A Vendre. For Sale.

"If power is for sale, sell your mother to buy it. You can always buy her back again."

Has anyone else had a pretty bumpy 2010 so far?

I have so many friends who have been impacted by the earthquake that I lost count. A chance conversation last weekend allowed me to meet some new folks and dig beneath the surface.

Dig deeper.

I'm in this leadership development cohort that is currently wrestling with the notion of how honesty forces discomfort. We've been trained to notice every little thing that makes us different that we sometimes fail to recognize, acknowledge, and appreciate the commonalities.

It's been an eye-opening experience.

One particularly striking conversation touched upon the notion of what comes next in Haiti.

One one hand, you have folks worried about the intentions of the international community. Other the other hand, someone remarked that as they were watching the Hope for Haiti teleton, she noticed an image of a rock behind Jon Stewart that had the word "Vendre" inscribed on it along with a dollar ($) sign.

Dig deeper.

The back-and-forth conversation that ensued flowed into a great discussion about the need for the Haitian diaspora to be at the table making decisions about the future of the country as opposed to settling for what is determined.

Ring a bell? Just like the need for Generation X and Y to step up the mantle of leadership, it's a familiar refrain of the urgency of action and engagement.

Much too often, my peer generation feels rather powerless in the face of catastrophic change. Yet, this is an opportunity to rebuild a country. And by no means should anyone doubt that there are other parties who have an interest in Haiti that serves their own interests; subtle or not.

What was the purpose of that rock? Was it symbolic of the country being for sale to the highest biddder? Let us not forget how Haiti was exploited, extorted, and hijacked by bilateral trade agreements after it fought for and won its independence.

The analogy that immediately came to mind was of gentrified neighborhoods. My Boston people will recall how the Orange Line used to run down Washington in the South End and it was pretty run down. Look at it now, though. The area is home to a slew of restaurants, bars, cafes, boutiques. Formerly abandoned and foreclosed homes are now assessed many times beyond their value. Even now, think of how the foreclosure crisis has affected neighborhoods like the Bowdoin-Geneva area and it is no surprise when you dig a little deeper and notice the machinations under the surface of developers primed to make moves.

Imperialism ain't just international.