Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Loving Haiti, Part 1
The seventh article for my opinion column ("Small Action, Big Change") in The Badger.
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At 2:13pm on Tuesday January 12th, I received an email from the office of Habitat Pour L’Humanité Haiti requesting my photo and profile information. I was anticipating the follow-up email that would include information about the family with whom I would be staying during my 2010 Spring Break, and the future homeowners of the house I would be helping to build. Instead, a few hours later, I received a text message from my mom alerting me to the terrible news, and I would not hear from the Habitat Haiti office again for what seemed like an eternity. As I sobbed alone in my school office, staring at the horrible truth splattered across the bright yellow “Breaking News” CNN.com banner, I felt the collective heart of the world break for the people of Haiti.
There has been such an immediate outpouring of support for a country historically ignored, overlooked, disrespected, manipulated, occupied, and abused by the big powers of the world. For a moment, we are all looking at one of the most difficult sights: the results of a natural disaster made infinitely worse by years of human-imposed poverty. What is needed now was urgently needed before. Medicine, food, water, shelter. Many basic needs were already unmet in Haiti. We just did not have it thrust in our faces daily. We get caught up in our complicated lives and seemingly insurmountable problems while we are living and working through them. It is hard to respond in a meaningful way to the poverty and injustices in our world when a situation is this big. We feel a desire to give to Haiti in some form right now but there are not many practical ways to do this. Flights into the country are shut off to the general public. Small item donations are mostly declined. Most of us do not have medical or search and rescue expertise. Still, there remains a borderline panicky impulse, for many of us, to DO something!
Desperately, I sent emails to the Habitat for Humanity office in Haiti, previously based in Port-au-Prince, begging to know if their team was okay and maintaining my commitment to come in April. No response. I emailed Habitat International for information. Thankfully, I was told within hours that they had received reports from the Haiti office and, as far as they knew, everyone was alive. I still was restless, unsure of whether my budding friendships would be cut short before getting the chance to bloom. I needed to hear from them directly. Finally, on Thursday January 21st, I received a brief email response– “Nous sommes tous en vie et nous commencons a nous organiser pour recommencer travailler.” [We are all alive and we are starting to organize ourselves to resume working.]
Such self-reliance and drive to survive will be what it takes to get this undefeatable nation back on its feet. The first independent nation in Latin America, first black republic, and first nation to gain independence as the result of overthrowing the shackles of slavery, is now being held up for all to see. So what is our role in this? Will we avert our eyes when questions arise about our respective countries’ past policies and actions towards Haiti? What can the world say about the ousting of the Haitian nation’s first democratically-elected president, twice? What explanation can be given for the fact that part of why Haiti has always been deep in debt is because they were forced to pay reparations to their previous French slave owners for loss of “property” (i.e. losing the benefit of owning people)?
We cannot change history and the average person cannot change government policy. How can civilians partner legitimately with Haiti in supporting themselves in the long-term? Will we remember the Haitian people when the images and sound bytes slow to a trickle and fade away? We must make connections beyond the sending of checks. There has to be a face or a story that we can hold on to, something that makes us bond with our Haitian brothers and sisters, even if we cannot be with them at this time.
I felt as if I had been reunited with my own relatives when I received the We’re-All-Alive email. Writing back (with the aid of an online translator), I expressed my wishes to be with them and my growing affection: “Je voudrais pouvoir être avec vous maintenant! Je vous aime déjà parce que j'ai commis mon coeur a vous, même avant la catastrophe.” [I wish I could be with you right now. I love you already because I had committed my heart to you, even before the catastrophe.] How is it that we humans are capable of loving strangers? Their beautiful reply back: “Nous vous aimons aussi.” [We love you too.]
===================
At 2:13pm on Tuesday January 12th, I received an email from the office of Habitat Pour L’Humanité Haiti requesting my photo and profile information. I was anticipating the follow-up email that would include information about the family with whom I would be staying during my 2010 Spring Break, and the future homeowners of the house I would be helping to build. Instead, a few hours later, I received a text message from my mom alerting me to the terrible news, and I would not hear from the Habitat Haiti office again for what seemed like an eternity. As I sobbed alone in my school office, staring at the horrible truth splattered across the bright yellow “Breaking News” CNN.com banner, I felt the collective heart of the world break for the people of Haiti.
There has been such an immediate outpouring of support for a country historically ignored, overlooked, disrespected, manipulated, occupied, and abused by the big powers of the world. For a moment, we are all looking at one of the most difficult sights: the results of a natural disaster made infinitely worse by years of human-imposed poverty. What is needed now was urgently needed before. Medicine, food, water, shelter. Many basic needs were already unmet in Haiti. We just did not have it thrust in our faces daily. We get caught up in our complicated lives and seemingly insurmountable problems while we are living and working through them. It is hard to respond in a meaningful way to the poverty and injustices in our world when a situation is this big. We feel a desire to give to Haiti in some form right now but there are not many practical ways to do this. Flights into the country are shut off to the general public. Small item donations are mostly declined. Most of us do not have medical or search and rescue expertise. Still, there remains a borderline panicky impulse, for many of us, to DO something!
Desperately, I sent emails to the Habitat for Humanity office in Haiti, previously based in Port-au-Prince, begging to know if their team was okay and maintaining my commitment to come in April. No response. I emailed Habitat International for information. Thankfully, I was told within hours that they had received reports from the Haiti office and, as far as they knew, everyone was alive. I still was restless, unsure of whether my budding friendships would be cut short before getting the chance to bloom. I needed to hear from them directly. Finally, on Thursday January 21st, I received a brief email response– “Nous sommes tous en vie et nous commencons a nous organiser pour recommencer travailler.” [We are all alive and we are starting to organize ourselves to resume working.]
Such self-reliance and drive to survive will be what it takes to get this undefeatable nation back on its feet. The first independent nation in Latin America, first black republic, and first nation to gain independence as the result of overthrowing the shackles of slavery, is now being held up for all to see. So what is our role in this? Will we avert our eyes when questions arise about our respective countries’ past policies and actions towards Haiti? What can the world say about the ousting of the Haitian nation’s first democratically-elected president, twice? What explanation can be given for the fact that part of why Haiti has always been deep in debt is because they were forced to pay reparations to their previous French slave owners for loss of “property” (i.e. losing the benefit of owning people)?
We cannot change history and the average person cannot change government policy. How can civilians partner legitimately with Haiti in supporting themselves in the long-term? Will we remember the Haitian people when the images and sound bytes slow to a trickle and fade away? We must make connections beyond the sending of checks. There has to be a face or a story that we can hold on to, something that makes us bond with our Haitian brothers and sisters, even if we cannot be with them at this time.
I felt as if I had been reunited with my own relatives when I received the We’re-All-Alive email. Writing back (with the aid of an online translator), I expressed my wishes to be with them and my growing affection: “Je voudrais pouvoir être avec vous maintenant! Je vous aime déjà parce que j'ai commis mon coeur a vous, même avant la catastrophe.” [I wish I could be with you right now. I love you already because I had committed my heart to you, even before the catastrophe.] How is it that we humans are capable of loving strangers? Their beautiful reply back: “Nous vous aimons aussi.” [We love you too.]
