thoughts on haiti

1/14/2010
reading or hearing about this tragedy is making me wish i knew how to pray. i haven't prayed in years and i'm not sure i even know what i mean by it but i can't seem to access any other way to process the hugeness and the weight of the sadness and terror that so many are experiencing as a result of this disaster.


natural disaster, because no one made the earth quake.



but there is so much disaster that i will never believe to be natural. state violence is not natural, colonial and imperial exploitation is not natural, and racism is not natural. no matter how many times I am told that humans are inescapably wired to oppress and dehumanize other humans, I will not believe it.


right now we must remember that disaster is nothing new for Haiti. (even in terms of 'natural' disasters, or those understood as such instead of as political, social, or economic. as the media is noting, Haiti was hit by four serious storms in the summer of 2008. from Public Radio International: "Doctor says Haiti's vulnerability to storms are really socially created, and the recent disasters there are "un-natural" disasters." September 2008)



has Haiti not been classified as a disaster since before her birth as a nation?



the slave rebellion that freed Haiti from French occupation/political colonial ownership, the war that Haitians fought-- while enslaved by France--to free themselves and declare their independence as a nation in 1804--that was a disaster for France, and a disaster for centuries of european colonialism (though clearly it managed to survive...but was forced to change forms a few times). a disaster for slavery everywhere, across the carribbean islands and throughout the West. a disaster for all the many peoples and nation-states whose economic and social interests were vested in slavery, for those who understood themselves, their humanity, and their world only in contrast to those that were supposedly sub-human. (disaster averted by maintaining the beliefs and actions that to this day have kept Haiti down)



u.s. occupation of haiti

u.s. support of duvalier dictatorships


unsupport of aristide, too populist for us, for U.S., for 'our' interests



what is a disaster is that a country...

that HAITI, trampled on and raped and not just incidentally poor

would have THIS happen

as if U.S. and Western media coverage and representation of Haiti as poor-from-her-own-doing, poor-as-a-reflection-of-her-own-lack-of-worth, culture-less
as if the powerful part of the world



didnt ahve anythign to do with this disaster.



i cant even finish writing about this.
i pray for Haiti, for Haitians, for Haitian-Americans, for this world we live in, and for a new world to come.