Surviving in Haïti/ Survivre en Haïti

Publié par siel sur 25 Octobre 2010, 09:55am

Published on Thursday, October 21, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

Surviving in Haiti

by Beverly Bell

Haiti is a reminder of a lesson we in New Orleans got after Hurricane Katrina and the broken levees: the capacity of humanity to survive, sustain culture, and create joy - no matter the external circumstances - is without limit. That capacity is unsinkable, like trying to keep a cork underwater.

Ronal Toussaint, who sometimes takes me around in his taptap - pick-up converted to public transport vehicle - on especially meeting-packed days, and who walks with a permanent limp from a building having fallen on him during the earthquake, evinced the spirit of resistance so common here. "We do so much with so little. People here can take anything and make it work. Just give us a little bit, and we'll fix this country."

I hear variations of this sentiment every day from people in the streets and from activists in the progressive movement. When I ask for assessments from colleagues in small farmer, women, human rights, popular media, and other sectors, they respond with comments like this one by economic justice advocate Ricot Jean-Pierre: "I can't say we're advancing yet; you know the challenges are so big. But they say it's darkest just before daybreak." An old friend, a community organizer whom I know would not want her name cited, gave a similar analysis as we shared cups of sweet coffee. "This country is no good. Really it's no good. But what can you do? We're just going to keep throwing everything we have into making it better."

But it sure would help if Haitians had survival resources other than individual strength and courage, and collective organizing.

The suffering of the people is as unimaginable as is the poor planning or sheer neglect of their government, the United Nations, and large international non-governmental organizations. As for the estimated 1.5 million Haitians who live in roughly 1,300 internally displaced people's camps (the numbers being rough guesses, as no census has been taken), three recent reports by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti et al., Professor Mark Schuller, and Refugees International paint dismal pictures.

Here are just a few facts and figures from one report, from a five-month survey of 90 camp-dwelling families:

* In more than half of the families, the children went at least one entire day in the prior

week without eating at all;

* 44% primarily drink untreated water;

* 78% live without enclosed shelter;

* 27% have no option but to defecate in a bucket, plastic bag, or open ground in the

camp;

* 37% of families have no form of income whatsoever.^¹

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