaking of support, today, I am rocking my black owned brand. Uh.
Speaker 4: This is our brother applies this trucker hat and the
Speaker 4: name of his brand is King Circle. So if you're
Speaker 4: sitting here right now like, oh yeah, damn, I love
Speaker 4: this hat, you should go and get love. But there
Speaker 4: are others. They have freedom, they have different words quotes
Speaker 4: on them.
Speaker 1: It is his trucker hat. You know.
Speaker 4: Plauz is known for his truck of hats. He's also
Speaker 4: becoming increasingly known for his political dialogue and his political
Speaker 4: understanding and the political gems that he has been dropping
Speaker 4: on socials. You know, I think it comes a time
Speaker 4: in everyone's life. Doesn't matter who you are, if you
Speaker 4: in tune what's going on in the world. You could
Speaker 4: be an entertainer, you could be a stripper, you could
Speaker 4: be a baker, you could be a teacher or whatever.
Speaker 4: But if you have a platform, you become responsible for
Speaker 4: educating yourself. And then at the point that you feel
Speaker 4: you're properly educated, you should do what you.
Speaker 1: Can to make sure that truth is in the atmosphere.
Speaker 3: I love it, I love applause. Does is what we
Speaker 3: call entertainment. You know, it's education and it's entertainment. We
Speaker 3: should try to get Plaza.
Speaker 1: Say.
Speaker 4: He sent me all the flavors, several colors of these hats,
Speaker 4: and so I've been rocking him.
Speaker 1: And today I was like, oh, let me throw this on.
Speaker 2: Yeh.
Speaker 3: Shut off the flies and stole a couple from me
Speaker 3: because it's about ten of them. So I took one
Speaker 3: of two of them. Yeah, to support, to support none beloved,
Speaker 3: make sure you.
Speaker 2: Send me a little kid package. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But we love you, plies.
Speaker 4: Keep doing what you're doing. It's making a different I
Speaker 4: wrote a comment on his page. They tore me up,
Speaker 4: but you know, I said, you know when it became
Speaker 4: a preacher the man on there saying he hit the
Speaker 4: specific thing, and.
Speaker 1: I saw you reshared it.
Speaker 4: Uh. The specific thing he said was that they do
Speaker 4: all these things to us, right like they banned the books.
Speaker 4: They hurt us and harm us in so many ways
Speaker 4: I can't remember, but he had a list of all
Speaker 4: the things that folks are doing to us elected officials
Speaker 4: and otherwise they talked about us, They treat us like nothing.
Speaker 1: And then they turn around and sit back while we
Speaker 1: fight one another.
Speaker 4: We love fighting each other, but when it comes time
Speaker 4: to fight the powers that be, we're not always that good.
Speaker 4: Sometimes we are, most times we are, but we could
Speaker 4: do better. We could do better, and we could spend
Speaker 4: a little less time fighting each other, fighting one another,
Speaker 4: tearing one another down, and put a lot more of
Speaker 4: our energy and pushing back against the system and the
Speaker 4: things that we claim we want to see change.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think I think that that comes with growth.
Speaker 3: A lot of us don't even understand that we've been
Speaker 3: trained to fight against each other in these situation and
Speaker 3: it keeps us distracted, right, you know, and we're not
Speaker 3: really focusing on the real issues. You know, some people
Speaker 3: are some people. But I realized what I do say
Speaker 3: and we say this all the time, old skin folk
Speaker 3: and kin folk, and the reality is a lot of
Speaker 3: people are intentionally misinforming us.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, right there, Like I just put I.
Speaker 3: Posted something from the Riza and it was talking about
Speaker 3: but you know, growing up in the hood, it was
Speaker 3: always the five percent. And you know, I used to listen,
Speaker 3: and I just started to get in tune with mathematics,
Speaker 3: and he broke down what mathematics was, and he was
Speaker 3: talking about and they always talked about the five percent,
Speaker 3: the five percent nation, and I just used to hear it,
Speaker 3: and I just thought they was cool and they knew
Speaker 3: all the big words, and they knew about the atmosphere
Speaker 3: and the sun and all these things.
Speaker 2: So I like that.
Speaker 3: But when I was really listening to what he said,
Speaker 3: it's what I feel like I'm experiencing right now. And
Speaker 3: he said, the five percent of the people who have
Speaker 3: the knowledge and understand what's going on, and they're righteous,
Speaker 3: they want to give the people the knowledge, they want
Speaker 3: to help people. They do it out of the kindness
Speaker 3: of their heart. Then there's ten percent of people who
Speaker 3: have the knowledge, but they utilize it to game and
Speaker 3: scam people. Right, they know all of the things, and
Speaker 3: they know how to say the good words, and they
Speaker 3: know how to utilize you because they want to benefit
Speaker 3: off you. They want to play on you. And then
Speaker 3: the rest of the eighty five people just don't who
Speaker 3: don't know you. As a five percenter, you're fighting against
Speaker 3: the ten percent, and it's more of them than you,
Speaker 3: and then you're fighting to try to educate and help
Speaker 3: the eighty five.
Speaker 2: So your fight is really ninety five.
Speaker 3: You're fighting against ninety five percent of people because a
Speaker 3: lot of the people don't know what they're being misinformed, right, and.
Speaker 1: A lot of Harriet said I I could have freed
Speaker 1: a few more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially so.
Speaker 1: They say Harriet said.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, I believe she said because it makes sense
Speaker 3: to say, because I definitely believe that. And she said
Speaker 3: that I should have shot some of you niggas, And
Speaker 3: I believe she said that too, because a lot of
Speaker 3: these people, unfortunately, we got to get rid of them
Speaker 3: because they're going to they're going to be to the
Speaker 3: detriment of us.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I agree with you, So again shout out to
Speaker 4: our brother flies. My thought of the day today. The
Speaker 4: last two months, I have spent a lot of time
Speaker 4: trying to just eat, be, see, live, support black businesses,
Speaker 4: small businesses, and you know, and not just anybody small businesses,
Speaker 4: pretty much our businesses. And my thought of the day
Speaker 4: is asking a person like me, a person who has
Speaker 4: a platform, how do we critique black businesses?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: How do we and let me, well, I do guess
Speaker 4: how it has to be done because we have to
Speaker 4: make sure that we call our people to our greatst
Speaker 4: self right. And you know, I think about last year,
Speaker 4: I ordered a coke from Macage. I was out of
Speaker 4: town for a few days. When I got back, the
Speaker 4: coke came, like you know, it arrived early. They give you,
Speaker 4: I don't know, exit whatever days.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Let's just say ten days. Probably it's more than that
Speaker 4: to make any alterations, changes or whatever, especially to get
Speaker 4: a refund. I didn't want to refund. I thought it
Speaker 4: was three days. In fact, when I posted about this,
Speaker 4: I thought I was three days late, but once they
Speaker 4: went through my transaction with me, I was actually two
Speaker 4: days late. To get an exchange. I did not want.
Speaker 4: This was a fourteen hundred dollars coade. I did not
Speaker 4: want a refund. I just wanted the smaller size because
Speaker 4: it was too big. Now I know for a fact,
Speaker 4: no matter which business you're in, even with policies, policies
Speaker 4: are meant to be altered, broken changed, depending on grass
Speaker 4: depending on how much you are, how you're depending on
Speaker 4: your customer service acumen, and how much you want to
Speaker 4: satisfy and please the customer. Make sure the customer experience
Speaker 4: is good, especially when someone someone is not coming to you.
Speaker 4: I believe that if you request a refund outside of
Speaker 4: thirty days, fourteen days, ten days, whatever the time period is,
Speaker 4: you should not be allowed to get a refund because
Speaker 4: that is a business model that you cannot.
Speaker 2: Want to keep. We just want to make sure you're
Speaker 2: not just getting your money exactly.
Speaker 1: You can't be coming back whatever.
Speaker 4: It's just I think that's true. But if someone says, hey,
Speaker 4: you know, I just had a little situation. I was
Speaker 4: out of town. I'm just back. I saw it arrived early.
Speaker 4: I would like to just get the smaller sides, and
Speaker 4: you have the smaller size sitting there with you. There's
Speaker 4: no way that a business should not say, let me
Speaker 4: make sure I get this to you so that when
Speaker 4: someone sees you looking good and your smaller size, they
Speaker 4: can go say to oh, yeah, of course, and I
Speaker 4: tell you that customer service was amazing.
Speaker 1: They took care of me. Of course.
Speaker 4: There were some people in my This went on for
Speaker 4: days and days, and it was a huge dialogue in
Speaker 4: my comments section where people were like, oh, well, whether
Speaker 4: it was some people it was very very rare, but
Speaker 4: there was a few that were like you know. They
Speaker 4: was like, hey, you didn't make the timeline and that's it,
Speaker 4: and you got You know, I'm a stickler for the rules.
Speaker 1: The rules are the listen.
Speaker 4: Rules are broken in this world every single day. And
Speaker 4: there is no such thing as a good customer customer
Speaker 4: service process that does not have room for flexibility so
Speaker 4: that you can accommodate, you.
Speaker 2: Know, because nobody wants. Nobody wants.
Speaker 3: Nobody wants to be with a company where you're spending
Speaker 3: a bunch of money that isn't willing to try to accompany.
Speaker 1: And it's not just.
Speaker 4: So I put it on social media, people started tagging them,
Speaker 4: which I didn't even ask for foksed to tag them.
Speaker 4: I just basically said, this is what I went through.
Speaker 4: So I'm just letting y'all know when y'all go to
Speaker 4: buy something from this particular company, you need to know
Speaker 4: what will happen. And of course people start tagging them.
Speaker 4: And then they contacted me, which is a whole different thing,
Speaker 4: and they sent this this small They told me they
Speaker 4: wouldn't send the biggest size until I sent I mean
Speaker 4: the smallest size until I sent the code. I did that,
Speaker 4: they got it back. They issued me the new coat.
Speaker 5: That's it.
Speaker 1: It was a simple thing.
Speaker 4: But you know, unfortunately the exposure them being embarrassed.
Speaker 3: But that's what it comes down, well, the fact that
Speaker 3: you have proximity to a level of.
Speaker 1: I had actually follows, you know what I'm saying, because.
Speaker 3: If you was just a regular individual, then it wouldn't happen.
Speaker 4: Well, sometimes sometimes it does because no, especially on X normally,
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, sometimes it does. Sometimes just tagging a business
Speaker 4: in general will get you a response, even if you
Speaker 4: have two followers.
Speaker 2: I've never seen that.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I've yes, it works for people.
Speaker 4: It doesn't work all the time, and you might not
Speaker 4: get the type of response that you would when you
Speaker 4: have a platform. But it does not matter if you
Speaker 4: use your social media and you just tag a business,
Speaker 4: especially a business that they really monitor social media see
Speaker 4: some of them they don't, and so when they start
Speaker 4: getting hundreds of people tagging, and then that's when it's
Speaker 4: like oh, red alert, red alert. But if they're if
Speaker 4: they are a business like a Verizon. I remember when
Speaker 4: I did not have a lot of followers at all
Speaker 4: and I tagged Verizon about something and they were on
Speaker 4: my line. But I will say a part of it
Speaker 4: is also who's running your customer service, who's running your business,
Speaker 4: who's handling your your you know, your back office. Because
Speaker 4: I bet you that there was some senior level person
Speaker 4: who's not involved in the mundane day to day operations
Speaker 4: of the macas shipping and handling, who learned about it
Speaker 4: because somebody probably said, Hey, I need to flag for you.
Speaker 4: There's a big conversation about us going on on a
Speaker 4: person's page that has over a million followers. And then
Speaker 4: they probably said, what like this tour to get the
Speaker 4: cold for the girl? Like, what are we doing now?
Speaker 4: It brings me to my point. I spent I've been
Speaker 4: spending a lot of time. I'm going to the restaurants,
Speaker 4: I'm doing the things because I realized that, you know,
Speaker 4: I am slightly bougie. I'm not going to you know,
Speaker 4: I'm bougetto very much so, and I do go to places,
Speaker 4: eat places, and go to places where I feel like
Speaker 4: I'm gonna get the best, the quality customer service, the
Speaker 4: best experience. I do do that, so I have to
Speaker 4: constantly challenge myself.
Speaker 1: That is a part of growth.
Speaker 4: I have to check myself and say, yo, have you
Speaker 4: supported enough black businesses this week? And I literally will
Speaker 4: count like actually supporting our people mixing it in. We
Speaker 4: have got to do better as black business owners. Okay,
Speaker 4: restaurants with dirty dishes, you know, customer service issues, people's
Speaker 4: sucking teeth. They it ain't got oh lord, they didn't
Speaker 4: have no hot sauce at a restaurant last week, a
Speaker 4: black owned restaurant with fried chicken. And I was with
Speaker 4: some older, older, older women and they lost it. They
Speaker 4: lost it what And they said they were gonna go
Speaker 4: out and report it and say it. And I had
Speaker 4: to stop them, stop and say, we can't do that.
Speaker 4: And that's the question that I have today as a
Speaker 4: person with influence right here, I am.
Speaker 1: I have all of these follows.
Speaker 4: And by the way, I find dirty dishes in the
Speaker 4: big brand in the big restaurants too. Let me just
Speaker 4: make sure to say that I'm just saying that over
Speaker 4: the last several weeks that I've been out, I've seen
Speaker 4: it a few times in our spots, you know. And
Speaker 4: it's not just dishes, it's other things again, it's people's attitudes.
Speaker 4: It's the response, the customer service time, the way people
Speaker 4: are shout out to miss blame Miami. This is somebody
Speaker 4: who when I've reached out to them with some issues
Speaker 4: with some clothes that they sent and I wanted to
Speaker 4: make some changes.
Speaker 1: They was on it.
Speaker 4: They emailing you back day and night. We have to
Speaker 4: upgrade the ways in which some people will say here,
Speaker 4: tell me, well, it's the resources. We don't have the resources. Man,
Speaker 4: Your attitude has nothing to do with the resources. If
Speaker 4: I tell you I'm gonna be at your restaurant with
Speaker 4: a party of twenty at six o'clock and at six
Speaker 4: forty five you still cleaning the bar and getting the
Speaker 4: situation together, we got to do better. And I've I
Speaker 4: respect the fact that we do need a lot more grace,
Speaker 4: that we need to be more understanding of the situation,
Speaker 4: and that we also have to be very careful about
Speaker 4: how we expose our own people in the type of
Speaker 4: harm that we could bring to a business that is
Speaker 4: employing our folks, and that's a staple in our community.
Speaker 4: I get that, But I also feel a way about
Speaker 4: me putting my money down and I'm trying to have
Speaker 4: parties and events and bring people into these spaces. And
Speaker 4: here I am bringing my resources, my time, my attention,
Speaker 4: and then when things go wrong or when people give
Speaker 4: me attitude or they act like they don't feel like
Speaker 4: being bothered when I'm telling them, Hey, this glass, I
Speaker 4: can feel food on it, I can see lip marks,
Speaker 4: like I don't want to eat behind the person who
Speaker 4: had this glass before me. I don't think that's fair.
Speaker 4: I don't think that anybody should have to pay for that.
Speaker 4: You're not giving me anything free. But here I am
Speaker 4: finding myself not willing to or not wanting to go
Speaker 4: out there and say anything about it because I'm trying
Speaker 4: to do the right thing.
Speaker 1: But then where is the reciprocation of that.
Speaker 4: But especially in the service world, it has to get better.
Speaker 4: It has to because as we encourage people to patronize
Speaker 4: our businesses. You know, my mama is who she don't play,
Speaker 4: So you take her somewhere.
Speaker 1: She looking around. She want to see what's going on.
Speaker 4: She wants to make sure that it's a place that
Speaker 4: it lives up to the standard. And no, I do
Speaker 4: not feel that just because you're black or anything else,
Speaker 4: or Latino or whatever, that I should be okay.
Speaker 1: With getting subpar service. No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2: And now with that said, brings me to my music spotlight.
Speaker 3: In this time of music, where they celebrate people killing
Speaker 3: and drilling and spinning and they got the blick and
Speaker 3: all that and they're killing everybody.
Speaker 2: We want to highlight some positive music, and today's.
Speaker 3: Highlight is a song that I found on Instagram that
Speaker 3: I hope it's going viral. I've got thousands of comments
Speaker 3: on people seem to love the song. It's called the
Speaker 3: Honor Roll and it's about five or six kids on there,
Speaker 3: and they talk about positivity, about how they own the
Speaker 3: Honor Roll and how they got a's and how they're
Speaker 3: being celebrated for doing good stuff in school. Ain't nobody
Speaker 3: killed and it has the same energy as the drill
Speaker 3: music and get up. Please support these young kids. They're
Speaker 3: on my page, but it's pretty much going viral. You
Speaker 3: can go. You can find it anywhere. I think it
Speaker 3: started on TikTok the Boss that Daddy and this is
Speaker 3: why I first seen it. I found it on Lovely
Speaker 3: seven three two nine. That's that I've seen it Lovely,
Speaker 3: but it's on my page. Yeah, you can find it there,
Speaker 3: but just go support those because we do not support
Speaker 3: positivity in that type of energy and those young kids,
Speaker 3: like they got young kids that's ten and nine out here.
Speaker 3: With guns and videos somewhere they're gonna shoot it, they're
Speaker 3: gonna have sex, all type of ship.
Speaker 1: But get support. They literally got a lot of comment.
Speaker 2: They get a lot of support.
Speaker 3: They got record deal like, they're signed by big artists
Speaker 3: who are actually in the videos with them while they
Speaker 3: talked this kind of nonsense. So shout out to these
Speaker 3: young kids who did something positive. They still dripped up
Speaker 3: and they still risen up. It's not corny, it's not outdated,
Speaker 3: it's not you know, something that's just positive. So we
Speaker 3: just say, oh, we just want to celebrate positive. I
Speaker 3: don't I don't want that. I want good music, I
Speaker 3: want quality messages, I want I want good visuals. I
Speaker 3: want things that can actually compete with the culture right now.
Speaker 3: I want you to make positive music that's actually dope.
Speaker 3: And these kids did that, So shout them out.
Speaker 1: That's what's up.
Speaker 2: That's what's up.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, let's get into our guests. So you know,
Speaker 4: for the last five months, we've been heavily engaged in
Speaker 4: the conversation around what's happened in to the Palestinian people
Speaker 4: in Gaza. We have been calling for or a ceasefire,
Speaker 4: which we will continue to do. We've taken a very,
Speaker 4: very what I believe will be historic position that some
Speaker 4: people have, you know, certainly found fault with us in that,
Speaker 4: but I know that we're standing on the right side
Speaker 4: of history. And one of the things that has continued
Speaker 4: to be a part of the dialogue is the issue
Speaker 4: around Haiti and other places, the Congo and so many
Speaker 4: places where.
Speaker 1: People of super dark skin.
Speaker 4: Are also experiencing genocide and or you know, extreme poverty,
Speaker 4: extreme depression, oppression and suppression. And folks have been saying,
Speaker 4: why haven't you know, why aren't you talking about these things?
Speaker 4: And of course violence, And they said, you know, why
Speaker 4: aren't you talking about these things?
Speaker 1: I don't think that that it is.
Speaker 4: You know it well, certainly, I know that it's not
Speaker 4: a lack of care, but sometimes a lack of information.
Speaker 4: I know I'm learning a lot about the Congo. And
Speaker 4: the reason why I can speak so well, the reason
Speaker 4: why we can speak so well to what is happening
Speaker 4: to the Palestinian people, is because we've actually walked the grounds.
Speaker 4: We've been there, we visited Palestine, we visited Israel, and
Speaker 4: we understand the issue. We understand the occupation. We are
Speaker 4: very clear about what has taken place there because we
Speaker 4: were there firsthand, and in the Congos specifically, we have
Speaker 4: not been there, and so it is a process of
Speaker 4: learning and trying to bring people credible information, credible messengers,
Speaker 4: and I think today we have a very credible messenger
Speaker 4: who's joining us to talk about Haiti.
Speaker 1: Now. I have visited Haiti. Have you been Haiti?
Speaker 2: Been?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 1: So I visited Haiti.
Speaker 4: I went not very long after the earthquake, along with
Speaker 4: doctor Ron Daniels and a number of individuals from African
Speaker 4: Americans who went there to do very important work to
Speaker 4: bring of course resources, we helped with the school there.
Speaker 4: Several schools also went to feed the community and to
Speaker 4: be one among the people and to learn the history.
Speaker 4: And so this is an issue that I've already been
Speaker 4: tapped in on. I understand so much about the people
Speaker 4: of Haiti and what they have experienced. And so when
Speaker 4: again talking about credible messengers, I'm excited, delighted to bring
Speaker 4: on the show today to Tami, a young woman who
Speaker 4: I found on Instagram. In fact, I made a comment
Speaker 4: on someone else's page, on Teslin's page, Teslan Figaro, I
Speaker 4: made a comment there. Yeah, absolutely, and you know one day,
Speaker 4: she said, is anybody.
Speaker 1: Paying attention to what's happening in Haiti?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 1: Do we care?
Speaker 4: And I wrote that I'm watching images and learning and
Speaker 4: this whole world just drives me crazy. It's just too
Speaker 4: many things going on at one time. And someone said,
Speaker 4: if you want to learn more, you should go to
Speaker 4: this young woman's page, and I went there and for
Speaker 4: the day, for the night, you know me, I was up.
Speaker 4: I was watching videos, I was listening to her commentary,
Speaker 4: and I found her to be an outstanding advocate, not
Speaker 4: just for the people of Kti, but also for us
Speaker 4: as black people, even here in America. And so I'm
Speaker 4: excited to bring our guests. I reached out. She reached
Speaker 4: right back. She said, let's get it on, let's talk
Speaker 4: about it. And so today let me introduce to some
Speaker 4: and allow others to be reacquainted.
Speaker 1: If you're already following her.
Speaker 4: Doctor Bertrude Albert, doctor okay PhD. Bertrude Albert, who is
Speaker 4: the CEO and co founder of P four H Global,
Speaker 4: And during her undergraduate agree she and another young lady
Speaker 4: she was went to University of Florida, Miss Priscilla Zeala.
Speaker 4: I hope that is an appropriate way, but I'm sure
Speaker 4: she zeleyah zeleah Okay. They co founded pH four Global,
Speaker 4: which was formerly Projects for Haiti, and they had traveled
Speaker 4: to Haiti separately on several occasions and realized it realized
Speaker 4: that they shared an unwavering passion for the Haitian people,
Speaker 4: and so they decided to start this organization that she's
Speaker 4: gonna tell us all about. Thank you so much for
Speaker 4: joining TMI today, I'm saying, doctor Albert, but I think
Speaker 4: it's okay for us to call you Bertrude.
Speaker 5: Yes, definitely, Bertrude. D.
Speaker 7: I am so honored and so thankful to be here
Speaker 7: with you. You know, a special shout out to you all,
Speaker 7: because with things going on in Haiti, I've been getting
Speaker 7: like a lot of requests from a lot of stations
Speaker 7: international and global stations to speak. And my fear has
Speaker 7: been that people will just take soundbites that sensationalize Haiti,
Speaker 7: that make things seem like they're not that don't really
Speaker 7: get to the root of the problem. But when I
Speaker 7: went and checked out t M, I'm sorry and I
Speaker 7: able to learn about the work that you all are
Speaker 7: doing and exposing and speaking truth. I said, this is
Speaker 7: a platform DM I this is a platform that I
Speaker 7: need to partner with, that I want to be with.
Speaker 7: So thank you for this invitation, Thank you for allowing
Speaker 7: me to be here and speak my truth, our truth today.
Speaker 3: Thank you well, thank you for being here. And I
Speaker 3: just love the energy. You know what I'm saying, nothing,
Speaker 3: You have a beautiful spirit and energy that's welcoming. So
Speaker 3: we want to thank you for being here. I just
Speaker 3: want to know, give us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 3: Just tell us a little bit about yourself, your studies,
Speaker 3: how you got to what we are today.
Speaker 7: So I was born in Haiti, but then when I
Speaker 7: was a baby, I came to the United States. And
Speaker 7: it's interesting growing up in South Florida as a Haitian American.
Speaker 7: I received there was a lot of bullying for Haitians
Speaker 7: in South South Florida, sorry South Florida, and so it
Speaker 7: was definitely a challenging time. Actually growing up, I kind
Speaker 7: of hid the fact that I was Haitian. I wasn't
Speaker 7: really truly proud of my heritage and where I came
Speaker 7: from because I didn't know who I was. All I
Speaker 7: knew was darkness, devastation, poverty. But then when I went
Speaker 7: to college, when I went to the University of Florida,
Speaker 7: Go Gators. When I went to college and I learned
Speaker 7: that my people were the first free black republic in
Speaker 7: the world. When I learned that my people created the
Speaker 7: first nation to permanently abolish slavery in the Transatlantic slave trade.
Speaker 7: When I learned that Haiti was the first nation established
Speaker 7: in Latin America and the Caribbean. Haiti was the second
Speaker 7: nation established in the Western Hemisphere. When I learned these
Speaker 7: hidden gems, these hidden glories of my nation, I said,
Speaker 7: what have I been ashamed of?
Speaker 6: What?
Speaker 7: From that moment forward, I knew that the rest of
Speaker 7: my life would be spent towards seeing my country rise.
Speaker 7: And so, I mean, since college up until now until
Speaker 7: my dying breath, I am going to continue to fight
Speaker 7: not only for but also for uh Tika.
Speaker 5: As you mentioned, the black race.
Speaker 7: I'm just fight for black freedom, liberation because we are
Speaker 7: much more than this narrative that that just controls us
Speaker 7: and suffocates us. We will rise and have victory. I
Speaker 7: could go on for years, but I'm gonna stop there.
Speaker 1: No, I was with you, I was, I mean, you heated.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know when I hear you talk about the
Speaker 4: University of Florida, and I think about what is happening
Speaker 4: in Florida right now, the attacks against DEI in educational
Speaker 4: institutions UH, and just attacks against black history in general
Speaker 4: and attacks against black people. It is very interesting and
Speaker 4: I think a very big example you are setting here
Speaker 4: of why it is important for the education system to
Speaker 4: at least touch on touch upon the history of all people,
Speaker 4: all people, because that is where you get a sense
Speaker 4: of self. So imagine if that information was not presented
Speaker 4: to you in college and then you went through life
Speaker 4: continuing to sort of hide and diminish where you come from.
Speaker 4: And so when we talk about those political those bands
Speaker 4: and these political assertions, it is very, very dangerous.
Speaker 1: What would you say about.
Speaker 7: That history carries an important part of our identity, and
Speaker 7: when we are rewriting history, when we're hiding parts of
Speaker 7: like how gruesome and disgusting slavery was, how detrimental slavery is,
Speaker 7: and how slavery still has an impact on American society
Speaker 7: today on former colonies like Haiti. When we're hiding these truths,
Speaker 7: we are impacting the psychology the minds of young black people.
Speaker 7: We're not allowing them to realize how powerful, how great,
Speaker 7: how strong they are. We're not allowing them to realize
Speaker 7: that there are systems and structures that are in place
Speaker 7: that hold them back institutionalized racism, that we're not allowing
Speaker 7: them to truly understand the context. And as we do that,
Speaker 7: the self worth begins to diminish. We begin to really
Speaker 7: blame ourselves for certain things that are happening in this world.
Speaker 7: And so I am an advot. I am a passionate
Speaker 7: advocate for history, retelling history, ensuring that the narrative isn't
Speaker 7: one that supports white supremacy and that perpetuates these ideas
Speaker 7: of white supremacy, but one that shows the beauty of
Speaker 7: the black race, black people.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful.
Speaker 3: So just trying to get to understand is a lot
Speaker 3: of people who, like Tamika said, aren't informed. They don't
Speaker 3: know what's going on in Haiti, they don't know the history,
Speaker 3: they don't know anything. So right now, what's going on
Speaker 3: in Haiti, and try to give us a little bit.
Speaker 7: Of the history so as we know, like Haiti is
Speaker 7: dominating global headlines, TV, social media, radio, podcast, Haiti is
Speaker 7: dominating the news. Actually, I'm really surprised because there are
Speaker 7: so many experts on Haiti now, people that probably can't
Speaker 7: even pinpoint ten different cities on the Haitian map. And
Speaker 7: yet everybody on TikTok, everybody on Instagram has become an
Speaker 7: expert in speaking so floritatively about something most people don't
Speaker 7: truly understand. Yes, we are seeing gang violence. Yes, we
Speaker 7: are seeing a state of emergency in our capital, which
Speaker 7: it is not the Republic of Quota Puts. Our capital
Speaker 7: is Quota Puns. It is not the Republic of Quota Punts.
Speaker 7: It's the Republic of Haiti. Haiti is much more than
Speaker 7: just the capital city, all of Haiti, like where I
Speaker 7: work in the north and where I live half of
Speaker 7: the year in the north, we're definitely being impacted by
Speaker 7: what's happening.
Speaker 5: However, the burning.
Speaker 7: Tires and the insecurity and the gang violence, it's not
Speaker 7: widespread throughout the entire nation. It's really happening in the
Speaker 7: ca capital. But as we're looking at what's happening in
Speaker 7: the capitol, we're looking at gang violence.
Speaker 5: We're looking at.
Speaker 7: Gangs exerting control and force in Haiti. It's much more
Speaker 7: than that. This is not a crisis of gang violence.
Speaker 7: This is a crisis of US imperialism. This is a
Speaker 7: fight for the sovereignty of Haiti, This is a fight
Speaker 7: for national autonomy. This is a fight for Haiti to
Speaker 7: rise up. And I'm gonna go in history a bit
Speaker 7: for us to truly understand why this is. We're just
Speaker 7: looking at symptoms of a much larger problem than when
Speaker 7: we're looking at the gang violence. And certainly we'll go
Speaker 7: into history to see that. But at face value, when
Speaker 7: we look at these gangs, we have to ask ourselves,
Speaker 7: where are these gangs getting munition from? Where are they
Speaker 7: getting the guns from? Because Haiti doesn't produce these guns
Speaker 7: and these ammunition. Where are they getting And not only that,
Speaker 7: but who stands to profit.
Speaker 5: At the at the at the.
Speaker 7: Cost of so many Haitian lives. Who stands to profit
Speaker 7: at the cost of the capital being held hostage? I
Speaker 7: will tell you our capital is being held hostage because
Speaker 7: our nation is being held hostage by the US government.
Speaker 7: But let's let's dig deeper. Right now, in Haiti, gangs
Speaker 7: are affiliated, they are supported, they are funded by political
Speaker 7: by political parties. One political party right now, uh the one,
Speaker 7: the ruling political party. They actually have power and they
Speaker 7: have a puppet government that has been put into place
Speaker 7: by the US government, maybe more specific aliel Angri, who
Speaker 7: is he still is the current prime minister of hate.
Speaker 7: He says that he'll step down, but he hasn't officially
Speaker 7: stepped down. Aliel Angri was put into power by the
Speaker 7: US government with one simple tweet. When the Haitian president died,
Speaker 7: Jovan Nella Moisi died in July twenty twenty one, we
Speaker 7: had a prime minister. But with one simple tweet of
Speaker 7: the US representatives they said that they support a yell Anri,
Speaker 7: and all of Haiti is like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 7: He was not He's an illegitimate prime minister. He was
Speaker 7: not put into power or voted in. He was not
Speaker 7: legitimized by any legitimate Haitian board. It was the United
Speaker 7: States that put him into power, propped him up there.
Speaker 7: And so as we look at that for thirty long months,
Speaker 7: the Haitian people really had this anger and this frustration
Speaker 7: with al yel Unri, not just because he was incompetent,
Speaker 7: which he certainly was, but they were upset because he
Speaker 7: represented US imperialism. It was the United States who put
Speaker 7: this man into power, who propped him up because he
Speaker 7: would protect American interests.
Speaker 1: Now, let's pause right there.
Speaker 4: Yes, let's just be clear for those people who are listening,
Speaker 4: because I watched one of the spokespersons from the Biden
Speaker 4: administration try to skip over the question when asked you
Speaker 4: know several times, did you you know, does the White
Speaker 4: House claim responsibility for this man taking leadership over Haiti?
Speaker 4: And he kept trying to, like, you know, skirt around
Speaker 4: it and dance that No, that's not the case. You know,
Speaker 4: we want to make sure that Haiti is sovereign and
Speaker 4: whole and da da da da da. But the White House,
Speaker 4: we know them. We've worked with them for a long time.
Speaker 4: I've worked with them, probably longer than both of you,
Speaker 4: So I know them very well. Nothing that they do
Speaker 4: is without thought and process. So they don't tweet just
Speaker 4: on a humble They don't speak about you by accident.
Speaker 4: If you might get in a room by accident, you might,
Speaker 4: but they will correct it very qui And so to
Speaker 4: try to ignore the US role in having this man
Speaker 4: to take an occupancy of Haiti's government and become the leader,
Speaker 4: you can't separate the two.
Speaker 1: I think that's what I hear you saying.
Speaker 7: That's exactly, that's exactly right. There is this this this
Speaker 7: stance that the US government takes. It's like no Haitian
Speaker 7: problems come from Haiti, and Haiti must lead and we
Speaker 7: have always been supporting democracy. And I mean it truly
Speaker 7: is a form of gas lighting because you don't have
Speaker 7: to search far to see that Ali al Ali with
Speaker 7: one tweet was put into power by the US government.
Speaker 7: And so again we're out of place. And one might ask, okay,
Speaker 7: be help me understand this. How does that connect to
Speaker 7: gang activity? Let me let me draw the direct connection.
Speaker 7: Aliel and his party have direct connections support activity. In fact,
Speaker 7: one of the leaders of one of the gangs, Barbecues
Speaker 7: is what they they they call him. He's gone on
Speaker 7: in interviews referring to Aliel ari and how Aliel ARII
Speaker 7: gave him the power, gave him the resources, but now
Speaker 7: he's fighting to oust all yell Anui because of corruption.
Speaker 7: And so historically, political parties in Haiti have funded gangs
Speaker 7: in order to protect their interests, in order to make
Speaker 7: sure that things go their certain way. But it's so
Speaker 7: interesting to see how the US props up a government
Speaker 7: and that government props up gangs. So familiar symptom of
Speaker 7: a larger, larger problem.
Speaker 3: We understand, you just gave us a brilliant summarization of
Speaker 3: exactly what's going on right now, but we know that
Speaker 3: it didn't just start here.
Speaker 2: So where did this whole situation start.
Speaker 7: What we're seeing right now is a fight for Haiti's sovereignty.
Speaker 6: And in that same fight, when Haiti declared independence, when
Speaker 6: Haiti said, we are a free, independent nation run by black,
Speaker 6: a black republic.
Speaker 7: So in eighteen oh four, Haiti overthrows our colonial power,
Speaker 7: the first and only nation to be formed because of
Speaker 7: a successful slave revolt. And when Haiti did this, Haiti
Speaker 7: became a threat to the world economy because slavery fueled
Speaker 7: the economic growth of nations like the United States, like France,
Speaker 7: and so this very existence of a black republic made
Speaker 7: the United States need to intervene, need to undermine the
Speaker 7: sovereignty and the independence and the freedom of this nation
Speaker 7: because if there is this free black republic, they might
Speaker 7: inspire slaver volts in the United States because the US
Speaker 7: still had slavery in eighteen oh four. And so Haiti
Speaker 7: declares independence and the US responds by isolating Haiti. So
Speaker 7: destabilization through isolation. The United States did not recognize Haiti
Speaker 7: as an independent sovereign nation until eighteen sixty two, nearly
Speaker 7: sixty years after Haiti's independence. And so again, like it's
Speaker 7: like flashbacks, it's the same fight. Recognize this as a nation,
Speaker 7: Recognize our autonomy, Recognize that blacks can run a nation,
Speaker 7: that we can be a sovereign nation run by black people.
Speaker 7: And there was a refusal to recognize our nation. And
Speaker 7: even in eighteen sixty two when the United States officially
Speaker 7: diplomatically recognized Haiti as a as a sovereign nation, that
Speaker 7: was only really just on paper, and that was only
Speaker 7: really just for the sake of saying we were going
Speaker 7: to send an ambassador to Haiti.
Speaker 6: We continue to fight, be nice to have our independence recognized.
Speaker 7: For example, nineteen fifteen to nineteen thirty four, the US
Speaker 7: invaded and occupied Haiti. And in the occupation there is death,
Speaker 7: there is destruction, there is robbery. In fact, a lot
Speaker 7: of people don't know. To start off, to launch the
Speaker 7: US occupation of Haiti, the US Marines went into Haiti's
Speaker 7: national bank and they took they completely robbed Haiti's gold reserve.
Speaker 7: They took that gold reserve and they brought it to
Speaker 7: New York for safe keeping, but that gold never returned
Speaker 7: back to Haiti. In fact, that gold was used to
Speaker 7: establish City Group, the most well known and popular financial
Speaker 7: institutions in the United States. New York Times did a
Speaker 7: big article about that. Vlad from CBS recently was speaking
Speaker 7: about that there has been a constant invasion meddling control
Speaker 7: of Haiti over the years. But then we fast forward.
Speaker 7: If you want to have a direct connection to us
Speaker 7: undermining destabilizing Haiti, we've got to look at two thousand
Speaker 7: and four. Pay In two thousand and four, there was
Speaker 7: President Ali Stid. Regardless of where a Haitian stands on
Speaker 7: the political spectrum, whether they love him or hate him,
Speaker 7: Ali Steed was the first democratically elected president in Haiti,
Speaker 7: and the United States had problems with Ali Steed. He
Speaker 7: had been ousted before and then he was brought to
Speaker 7: power in two thousand and four. You had problems with
Speaker 7: him because Ali Steed went to the UN.
Speaker 5: He went to the.
Speaker 6: Probably fighting for paying that France.
Speaker 7: You made us pay the equivalent of twenty one billion
Speaker 7: dollars for our freedom when we gained freedom in eighteen
Speaker 7: oh four, you then in eighteen twenty five forced us
Speaker 7: to pay what is now billions of dollars. You must
Speaker 7: pay us the money back because it was illegitimate and
Speaker 7: it was illegal, and so I used having this power
Speaker 7: and having this voice. He presented a threat to the
Speaker 7: United States and to France, because if Haiti can demand
Speaker 7: for reparations, what about the other former colonies, what about
Speaker 7: black people in America, We then too can demand reparation.
Speaker 7: And so there are New York Times does an incredible
Speaker 7: job outlining how I used. Seed demands this money, and
Speaker 7: then the US orchestrates an overthrowing of his government. In fact,
Speaker 7: a former French ambassador comes and he reveals, yes, the
Speaker 7: US in France they destabilized Haitian, the Haitian government. They
Speaker 7: undermined haiti sovereignty by overthrowing the government. And then not
Speaker 7: only did they overthrow the government, but then in two
Speaker 7: thousand and four, that same year they created what is
Speaker 7: called the Core Group. And there's a lot of research
Speaker 7: on Core Group. I encourage anybody that's listening.
Speaker 1: The core Group.
Speaker 7: The core Group, it's like the secret of politics in Haiti.
Speaker 7: So the core Group, it is an informal group that's
Speaker 7: made up of international diplomats that come from United States, Canada,
Speaker 7: uh France. Already there's a problem like what So this
Speaker 7: core group is in Haiti and this formal organization, maybe
Speaker 7: the advice and Haiti really established democracy in Haiti. But
Speaker 7: the reality is it's not about advice, it's not about
Speaker 7: helping guide. The core group is the instrument that is
Speaker 7: used in Haiti in order to select the president, in
Speaker 7: order to select the leaders of Haiti. In fact, the
Speaker 7: core group is the one that set the tweet we
Speaker 7: support Alian he is going to be the next prime minister.
Speaker 7: So the creation of the core group a lot of
Speaker 7: a lot of scholars and they're looking and they're dissecting
Speaker 7: this idea of the core group. They say that this
Speaker 7: core group is what controls politics in Haiti, and politics
Speaker 7: is what gives birth to gangs in Haiti. Again, I
Speaker 7: hope that I'm making these connections that we appreciated.
Speaker 1: It's important.
Speaker 4: Well we know, I mean America has also helped to
Speaker 4: back the gangs in the US. Forget about all the
Speaker 4: other places around the world. But we understand what it
Speaker 4: looks like for our government to destabilize communities, to destabilize
Speaker 4: so many things in terms of our race, us as
Speaker 4: a people, our communities, and we just think about the
Speaker 4: black panthers. Right, Let's think about anything even in our
Speaker 4: civil rights movement, anything that has happened that has been
Speaker 4: about the betterment of black people or people of African descent.
Speaker 4: The United States government, and we can go from president
Speaker 4: to president to president and from administration to administration, has
Speaker 4: had some role in the destabilization of those things because
Speaker 4: there has to be a as we always say, in
Speaker 4: order for there to be a top, there has to
Speaker 4: be a bottom. And when you think about capitalism and
Speaker 4: how all of this is driven by capitalism, it is
Speaker 4: very difficult to maintain that without having a certain power structure.
Speaker 1: And I would venture to say even.
Speaker 4: Further that a part of ensuring the destabilization of people
Speaker 4: of African descent means that you keep us uneducated and
Speaker 4: unwilling and unable to fight, because we are the biggest, best, baddest,
Speaker 4: most organized fighters against any type of injustice in this
Speaker 4: world's history, based upon how we got here and the
Speaker 4: struggles that it took for us to birth where we
Speaker 4: are today.
Speaker 1: So you're you're right on it.
Speaker 4: I mean, in my judgment, so we don't want to.
Speaker 1: We don't want I mean, there's so much more.
Speaker 4: And I hope that what people get from this is
Speaker 4: that they begin to not just follow you, but that
Speaker 4: they begin to do their research of eighteen o four
Speaker 4: to understand the connection and how and how Haiti has
Speaker 4: continued to be And these are not my words, but
Speaker 4: it is to give a description the bastard child of
Speaker 4: the world. They are pissed off with Haiti for daring
Speaker 4: to stand up to Europeans. And I want you to
Speaker 4: talk about the reparations that Haiti has been paying out
Speaker 4: of the there the bank in Haiti has been paying
Speaker 4: the oppressor pay I don't know if it's still happening now,
Speaker 4: but paying its colonizer. I mean, this this thing is,
Speaker 4: it's deep, you know, so I want to hear about that.
Speaker 4: But I hope that people will not just stop at
Speaker 4: a podcast, but that they will actually do the you know,
Speaker 4: do their work, their their recal because my son, well,
Speaker 4: I'll say that I'll save it for after because we
Speaker 4: don't want to put our politics on virtue.
Speaker 1: So go ahead, Burt.
Speaker 4: We talk about the reparations, which I don't even know how.
Speaker 4: I mean that word is it is literal right. Like
Speaker 4: people think about reparations, they're thinking about us as African
Speaker 4: people being paid for our story. But there was an
Speaker 4: actual reparation's payment to the colonizers, which was France by
Speaker 4: the Haitian government.
Speaker 7: Let's go back in time eighteen oh four, gain our independence.
Speaker 7: The US doesn't recognize Haiti, but it's not just the US.
Speaker 7: The entire world doesn't recognize Haiti. And this is difficult
Speaker 7: for Haiti in several terms, like not having diplomatic relations.
Speaker 7: That impacting being able to shift, that impacts the growth
Speaker 7: of the nation. So Haiti is really fighting to be
Speaker 7: recognized by these world powers. Finally, in eighteen twenty five,
Speaker 7: underneath Haitian President Boye France comes to Haiti and says
Speaker 7: says to Haiti, we will recognize you. However, you will
Speaker 7: pay one hundred and fifty million francs, which later gets
Speaker 7: decreased to ninety million francs.
Speaker 5: But you will pay us.
Speaker 7: One hundred and fifty million francs in order to repay
Speaker 7: us for our lost property. And part of the lost
Speaker 7: property were our black bodies, like black people.
Speaker 5: You understand, you say, I want to saying.
Speaker 7: It's the wildest most absurd request, and some ask why
Speaker 7: in the world did Haiti even agree to it. There's
Speaker 7: I could take hours to really dissect why Haiti go agrees.
Speaker 7: I mean, gunboats were being sent to Haiti, there was
Speaker 7: threat for another invasion, and Haiti had just won this
Speaker 7: thirteen year revolution. Didn't want to go into another revolution.
Speaker 7: Not only that, this idea of reparation, it didn't just
Speaker 7: start when why was there actually started with another president
Speaker 7: Pitts you on. So there's a lot going on to
Speaker 7: why Haiti actually caved into this pressure. But Haiti agrees
Speaker 7: to pay one hundred and fifty million francs, it gets
Speaker 7: decreased to ninety million francs. Haiti did not finish paying
Speaker 7: France back until nineteen forty seven.
Speaker 1: Forty seven.
Speaker 7: Let me say that again, nineteen forty seven. And here's
Speaker 7: where the US government and I say this. I know,
Speaker 7: I don't owe this explanation. I think that the United
Speaker 7: States has so many opportunities for immigrants like myself, so
Speaker 7: many opportunities for people, but US foreign policy historically just
Speaker 7: chokes nations, nations that look like me. US foreign policy
Speaker 7: needs to be dissected, and so this is not a
Speaker 7: I hate America type of speech. This is a let's
Speaker 7: take a look at what the United States is doing,
Speaker 7: what the US government is doing, and let's expose it
Speaker 7: because it's evil.
Speaker 5: So let's go back this. How is the.
Speaker 7: United States connected to France? Because it was Frances that
Speaker 7: forced Haiti to pay this this one hundred and fifty
Speaker 7: million francs, which goes down to ninety million francs, the
Speaker 7: equivalent of twenty one billion dollars. Which side note, it's
Speaker 7: not even just about the.
Speaker 5: Twenty one billion dollars that is important.
Speaker 7: But when you take Haiti's money like this, you take
Speaker 7: money that we can be investing in roads, in education,
Speaker 7: we can be investing in the very fabric of our nation.
Speaker 7: But then you rob us of the opportunity to grow.
Speaker 7: Oh it makes me so mad and then flourish.
Speaker 1: I mean, they say say poverty.
Speaker 2: The poverty is violence, you know, and rebellion is the
Speaker 2: voice of the press.
Speaker 3: And it's like to not to not understand why gangs
Speaker 3: exist in different nations, especially nations who have been, you know,
Speaker 3: dealing with what Haiti has dealing with just all around
Speaker 3: this nation and not and see this is what they
Speaker 3: call the resistance. This you know it's there's no there's
Speaker 3: no group of people that should be comfortable and happy
Speaker 3: to be starving, to be crucified, to be living in
Speaker 3: below humane conditions. There's nowhere in the world that should happen.
Speaker 3: So I just want to know, like, what, what is
Speaker 3: the future? What do you What is the future of
Speaker 3: Haiti for you?
Speaker 2: What do you? What do you see? What do we
Speaker 2: want to see? What do we believe? It should be?
Speaker 5: Freedom?
Speaker 7: The future of Haiti is freedom and uh and I'll
Speaker 7: get deep into what I mean by that, but like
Speaker 7: with everything in me, I believe that as far as
Speaker 7: times may be and as as as tight as the
Speaker 7: US's grip on Haiti's neck, is freedom. We're destined freedom.
Speaker 7: In eighteen o four are our ancestors. They prove that
Speaker 7: we can do the impossible. When all odds are against us,
Speaker 7: We're able to come together and overthrow it. Where there
Speaker 7: is oppression, there will be rebellion, there will be a revolt,
Speaker 7: there will be victory. Freedom, I believe is our future.
Speaker 7: And what does that mean? Freedom from imperial powers, specifically
Speaker 7: the United States and Haiti. We will reach today where
Speaker 7: Haitians will lead Haiti. It's crazy that It's as simple
Speaker 7: as that. It's not even the biggest ask. It's like
Speaker 7: just the recognition of our humanity, giving us the dignity
Speaker 7: and the honor that we deserve as as a black nation,
Speaker 7: allow us to lead ourselves stop meddling inside of Haitian affairs.
Speaker 7: And I believe that that's going to be happening through
Speaker 7: social media. Man, I'm I'm inspired when I think a
Speaker 7: lean through s I need be some of these Haitian heroes.
Speaker 7: But I know that today we have more power than
Speaker 7: our ancestors did because we have their story to inspire us.
Speaker 7: But in addition to that, we have social media. We're
Speaker 7: able to expose what the US is doing. We're able
Speaker 7: to expose with these with these Western powers are able
Speaker 7: to do are doing in the United States. And as
Speaker 7: we speak about it more like what you all are doing.
Speaker 7: As we shine light and allow Black America and black
Speaker 7: people around the globe and even our allies to be
Speaker 7: aware of what's going on. We exposed and we bring light.
Speaker 7: Freedom is our future.
Speaker 4: Well, please tell us Virtue as you leave, doctor Albert,
Speaker 4: what does P four H Global do and how can
Speaker 4: people support your work?
Speaker 5: So T for H Global, we.
Speaker 7: Are training teachers to transform Haiti. Our main goal is
Speaker 7: education because at the end of the day, this crisis
Speaker 7: we're seeing Haiti, it's going to go away. We'll have
Speaker 7: other another crisis come in the future, but this current
Speaker 7: crisis is going to go away.
Speaker 5: What we are going to need is.
Speaker 7: A strong educational system that develops Haitians, Haitian leaders for
Speaker 7: the twenty first century, Haitian leaders that can really take
Speaker 7: child Ouraiti leaders that have critical thinking, that have collaboration,
Speaker 7: Haitian leaders that are able to lead Haitien to break
Speaker 7: into that we have And so I believe, not just me,
Speaker 7: the research shows that quality education is the prerequisite to
Speaker 7: the development of any nation. And so even before this crisis,
Speaker 7: I have been in the business of improving the quality
Speaker 7: of education in Haiti. Sixty percent of Haitian students pop
Speaker 7: out before they finish elementary school, and I want to
Speaker 7: make that statistic obsolete. Six out of ten drop out
Speaker 7: before finishing elementary school. Not with my not my people,
Speaker 7: because knowledge is power. But I want to leave our
Speaker 7: people with the power so that we can destroy the
Speaker 7: system like we destroyed the system of slavery. So again
Speaker 7: we do teacher training, a lot of organizations in Haiti.
Speaker 7: They go, you know, they build schools. Haiti doesn't have
Speaker 7: a lack of schools, an abundance of schools. The quality
Speaker 7: of the schools is what is the problem. You could
Speaker 7: build thirty million schools, but if students are dropping out,
Speaker 7: why have these these schools? So I have a team
Speaker 7: of about fifty full time trainers and we work in
Speaker 7: all ten of hades departments. We travel to these schools.
Speaker 7: We coach the teachers, coach the directors, coach the school inspectors.
Speaker 7: We walk alongside of them to see the improvement of students.
Speaker 7: You could actually, let's see this picture right here up
Speaker 7: there of a student actually snap this photo right there.
Speaker 7: So my goal is improving the quality of education so
Speaker 7: that we can secure Haiti's right future.
Speaker 1: How do we support you?
Speaker 7: If people can follow our journey. We're on Instagram, We're
Speaker 7: on Facebook. Certainly follow our journey and share our story.
Speaker 7: Not just our story, but the story of other organizations
Speaker 7: like on Safe White Season organization.
Speaker 5: I love.
Speaker 7: U n D these organizations that are investing in education.
Speaker 7: I think that there needs to be more focused on
Speaker 7: education after this crisis. Let's ensure that our educational system
Speaker 7: is really really strong, so support us by sharing our story,
Speaker 7: following along on the journey. Of course, financial support is
Speaker 7: always needed for a nonprofit, especially during these times. People
Speaker 7: are leaving Haiti left and right, and people that would
Speaker 7: have donated have Haiti fatigued left and right.
Speaker 5: So supporting us financially is a really built.
Speaker 7: So again, social media financially supporting us. But then the
Speaker 7: third and probably more important, most important way to support
Speaker 7: work is help expose what's happening in Haiti. Continue to
Speaker 7: talk about US imperialism and Haiti, because when we solve
Speaker 7: this problem of US imperialism and meddling in Haiti, it
Speaker 7: enables my work to go along a bit easier. Right now,
Speaker 7: the five Departments of the South, we can't travel and
Speaker 7: work with our schools. Many of our schools are shut down.
Speaker 7: We can't work with our teachers, my work. It's almost
Speaker 7: as if like you've got chains on our hands and
Speaker 7: we can't work towards the development of Haiti because of
Speaker 7: this crisis. If we can solve this crisis and expose
Speaker 7: what's happening, you give me freedom to fight for the
Speaker 7: freedom of my people.
Speaker 3: I know we could just go on and on about
Speaker 3: this because you seem so well versed and knowledgeable and passionate,
Speaker 3: you know, and I agree with you. Their freedom is
Speaker 3: definitely the ultimate, you know, space for Haiti, and I
Speaker 3: believe we'll get there. We're dealing with so many different
Speaker 3: things in this nation right now and everyone is just
Speaker 3: trying to figure out what we can do, you know,
Speaker 3: and I just want to thank you for doing your part.
Speaker 2: You know, the way that.
Speaker 3: You inform on social media and utilize the platform. I
Speaker 3: know that you know they're probably trying to shadow band
Speaker 3: you and you get all of those type of things
Speaker 3: because our pages have been shadowed. Band for just just
Speaker 3: speaking truth to power, but continue to be that, like,
Speaker 3: continue to speak truth to power even though you know
Speaker 3: you're passionate about your people and about what's going on,
Speaker 3: and Haiti, there's still this glow that you have right
Speaker 3: you speak passionate, but it is not anger, and a
Speaker 3: lot of people would be overtaken with angers, which while
Speaker 3: we have gangs and you see the fighting and all that,
Speaker 3: but just to seeing someone with the energy that you have,
Speaker 3: it just it inspires me to continue on and want
Speaker 3: to know what's going on and want to contribute to
Speaker 3: the fight. So continue doing what.
Speaker 4: You do, Doctor Bertrude Albert, thank you so much, and
Speaker 4: we want to continue to uplift P for H Global.
Speaker 4: You continue doing your work. As my son has said,
Speaker 4: thank you for coming on. And anytime that you need
Speaker 4: us to share a thing, say a thing, say the
Speaker 4: things you don't think you can say, because we are
Speaker 4: already in trouble everywhere all the time, So let us
Speaker 4: be your mouthpiece, let us be your foot soldiers to
Speaker 4: get the work done.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you all so much. Thank you for this time.
Speaker 5: Thank you for the space My soul needed this conversation
Speaker 5: with you too today.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for joining T and I. I
Speaker 1: like doctor Albert.
Speaker 2: I love her energy.
Speaker 3: She has amazing energy, like speak even speaking about something
Speaker 3: she's passionate about and you know it's painful. She still
Speaker 3: has just a joyous demeanor and energy.
Speaker 4: But she's also very educated. And you know, as she
Speaker 4: was speaking, I was thinking to myself. As a young
Speaker 4: person growing up in New York and Harlem specifically, I
Speaker 4: met a lot of Haitians.
Speaker 1: They went to.
Speaker 4: Catholic school and I don't know one that is not brilliant,
Speaker 4: like highly educated. You know that you know they spend
Speaker 4: a lot of time, and I think it is a
Speaker 4: part of Caribbean culture in general to ensure that you
Speaker 4: are like more educated than any and everybody else so
Speaker 4: that you can shine and sort of I guess, you know,
Speaker 4: fight fight back against these narratives, these these negative stereotypes.
Speaker 4: And I think that's a you know, you can see
Speaker 4: that in her that her parents were like, you are
Speaker 4: going to learn if nothing else, uh, And I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that about her.
Speaker 4: I want us to continue to work with her and
Speaker 4: to support what she's doing because Haiti, when I was there,
Speaker 4: it is a very challenging space to.
Speaker 1: Maneuver for a lot of different reasons. Of course the.
Speaker 4: Politics, the corruption, and of course the poverty. And then
Speaker 4: also it has sort of thinking about us. You know,
Speaker 4: we've been talking so much about the film Origin. It
Speaker 4: has its own cast system, right, and so it's difficult
Speaker 4: to navigate. But one thing I learned while I was
Speaker 4: there is that of all the issues, I mean, they
Speaker 4: were just out of a devastating earthquake, but what I
Speaker 4: noticed is that every day, no matter what, no matter
Speaker 4: where they live, no matter how depressing the communities, we cried.
Speaker 4: You know, it was so heartbreaking because even before the earthquake,
Speaker 4: they still had these horrific challenges. The kids would be
Speaker 4: dressed beautifully on their way to school, all hair done, barets,
Speaker 4: pretty baretts, looking good, haircuts, clean, neat, and it's almost impossible,
Speaker 4: Like I don't know, and you know, I'm a clean
Speaker 4: freak one hundred percent, but I don't know how clean
Speaker 4: I could be if I was living in a situation
Speaker 4: where I'm pretty much having because of again all of
Speaker 4: the infrastructure issues, having to wash outside, like having to
Speaker 4: literally wash clothes in the basin. You know, that's really
Speaker 4: literally how some communities are living.
Speaker 1: And to see them get those kids shirts pressed.
Speaker 4: Get in to school every morning looking perfect, pristine, pristine.
Speaker 1: And that said a lot to me about the culture.
Speaker 4: Again going back to my point about education, that that
Speaker 4: is something that they don't play. The dignity is incredible,
Speaker 4: and I think that's what we sense coming from Virtrue,
Speaker 4: that this.
Speaker 2: Is a lot of pride.
Speaker 3: I have Haitian friends in Men, a lot of Haitian people,
Speaker 3: and they have like a lot of pride. You know,
Speaker 3: I don't know if they've all been brilliant, like you know,
Speaker 3: like Kodak is a little crazy.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: There might be levels of brilliant. There's levels because you
Speaker 2: look at the.
Speaker 3: Level of talent, so there is brilliant and a lot
Speaker 3: of times people just play a role because they understand
Speaker 3: it's entertainment.
Speaker 4: And also your trauma the issue trus can suppress.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have those things, but overall, you know,
Speaker 3: never being too Haiti. But there are a lot of
Speaker 3: representation of Haitians that are positive, like and knowing that
Speaker 3: they come from situations like that.
Speaker 2: You know. But this is where they call shithole countries, right.
Speaker 1: This is what Donald Trump called the Trump that's.
Speaker 4: Trump, It's the bastard nation of the world, right, the
Speaker 4: bastard child of the world, because they want to sun
Speaker 4: it and treat it different in other and not give
Speaker 4: it the proper resources.
Speaker 1: And then people keep talking about gangs. We first of all,
Speaker 1: who else they're gonna fight.
Speaker 4: It's not like the people that they're angry with American government,
Speaker 4: our fall foreign policy, UH directors and all the people
Speaker 4: who work there. They're not walking around the streets of Haiti.
Speaker 4: So it's not like they could.
Speaker 3: Go I don't understand why people don't understand the reality
Speaker 3: of gangs.
Speaker 2: Right. Gangs are formed out of desperation. Right.
Speaker 3: Gangs are formed out of lack of unity, out of
Speaker 3: lack of resources, out of lack of opportunities. Gangs form
Speaker 3: inside of impoverished communities because people need to belong, they
Speaker 3: need to have resources. They align with other people who
Speaker 3: are trying to get something that somehow appeal to the
Speaker 3: need for unity, right, because that they lack those things
Speaker 3: inside their community. You don't see gangs outside and outside
Speaker 3: of impoverished communities where we're looking at exactly. But the
Speaker 3: mobls came from were These were people that came from
Speaker 3: Italy poor, right, and they've seen all the rest of
Speaker 3: the nationalities excelling, and they came here and figured out
Speaker 3: we we got to click up together because we're the
Speaker 3: outcast here.
Speaker 2: People don't give us anything.
Speaker 3: They look down upon us, and they created their own finances,
Speaker 3: they created their own ecosystem. And that's what that's the
Speaker 3: only thing that happened with gangs when you have to
Speaker 3: create your own way to survive, when you have to
Speaker 3: protect yourself, when you know that we're the only people
Speaker 3: that come from our country over here, and people are
Speaker 3: we're the outcast and you know, and we have to
Speaker 3: create something.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, it comes from violence. Like we say, poverty is violence.
Speaker 3: And most of these every gang without the nation, if
Speaker 3: you look at the if you look at the inception
Speaker 3: of every gang in this world.
Speaker 2: It starts with poverty.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of like.
Speaker 3: It is, you know, it always starts with priety. We
Speaker 3: look at the bloods and crypt in America, right, it
Speaker 3: started as the answer to police violence in the communities.
Speaker 2: They started. They originally started because they is.
Speaker 1: That poverty or is it oppression?
Speaker 3: It's both, because poverty is all of those things. They're
Speaker 3: all into change. Like when you only see oppressed oppression
Speaker 3: with poverty exists, you can't oppress people that have the
Speaker 3: resources to do whatever they want. My I don't get
Speaker 3: it of today. It's something that you know, I've been
Speaker 3: on social media. You know, I've been in a hood
Speaker 3: pretty much my whole life, and we grew up with
Speaker 3: this narrative, right, it's just free my mans, Free my mans,
Speaker 3: treat my mans. And as I get older, and especially
Speaker 3: I look on social media, I see this growing trend
Speaker 3: with people who are doing heinous and egregious things, people
Speaker 3: that are doing things that should go against the average
Speaker 3: quote unquote real dude's moral compass, right, and they're saying
Speaker 3: free him and free him, And I'm like, why are
Speaker 3: we saying free somebody that we know stab the girl
Speaker 3: or shot a girl, or did this and that or
Speaker 3: harm the older person who robbed old people? Like, why
Speaker 3: are we advocating that there's no accountability in our communities
Speaker 3: for people that are really detrimental to the communities. That's
Speaker 3: not because I understand and even though I don't agree with,
Speaker 3: I understand certain things that go on on our communities.
Speaker 3: There is you know, the streets, and when you sign
Speaker 3: up for the streets, you and that person that deal
Speaker 3: in the streets, you gotta deal with what comes with that.
Speaker 3: But when you start, you know, you start harming civilians,
Speaker 3: and you start doing things that's really detrimental to the community,
Speaker 3: to the community, and you go against things that we
Speaker 3: all should stand against as a man, and everybody's screaming
Speaker 3: free him, and you don't want no level of accountability? Yeah,
Speaker 3: support your man, right, Go give him, put something on
Speaker 3: his books, go visit them, have conversations with him, help
Speaker 3: him to be rehabilitated, help him grow, you know, and
Speaker 3: hopefully when he re enters society after he's held accountable.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, he can move properly. But
Speaker 3: I just I no longer subscribe that we should be
Speaker 3: just yelling free him to everybody that's locked up. I
Speaker 3: just don't subscribe to that no more. You know, And
Speaker 3: I don't know, and I don't know why us as
Speaker 3: And I think it's just about us growing. I think
Speaker 3: as you grow and you start really paying attention to
Speaker 3: certain shit, it's just like, nah, I understand, like I
Speaker 3: love him, it's my man, but he did some shit
Speaker 3: that he got to be held accountable for, and hopefully,
Speaker 3: you know, him taking that accountability, he gonna make it
Speaker 3: home safe, and he gonna come out and he's gonna
Speaker 3: be a better person because he's held accountable for certain.
Speaker 1: Shit, well outside of rape.
Speaker 4: And you know, of course murder, even in those two instances.
Speaker 1: I believe that prison should be abolished.
Speaker 2: So you don't think he should lock a rapist.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do, But I still believe that they are
Speaker 4: that could be done from childhood to address behaviors, especially
Speaker 4: family trauma and other things that if again, if we
Speaker 4: weren't spending our money on everything and doing any and
Speaker 4: everything else, fattening people's pockets and dealing with other stuff
Speaker 4: that has nothing to do with the actual strength and
Speaker 4: success and health of our people.
Speaker 1: We might be able to.
Speaker 4: Get in front of individuals mental whatever they have going
Speaker 4: on that causes rape and other things. Right, so we
Speaker 4: don't focus enough on mental health in this country. Working
Speaker 4: within the current system, if you rape a person, especially
Speaker 4: a child, anybody, Yes, certainly I believe you should be
Speaker 4: held accountable. You murder people, you should be held accountable.
Speaker 1: All of that. I'm not I wouldn't say no.
Speaker 4: I do think the system has to change because I
Speaker 4: think there's much more preventative, many more preventative measures that
Speaker 4: could be used.
Speaker 1: So that's one.
Speaker 4: But I also know and unders stand deeply that part
Speaker 4: of the problem is our desire to fight the system,
Speaker 4: not the people.
Speaker 1: So really.
Speaker 3: It's not even a desire to fight the system at
Speaker 3: this point, just it's just to me, I believe it's
Speaker 3: just celebrating bad behavior. I don't I don't see it
Speaker 3: as yoa system.
Speaker 4: Is this and that, because right well, I don't know
Speaker 4: if people are able to or even conscious of the
Speaker 4: way to articulate it. But the issue is that it
Speaker 4: comes from a mindset that the police locked them up.
Speaker 4: The courts are bad, the jails are terrible, the system
Speaker 4: is bad. And so when people start saying free my man,
Speaker 4: they're not always considering the actions of the individual, but
Speaker 4: more so saying out of this, you know, freedom from
Speaker 4: the system. That's what I hope, because I see people
Speaker 4: do it, and I'm sure I have I'm sure that
Speaker 4: you know I have done that in the past. It
Speaker 4: says I want to free my family member. But my
Speaker 4: new posture with my family members is it he's soul crack,
Speaker 4: or if he killed people, or if he was involved
Speaker 4: in illegal activity, don't call me, right not to say,
Speaker 4: don't call me to write a letter or send commissary
Speaker 4: to your point, but don't be calling me.
Speaker 1: Telling me, yo, man, they got man down.
Speaker 2: And that's what it is for me.
Speaker 3: It's just like I just think, as we get growth
Speaker 3: and you understand that their consequences and ramifications for actions,
Speaker 3: and and I no longer want to just celebrate and
Speaker 3: incentivize bad behavior and stupidity, right And because that's what's happening.
Speaker 3: A lot of these young kids who are engaging in
Speaker 3: this violence, they're seeing the celebration of the people, right,
Speaker 3: they're seeing such and search go to jail for murder,
Speaker 3: and everybody's saying free him. And it seems like he's
Speaker 3: way more famous than he was in the street. Right
Speaker 3: that you get you get this this level of notoriety
Speaker 3: for for being notorious, and it's like it's not it's
Speaker 3: not conducive to the you know, the evolution of culture
Speaker 3: and for young people. So at this point, for me,
Speaker 3: like I just don't get it, you know, and I
Speaker 3: think we gotta we gotta pay close attention at the
Speaker 3: message that we're sending these kids because they are watching
Speaker 3: and just know, just listening to what they believe it's
Speaker 3: protocol in the streets, and what they believe is should
Speaker 3: be celebrated, how they believe they should move, and how
Speaker 3: they how they really grasp this information and they got
Speaker 3: it from this culture.
Speaker 2: It's really crazy to me.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, damn, we're really doing these babies at
Speaker 3: this service, you know.
Speaker 2: For me, that's what it is.
Speaker 4: Well, you know what, I'm very proud of the work
Speaker 4: you've been doing, specifically of the boycott Black Murder work.
Speaker 4: We have so many people pouring into that aspect of
Speaker 4: what we do, and you really carry that on your back.
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate it, and you know, I just want
Speaker 3: to say thank you for allowing me and having faith
Speaker 3: and believing in the abilities that I had to offer
Speaker 3: to this movement and to our culture, and giving me
Speaker 3: the confidence, you know, because I didn't always feel as
Speaker 3: confident about what it is that I didn't believe I
Speaker 3: belonged in certain rooms. I didn't believe that I knew
Speaker 3: the stuff. And you know, sometimes I go and I'm
Speaker 3: doing this work and we lose a child, you know,
Speaker 3: we lose a young man, We somebody actually got killed
Speaker 3: that I was just with that. I was trying to,
Speaker 3: you know, help renavigate, redirect rather to a different direction,
Speaker 3: and it didn't work.
Speaker 2: So it's always a process.
Speaker 1: But it's a give and take.
Speaker 3: That brings us to the end of another wonderful episode
Speaker 3: of Tea My the number one podcast in the world
Speaker 3: to make my sons information, truth, motivation and inspiration. We
Speaker 3: want to think, I would guess doctor Bertrude Albert, the
Speaker 3: wonderful She's amazing staying tune was going on in Haiti.
Speaker 3: Pay attention. It's a lot going on in this world.
Speaker 3: We gonna always be right and We're not gonna always
Speaker 3: be wrong to me, it's gonna be wrong way more
Speaker 3: than my song is, but we will both always and
Speaker 3: I mean always, be authentic.
Speaker 2: That's so.
Speaker 4: Check out the video version of TMO every single Wednesday
Speaker 4: on Iwoman dot TV.
Speaker 1: That's how