Haiti: The rest of the story is ours

Perhaps we now need John Bertrand Aristide to return to Haiti to continue implementing his vision of a self-suporting Haiti

WELL WRITTEN ARTICLE. I HAVE A DAUGHTER LIVING AND WORKING FOR THREE CHILDREN'S HOMES IN HAITI. THEY WILL NEED A LOT OF HELP FOR A VERY LONG TIME.

good out of the rubble

Most poor countries do not have slums and overcrowded areas filled with concrete homes. The concrete was gift from the rest of the world, but because there was no real and strong infrastructure, no building codes, no one to supervise and yes, no one to make just, reasonable and workable rules and regulations, the buildings went up helter skelter. And they all came tumbling down. How can the beneficence of the world community be directed this time so that this horrible event with consequent disaster and suffering will never happen again? Who can make the rules and expect compliance? I pray that wisdom will prevail and some kind of a just protectorate, internal or external, will be established and that the people of Haiti will truly be served.

Dear Joan,

I struggle, unsuccessfully, from soothing the lump in my throat, the swelling of tears in my eyes, the ache in my heart, and the anxious quivery in my soul, as I too ask the question, "Will we, as a world, right this obscene wrong?" Will we, as world, stay in Haiti? Will we not just feed and educate, but also plow and churn and turn the earth to actually help build an appropriate existence for these people who have suffered unmercifully and unjustly for too long? There is not need to say "God help us" if we turn our backs on these people and leave before "this work -- this gift of faithful opportunity" is complete. "God help us?" Don't count on it!

Having spent time in Haiti helping to build homes,and experiencing firsthand what Joan wrote aboutI too pray we respond as a people and nation in a positive way. I pray that we see our resonse as a way to save not just the Haitians, but ourselves. Thank you for the article. You captured the beauty of the Haitian pople that I experienced when I was there. S. Joan Clare, S.C.

Wonderful, Joan. Haiti saved us from a French invasion. I hope we can begin to show some gratitude. Rather than just "giving fish", we should be "teachimg how to fish" and raise the standard of living. Can anything change or will it be the same old, same old?

Thank you for your incisive comments on a land that few of us have ever tried to truly understand. I visited Haiti years ago as part of a "missionary" endeavor that left me in tears, because those involved had no idea of how to help people who were only hungry and knew far too little about living as a human being. We prayed and gave them scripture passages to memorize and left, eager to return to the sanctity of our own homes.

Let us pray that we will do more than merely adopt a few thousands so that they will not die and believe that somehow, a government that has never cared, will do anything to build anew, a nation with so muuch potential.

It is time for us to deal with our own demons and learn how act responsibily towards the possibilities that could be made available in the beautiful land.

I appreciated this editorial of facts from Sister Chittister. We must remain and assist them in many ways. You are in my prayers.

"A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake--but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire--but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound." 1 Kings 19:11-12

Thank you, Sister Joan. Next Sunday's Gospel is about being a prophet.
How hard to be a prophet in your own land, dear Joan? Will they listen to you? I'm sorry, but: forget about it. US boasts itself to be the richest, greatest, best.. etc country in the world.
Is it?
Nay!!!
How many millions are being spent and now many american youth is dying uselessly in Iraq, Afganistan and other places where USA has future interest in their resources. Ask Greenspan! How much money is being spent every time they send Discovery to the Space?
Or robots to Mars and other planets, just ot lokk for water? For what? Or just for fame?
How much money is being spent on building and exploring new arms, warplanes, aircraft carriers, with 6,000 personnel on each of them, destroyers, nuclear submarines etc?
How much money is spent trying to overthrow democratically elected governments around the world, spying on others? The litany will never end.
In the meantime let Americans remember that judgement will be passed on them, who elect their warmonger presidents, like Reagans, Bushes and others who do not stop this supremacy ideology which has haunted such a beautiful nation for decades.
Are american people peace lovnig people? I doubt they are!
For one, they did not elect a peace-loving spiritual president like Carter,for a second term. He was considered "weak". Reagans and Bushes are what american people like as presidents. Bullies, educated in Hollywood, men ready and able to show the strength of USA.
As a young child brought up in Europe, I never saw a picture, if it were not about gun- showing cowboys,- the goodies who killed were always after the “bad” boys who were always the red-indians. This mentality has never changed.
Now I am a missionary in S America, and have been seeing this bully’s attitude for 48 years in my own flesh!
Will you ever change?
Yes, definitely.
How?
When asked by a reporter what might throw a government into tilt, Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minisiter 1958-60: “Events, my dear boy, events.”
Your last local banking crisis, which sent to hell the world’s economy, and is not over yet,, may be a sign that the endgame began. Thank God!

And, perhaps there are many people in this country who would like to adopt one of these orphans - particularly in Florida where many Haitians are their neighbors. But, they cannot, because Florida does not allow gays to adopt. Better they go without a loving family than live with a family who is of the same sex and would provide them with food, love, a home, and an education.

Sister Chittister;
Thank you once again for your wonderful insights. I pray we can learn from and be moved to act from them. But more importantly, may we continue to respond to the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Haiti long after the head lines change.

Blessing to all.

Sr. Joan's message needs to be broadcast loudly and clearly. My fear is that, once the rubble is cleared, the continuing poverty and need in Haiti will be once more forgotten.

Well said. Let us pray that all will be well/ God is there with the people helping.

Sister Joan -

This is a moving memorandum to those of us in the rest of the world......how we treat the least of us is how we will be judged.

Right now, the judgement is not a good one.

Your article is profound. I didn't know some of the early history but I always knew that Haiti was an extremely poor country but that people there were extremely good and gracious. I saw some of the singing and I prayed an Alleluia for the will of a people to hope for a better future in the midst of such disaster. I agree that the human community needs to stay in Haiti and help people rebuild their lives. I hope our souls will force us to do that so that Haitian people can, for the first time, have a decent life.

Beautifully written, profoundly challenging! Thank you, Joan!

Hope for Haiti!
Do other tragic regions (Palestine, Darfur, etc. etc.) need their catastrophic earthquakes in order to arouse effective cries and action for compassion and justice?

Beyond the "we will rebuild and restore" I want to know who wishes tha Haitians decide, individually, the next step. I see no resettlement plan coming forth. There were the Vietnamese Boat People and the Eastern Europeans
who were welcomed to America when the WALL came down. Why should Haitians not be offered this option. To suggest that Haitians ought to stay and rebuild something that never existed is lunacy or, in another vernacular, colonialism and ribald supremacy.

If you have contact with White House personnel you might ask that they consider the resettlement option. Resettlement was not offered Katrina victims and they continue to suffer. How can you ask a month old baby to stay and rebuild a 'sovereign' nation of which they know nothing. Denying humanity?

Thank you for this appeal from the heart. Please check your facts about Napoleon's designs on America and/or the Louisiana Territory. Admiral Nelson had destroyed the French fleet at the Nile in 1798, making it extremely difficult to transfort an invasion force of any size. The 1800 census shows that the population of the United States was more than 5 million, with a standing army/reserve of several hundred thousand seasoned soldiers. Although Haitians like to claim they prevented a Napoleonic invasion of America, and there is some correspondence to show that the project was considered, historians consider it highly unlikely that an invasion would have been attempted, or would have had even modest hope of success. Americans should support the building of a new and just Haiti, not out of a misplaced sense of guilt and gratitude, but because we believe in the transforming power of God's love for all people in Christ. Thanks again.

And what is the Catholic church doing for Haiti. They have billions of dollars that is supposed to be toe help the poor not proceed with pomp and circumstance. We are told to help our brothers and sisters but with our money never with the Pope's money WHY

Wow! I agree with Sister Joan. This is rare, indeed!

Well written, Sister!

I agree with much of what you said but unfortunately, Aristide wasn't much better than the previous tyrants. He embezzeled millions, had the roaming gangs kill, silenced opposition and was ultimately run out of the country by the people. A shameful example of a lack of true leadership in a country desperate for it.

Truly the earthquake was a disaster. However, there is much about Haiti that remains an enigma. Why is it that after all the years that the Catholic Church has been in that country that the place is such a mess. Yes the population is 80% Catholic, but 50 % of the people there practice voodoo. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The unemployment there is estimated to be 80%. All this despite all the resources that have been funneled into it. Who has overseen all the money that, even before the earthquake, has been sent there by the parishes and organizations from Virginia and many other states that have been twinning with Haitian counterparts. One of the projects that gets a lot of attention is financing of secondary schools. What do the graduates do after they complete their schooling? Is leaving the country their only viasble alternative? If so, then the resources poured into that program did help the individual involved, but did nothing to improve the situation in Haiti.

One of the most inexplicable comments that I have read on this blog is the one wherein the writer prayed that more affluent countries, like the U.S.A., would not come to Haiti and indusrialize the country. Give me a break! Does that person want the people there to continue to wallow in 80% unemployment and depend on support from indusrtrialed countries? One can only "pray" that that person's prayers are not answered.

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that it is time to use a different model in helping Haiti. Now don't tell me that the Haiti situation is impossible..their neighbors seem to have solved the riddle. Why can't Haiti?

I'm pretty sure the story is theirs. The problem with aid - and why it fails so often - is that the donors think it's about them. It isn't. The story isn't ours. America isn't God's gift to the world.

Dear Sister Joan Thank you once morefor your insightful article on Haiti. You are truly a prophet in the Church today. Fr. Edward St-Godard1

I am echoing a previous "anonymous" who wrote that "Aristide wasn't much better than the previous tyrants." Before our pouring untold dollars into Haiti, there has to be an infrastructure to direct the funds to the people and not into their own pockets. What about the several richest and elitist families who control most of the country's wealth? Unless and until these families and the controlling government clean up their own act, all our dollars will be for nought.

Haiti's suffering is our suffering; the systemic barriers, cultural beliefs, and denial of self-hood (in other words, the disempowerment of the people themselves) is ours, too. We participate in it collectively even if just by naive and ignorant collusion.

I am deeply touched and inspired by these sentiments, which echo my own thoughts. It is not about how long "we" stay in Haiti, but to what extent the greater WE (human family, including Haitians) partner to build OUR collective future - one of empowerment, vision, healing, possibility, gratitude, and infused with the beauty, resilience and wisdom of the human spirit. This requires a redefinition of what power and wealth are - and a recognition that even those with money (people or nations) are also diminished in a world where spiritual and cultural wealth are devalued when cast next to money. The internal resources of the Haitians and so many people the world over are missed completely by even the people themselves, whose voices and spirits have been walked over, stifled, quietly ignored, and violently oppressed. Even weatlhy nations do this to their own people who are seen as "lacking" because they do not have only one kind of resource.

Let's seize this opportunity, as a human family, to regain our humanity and reauthor this system! Let's refigure power and revalue resources such that it isn't about "us" staying in Haiti or giving money, but about banding together to achieve a more just world, one where a variety of resources are recognized and the wisdom of Haitians to create their future free of hunger and poverty is not only attainable, but inevitable.

Haiti's suffering is our suffering; the systemic barriers, cultural beliefs, and denial of self-hood (in other words, the disempowerment of the people themselves) is ours, too. We participate in it collectively even if just by naive and ignorant collusion.

I am deeply touched and inspired by these sentiments, which echo my own thoughts. It is not about how long "we" stay in Haiti, but to what extent the greater WE (human family, including Haitians) partner to build OUR collective future - one of empowerment, vision, healing, possibility, gratitude, and infused with the beauty, resilience and wisdom of the human spirit. This requires a redefinition of what power and wealth are - and a recognition that even those with money (people or nations) are also diminished in a world where spiritual and cultural wealth are devalued when cast next to money. The internal resources of the Haitians and so many people the world over are missed completely by even the people themselves, whose voices and spirits have been walked over, stifled, quietly ignored, and violently oppressed. Even weatlhy nations do this to their own people who are seen as "lacking" because they do not have only one kind of resource.

Let's seize this opportunity, as a human family, to regain our humanity and reauthor this system! Let's refigure power and revalue resources such that it isn't about "us" staying in Haiti or giving money, but about banding together to achieve a more just world, one where a variety of resources are recognized and the wisdom of Haitians to create their future free of hunger and poverty is not only attainable, but inevitable.

Dear Sister Joan,
Wonderful, enlightening, and provocative piece designed to make us all think about the future of this devastated country. Some of my family (white Americans) lived there for 2 generations, supporting the Duvaliers and living a very wealthy life off the backs of the poor there. A shameful period in our family history. I was thrilled when Baby Doc fell, but I agree with another writer about Jean Bertrand Aristide. He may have started out for the right reasons but he became the enemy to Haitian empowerment. I hope now that the rest of the world will follow through on promises being made in the heat of this tragedy and work WITH the Haitians to rebuild everything about this place in a way that holds everyone accountable, donors & recipients, and builds the capacity of Haitians to self-govern in an honest way.
Thank you for this thoughtful piece.
Carolyne

Dear Sister,
Thank you for such a wonderful essay. All of these things need to be known and appreciated by all. Thank you for getting the word out to us. What we need to do is to make sure that those we know are aware of the story, too. That's the way the good news spreads.
Richard

It's telling that your column assigns lots of blame to the United States, foreign corporations, etc. - but has nothing but praise for Astride, who - sadly - became, in many ways, the same sort of corrupt dictator he worked to overthrow. Surely some of this is his fault as well?

Unfortunately, these sorts of rather obvious disconnects from reality seem to show up rather frequently in your work, and they serve to undermine the good that you might do through your writing. Your column is entitled, "From where I stand". Is it possible that you are standing in the wrong place?

How can we teach the Haitians to govern? Until they can get their administration in place and to rule democratically, I see little hope for future success. Sorry to be pessimistic.

I had the opportunity to visit Haiti this past July. My experience in Haiti is unforgettable, and one that will always stay present in my heart. If I could describe my experience in Haiti in three words it would be life-giving, heart breaking, and an adventure. When I first arrived in Port Au Prince I was shocked and heart broken to see the devastation of the earthquake, and thousands of people living in camping tents. Seven months later people are still left without homes, and families of six living in a tent during hurricane season. I ask myself how one could possibly survive under these living conditions; no home, at times no food on the table, psychological, physical, and emotional trauma from the earthquake, death of loved ones, and overall an undignified life due to the corruption and poverty that exists in the country.
Haiti means “mountainous land” it is truly a magnificent enterprise made from God’s hands. The land has mountains beyond mountains full of beautiful green sceneries. But within these mountains there lies a poverty that limits human potential that creates a continuous cycle of suffering. In addition to the poverty, the earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010 left thousands of people without homes, and rubble plaguing the streets of Port Au Prince and in the outskirts in rural villages such as a place where I now consider my home, Cazale. I had the privilege to stay for eleven days, and build loving human relationships with the Haitian community of Cazale. Cazale is located two hours away from Port Au Prince high up in the mountains. There are approximately 20,000 people living in this rural village. In the middle of Cazale sits a beautiful river that flows through the center of the village, and one that sustains life for the community. This river provides clean water for the community to bathe, drink, wash, and for activities.
Being in Haiti was truly a life changing experience, and one that also shatters one’s faith in knowing that their a devasting reality that exists, and realizing that we need to be the change we want to see in this world. I can no longer go back to my home without a transformative change that occurred within me; our decisions play a role in how the rest of the world is affected. Being immersed in the reality of the community in Cazale made me realize that God has placed us here for a reason, and whether it was just to experience the culture to open our eyes or be present to the people it was those seeds of a better future that were planted within ourselves and the people.
Sister Joan your article on Haiti was amazing and brought back many memories from my experience!