Haiti 8 years after
Eight Years ago today marks one of the worst days in Haitian history.
8 years ago Haiti experienced an earthquake centered in Leogane that shook the whole country to a scale of 7.1 magnitude.
Roughly 300,000 people died on January 12, 2010 but no one will ever truly know the count.
Everyone I know in Haiti has a story about the earthquake, those they know who died and how God spared them and others. Citizens that pitched in to help for days, weeks, months without a paycheck.
An entire generation, multiple generations who know trauma up-close and personal.
Expats who were there during the earthquake and maybe still are there now and what a powerful impact this had on their lives... and maybe are still in need of healing from the wounds and trauma that were experienced.
After the earthquake, the world raised 15 billion dollars for Haiti relief. Ask any Haitian and they'll tell you they never saw a cent of that money but the Red Cross workers sure did stay at the nicest hotels and eat at the best restaurants and the Clintons sure are in question among many I've talked to in Haiti. But mostly the money ended up in the hands of the Haitian elite who have rarely taken to the plight of the majority in the country, the poor, uneducated, and disempowered. Definitely lives were saved by volunteers and emergency medicine and food and relief items were shipped from all over the world. The world pitched in and rallied behind Haiti.
But Haiti, 8 years later, and what changes has she seen? What changes have I seen?
From friends I've talked to, the airport in Port au Prince has vastly improved and continues to improve. The Cap Haitian airport isn't bad either.
Roads are getting better and the government is trying to improve things.
But the country of 10,000 NGOs (non governmental agencies) has done a lot of good and a lot of bad.
Due to the influx of donations in post-earthquake Haiti, authors Jean-Louis and Klamer, site example after example of how well-established local businesses collapsed with the inability to compete with 'free' goods flooding the market. Imported goods to this day that may be defunct or expiring soon are still sent down to Haiti as a 'donation' and a nice tax write off to large corporations in North America and around the world.
This 'country of NGOs' has experienced a significant struggle in private sector business as many NGOs practice a model of bringing materials in through containers or the suitcases of short term mission teams rather than buying locally to support the national economy.
Not to mention the organizations whose model it is to run thousands of Americans through the country on a 'short term mission' trip each year in order to finance and continue the work of the NGO. This is simply not a sustainable model and does minimal to support the local economy and the local Haitian.
If these large and powerful NGOs really wanted to make a difference they would create an actual Haitian business, employ people who have gone to school and are trained in a skill, invest in them, pay local taxes, and do it the hard way, the long way, the better way for lasting change.
Haiti had 90 documented orphanages before the 2010 earthquake and now has at least 750. Haiti has somehow been convinced that other people (specifically foreign-funded people) can care for their children better than they can. At least 80% of these children have a living mother and/or father and yet the number of foreigners coming to Haiti to 'build an orphanage' for children that 'will come' seems steady and downright discouraging for those of us who want to empower Haitians and see the family unit intact or reunited.
The country that captured the world's heart in 2010 is a strong and prideful country but one that continues to be disempowered by outsiders treating them as charity and saying they are a 'shithole' country. When outsiders come to Haiti to tap the 'poor Haitian' on the head, no one is dignified. Haiti was the first country in the world to claim it's independence from imperialistic white France back in 1804 and every other (imperial) country denied it's existence so as to justify our own continuation of slavery and inequality.
Most Haitians I've met are incredibly strong people who withstand more struggles in a year than many experience in a lifetime. Haitians don't seem to expect life to be easy and full of opportunity and in some ways this serves them well. In other ways, it creates an every-man-for-himself poverty mentality.
The Haitian-Americans I've met are often successful, entrepreneurial, doctors, lawyers, business-owners, hard workers, and adaptable people. At times I've witnessed them struggle with the realities of poverty just like any other American would.
The issues are complex. If poverty was easy it would've been solved by now. But Haiti, the country that changed me in so many ways, you are strong, powerful, perseverant, and seem to understand simplicity, gratitude, faith, spirituality, and joy better than I did before I met you.
We will never forget. Nou pap janm bliye. Haiti Strong.
(I'm not sure who to credit this photo to but it is one of my favorites; found at: mulpix.com & pinterest)
8 years ago Haiti experienced an earthquake centered in Leogane that shook the whole country to a scale of 7.1 magnitude.
Roughly 300,000 people died on January 12, 2010 but no one will ever truly know the count.
Everyone I know in Haiti has a story about the earthquake, those they know who died and how God spared them and others. Citizens that pitched in to help for days, weeks, months without a paycheck.
An entire generation, multiple generations who know trauma up-close and personal.
Expats who were there during the earthquake and maybe still are there now and what a powerful impact this had on their lives... and maybe are still in need of healing from the wounds and trauma that were experienced.
After the earthquake, the world raised 15 billion dollars for Haiti relief. Ask any Haitian and they'll tell you they never saw a cent of that money but the Red Cross workers sure did stay at the nicest hotels and eat at the best restaurants and the Clintons sure are in question among many I've talked to in Haiti. But mostly the money ended up in the hands of the Haitian elite who have rarely taken to the plight of the majority in the country, the poor, uneducated, and disempowered. Definitely lives were saved by volunteers and emergency medicine and food and relief items were shipped from all over the world. The world pitched in and rallied behind Haiti.
But Haiti, 8 years later, and what changes has she seen? What changes have I seen?
From friends I've talked to, the airport in Port au Prince has vastly improved and continues to improve. The Cap Haitian airport isn't bad either.
Roads are getting better and the government is trying to improve things.
But the country of 10,000 NGOs (non governmental agencies) has done a lot of good and a lot of bad.
Due to the influx of donations in post-earthquake Haiti, authors Jean-Louis and Klamer, site example after example of how well-established local businesses collapsed with the inability to compete with 'free' goods flooding the market. Imported goods to this day that may be defunct or expiring soon are still sent down to Haiti as a 'donation' and a nice tax write off to large corporations in North America and around the world.
This 'country of NGOs' has experienced a significant struggle in private sector business as many NGOs practice a model of bringing materials in through containers or the suitcases of short term mission teams rather than buying locally to support the national economy.
Not to mention the organizations whose model it is to run thousands of Americans through the country on a 'short term mission' trip each year in order to finance and continue the work of the NGO. This is simply not a sustainable model and does minimal to support the local economy and the local Haitian.
If these large and powerful NGOs really wanted to make a difference they would create an actual Haitian business, employ people who have gone to school and are trained in a skill, invest in them, pay local taxes, and do it the hard way, the long way, the better way for lasting change.
Haiti had 90 documented orphanages before the 2010 earthquake and now has at least 750. Haiti has somehow been convinced that other people (specifically foreign-funded people) can care for their children better than they can. At least 80% of these children have a living mother and/or father and yet the number of foreigners coming to Haiti to 'build an orphanage' for children that 'will come' seems steady and downright discouraging for those of us who want to empower Haitians and see the family unit intact or reunited.
The country that captured the world's heart in 2010 is a strong and prideful country but one that continues to be disempowered by outsiders treating them as charity and saying they are a 'shithole' country. When outsiders come to Haiti to tap the 'poor Haitian' on the head, no one is dignified. Haiti was the first country in the world to claim it's independence from imperialistic white France back in 1804 and every other (imperial) country denied it's existence so as to justify our own continuation of slavery and inequality.
Most Haitians I've met are incredibly strong people who withstand more struggles in a year than many experience in a lifetime. Haitians don't seem to expect life to be easy and full of opportunity and in some ways this serves them well. In other ways, it creates an every-man-for-himself poverty mentality.
The Haitian-Americans I've met are often successful, entrepreneurial, doctors, lawyers, business-owners, hard workers, and adaptable people. At times I've witnessed them struggle with the realities of poverty just like any other American would.
The issues are complex. If poverty was easy it would've been solved by now. But Haiti, the country that changed me in so many ways, you are strong, powerful, perseverant, and seem to understand simplicity, gratitude, faith, spirituality, and joy better than I did before I met you.
We will never forget. Nou pap janm bliye. Haiti Strong.
(I'm not sure who to credit this photo to but it is one of my favorites; found at: mulpix.com & pinterest)
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