Yesterday I came across something I wrote about a year ago. It was a news piece I wrote from the Kenyon newspaper in response to the Haiti earthquakes last year. I ripped it off a couple articles I read, but it's not bad. And really, I rip everything I write off something else. If I could write it over, I'd do it differently, but it definitely took me back, and I thought it might be fun to share here:
About 20 years ago, an earthquake registering as 7.0 magnitude hit one of the richest cities in the most powerful country in the world. Just a week ago, another earthquake registering as 7.0 magnitude devastated the poorest country in the western hemisphere. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco, Calif., left 63 dead and an estimated 10,000 homeless. The 2010 Haiti earthquake in Port-au-Prince has, thus far, left 200,000 dead and an estimated 1.5 million homeless. The term "structural violence" explains the ways in which social structures put certain groups in harm's way. Some such social structures include racism, sexism, heterosexism and nationalism.
The disaster in Haiti was unavoidable, because technology to prevent earthquakes does not exist. The level of poverty at which most Haitians live, however, was certainly preventable. The infrastructure in Haiti was horrible even before the recent earthquakes and could have been mistaken for that of a country recovering from a crisis. Haiti has only two modern airports, while its neighbor, the Dominican Republic, has nine international airports. Only ten percent of the city dwellers and a paltry three percent of rural inhabitants have access to electricity. Roads in Haiti are notoriously unreliable; they have potholes large enough to be actual roads, so they are not capable of handling large construction vehicles such as trucks or bulldozers.
Now, after the earthquake, the situation is dire at best. Because of the lack of infrastructure, there are not enough medical supplies to go around. Even the simplest necessities such as routine antibiotics, rubbing alcohol and blankets are in high demand. Thousands of patients who need immediate medical attention are being ignored. The clinics set up for emergency care resemble war zones; surgeons are operating without anesthetics and using rusty hand saws sterilized with vodka. Dead bodies are being shoveled into dump trucks due to the public health risk of rotting corpses lying all over the city.
A non-profit called Partners In Health (PIH) has been right in the thick of the medical situation. Since many aid groups were located in Port-au-Prince, PIH's rural location made it uniquely able to respond to the earthquakes. The World Health Organization has put PIH alongside the Haitian Ministry of Health to take charge of the Public University Hospital because of its long history in Haiti. The PIH's current focus is a two-step plan to set up makeshift clinics in Port-au-Prince by moving in materials from PIH's rural facilities and to establish a supply chain through the Dominican Republic to bring in medical supplies from the U.S. PIH does not consider itself a charity group, but a collection of people who live within communities to build healthcare systems and promote solidarity.
Despite these unimaginable conditions, the spirit of the Haitian people, as always, is still alive. They have been through hurricanes, enslavement, colonial oppression, foreign army invasions and homegrown tyrants. According to doctors working on the ground, Port-au-Prince is empty. No police or United Nations forces are around to keep order, only regular people helping other people out. The co-founder of PIH, Paul Farmer, said, "The Haitian people have a lot to teach us about climbing out of hell."
In the face of such dismal circumstances, it is easy to feel helpless and act passively. There are, however, many things one can do. A first tangible step is simply to learn something about Haiti. It is difficult to expect to help anybody if you do not care or know anything about them. You could read the works of Edwidge Danticat, a 2009 MacArthur Genius grant recipient and is a novelist who specializes in the narratives of the Haitian daily life experience. One of her most well known books is Krik? Krak!, a collection of short stories that was a National Book Award nominee.
Abstractly, I would encourage you to start simply and consider the words of Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
from ken
PS - I have to add this in, have you heard anything about Haiti in the past 12 months? This is the world we live in.
1/29/11
http://www.kenyoncollegian.com/2.14787/support-haiti-relief-1.1925728#.TjSZqm-ktIc.email
Are you thinking about something? Write about it and post it here! Email me! ken.e.noguchi@gmail.com
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