Over the years, I have seen and witnessed many things, but none is as encouraging when a young man or woman decides to take the high road to do the right thing. Life is like a flow variable; it begins at some point and continues to evolve without regard to anyone or anything. As human creature, we are like a stock variable; our livelihood is dependent upon the efforts and the decisions taken during the course of this continuous flow of life. Therefore, our individual standing in life at a particular point in time is correlated and dependent upon whether we took the high road as well as the type of decisions that we have taken over time.
As mentioned in my biography, I was born in a city in Haiti called “Cap-Haitian”, but I was raised in Port-au-prince. During my teenage years, I have had to put up with many social and financial inequalities dilemma and have faced several forms of discrimination(s) even amongst my peers and countrymen. My continuous search for a better life never stopped; it was rather fueled by a simple idea and belief that tomorrow can be better or simply put “ toutotan tete poko koupe li espere met chapo”. Despite my struggles, I have always believed in education and was never discouraged to take the high road and to do what is right. My experience going through the public school system to fulfill my secondary educational goals at a Lycee Louis Joseph Javier of Carrefour, Port-au-Prince, Haiti was extremely difficult, but again I took the high road.
As a Haitian living in Haiti, I have always asked myself: Why our needs are so many, yet there is so much to satisfy them? Why do we have to be so poor? Why can’t we have decent jobs, schools, and quality of life? Over the years, I have learned that the answer to these questions have a lot to do with us as a people than it has to do with the outer world. It is our responsibility individually to ask these questions, to determine the causes, and to take actions to either remedy or improve our conditions. As I grow older, I was eager to experience something different; I was fortunate to travel to the United State of America, where things are much different yet social divides and cultural barriers have kept so many of us from taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities that this country has to offer.
An in dept analysis of the industrial characteristics of this country, USA, the major components of its corporate structures and business ventures, make me realize that the Haitian people is not the only ethnic group that have been clustered away from the many economic opportunities offered by this country. As such, I begin to see the issues of social and economic opportunities to have broader regional effect on many of us that are from the Caribbean.
My hope as I am writing this blog is that I will be able to convince many of you that individually we may be weak but collectively we have a strong voice that can be unify to knock on doors and get into places that we never thought was possible as Caribbean. My experience as a young boy growing up in Haiti may be the same as a young boy growing in Jamaica, Grenada or Trinidad. We probably were not able to influence economic changes in our homeland for the resources were scare and limited, but here in the United States we can. Yes, we can fundamentally change the course of life for many of our young brothers and sisters of this generation and possibly many other generations to come. We must begin to take steps that can unify us and create wealth and values that can benefit our own people.
The success and the livelihood of the Jewish community for example has never been about individual effort alone but more about collective effort to rally productive resources to provide the goods and services that they need. They care for one another, they work with one another and they support one another. The Jewish people are well known for their open heart and ability to give; they have some of the largest foundations focusing community development and growth here and back to their homeland.
When I arrived in Miami, Fl in March 1998; I was very young but was very determined to improve my quality of life and that of my family back home. I knew education was my only way to achieve my goals; in deed, I took the high road. In May 2003, I earned my Associate Degree in Arts from Miami Dade College. In May 2008, I earned a Masters Degree in Accounting. In 2005, I was offered a staff position at one of the most prestigious accounting Firm in the world, PriceWaterHouseCoopers; I declined the offer because I wanted to work for a more regional Firm with the opportunity to grow faster. Today, I am rejoiced and very pleased of my decision; I have worked as an accountant/ business consultant/ auditor for the same firm for a little over four years now. While my career goals and path are very promising, I feel in my heart that there is a higher purpose to get more involve in shaping the life and the future of my Caribbean brothers and fellow countrymen; i feel as though my human capital can utilized in a multi faceted way that will not only benefit me but also many other folks in my community. While I can continue on my career and go up the ladder to become a partner of my regional Firm, I feel like nothing would be more rewarding than to put forth a challenging and daunting task of forming a National Community Bank with the objective of serving the low to moderate income Caribbean communities throughout the United States of America. Once again, I want to take the high road.
Forming a bank is no small task. It requires significant capital; we will need to raise at least $10,000,000 and to maintain an adequate capital ratio of at least 8 to 10 percent. While many will like the idea, but will be sidetracked by the enormous burden of raising this money. I must tell you that there are ways to do it, which I will discuss in another blog, but for now let me state the following:
Individually, I may not be able to influence the livelihood of many of my people, but one thing remains certain. If we act collectively, we can undertake several projects that will benefit the well being of many and even those back home. We can tap and break into the economic gridlock of this country like no other ethnic group has ever done before. It is a matter of organizing, it is a matter of allocating our resources, it is a matter of bringing our buying power together, it is a matter 0f utilizing our purchasing power to meet our financial needs, to help meet the credit needs of those we will serve and to benefit even those back home.
Your decision to participate in this project is of enormous importance to me; it can and will take all of us to a higher ground for we will be put something together that many are currently doubting that we can. There are even those that wish we never even think that high because our actions will limit their ability to take us for granted. I can guarantee that only by investing in ourselves can we help to improve our living standards, can we contribute to the economic growth and development of our communities, can we support our own people, and can we provide them with alternative through banking to meet their credit needs.
See my Blog on buying and purchasing power and minority owned community bank
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Firsthaitianownedbank
The current economic crises have had major effects in every sector of the economy especially the banking industry. While these effects have brought down many institutions that are vital for economic growth and development, business leaders must continue to develop new ways and ideas that foster growth in our economy. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve board, speaks at the global financial literacy summit, Washington D.C on June 17, 2009 about community development financial institutions challenges and opportunities, where he states the importance of financial literacy and financial education has never been more important or evident.
Community bank plays a vital role in community development!!!!
Minority owned banks focused on community development have many advantages, yet minority groups either don’t know how to form a community bank or believe that the capital requirement is unachievable. The Federal regulators along with state regulators provide several types of financial assistance to minority owned bank or group desiring to open a bank to meet the credit needs of the community in which they serve.
As a community bank, you could qualify as a community development financial institution, whereby you would be entitled to find funds from the treasury department as well as attracting several type of low funds investment.
You can also be part of the Federal home loan bank under a provision of the Federal Housing and community development act section 8.
As a community bank, your focus is to help develop the community in which you operate and facilitate small business investment and provide non-traditional banking services to your customers: including determining a new risk rating based on other factors to determine eligibility for financial products such home loans, auto loans and other.
You can provide one stop financial services to your customers and non-customers such check cashing, bill payment, phone card and other financial service.
As a community bank fostering economic growth also include financial education programs where by teaching people to be more financially responsible, the importance of creating and maintaining good credit, how to save for child education.
Only if minority group knew how to take advantage of their purchasing power, they could change their lives as well as the lives of the people in their community. All and all, the most important thing is education and the need to support each other through community banking, such a way will lead to economic development and growth and higher standards of living.
I currently work for a regional accounting firm in the downtown Miami area and I specialize in financial institutions. I believe that it is about time that we the Haitian community join hands together to open the firsthaitianownedbank as a community development bank to serve and meet the credit needs of our people; however, the strategy should be bold enough to not only serve the Haitian community but also surrounding communities. Current analysis shows the need to provide support to many small businesses that are considered undercapitalized and could potentially grow, yet if the financial support is not available, economic growth can not occur.
I must state that our current strategy is to open our first community bank focusing on low to moderate income communities in the North Miami Beach, FL area and to grow across the united state as a national bank.
This blog is being posted here in search of support especially in the Miami, Fl area so that we can build a strong management team to help execute the business plan as written once we file the application and obtain approval from the regulators.
I Hope to read from you and read your comments. if you are interested in knowing or being part of the organizing team please state so in your comments. To become a director or an officer of the bank will require specific qualifications; however, you can always become a stockholder!!!!!!!!!!!
Community bank plays a vital role in community development!!!!
Minority owned banks focused on community development have many advantages, yet minority groups either don’t know how to form a community bank or believe that the capital requirement is unachievable. The Federal regulators along with state regulators provide several types of financial assistance to minority owned bank or group desiring to open a bank to meet the credit needs of the community in which they serve.
As a community bank, you could qualify as a community development financial institution, whereby you would be entitled to find funds from the treasury department as well as attracting several type of low funds investment.
You can also be part of the Federal home loan bank under a provision of the Federal Housing and community development act section 8.
As a community bank, your focus is to help develop the community in which you operate and facilitate small business investment and provide non-traditional banking services to your customers: including determining a new risk rating based on other factors to determine eligibility for financial products such home loans, auto loans and other.
You can provide one stop financial services to your customers and non-customers such check cashing, bill payment, phone card and other financial service.
As a community bank fostering economic growth also include financial education programs where by teaching people to be more financially responsible, the importance of creating and maintaining good credit, how to save for child education.
Only if minority group knew how to take advantage of their purchasing power, they could change their lives as well as the lives of the people in their community. All and all, the most important thing is education and the need to support each other through community banking, such a way will lead to economic development and growth and higher standards of living.
I currently work for a regional accounting firm in the downtown Miami area and I specialize in financial institutions. I believe that it is about time that we the Haitian community join hands together to open the firsthaitianownedbank as a community development bank to serve and meet the credit needs of our people; however, the strategy should be bold enough to not only serve the Haitian community but also surrounding communities. Current analysis shows the need to provide support to many small businesses that are considered undercapitalized and could potentially grow, yet if the financial support is not available, economic growth can not occur.
I must state that our current strategy is to open our first community bank focusing on low to moderate income communities in the North Miami Beach, FL area and to grow across the united state as a national bank.
This blog is being posted here in search of support especially in the Miami, Fl area so that we can build a strong management team to help execute the business plan as written once we file the application and obtain approval from the regulators.
I Hope to read from you and read your comments. if you are interested in knowing or being part of the organizing team please state so in your comments. To become a director or an officer of the bank will require specific qualifications; however, you can always become a stockholder!!!!!!!!!!!
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