Haiti - France : 2 Haitian elevated to the rank of «Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters»
Each year, the Embassy of France awarded the rank of "Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters" to Haitians, writers, painters, artists and professionals recognized for their outstanding achievements.
Friday, during a ceremony at the residence of the Ambassador of France, Ambassador Didier Le Bret awarded this high honor to Jean Wilfrid Bertrand, Director General of the National Archives and Daniel Elie [the former minister of culture 2006-2007].
Handing the decoration to Jean Wilfrid Bertrand, to whom we owe, among other things, the creation of the first public library of Haiti and the creation of documentation centers of the Quisqueya University and the National Institute of Management and International Studies (INGAHEI), the Ambassador declared "France welcomes your commitment, your longstanding choice, to be a militant of knowledge, of all knowledge, of their transmission, and of course, their conservation [...] During your studies [in France], at the time of the drafting of your first contribution of importance in sociology, you realize that Haiti should provide its research of a ocumentary service that can collect, classify, preserve the documents to serve the collective history, but also individual of Haitians."
Speaking to Daniel Elie, architect, painter, heritage curator, and former Director of Institute for the Protection of National Heritage (ISPAN), the Ambassador of France recalled that the talents of Mr. Elie "have accompanied the recent history of Haiti, have shaped the landscape, places, monuments, known, or simply familiar," recalling that Mr. Elie was the one who made the first scientific inventory of cultural property in Haiti "This work, continued during nearly a decade, has made of you an untiring surveyor of your country, and probably also one of its most ardent defenders," recalling the great work of restoration and conservation that have been entrusted to the former Director of ISPAN, "the old cathedral of Port au Prince, the Palace of Sans-Souci and the Citadelle Henry du Cap."
