Honor and Respect: at the heart of Haitian culture.

    "Onè," a gentleman said.
    "Respé" I replied in typical Haitian fashion.
    "Comment u yé?" the gentleman continued in Creyol asking "how are you?"
    "Pas plus mal," I answered using the standard Haitian reply: "not more bad." And then my mind scrambled to understand the deeper meaning of the typical words I had just used in this daily Haitian greeting.

   Millions of Haitians repeat this greeting in Haiti, and around the world, a few million times every day. The first word, "Onè", or "honor," opens the greeting with sincerity and underlines the importance personal honor. The reply, "Respé," returns the honor with: "I respect you" (sir, madam). In this manner, two globally recognized core values for any people, Honor and Respect, are exchanged by the Haitian people millions of times every day.

    "Comment u ye?" or "how are you?" is the same question people ask each other around the world, but the standard Haitian reply is specifically Haitian. "Pas plus mal" means (I am) "not more bad" (today than I was yesterday). If you ask someone how they are, anywhere else in the world, you generally expect a positive reply with words like: "fine," "good," "pretty good," or at least "OK." In Haiti, the words "not more bad" are used, because if the average Haitian is not worse off today than he was yesterday, then today is a good day. In view of the incredible history of this amazing people, "not more bad" is often the best that most Haitians can hope for today. The incredible history of Haiti continues, yesterday, today, and into tomorrow. But today, like yesterday, and for so many years in the past, the overwhelming majority of Haitians will use these exact words: "pas plus mal," to describe how they are doing. That is, of course, unless their reality today is "more bad" than it was yesterday. The recurrence of tragedies, and the pile-up of difficulties on top of more difficulties, has been so routine for so long, that life is almost expected to get worse. More than 10 million individuals born on this Paradise Island hope that today might be "pas plus mal" than yesterday.

Onè, Respé, Courage Ayiti.

     Hal Noss
     Photographer
     e-mail: halnoss@halnoss.com

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