Greg Beckett is an anthropologist who specializes in trying to understand in times of crisis and tragedy in a culture. The following discussion took place in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti in August of 2002 with his Haitian friend, Manuel. In the middle of a discussion about the forest, which they wanted to preserve as a botanic garden, Manuel, describing the situation in PAP, said, “Yes, it’s very bad.” Then he leaned even closer to the anthropologist, Greg, and whispered a few words that have haunted Greg forever since. Manuel said, “Haiti is dead. There is no more Haiti.”
The oppressive forces of history and current political and economic oppression have crushed the spirit of Haitians. They still struggle valiantly to survive, but the odds are against them. There is no functioning state, no functioning economic system even what Manuel and Greg called the forest or the botanic garden on the edge of the city. It seemed to be more fantasy than reality.
March 2010, three months after the earthquake, destroyed much of Port-au-Prince and killed hundreds of thousands of Haitians.
Some quotes from the book:
“The coup had released a wave of repressive violence in Haiti. If there was a civil war going on, it was being waged by the same repressive elements that had always waged war on Haitian citizens—the army, the state, the elite, and the international community.” [p. 153]
“In Bel Air again. In the camps, Timo, another community leader, took me on a walk through the camp and then through another set of destroyed homes. Below us, we watched a work crew breaking concrete with sledgehammers and shoveling the debris into trucks. At the end of the walk, Timo sat down on a pile of rubble and gestured to the surrounding debris.” [p. 227]
“I lost my house,” he said. “We all lost our houses. We lost everything. Family. Friends. But now, the real problem is aid. All of these foreigners—why are they here? They come and go. They wave food all around. We sniff at it but we don’t get it.” He rubbed his fingers together under his nose. He said, “They treat us like animals. Haitians are dogs now.” [p. 227-8]
“Haitians are dogs now. The phrase struck me, struck me as much as Manuel’s comment that Haiti was dead had. I didn’t know what to make of Timo’s comment, but I felt he might be right. He seemed to be saying that international aid had turned Haitians into powerless beings who were now dependent on others for their very survival. People were living in the streets, just like dogs, scrounging for their next meal, hoping to get by on their beneficence of others. In the years after the quake, others would tell me the same thing, over an over again. Some said they were being treated like animals, others said they were being treated worse than animals. Most drew on the figure of the street dog, a ubiquitous animal in the city, to name this feeling. To name their dehumanization.” [p. 288]
My thoughts:
Well meaning Americans have come to Haiti to deliver desperately needed emergency medical care such as the amputation of limbs that had been smashed by the earthquake or the delivery of desperately needed food to keep Haitians alive. But since the aid was delivered impersonally, from stranger to stranger, who had no prior personal relationship many Haitians felt personally dehumanized by the whole aid process and delivery system. Insult was added to injury as the Haitians felt they were no better than dogs at the end of the well meaning delivery process.
Many of the Haitians that have come to Port-au-Prince over the last forty years had come from rural Haiti which these Haitians had concluded was worse off than urban Port-au-Prince.
There is a remarkable, but apparently unknown, story of community development going on in and around rural Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti. And its being led by
Haitian, Jean Thomas, who was trained how to do Christian Community Development [CCD] by the black Mississippian, John Perkins during a four year
internship which took place from 1977-1980. The Haitian, Jean Thomas, apparently learned the principles of CCD very well.
You can see the results of thirty-five years of CCD in rural Fond-des-Blancs. If you should visit there what you will see will blow your mind.
Under Jean’s superb leadership, and with full community participation, together, Haiti Christian Development Fund [HCDF] and the people have provided a plentiful supply of clean water, have reforested the area by planting at least 5 million trees. They created a pig nursery which enabled HCDF to repopulate pigs that were killed off by disease. For more about the social economic miracles that took place in Fond-des-blancs, including a pre school, primary school and secondary school read Jean Thomas’ book, At Home With the Poor. A book that needs to be updated because much has happened since 2003 when the book was originally published.
Since 2012, I have written over 500 blogs. Probably fifty or so are on Haiti.
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