It is November, the hurricane season should be on its death bed, yet Tomas, the latest hurricane, strong as a young lad, has just created havoc in St Lucia, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines. It is on its way to Haiti where, month after month, a new catastrophe raises its inflicting and destructive head, causing death and material destruction all over the country.
On January 12, 2010, on a sunny afternoon, a major earthquake took place around the capital; it was baptized goudougoudou by the locals as they try to mimic the sound of the hurricane as the destruction took place. It caused 300,000 deaths and 1.5 million internal refugees are still under tents or makeshift tenements, where the natural elements -- rain, wind and flood -- visit them without an invitation.
Last October an outbreak of cholera in three of the ten states of the island nation has caused the death of some 500 people and the hospitalization of 7,000 Haitian residents. The scientific analysis by the CDC (Centers for Disease control) in Atlanta has concluded that the origin of the virus can be attributed to the strain found in South Asia.The people of Haiti blame the Nepal contingent of the UN force dispatched in the region of Mirebalais, where the epicenter of the disease has been established. The Haitian government as well as the UN management for political and diplomatic reason refused to point the finger at the root cause of the public health outbreak.
Paul Farmer, the expert in epidemiology, reminded the authorities that “good public health dictates that knowing the point source of the disease is good for everyone and good for public health”. John Mekalanos the chairman of the School of Public Health at Harvard University clarified that the virulent strain of cholera found in Haiti is unknown in the Western Hemisphere. The evidence points the finger at the Nepalese soldiers who arrived to Haiti this October.
After my essay on the gift of education by the Royal Caribbean cruise line to Haiti, it was my intention to dwell on the splendor of the nation instead of the squalor of the country. The successive wave as well as the most recent catastrophe inflicted by men, God and nature has upset my original plan.
On the splendor side, I still have in mind the full display of culture in the town of Grand River as the people were celebrating the Day of the Dead on November 1. Eat your heart out New York, Roseau or Osaka, the dancing in the cemetery as well as the grand ball with the Tropicana orchestra has excited all the senses of my American travel companion, P. Scott Drahos, who promised to become the ambassador for the next year event bringing lot of visitors to the city.
Traveling from Cape Haitian (my outpost for the winter) to Port au Prince, I have contemplated the lush vegetation on the northern side of Haiti, where the grapefruit and the oranges trees filled with succulent oranges and grapefruits provide a backdrop for the giant poinsettia trees with their red flowers in full display and on time for the Christmas season celebration.
The capital city is cleaner; the government wants its candidate to continue its policy of ill governance with the forthcoming election as such, a best effort has being made to clean up the city so as to avoid the ire of the electorate.
With Tomas on its way, the cholera disease not dampened, the destructive remnants of the earthquake still visible, one would thought that a full scale election should be the least of the expectations. In fact, the majority of the Haitian people are neutral at best or at worst inimical to the exercise that has not and will not change their condition of life one iota.
The political tragedy that adds to the recurrent natural disasters has been in the Haitian national theater for a long time. For the first 150 years of the life of the nation, Mulatto rule brought little benefit to the people. In the last 50 years, the dark skin rule has been as – if not more – repugnant. They have instituted the clan politics that kills all sentiment of civics, solidarity and patriotism, including the sense of noblesse oblige, one of the staples of the Haitian safety net.
Adding insult to injury, the international community has been a steady and loyal patron of the tenets of the clan politic doctrine. Duvalier, Aristide and Preval have cultivated a following in the United States, Europe and Asia (Taiwan).
The international institutions are also in bed with the principals of the clan politics. The United Nations, under different acronyms, have occupied the Haitian space during the last twenty years with no significant impact – in disaster preparedness, security, good governance or economic growth.
Colin Granderson, the CARICOM representative, was recently at the extraordinary meeting of the OAS pushing for the masquerade election, knowing full well that the country and the people are not ready for the exercise. Some fifteen years ago, the same Colin Granderson was the proconsul in Haiti, demanding that the embargo that destroyed the Haitian flora and economy should not only be maintained but extended.
Indeed, man, God and nature have not been friendly to Haiti. As Job of the Bible, the people of Haiti have remained faithful to their God, who is urging them to stand up against the forces that suppress and kill their civic pride. Will hurricane Tomas be the last straw that will galvanize the resilient Haitian people to stand up and take charge of their beautiful country against the forces that pretend to lead their destiny for the best while in the end bring only disaster after disaster, with only the promise of redemption?
November 6, 2010
caribbeannewsnow
