The government needs to step up here and get on with what it should have done by now - get appropriate relocation areas opened up for the people. The article makes reference to this.
It's easy to say - just get them tents. But that's a band-aid that won't stay on what is a huge, gaping wound. The community leaders in the Cite` Soleil tent city near the school that I have written about, realize this. With sincere gratitude for the gesture, they've asked that the attempts I've been making to line up tents that concerned pilots were kindly offering to fly into Haiti - be put on hold for now. Why in the world, one could well ask - especially after reading the above article - would they do that? I didn't get it either at first. But now I do. They don't want the tents?
Because they are wise.
The fact they exist is an important part of the big picture I want to emphasize. Community is important to the Haitians. And their community leaders - especially in times of need or conflict - play a crucial role. The "issues" you read about in the media that have occured at food distributions for instance? Don't occur where a community leader is given a bull horn and allowed to explain to the people exactly what is happening, how much food is going to be distributed, what the situation actually is. The lines I offered photos of previously here - where people stand calmly in line waiting their turn and fair share - are examples of where this was allowed to happen.
Remove any stereotypical thoughts you have about desperate, pushy, panicked people turning into mobs. You do these people a grave injustice. Especially in light of their history. But I get ahead of myself.
The reason the community leaders in Cite`Soleil don't want tents? Is because as desperately as they indeed want their people to be safe and dry ... they wisely know that tents now, in the environment they are presently in - will not be the solution in the long-term. And it's crucially important that people think long term. The past two months have offered many examples of the harm short-term, quick fixes can cause. Yes, of course they were necessary at first. But some were handled better than others - and the case of housing the people properly in wake of this disaster - holds valuable lessons for the world. We could all find ourselves dealing with this someday.....
Tents where the people are concentrated now will only add to the flooding issue, covering ground that should be absorbing water, not covered in too many people sadly sandwiched together in too little space - tents contributing to yet more run-off that has nowhere to go ... in an environment sadly inadequate for the need.
These community leaders wisely know that the people need to channel their frustration and anger (which sadly will arise as the rain falls and conditions deteriorate) not at the foreign-aid givers of tents who they could perhaps wrongly direct it at thinking the tents themselves are not adequate enough - but at their government; rightly demanding that IT provide its people with the help and assistance they deserve. The government for far too long has played a part in dis-empowering Haitians; that has to change. They need a chance for permanant, long-lasting opportunity to provide for themselves now and to create a future for their children and the generations to come.
One of the women I met on my trip - when asked what her people need the most right now? Replied, "Hope. My people have no hope."
The situation post-earthquake in Haiti is horrendeous on so many levels. That is sadly the reality. Even in my optimistic view of what I saw on my trip, I acknowledge the underlying pain and intense suffering. I also - sadly - comprehend there is no quick or easy fix here.
Let everyone who cares and wants to help? Acknowledge that first and foremost, that help needs to come with a promise from the world to do what is best for the Haitian people this time - not corporate interests, not governments - the people. There are obviously going to be many opinions and discussions on how best to ultimately do that.
(NOTE & ADDITION to this Entry: There is an excellent article in the April Issue of Harper's Magazine I just read entitled "Toward a Second Haitian Revolution" by Steven Stoll. Let me offer this excellent quote that speaks to what I addressed in this post, as well as to perhaps one of the greatest opportunities Haiti has to indeed empower its people again - it's agricultural potential:
"Helping Haiti now requires us to recognize that development aid has been little more than a monetary shakedown, “developing” nothing but millions of additional units of misery and dispossession. It has punished modest, small-scale farmers as though they were part of a problem when in fact they represent the only viable solution. Provision grounds elsewhere in the Caribbean have undergone no significant decline for centuries, evidence of the reliability of low-input cropping practices. Farms on this model maintain their soils, function without petroleum or capital, and give returns that feed local markets. As for their supposed isolation from the world economy, the studies of anthropologists obliterate this misconception. Smallholders around the world sell into the global marketplace without surrendering their autonomy.
Haiti’s peasants are the only people in the nation’s history who have ever produced for domestic consumption. Progress for Haitians means invigorating the countryside under their ownership, their cultivation, their control; it means helping the government help its smallholders. This is the low–impact, antidevelopment solution for Haiti’s future: a program of land reform that would give the provision grounds back to households, allowing them first to sustain themselves and then to create surpluses. The elite now own large, unproductive estates throughout the countryside. The challenge of development must be to make that land socially as well as economically productive. As for the food supply, imports will be necessary, but exports will follow when Haitians begin to meet their own critical needs.")
I hope that the rich potential of Haiti which for too long has been either used by others for their own gain, or surpressed ultimately for the same reason - is given back somehow to the Haitians themselves in the aftermath of this tragedy.
These kids - and the future they represent - deserve nothing less............
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