Anyway, my flat is looking fantabulous at the mo - Mary and I went on a bit of a shopping spree at a plant shop (not entirely sure what they're called) and bought loads of plants, both large and small. The place now looks a lot more lived in. Add a rug or two, and some bright paintings and this will finally be a home.
Our shopping spree was just after a pretty satisfying morning sightseeing around Champs des Mars - a huge area comprising most of the tourist sights in PAP including their Presidential Palace, a number of statues to the founders of Haiti, museums and green spaces. Except for a number of child beggers pestering you, a great place to just lounge around actually.
As promised, here are a few pics. This one of me modelling the palace itself:
And this severe looking bloke is Toussaint L'Ouverture, the original former slave general who first defeated the French before being betrayed and captured by them and die of starvation in a French gaol:
And this is the most famous article of their Constitution written in 1801 - three years before the world's first black republic became a reality. Erected by Aristide and with bird droppings on it, the monument still has a pride about it. For those of you who can't read French, it translates roughly as "Slaves cannot exist on this territory. Slavery is abolished forever. All men born here live and die free." 
There's something so stark and yet so passionate about those simple statements that made it profoundly moving - especially the mention of dying free. Reading about those times while being here has hit home to me emotionally just how soul-grindingly awful those times were, and the sheer pride Haitians have in their defeat of their victory over their former slave owners. Makes you realise the huge ambiguity that they feel towards the huge number of foreign NGOs, not to mention the huge UN mission here.
After that, we walked around the market nearby which struck me as very similar to many African markets I'd been to before. And then we found our driver and had an extremely overpriced lunch at the Hotel Oloffson - a hotel made famous by Grahame Greene's book "The Comediens" and, in its heyday housed two former Presidents and a number of artists and celebrities. Very much like most of the other places Grahame Greene appears to have stayed in, it has that faded spendour about it, along with a slight seedy quality. Definitely atmospheric but not really a place I'd really want to stay in...
I have never really like Graham Greene in the few books I've read by him - he's one of those writers that I read more because I feel I should than because of any real liking for him. I find his complex characters fascinating, and he was certainly extrememly perceptive about the political and social intrigue in the places that he visited or lived in. However, although I'm certain that it was well-earned by him (unlike the vast majority of those who proclaim themselves cynics), I cannot much like his patented world-weary cynicism and detachment. It always strikes me as the easy way out - both personally and artistically. I think I find it even more frustrating because he is one of the few popular writers who do write intellligently about countries and issues that I'm interested in. And really, does that Catholic guilt thing have to turn up in every single book he writes?
Anyway, better conclude with a pic of the sunset from my balcony as I promised my cousin. Not bad, huh?
No comments:
Post a Comment