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13th
Feburary 2010
Is it genocide?
 If
ever there was genocide - this is it! People
who are very sick are being left in camps where
no help is available (see a piicture of one
of the camp sites, made only of bed sheets hung
up on flimsy sticks).
I interviewed thirty eight women and every single
one of them was hungry. One lady who gave me
her phone number, said that supplies were only
distributed once and since there was pushing
and shoving, they never came back to her area.
She said that some of the bags of supplies were
being diverted to private warehouses, re-packaged
and then re-sold to them. She explained how
some of this is being done by the elites. She
gave me her phone number and asked me to please
help them.
See picture of how women and children are living
in the camps - those who are lucky enough to
at least have a bed-sheet covering over their
heads. Some had not seen any supplies for days.
Pregnant women are having miracle babies on
the bare ground in tents where there is no running
water, no chances of getting emergency help,
if there are complications. The most painful
part is to see sick children and disabled people
forced to live on the sidewalks. One of the
pictures shows the way people are living on
the sidewalks with no shelter.  The
only place for a desperately sick child (in
the same picture) is for him to be slumped over
a bucket, with the middle part of his body hanging
into the bucket.
I tried hard not to be overcome by the agony
of sight in the many areas where human suffering
is most severe. A Human Rights activist in Haiti
told me about a French newspaper report (in
France) regarding French doctors chopping off
limbs when it was totally unnecessary, so someone
should check this out.
So many people are starving and hungry.
Haitians are demonstrating because too many
of them are left without food for extended periods.
One must really ask why, when so much has been
donated and so much is available for distribution?
I have seen people carrying American labelled
bags of rice and other goods. There are distributions
in some places and I did see areas where there
were lines for women only, but the bottle necks
continue.
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 If
something is not done, there will be more
demonstrations and eventually, riots for food.
Is that the intention? Is this being done
to justify the need for military intervention?
People are being pushed to an unacceptable,
unconscionable limit. I am very worried about
the way people are living, because when the
rainy season starts, the genocide by omission
will be multiplied many times over.
Haitians are the most resilient, most creative
people on the planet! I cannot begin to explain
here, the way people are organizing and helping
each other in this tragic situation. One woman
made a stove/grill, with material from the
rubble and it is being shared by the other
women in her camp. She proudly showed me her
invention (see photo).
 I
believe that Haitians will overcome, but we
must reach out to them. CARICOM can make use
of so many of us in the region who speak French
and Creole. It is very clear that the international
agencies cannot handle the scale of the problem,
so CARICOM should ask them to collaborate
and provide some of those resources (especially
as Caribbean citizens have been donating)
so that Caribbean citizens can assist wherever
possible.
I think there is a lesson in this for us in
the Caribbean. We need to be more organized
for disasters which can happen to any island
because the same things which are happening
to Haiti, could happen to any of the islands
where we live. And if international agencies
do not cooperate with CARICOM, then we should
have a campaign to advise Caribbean citizens
not to donate to any of those institutions,
but rather to a Caribbean Disaster Fund.
I see the hope in the children of Haiti. All
is not lost. I have a beautiful photo of the
baby who was born to a double amputee, thanks
to our intervention and support. In some areas
people are beginning to hustle for survival
and organize their lives in whatever way they
can; all things considered. Some women vendors
are already selling produce by the roadside.
We can learn a lot from the creativity and
tenacity of our Haitian brothers and sisters.
Discuss
Story
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