Hope and compassion amidst the rubbles of desolation in Haiti

By Cde. Jeròboam Shaanika, Namibia

The evening of 12 January 2010, would probably be remembered by the present and future generations of Haitians as a day mother nature unleashed the greatest catastrophe of unimaginable proportions on their problem afflicted nation. After that earth quake measuring 7.0 magnitude on the Richter scale, Port-Au-Prince the capital city of Haiti was reduced to rubbles. Churches, hospitals and the Presidential Palace, a symbol of national authority were all reduced to heaps of ruins. Buried beneath those ruins and rubbles are fellow human beings who happened to be at places one would wish they should have missed to be there even by a minute.

There are useful lessons to be learnt from this tragedy. The earth quake may have destroyed Port-Au-Prince and unleashed a catastrophe beyond human strength, nevertheless the will and spirit of human compassion was not vanquished.

The willingness of nations both large and small to help the people of Haiti is a welcomed humanitarian gesture. After all we as human beings have the same blood running on our veins and equal in every aspect of human nature. The response may not have been adequate or properly coordinated, but the very fact that there were men and women who had volunteered to save lives is speaking volume of human compassion.

Immediately after the earth quake struck Haiti, the world witnessed the extraordinary power of human compassion. Like all other tragedy, the humanitarian mission started as a search and rescue and when hope begun to dwindle it became a find and recovery. Even though the destruction caused by the earth quake presented numerous challenges due to the fact that many parts of Port-Au- Prince were rendered inaccessible, the search and rescue teams exhibited unprecedented courage in carrying out their humanitarian task amidst dangerous rubbles.

This humanitarian act should dispel any notion of looking at people through stereotype of ethnic or tribal lens of observation. Human beings are all the same, despite the fact that there are fortunate and the less fortune, but the less fortune did not choose to be the unfortunate just like the people of Haiti did not choose to be hit by the earth quake on 12 January 2010. Albert Pine an English author, who died in 1851, had cautioned that “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” Through compassion this must be the case to our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

The people of Haiti need help and world compassion at this time of unimaginable difficulty. The extra burden on the shoulders of the people of Haiti is just too heavy for them to carry alone. Even Jesus Christ on his way to Golgotha was helped by Simon the Cyrene to carry his cross. No nation on this planet earth would want to go through what the people of Haiti are experiencing now.

They have lived under extreme condition as the result of a cocktail of problems that have befallen on their nation. The editorial of Guyanese Stabroek News of 15 January 2010 rightly states “If ever there was a beleaguered country in our world, it is surely Haiti, which has had to withstand for more than 200 years almost everything that nature and history could throw at her”. Yet the people of Haiti have braced themselves and have gone through many man made misfortune like the maladministration by Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, his son Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and hosts of military juntas. In April 2008, there was a food crisis in Haiti, which was followed by four hurricanes: Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike in 2008. There those who view the tragedy of Haiti through their own misguided perceptions.

We must therefore, avoid temptation to view natural calamity through the words of an American evangelist Rev. Pat Robertson who claimed that Haiti “swore a pact to the devil” to get “free from the French” and “ever since they have been cursed.” This sounds like a repetition of selfrighteousness of the Spanish loyalists during a similar tragedy of the earth quake on 28 March 1812, which destroyed 90 % of Caracas.

The Spanish loyalists went out into the streets to proclaim that the earth quake was unmistakably the result of divine anger because of the rebellion of the Venezuelan people against the despot Fernando VII, “the anointed of God.” Remarks like these come from a heartless individual like Pat Robertson who despite the fact that he carries and reads the bible everyday only finds subjective ideological answers that satisfy his self-righteousness soul.

Today the hands of nature mighty have landed a blow on Haiti tomorrow it could be another country. It is therefore illadvised for a person to make a mockery of fellow human’s tragedy. This is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions and the last thing a self respecting human being could do is to pray for the already suffering people of Haiti not to patronize them.

There are worries that some people with hearts of sharks would try to use the tragedy for human trafficking and other anti-social behaviours. Whoever intends or contemplates to undertake such a shameful act should think twice and let compassion and sanity prevail.

The people throughout the world have watched via television, the image of Haitians emerging from the ruins, yet still full of hope amidst aguish and the image of those who unfortunately could not make it.

Some were hastily buried by their relative, while others even in death could not get the benefit of a decent burial, but had to be buried in mass graves. The image of a casket with the remains of a 28 years old Brigitte Jean Baptiste on wheelbarrow pushed by family members through the streets in search of a burial place is harsh indicative of the difficulties and challenges the people of Haiti have faced even in the best of time. Then there was a miracle of a 15 days old baby shown on television in the arms of CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta who after examining the baby girl found that there was no fracture on her skull, but just a cut and she should be fine with antibiotics. There was an irony of Belgium Doctors deserting a make shift field hospital at night over fear for their personal security, leaving only Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN a neurosurgeon to double as a reporter and the same time doctor to attend to the deserted patients. For every tragic event there is always an image which would remain in the human mental memory as the face of that particular tragic event. In the current Haitian tragedy there are too many images depicting that catastrophe. Grief is everywhere in Haiti and it overwhelmed those who survived the earth quake and even those us from distant shores. In Haiti 80% of the population live below the poverty line.

We should therefore applaud our government for making a donation of seven million Namibia dollars, not matter how little it would register our compassionate feelings. I understand the Namibia Red Cross Society, Namibian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Council of Churches in Namibia and many other organizations are to combine efforts to appeal for more donations for the people of Haiti. The humanitarian guesture is in line with our much cherished obligation of international solidarity. On 25 January 2010, the Canadian government hosted an international aid conference in Montreal to discuss a roadmap towards Haiti’s longterm reconstruction, which according to predictions, could take up to ten years. However, the reconstruction should not come at the expense of the people of Haiti. The impoverish nation of Haiti epitomizes the Hobbesian state of nature where life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Only through compassion and genuine help would enable the people of Haiti to gain strength at this time of grief and desolation.

Even though, “words cannot do justice to the destruction, the anguish and the sheer hell that Haiti is going through” (Guyanse Stabroek), the world must show its compassion to the people of Haiti and rift them out of the rubbles of current destruction and help them to restore their hope. Only then we can say what we are currently doing for the people of Haiti will remain immortal.

Jeròboam Shaanika is a. Namibian civil servant, however, the views expressed here do not reflect that of the. Namibian government, but entirely his own.