Haiti: Appreciating the Essence of Humanity*

By

Attahiru Kawu-Bala

kabaaz@gmail.com  

 

There comes a time when we hear a certain call

When the world must come together as one

There are people dying

And it’s time to lend a hand to life

The greatest gift of all

We can’t go on pretending day by day

 

        In 1985 when Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie wrote the opening lyrics quoted above which other artists participated in bringing the song to fruition and subsequently dished out to the then slumbering world (and make no mistake the world is still slumbering) what they aptly crafted as ‘We Are the World’; in what seemed the greatest idea for the creation of an American benefit single for African famine relief within pop music that addressed humane concerns. The world was asleep and had to be awakened by artists to appreciate the gravity of the problem; people were dying for lack of food to eat in far away Africa. Disasters are inevitable but some are preventable and those they affected when shown affection by humanity in the hours of need will feel their wounds really soothed. By way of historical analogy it is Africa again in the news, even though you may call it Haiti. Excuse me, please, if I digress a little.

       When the first clips were received by the world most people became instantly shocked. It is like there are two disasters in the world; one for the rich and the other for everyone else. The graphic images aired by the global media to many people could not be easily watched with amusement as news items day by day started rolling out - television stations had to add their bizarre caveat: Graphic Material’ for whoever cares to glue his eyes to the ‘idiot’ box, the television. Haiti was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on 13 January, 2010, the biggest recorded in this part of the Caribbean, left over 3 million people, who were even before the recent catastrophe regarded ‘homeless’ (for, they lived in deplorable conditions), tens of thousands of people dead and hundreds will have to survive with no limps and others with scars that will be leaving marks on their bodies for the rest of their lives.

       Journalists who trooped into Port-au-Prince in numbers and rolled their cameras in search of breaking news when asked later about what they saw said to the world if it wasn’t because of journalism and the need to report the news they wouldn’t have been there and the enormity of the devastation was again evident in the chilling revelations made by medical teams working round the clock on what looks like the today’s frontlines. They succinctly summed up what they saw of the charred bodies of human beings littering on the streets of Haiti that it defied anything a would-be medical doctor will learn inside the four walls of any medical college or classroom. Haiti, added some eye witnesses became like a ghost city within after the quake hit.

       Imagine what it is to be for a president of a country even jokingly saying that he had ‘no where to sleep’ in the hours of a dark, bleak night in his own country. In Haiti it was real and true; those who watched the live coverage would have heard Haiti’s President said he didn’t know where to sleep on Wednesday, 13 January, 2010 when his cherished country was grounded and devastated in matter of seconds unforgettable to most good memories; but Haitians have proven to us their resilient behaviour because the President in what was the best of answers in the circumstance replied when interviewed: ‘whether we live or die it is entirely in His [God’s] own hands’ and this is true as Haiti has not been forsaken by humanity as most observers thought otherwise. Haiti’s resolution to turn to God immediately has paid and still paying dearly well even in the shadow of the worst destruction in recent history.

       People are becoming and turning international citizens. That is, how the world should be or ought to be: whatever happens to any corner of the globe we should feel concern because nobody knows when or where the next natural catastrophe will hit. In Haiti many people where in shopping malls, grocery stores, schools (as most often schools are attended in the afternoon in Haiti) when it hit. With Haiti humanity has come very close to appreciating the essence of its existence as a single community of brotherhood. We should see not what we did or still doing to Haiti as ‘helping’ Haiti per say. No, we are helping ourselves. These are good lessons never to be forgotten or set aside: they should remain with us and in fact we should wear them as our garbs and should form the bedrock of humanity’s thinking as we go about our daily life in this world of unpredictable circumstances. God has tested Haiti and from what we saw He has not forsaken its people. For, in recent memory it is a fact that humanity has risen to share common concern providing assistance to these victims of today’s disaster; humankind arguably is fast learning to bridge the gap of myopia of ‘I have not been affected’ or ‘it wasn’t my people but them.’ 

       This piece is not meant to discuss as some writers have argued that the devastating effect of the quake that wiped out in one fell swoop people in Haiti was preventable; that a warning sign could have been issued at least with the current state of achievement made by man in scientific and technological development. It is again not an avenue to add that Haiti’s ‘bad history of socio-political factors ranging from instability caused and occasioned by dictators and all that who mismanaged the aids sent to them has contributed in thwarting its development’ as some writers said; or of ‘cutting corners… and the concrete was not so hard’ as reported few days ago by Fox’s Correspondent in Haiti that most houses were built not in accordance with global standard, etc. ‘What went wrong with the black man? Hurricane occurred in Haiti and now earthquake.’ You hear so many stories purporting to analyse the endless ‘wrongs’ in Haiti, but none substantive if the truth must be told. Others were: ‘Haiti as the first Black Country to get independence should have developed if serious and the successive governments transparent’; ‘aids go to drain pipes whenever sunk and what’s wrong’, they kept hammering, ‘with the black man.’ ‘What went wrong with Haiti all these years?’ These queries have not allowed even the sky to clear from the chaos raised by the quake. 

       Many things indeed come into play if you have read history and ready to do justice to Haiti and her impoverished populace. After decades of unstable governance, around seventy-five per cent of Haiti’s population according to the UN’s statistics lives on less than 2 dollars per day while fifty-six per cent lives on less than a dollar per day, half of its people are said to be illiterate, half of its children are malnourished, sixty per cent of the houses in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were substandard; these horrific indexes are no good and the implications to a country vulnerable to ‘natural’ disasters are onerous.

       Disasters have hit developed countries but the loss of lives and properties were curtailed bringing their disastrous effect minimal while some nib in the bud even before they blossom to cause havoc among the people. In the case of countries such as Haiti it will be and was different as seen and by that no mean coincidence. Even the order much needed with which to help towards the smooth distribution of aids was absent. What do you expect from a person who for most of his very life on this earth has been hungry? Definitely his or her attitude will rather be chaotic, no less of course. But this has been the attitude attributed to only a minute segment of this wonderful community of resilient people.

       In disasters recorded in other parts of the world, Anderson Cooper of the CNN reported that, statistics were taken of the dead and wounded and the type of immediate assistance needed. But, in Haiti, Cooper lamented it goes by estimation and the much awaited official figure with which to rely on is still elusive and hard to pin down: the corpses in the thousands were just trucked away and laid in mass graves and many still are buried under the rubble of concrete slaps.

       Haiti owes creditor-nations 891 (in another calculation 850) million dollars in loan. Just some few days, a certain NGO gathered signatures of global citizens in a petition and forwarded same to the IMF; some concerned people now are asking that they [that is the creditor-nations] should relinquish the debts which you may say have for long strangulated countries like Haiti. To all intelligent minds this is part of the structures that can choke the growth and development of any nation; so when people say why is it that Haiti is the poorest in the western hemisphere they should go further to connect the dots to understand the ‘whys’. Even to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF Managing Director, in his most recent opinion could not run away from this factual reality and he said cancellation of debts has now become part of the matters being considered and surprisingly another round of loan is in the pipeline though it is said to be ‘interest-free for 5 years’ whatever that means it is worthy Haiti this time is spared for good since experts have interestingly argued that ‘meaningful development comes not through that way.’

       Thank God, one astonishing thing in the midst of the ensuing chaos and confusion is that Haiti is not yet a failed state but has been characterised as non-functional. How will humanity help in rebuilding Haiti back into the future? ‘The international community should realise that it is starting from zero’ said the US ambassador, Kenneth Merten, when interviewed by Christiane   Amanpour during the hosting of her programme, Amanpour, aired Sunday 24 January, 2010. In Haiti 30 or so big institutions have been destroyed, the US Ambassador further added. It is like Haiti has been dragged back to the drawing board - to start life afresh - because the visible sites of state’s utility institutions to ensure citizens that a government exists within their midst have all gone destroyed within the twinkle of an eye.

       There is, again, the very question which all must give a helping hand in asking; the problem of rebuilding Haiti. What is humanity going to do or at best how can Haiti be rebuilt? If countries continue to send aids which turn out to be some sort of ‘revolving credit’ then there will be a stalemate here and an illusion will crop in. If at all the world is trying to sincerely rebuild Haiti, new phase of life shall be injected. It’s sad watching the coverage to hear a fellow human being raising his hand up to the sky and saying to the whole human race ‘this bag is what remains of my belongings.’ And I was wondering why can’t we ask the best of architects and city planners in our midst to redesign the whole of Port-Au-Prince and as well rebuild it anew? Decongesting the entire city will help Haitians to feel the breeze of a new world, rehabilitate schools so that the kids orphaned by the quake can go back and learn and many more good things like that.

       In all disasters one finds predators lurking behind to cash in and descend stealthily, taking advantage of the weakness of the weak especially children. In the aftermath of the quake there are new concerns being raised: trafficking of small, innocent children to only God knows where by these predators identified. Here comes the issue of orphans who are now surviving in the ‘impromptu tent cities’ scattered in many parts of Port-au-Prince. Who could stop these marauders since they are now having the field day? No doubt Haiti is relatively a traditional society. A lot of suggestions have been canvassed in the best interest of the orphans and social cohesion; first, to identify some measure of statistics as to who the orphans are and whether or not their relatives could be located so that their social parental background are not distorted. For, many experts have argued, interestingly people who are conversant with the business of orphanages, that a child is best cultured when raised within a family structure unlike under the umbrella of social institutions. This should not be seen as somehow degrading the role being played by orphanages and the likes; this is the truth orphanages should be seen as last resort except where feasible options have been looked into and turn out not workable. Otherwise in the spirit of love and concern children should be handed over to their loved ones and other extended families under careful supervision of the state and the international community.    

       Somewhere in the rubble underneath concrete cemented structures but yet Haitians got the strength sending text messages where they could be spotted and rescued, enduring days without food and water, two substances most essential to human survival on earth; wait, indeed to us living there is a lesson here, a very good lesson to be appreciated by humanity. We take things for granted we have food and water in the enclaves of our very homes ‘rotten’ in waste since we don’t want to share with those in dire need. This is something for all to ponder as essential things could one day become luxury. May God save our faces!         

       Haiti has now little choice as truly it cannot cope with the situation. When it was argued by some observers that the country has been taken over by other powerful countries; you will only but say let them be good brothers in the spirit of humanity, serve only and stay no longer than necessary. This is a country, as everybody knows, with a shattering colonial history, but no is it a simple bad luck either. It is worth reminding ourselves that many countries have similar socio-political as well as economic problems akin to Haiti’s when you widely focused among countries in the Caribbean or Africa; the only difference is disasters have not been striking sporadically in some of them otherwise worst humanitarian situations will have been witnessed and recorded.

       There are lots of nasty issues that have become no-go areas for concerned observers. In essence, these are stories that the world or should I say those countries who call the shot do not want to hear. But, for the safety of the world that seems awful in need of peace and tranquillity we must wait, listen and act appropriately. For Haiti the picture is encouraging since humanity has started going the right direction; whatever affects one country in the comity of nations affects the rest of the world and all shall hasten in the hours of need to contribute their quota positively. There are however many issues that should and must be tabled and discussed beyond the subject of assisting areas shattered by disasters like Haiti. To say it mildly, there is of course no reservation here and that’s the question of ‘uneven development among nations’, in brief the haves and the have-nots and other derogatory summation being used often as labels unnecessarily distinguishing the global community of the human race, as one analyst stated.

       One of the influential Haitian novelists, Danticat Edwidge, has said it all in her words that there is ‘double standard’ for, ‘Haitians would have been productive’ to develop their own country, she summed up. And who dares say Danticat is not right for saying the truth albeit bitter to most ears?