Caribbean-American voters want Obama to bring change in their homel

Caribbean-American voters want Barack Obama to bring about change in their homelands
By Georgia East

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 30, 2008
In Lauderhill, a city with a large concentration of Caribbean expatriates, president-elect Barack Obama took 93 percent of the vote.

Now, as Obama prepares to take office, some of the same Caribbean-Americans who mobilized to get him elected want him to pay attention to U.S. policies that affect their homelands.

A Broward branch of Haitians for Obama, a group that canvassed communities for the president-elect, still meets in the same Pembroke Pines cafe it used as a stomping ground during the presidential campaign.

Group members are concerned about immigration and the economy, but they also want to ensure that Obama's team will work more closely with Haitian leaders to create greater change in that impoverished nation.

"Our country is in a permanent crisis," said Aude Sicard, a member of the group. "We're not simply asking for humanitarian aid, but we want this country to send technicians and engineers and see a true path for development in Haiti."

They also plan to continue to lobby for temporary protected status, which would grant undocumented immigrants here from Haiti the right to work legally until their homeland becomes more stable.

While some worry that now that Obama is elected some of the activism seen during the campaign may taper off, others say this is the best time to keep the political dialogue going and foster grassroots movements.

"He left organizations in place that we can't lose," said Sandra Bernard Bastien, a Trinidadian native who raised funds for Obama.

Besides keeping abreast of national issues, some community leaders said they hope members of the community will become more active in local politics as well.

"The community needs to continue its interest and engagement in politics, and that means going back to basics," said Marlon Hill, chairman of the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board for the Southern region.

"We can be proactively telling the administration what we want and what we need, or we can wait for them to set the agenda for us."

For Marie-Helene Leger, a Pembroke Pines magazine publisher who was born in Haiti, there will be no waiting.
Leger said that before Obama she hadn't cast a vote in an American election.

But underneath an Obama poster at Casa Campestre restaurant in Pembroke Pines, she says she is hopeful for her future and that of her loved ones in Haiti.

"The work is not finished. It's just a shift now," Leger said. "In so many ways, his success depends on our success."

Georgia East can be reached at geast@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4629.
Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

President elect Obama may have bitten more than he can chew. I doubt very much that the Caribbean community is a priority for him. We do not expect much from him. Maybe if he's elected for a second term. In the mean time we should be doing whatever we can for our own communities. Waiting for Mr. Obama to do some thing for us is like waiting for Godot. We hope that we're wrong in this instance.