 So check it, check it, check it. It's a unique hustle. It's your boy, CEO, and I'm here with the lovely official. Miss Jamaica, how you doing? Walk on. Hey, so today we have a very, very special guest. And really, you know, the young men that came through the other day to visit the boss talk, they talk so highly about him, talked about the charitable events that he's he looks after and just gave, you know, him the utmost respect, man. Check it, man. Clarence Renoir is here today, man. How are you doing today, sir? Great and you. Nice to meet you. Hey, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Man, so so so what we do here, we got a podcast here. We're in Dallas, Texas, man, and and it's a new podcast. When the covid came, we kind of slowed back. But we started back up on the interview and man, and it's just been a great, great relationship builder. And I'm just so happy to have you here on the show. Oh, it's me. It's me. I'm really happy because, you know, when you're talking about Texas, Dallas, I know because my sons, I have two kids living there. They are going to school. Yes, they are going to Baylor University. Awesome. Shout out to Baylor University. Both of them are attending Baylor. Yes. Yes. Now, one of them, I mean, finished with Baylor, actually. But I have one, my other son, living there and studying. Have you visited? Of course, yes, twice or more than that. But still, yes. That's good. That's good. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah. OK. My name is Clarence Renoir, as you said, but it's not easy to pronounce because, you know, Renoir is a French name. Right. I'm a former journalist. I've been practicing journalist for more than 25 years. I worked for many radio stations in Haiti, actually one radio station in Haiti, but for the press also. I've worked some time for CNN, for CBS. They call me when they, you know, when we have situation in Haiti, like Hurricane or coup d'etat in politics and so many things. And because as a French speaker, I'm not an English speaker, so I don't know if you can understand me very well. But yeah, you speak English very well. Yeah, I'm trying, you know, trying to keep it up. It's not my language that I'm not practicing every day. But my French, my French is better, of course, because I'm in the French country, you know, from the colonies of French. And I also work for as journalists for many radio stations and TV also in Europe. And after that, I moved in. 25 years. Wow. 25. Yeah, my first work was, yeah. No, I was just saying, we got a journalist coming on. Is that next week? Yeah. And he's been doing it for 20 some years, too. That's crazy. And that's a good, it's a good, it's a journey. You say you can understand. It's a great journey. And you can understand now, I'm the, I'm at the other side of the thing, because now you are asking me questions. So I used to ask questions. So now I have to answer. So I'm a teacher also, because I teach at at university in Port-au-Prince, especially in Port-au-Prince, but I have, you know, so many years practicing teaching for young kids in Haiti, all over Haiti, meeting them at the places and teach them communications, you know, journalism and also commercial, how to make commercial. So and and I was also in politics still I'm still in politics because I went for president in 2016 in Haiti and I was, yes, I was in the fifth position after the election. I didn't want, I didn't want it, but it was not a bad score. So to have, you know, to be for the first time at the fifth position. But you have the experience of how to run and everything like that. So which helps you down the line, right? Yeah, can you hear me? Go ahead, please. I said with you running before that gives you experience for future. Of course, of course, because when you face, you know, difficulties, you know how to manage and to to move forward. So I hope I've learned a lot from it. And actually, I wrote a book about my participation in the election in Haiti and I called the name of the book and take Haiti out of chaos. So this is a French tradition, but France is sortie, I did you go take Haiti out of chaos. This is the, you know, the kind of because, you know, this country is in real chaos about political instability, crime, gangs, you know, and economical problems and everything, you know, social problems like, you know, now we are facing a I mean, a very hard time about kidnappings. We have a lot of kidnappings in Haiti, I mean, occurring every day. So this is a real mess, excuse me, the word. But it's it's it's a real. Let me ask you, is it only certain parts in Haiti? Because I know that people are still tourists are still traveling to Haiti to vacation and to see the island. So yeah, in certain parts of these things happen. Yes. But unfortunately, now we don't have that much of tourists coming in Haiti because of the, you know, and the pandemic of the insecurity too. But those things are actually, I mean, in security, kidnappings are happening in Port-au-Prince or most of the, you know, in the capital, Port-au-Prince. So every day is a everyday situation. And I mean, for example, next last week, they kidnapped four people inside a church, a pastor and a singer and musician. They were officing and they kidnapped them, four of them in the church. You know, it's kind of, yeah, it's very tough now. And what do you think? What do you think the solution is? What do you think, you know, you or anyone else who is there can do to help this from happening? You know, it's a social and political and economical problem, too. You need to you need to deal with it on three phases, I should say. Socially, because you have a bunch of young men. They are doing nothing. They are not working. They have no hope at all. So they are using them, you know, some politicians, some, I mean, business people, they are using them in those activities, you know, gangs. And they give them, you know, weapons and ammunition. So they can practice those activities for them, not for them, for themselves, but for other people. But they cannot afford to buy guns for, you know, fifteen thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars and have ammunition every time, but still they are using them. So you need to work on that to take the guns of them. Take them off the switch. So back in the job. Yes, back in the job. Occupied with other constructive, you know, money making ventures. They would have time to do those things. But let me ask you this, because as you could tell, I'm from Jamaica and right now, because of the pandemic, is no one's hiring is hard to get a job right now. So at this moment, how is it in Haiti where that is concerned? How can you get a job during this time? There is no job at all. There is no job at all. It's a big problem because first you have the political problem, political instability, because every three months, every year, you have a, you know, to deal with, I mean, demonstration industry, violent demonstration industries that's block everything, economic, you know, activities. You that those things belt. I mean, investors to come down to Haiti are also as tourists. They cannot come because of the situation and security and stability. So you need to put the young at work. But how? How you might create, you need to you need to do two things. First, create a stability, a political stability. OK, first, and if you create political stability, then you can have investors coming, you can have tourists coming so you can create jobs for them, many jobs, they need jobs. And as a matter of fact, you have 65 percent of the Haitian population. Population are young, they are young. You have you for from 20 to 40 years, 60 percent of the population. So you need to put them at work and also open schools for them, universities, professional schools, so they can, you know, train themselves to have a job in the future. That's why when you do that, when you do not that in the country, that's what happened for the past 10 years, we have a lot of young Haitians leaving the country to go to Chile, to go to Brazil, to go to the Dominican Republic or even in Bahamas. They are flying, leaving the country because they need to work. They need jobs for their family. Yes. So I heard you earlier say that you say in 2016, I guess you did you run for office for Haiti? What do you feel like happened to cause you not to get elected then? Well, I was not well, you know, I should say prepared, not the preparation for myself or for my personal knowledge. But this, you know, election, you need money to go to the election. You need help to go to the election. You need to have a good way to commercialize yourself to present your idea or your philosophy in your programs, too. So I could not have it because we don't have the fund necessary to do that enough. Of course, we spend a lot of money, but not enough to win the election. Thank you. So with what? OK, if given the opportunity, if afforded opportunity to run again, what would you do different this time? And and and it's a two part question. And also the gun violence you spoke about earlier, is it something that you have a prepared plan to help take these guns away off the streets? Yes, actually, let me go to the second part of the question. Actually, I'm working with a group of Haitian young Haitian, you know, to see and to launch programs in the in the in the slums, they call that Binoville in ghettos in OK, to to reach out, reach the the the the gangs and talk to them first, ask them, call them to, you know, to give up the weapons and to start doing things differently. And I have sent, you know, I have had two videos talking to them and they replied to me. They invite me, actually, to come to see them in the ghettos and to talk to them. But they said, we have conditions before we we hand off guns. We need jobs. We need to get on the activities. So I agree with that. I agree with that. But don't you feel like I don't know because a lot of times I hear people talk about because we have an open carry. We an open carry state here in Texas. I don't know if you're aware of that, but guns are openly carried. And it's like the Wild Wild West here sometimes. But I can't say the one thing that I fear is when we like when we talk, taking guns away from others, you limit their ability to protect themselves because there is going to be some that's going to be on the black market. There is going to be and it's going to make the people even more vulnerable. And how do you how do you fix that situation for the people who are going to be left vulnerable when they illegally carry guns into Haiti? There is there is actually an activity that called in Haiti in French. I don't know the name in English that called rehabilitation. It's the same word. You need to I mean, have them taking the guns away from them and take them inside the society, you know, I mean, open school for them so they can go to school and create jobs for them or credits for them. So you can put them back in the society and they will feel that they are part of the society to work to build to rebuild Haiti. We need that power from the young young to build Haiti. So you take them inside of the country. This is what I'm working on actually socially to see because we need to save those those those I mean, people living in the ghettos. You cannot leave them at the situation, you know, themselves or send police to kill them. No, this is not the solution. The solution is yes, of course, you have to use force against those who will resist, you know, the program, right? Yeah, but you need you need to create programs that can attract attract them to come to take the guns out of them and put them at work and in, you know, at school and create jobs for them. So we are working on that. Actually, in my organization, in the social organization, I'm feeding some of them, giving them some clothes, food. And this is a first step. So in second in the second time, I will see if it possible for me to bring them to school and they will see they can live as a normal citizen and then they can be, I mean, you know, a good citizen for Haiti, a good model for their for their kids. Also for the because I love I love what you said about the fact that you went down into the ghetto areas and spoke to because in and I'm going to still say refer back to Jamaica because I assume Haiti is very similar to Jamaica and it's right. Right. Very close. But in certain areas, you always have somebody who is leading that area and the person that they are really doing the things that they're doing for the best interest of their community, whatever area that is. Yes, they take their people into consideration. But the fact that you went down there to speak to them to say, hey, how can we resolve this? How can we I love that that you're taking that action because a lot of people would not do that. And the fact that they're not just being rebellious and saying that, you know, what we don't want to help you. But they're saying that jobs is how we can, you know, get these people off of the streets and and I'll give you the guns. And I think that's amazing. Is that each ghetto area you went to are only one or two specific areas? Because, you know, you have the different areas that sometimes they can be rivaled against each other. Exactly. You know, the situation as Jamaica. Yeah, this is the situation like, you know, there is a place well known in Haiti called City Soleil. This is where everything started at City Soleil, where the first, you know, groups, armed groups, armed gangs has been, you know, you know, living and operating. And so now they are spreading all over Port-au-Prince, the capital and all over the country, too, have a lot of gangs. Actually, the last, I mean, last time I heard they they they have counted like more than one hundred and fifty gangs all over the country. So, yeah, I cannot you cannot reach all of them at the same time because I'm not there, you know, I'm not at the government. I'm just a citizen. Right. Right. So we're trying to do something. Honestly, because peace can be accomplished, it can be accomplished, but it does take the right individual seeking to them and really getting the right things to them. Because with all the small islands, we already know that tourism is what pushed a lot of these islands. And if people are fearful to come to these islands for their lives or for different things, then it's not going to help the country. And having to sit down with these members, I'm not saying the whole area, but the top individuals in these areas and saying, hey, the only way we can all survive here is by, you know, we helping each other because like Jamaica says, out of one people, we are many, you know what I mean? So that's our motto. So I know that everybody there would love to see the island of Haiti flourish, but it takes cooperation. And it takes, yes, of course. And money, of course. But let me ask you a question. Have you reached out to other islands or maybe even the U.S. or different places? You have a plan as in a budget to say, OK, if we get this, or this is how we need help, this is what we can accomplish. That's where we can do that, actually, to see where we can find, you know, help to do this. And we need to set an example first. That's what we have started with our own money. And we go out of place and we have, you know, a group of 20 people and we talk to them. We call them to, you know, to stop their activities. And we are going to provide them some, you know, food, clothes and schools, et cetera. So after that, if we set that as an example so people could see now, there is a way we can resolve this problem. So we are looking for help in Haiti first to see how we can, you know, manage this and make it happen. Exactly. Yeah, that will that definitely is something you have to be able to work with others. Well, bridge gaps between different countries and even America, you know, being able to communicate well is key. That's always been the key. Being able to not and being able to step outside of yourself and how you feel personally about different issues and work with others. All of this stuff counts. And I'm looking forward to seeing you work with Haiti to get it to be where it needs to be. Where, you know, it's a place where everybody should want to come. Americans, Jamaicans, people from each island should want a frequent Haiti. Because I heard it's a beautiful country. I've heard so many good things about the country. Of course, of course. And Haiti used to be in the past, the place where tourists, you know, were coming every day. I remember that and I have read that in the books. Actually, Haiti was the pearl of the islands. They call it the pearl of the islands because it was so beautiful and tourists, every big name in the internment in the United States, they came to Haiti, you know, Aribe La Fonte. But I don't have all the names because it's really in the early 40s or 15s, I mean, 1940, 1990, 50s. Oh, that's a long time ago. Long time ago. But Haiti used to be that place, you know, lovely place where, you know, sun, sea, sun and, you know, whatever the rest is. I would say that. So we're talking about what Haiti needs right now. But we one thing people always say, you know, never try to always talk about the negative of a country. We want to still be able to entice the people who may be listening who would love to come and visit your island, who tell me about the good things about Haiti, what what what is Haiti known for if somebody didn't want to come and visit the sea. First, Haiti is the place of history in America. This is this is the first black republic in America where, you know, a group of slaves, you know, they won a war with their hands against against Napoleon, the general Napoleon, the French. So so in in 1804, those fathers created the first black republic in America. This is a place I mean, historical, put an end to slavery. This is, you know, history. You cannot change that from Haiti. This is Haiti. And Haiti used to be a lovely place, as I said. And still, Haiti is, you know, a beautiful place to to to visit. You know, once you resolve the problem of insecurity and stability and this is a place to come, you will see the the vestige of the independence, the vestige of the colony, the French colony, where, you know, big citadels and big monuments and historical places that you can visit in Haiti. And this is a place, you know, where you you I mean, I would I should say, Haiti is this in the Caribbean, Haiti is, you know, after Jamaica, I think, you know, this is the not to be not to be, you know, but it's true. I used to hear that, Jamaica and Haiti, you come to Jamaica, you cannot miss Haiti. Now it's not the same thing, but I think we can, you know, come back in the in the in the in the in the map of tourism in in the Caribbean. And if you create opportunities for Haiti after, you know, I mean, actually, you have a lot of missionaries coming to Haiti to help. But what we need, we need people to invest in Haiti, and you will see this beautiful country that make history in the early 19th century. So this is a very good place where you have sun every single day of the year. I know that because of the type of career that you've had, you can't help but love Haiti and love the people of Haiti, because being a journalist, you learn so much about people because you have to question them and you have to care about their downs and their ups and you have to feel with what they're feeling. And then being a teacher, seeing the children grow from a young age coming up, you can't help but love the people who are there and want only the good for the country. So I really applaud you for all the efforts you've been trying and you are going to try and you will succeed. I know because I can see the fire in you. And let me and let me just add. Or let me let me just ask you a question. Have you worked with why Cliff? He's one of the big Haitians that artists that come from there that love the country. Does he ever try to reach out and do things to help the the the political side of it and just try to try to do something in a positive way to reflect the country? Yeah, I know why Cliff, he knows me too, I hope because in his famous very famous in the United States, for his music and for everything. And and when I met him, I was a journalist. So we were I asked him question about his project for Haiti because he had to he used to have some project for Haiti at City Soleil and especially actually, no, I don't have any, you know, I have his phone number. Maybe it is a good idea to call him and to say, hey, what can we do together? You know, it's possible. Exactly. Because he he always promotes Haiti. And I know he loves this country because even a lot of people being here in the United States, you still have because I'm from Jamaica. But yes, I'm here in the United States, but I love my country. You know what I mean? And I would love to do anything to help my country. And I'm sure he would do the same and not only him. Yes, because he is a celebrity. So a lot of eyes are on him. So it could get the word out there to the masses a lot more. But even the smaller people who are just regular people working who are living here, who are from Haiti, would probably love to help and give back because they know probably what Haiti used to be and what it is right now and don't like it. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. So definitely I'm going to call Wyclef. I can call him and have a talk and conversation with him to see what we can do together, because I know in the past he he he tried he tried to do something at City Soleil. He he was a program. He launched a program at City Soleil. So I think it's it's a good idea to to work with him. And to all the Haitian celebrities who are living in United States. Right, because we need them. Yeah, it takes many of us coming together to to abolish things like this. You know what I mean? No, you can't do it by yourself. Even when you have that fire and passion, you have to come together with others to be able to make it work. Exactly. Exactly. You have something set in place to touch other people here in the States as well. I'm just I'm just trying that now because to have this to have this conversation with you is of, you know, is a very good thing for me. So people will know what we're doing, what we intend to do and they can bring to us and come to us and I can come to them to and, you know, try to get to to do something. And I can tell you, I know the Haitian diaspora that are living here, United States, they are suffering. They want to go back to Haiti. They want to go back to live the last days in Haiti. They want to go back to invest also in Haiti. They want to go back to get involved in politics in Haiti. But with this situation, actually, they cannot go. So that will take them, you know, to to join hands together to do something and to create the atmosphere that can, I mean, attract them back to Haiti. I totally understand, because I get where you're coming from, because growing up, I know that a lot of times we always say, you know, we'll come here to the States and work and build a family. But retirement, people always think about going back to their home. Absolutely. And, you know, buy a house and relax. Because you don't have the beach, the food, the company. It's it's I've met so many people here who live here who who say, how can you leave that island? Just like people say to Haitians, how can you leave a beautiful island to come here? But in our minds, you're always like, we're going to go back home. We're going to go back home because that is home wherever you're from. But it has to be a place where we feel comfortable to come back home and feel safe to come back home. So actually, yeah, today I'm yeah, today I met a guy who I mean, he's working in Haitian. He's working at a hotel and he said, yeah, what are we going to do? Because I want to come with my family to Haiti. I want to go back to Haiti with my family. So this is the situation that you are facing here when you're meeting Haitian, you know, living in United States or even in Europe or elsewhere. They want they are dreaming of that to find the right occasion to come back to invest, to I mean, to to invest in the social activities to and to get involved in commercial activities or political activities, to but they still want to come back to live, you know, in their country to come back. This is a dream. They need to build a house there in Haiti and to live the life. But, you know, I have one more question for you. Yes. How important is transparency for you? So the people who are watching because for me, who when I look at politicians or anybody in power or anybody who hoping to get the power, I would I always say, you know, I look for the person who is totally brutally honest, even if it's something that I may not like, but and I know that politics is what they, you know, have it. What should I say? No matter how much you go in with an open heart, certain things you just can't get done, you know, although you try your hardest because it doesn't take just you. It takes everybody agreeing on things. But how important is transparency to you to be honest with you? Transparency, I mean, actually, in Haiti is the biggest problem. And that the government, the past government, you know, they didn't care about, you know, being transparent to see, right? If I help you, what do you do? What did you do with the money? I need to know. And even for Haitian living in Haiti, it's a big problem, too, because when you are contributing to, you know, paying your tax, then I mean, doing whatever you can to help government to to, I mean, to build roads, to put power, you need to see that. But you cannot do that to enrich people, politicians. You need to be transparent. But now this is there is a lot of lack of transparency in Haiti. So you need to bring confidence back to Haitians, to Haitians living abroad in the diaspora and to, I mean, the government, you know, the bilateral, I mean, cooperation. You need to be transparent. So this is a real fight in Haiti. And I cannot lie to you saying that everything is OK in Haiti with regarding transparency. No, it's not. If you go in the website, you put Haiti transparency, you will see the scoffing. It's a very poor score of transparency. So you need to work on it. And let me tell you that the young, I'm not a young guy, man. I mean, because I'm not, I mean, you know, being in politics for a long time, so I said, I'm a young politician. So we know that we need to work very hardly and honestly to bring transparency in our activities so people can trust us, can come to us, can help. And they will see, you know, what we are doing with the money, with the help. You understand what I mean? So this is a real big problem. And we need to, I mean, to to reset the mind of the Haitian, you know, I mean, authorities to know that transparency is a rule of democracy. And this is something that you have to you have to be practicing right now and showing because it is. Mouth work is really easy for people to say anything. But actually, people are watching and seeing how you're moving and your everyday activities to see if this is something that you will continue to do as time goes along. Yeah. And I would add that being transparent is you need to be transparent in your own life first. Exactly. So people know you. You are, I mean, an open book. You can read me. You know me. You know my, you know, my, I mean, I mean, I don't know how to say it in English, but you know what I understand what I mean. So being transparent is that first. You need to be transparent with yourself, you know, who you are, what you're doing and people need to know everything about you. And then when you are in the place to, you know, to lead the country, you will show the same thing being transparent. Exactly. Well, we appreciate you. We appreciate you for coming on Boss Talk 101. We definitely going to be watching your moves. Thank you. Definitely. And you're in Florida right now, but when are you going back to Haiti? I hope coming back on Sunday, because my son, I have to take my son back to school on Sunday. He has an Easter break now. He here with me, but they on Monday, next Monday, we will go back to school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. But you have all the boys, no girls? Oh, how do you know that? Yes. Yes, you mentioned boys. Because we are on the journalist. Yeah, because you journalists, you go in the Internet and you know everything about me. I have three boys. Yeah, we have to do our own thing. We appreciate you for coming on the show. Oh, I really appreciate you inviting me. It's a great honor for me. We'll be looking out for you, man. Thank you so much, man. Thank you very much. You have every step to make sure to see your progress now. Thank you. Thank you. Any way we can help? Let us know. Thank you very much. Thank you. And I'll be transparent. And I'll be transparent. Yeah. No one, yes. Thank you. Bye. Thank you.