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Good news followed by very sad news. As many of you know, Haiti is very dear to my heart after going there several times when I was in college. The Catholic Campus Ministry at William and Mary is twinned with College de Monsingor Decoste in Thomonde, Haiti.
I miss Haiti sometimes. The warm sunshine, the way the wind blows and dirt and dust find their way into every crevice of your body. Occasionally I will catch a whiff of charcoal which reminds me of women squatting beside the meals they were attempting to sell on the streets. The smell of urine, too, will occasionally catch my nose in such a way that I can only picture the crowded streets of Port au Prince.
The devastation of the earthquake is very sad, and very real, and I wonder if the extent of the damage could have been prevented. This was a country where clean water was already a precious resource, where this is not the first time there will be riots over food shortages. U.S. troops are arriving to a logistical nightmare, one that has been centuries in the making.
In a way, we don’t mind poverty. We accept it as a reality of life. Certain countries, like Haiti, will always be poor. After all, Jesus reminded us that the poor we will always have with us. We forget that there are people and countries who need dramatic aid, immediate action, and constant prayers now. We forget the urgency of poverty.
We lose sight of what it means to be radical. And by radical, I mean follow a God who would as soon eat with “sinners and tax collectors” as the high and mighty; Skid Row residents as Wall Street execs. We forget what it would be like to throw up an angry fist at the world and yell “Why does it have to be like this?” Why do we have to live in a world where people are forced to choose between food and medicine? To eat clay bricks or nothing, as many children in Haiti do? Why do we have to live in a world with sweatshops, slave trades, and domestic violence? Why does it have to be like this?
I don’t think it does. I think things can change. Slowly, surely, slightly. Doubt creeps in easily, and even as I write this I want to type “We will never see an end to world poverty.” But if we live like we will see that end, if we live like we have a choice to live in a different kind of world, how much closer will we get?
Haitian Prayer
O Lespri San, desaan sou nou. Nou gen yon misyon pou Ayiti.
O Lespri San, desaan sou nou. Nou gen yon misyon pou lemond.
O Holy Spirit, descend on us. We have a mission for Haiti.
O Holy Spirit, descend on us. We have a mission for the world.
>If only we could approach Haiti with a fraction of the resources we have devoted to other countries where "nation building" has come to mean trying to build an infrastructure in a place where at best the population does not want us there and at worse they blow themselves and others up in protest.Remarkably if we gave Haiti just 2% of what was allocated to Wall Street bankers all the physical damage there could be repaired. A little more would do much to get that country on a course of real development.What are our real priorities?