Haiti

“How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: ‘Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe,’ in literal transaltion, “God gives but doesn’t share’. This meant, as Farmer would later explain it, “God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he’s not the one who’s supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us.” (Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, 79).

The tragedy in Haiti has just broken my heart this week, as it has broken many others’, and the strength of my emotions has startled me given that I usually only cry during hormonal episodes. Each morning as I read the paper in silence the tears come, crossing the sleep lines still engraved on my face and dotting the newsprint. This emotional upheaval makes it difficult for me to handle the breakfast routine and school departure with equanimity, particularly when my three-year-old throws a temper tantrum over his cereal choices. Though I know it is absolutely ridiculous to expect him to be on good behavior because people suffer in Haiti, I still resent his ‘neediness’,’ ungratefulness’, and demands on my time when I should be in mourning, prayer, or searching the web for a good charity.

My daughter joined me at the breakfast table on Thursday, and I let her read the article on Haiti as I had already checked for traumatic photos. She asked difficult questions: “are there children alive whose parents both died? What are ‘corpses’? Do they have any food?” I answered her as directly as I could, feeling rightly or wrongly that if children in Haiti could endure their situation my daughter could probably stand to hear about it. She donated three weeks’ worth of allowance to the Red Cross and my son joined her efforts under some duress. I did some research about donating through some of our favorite organizations that work in Haiti: The United Methodist Church (www.umcor.com) the adoption agency who worked with us on my youngest child’s adoption (www.holtinternational.org) and Partners In Health, Paul Farmer’s organization that works extensively in Haiti (www.pih.org ) or (http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti).

The tragedy strikes so hard because 80% of the people in Haiti have no material goods, no long-term security, little healthcare, and daily instability. They struggle for everything in their daily lives, working to reap some food crops from the devastated earth, hoping for governmental stability and a stop to violence in their country. Haiti has a proud history; it’s people defeated Napoleon’s armies to become the first independent nation in Latin America. “In the hemisphere, only the United States is older. This point is overshadowed, however, by the overriding singularity of Haiti’s birth: there exists outside Haiti no other case of an enslaved people breaking its own chains and using military might to defeat a powerful colonial power.” (The Uses of Haiti, Paul Farmer, 63).

Haiti became independent through a violent revolution against the French (and their European allies) which ended in 1804. The French asked for reparations for the war, and the burden of paying the debt and the resulting interest crippled Haiti in the 19^th century (see again The Uses of Haiti, Paul Farmer). Again burdened by debt in modern times, $1.2 billion in international debt was just forgiven last July (http://omiusajpic.org/2009/07/01/haitian-debt-cancellation/) after requiring funds for payment of US $1 million per week. The long and tortured relationship between Haiti and the West has not helped to stabilize regimes or an agricultural economy.

At times like these we all ask “where is God?” I don’t believe that God interferes with the events of humankind – after seeing this tragedy how could one believe that – but I do not understand the extent of tragedy that some people have to endure while others simply, do not. I do believe that we have to help; we need to offer any financial assistance that we can along with our prayers, and pay attention to developments in our neighboring country. I also believe what Jim Wallis said in his Sojourners email this week:

“My God does not cause evil. God is not a vengeful and retributive being, waiting to strike us down; instead, God is in the very midst of this tragedy, suffering with those who are suffering. When evil strikes, it’s easy to ask, where is God? The answer is simple: God is suffering with those who are suffering.” (http://blog.sojo.net/2010/01/14/god-is-suffering-with-those-who-are-suffering-in-haiti/).

They are in good company, then, and waiting for us to help divvy up the loot.