After the earthquake in Haiti, I found myself working a mental exercise, born of the nagging feeling that the sympathy of someone a continent away was somehow offensively insufficient. Play along at home, if you like. There’s only one rule: name a good thing that’s associated with the country of Haiti. Setting the temporal parameters and defining the word ‘good’ are entirely up to you.
The correct answer is this: they outfoxed the Spanish and then the French, and formed a working society based on (American) Revolutionary principles, a society which endured harsher growing pains than our own young country did at roughly the same time. They suffered invasions, coups, dictatorships and lawlessness like no one else. They grew a truly multiracial society, and helped to give New Orleans its unique character.
Now, I know that suffering is not a virtue. But the Haitians’ brand of suffering is endemic, and I can’t help but wonder if the fresh memories of recent horrors are keeping chaos and anarchy in check as much as, say, family ties or religious faith. That’s why I totally support Rebecca Solnit’s view that we should look askance at stories of looting, particularly as we somehow choke down such humongous misery and our attention begins to drift elsewhere. No big deal, maybe, but it does shape opinion, and individual and collective actions stem from that. The least we could do is tell the story well.
And when you go on holiday in the Caribbean
And when you have sex without a condom
And participate intelligently in the blockade of Cuba
Think about Haiti, pray for Haiti
O Haiti é aqui, o Haiti não é aqui.
1 response so far ↓
This is deep, Bruitz… and you gots folks from Luxembourg lookin at this shite!