Area Man Stunned after Haitian Event Starts on Time [VIDEO]

QUEENS, NY – Local Haitian resident Raphael Dufort expressed his disbelief to friends after witnessing a Haitian event starting right on time.

“I remember it clearly. I was getting a Prestige beer at the bar when, all of a sudden, the band started playing,” said a visibly confused and shocked Raphael. “I looked at my watch and it said 11:00, precisely as the flyers advertised.”

The incident caused an incredulous Raphael to ask the bartender for the time.

“First thing that came to mind was something must be wrong with my watch, like the battery was dead or something,” said Raphael, who lightly tapped the top of his watch to make sure. “But then, the bartender also confirmed it was 11:00. I couldn’t believe it.”

Though Raphael himself is generally punctual, he estimates that nearly 100% of the Haitian events he has attended in his lifetime did not start in a timely fashion.

“In the beginning, that used to annoy me,” Raphael said. “Nowadays, whenever I’m invited to a Haitian wedding, birthday or bal, I automatically add 1 to 2 hours to the starting time.”

According to experts, the customary tardiness of Haitians is attributed primarily to the Caribbean unique laid-back mentality.

“In all honesty, who can blame Raphael? Lateness is firmly ingrained in our DNA,” said Haitian Behaviorist Jean Edrick Lumerant. “Little known fact: as much as we are proud of being the world’s first black republic, we would have won our independence well before 1804 if Dessalines, Petion and Christophe were not constantly late for their secret weekly revolutionary meetings.”