Push, Don’t Pull: What Fidelity Taught Me About Banking, Corruption, and Haitian Sovereignty
Money moves, but not freely. It is watched, monitored, tagged, and caged when necessary. You think it’s yours, that you can send it where you please, that a number on a screen represents a fluid reality. But then, the gatekeepers remind you otherwise.
Fidelity did this to me. I transferred my own money—from my own external checking account into my own investment account. And yet, somewhere in the vast, impenetrable fortress of financial algorithms, a silent alarm was tripped. Suddenly, my funds were frozen, locked behind security protocols I neither saw nor consented to.
Fourteen days. That’s how long it took for my money to be declared clean. Fourteen days in which I was reminded that banks are not just places where money is stored. They are fortresses, citadels of capital where nothing moves without scrutiny.
At first, I was annoyed. Then, I was fascinated. Because when I finally got a Fidelity customer service agent on the phone, he let me in on a quiet secret:
“Next time, don’t pull your money into Fidelity. Push it from your external account. That way, you’ll have access to it immediately.”
Push, don’t pull.
That phrase hit me like a bullet to the brain. Here was a financial institution so vigilant, so obsessed with securing its own wealth, that it had created a labyrinth of hidden rules to keep outsiders—money launderers, criminals, and even its own customers—from moving money freely. I don’t necessarily trust banks. I don’t trust their morality, their ethics, or their intentions. But I do trust their paranoia. Because their existence depends on it.
And then, a thought came to me—one that had nothing to do with Fidelity, nothing to do with investment accounts or locked-up funds.
What if Haiti, instead of obsessing about finding new narratives, found new defensive methodologies to protect its most precious assets–the Haitian people?
A Fortress for Sovereignty
For centuries, Haiti has been stripped, not just of its wealth, but of its defenses—its ability to hold and secure the fruits of its own labor. The first free Black republic defeated France on the battlefield, but in the realm of finance, it has been looted by colonial powers, neo-liberal institutions, and the homegrown elites who act as brokers for foreign interests.
What if Haiti built its own fortress? Not of stone or steel, but of financial discipline, of economic strategy, of the same defensive posture that banks use to guard their own assets. What if we studied the paranoia of the world’s financial institutions—not to emulate them, but to wield their strategies in the service of Haitian sovereignty?
The Defensive Postures of Banks—and How Haiti Could Apply Them
- Surveillance & Gatekeeping
- Banks do not simply allow money to flow in. They interrogate it. They demand proof of origin. They create barriers. Haiti must do the same. No more open veins, no more unrestricted capital flight. Every contract, every foreign deal, every government expenditure must be scrutinized under the cold, calculating eye of forensic accounting.
- Layered Security Measures
- A bank does not rely on one lock. It has many. Biometric scans, multi-factor authentication, withdrawal limits—layers upon layers of security. Haiti must build financial firewalls. No single politician, no single minister, no single institution should have unchecked access to the national treasury. Every transaction must pass through multiple, independent audits. Every government contract must be signed with oversight from trusted, accountable institutions.
- Risk Mitigation Strategies
- Banks assume the worst. They do not trust the market, they do not trust their customers, and they certainly do not trust the system itself. Haiti must do the same. Assume corruption is the default. Assume that foreign investors are not here to help. Assume that every deal must be structured not for quick gain but for long-term survival.
- Liquidity Control
- Banks never allow all their cash to be withdrawn at once. They control liquidity to prevent collapse.
- Haiti must do the same with its resources. No more selling off land, minerals, and public assets in lump sums. No more sudden influxes of international aid that flood the economy with dependency rather than sustainable growth.
- Pushing, Not Pulling
- Fidelity taught me that to keep control, I must push, not pull. When I pull, I invite scrutiny. When I push, I retain power. Haiti must push, not pull. It must push for trade deals on its own terms, push for domestic investment, push for policies that benefit its people before foreign corporations. It must not sit idly, waiting for external forces to dictate the flow of its economy.
The Sovereignty Algorithm
Fidelity locked my money away, not because they hate me, but because their survival depends on protecting their fortress. Haiti, meanwhile, has been left wide open—a country whose wealth is extracted without resistance, whose labor is consumed without return, whose sovereignty has been eroded by the whims of outside forces.
The question is not whether Haiti can protect itself. The question is whether it is willing to adopt the same level of vigilance that financial institutions apply to themselves.
A nation must protect itself like a bank protects its assets—coldly, ruthlessly, without apology. Because in the end, sovereignty is not granted. It is secured.
This is more than a financial strategy—it’s a blueprint for sovereign survival.