Haiti - more than just an earthquake disaster

The Citadel Laferrire, the Palace of Sans-Souci and the buildings of Ramiers are Haitian monuments dating from the early 19th century, when Haiti became the first free Republic brought about by a black slave rebellion. They were constructed by former black slaves as symbols of liberty after they had gained their freedom.

Be warned - you are only going to see positive images of Haiti in this post. So if you are looking for the gory stuff then go elsewhere



The beautiful market in Jacmel and ubiquitious taptap

More images from Haiti


From January - April 2001 I worked in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I was invited to go there by a former school principal, Sr. Helen Ryder, whose congregation, Soeurs de la Sainte Union have a number of missions in the country. Helen introduced me to many people long involved in medical and social support throughout the city and country. I made many friends during my stay and every year I catch up with Helen to see where they are all at. I am much in debt to those who were so kind to me during my stay and work, especially to the LSU sisters and the Brothers of Charity who have a health clinic school near Cite Soleil.

In many ways, those 3 months were to lead to a spate of personal events that I had never imagined in my wildest dreams. 2 years studying to be a priest, 2 years off women, 9 years off the beer, and experiences that set in motion an affinity towards social justice work. The latter saw me end up in jail for 6 weeks, on bail for 3 1/2 years, marginalised by many in my home community, baldness, working in homeless shelters, kicked out of the U.S., living in Poland, struggling to learn Polish and engaged to a Polish woman. All these events, and many more, started when I first set foot in Haiti.

I am like many who volunteer abroad. Intensely involved and passionate in the midst of my work, but when back home those memories tend to drift, contacts fade, commitments falter. Thankfully though, due to Sr. Helen, Haiti is never far from my mind. At the moment, in the aftermath of the recent earthquake, it is the only thing on my mind.

But before I do the obvious, and whine about all that has made Haiti suffer more than it should have from this most recent natural disaster, maybe we should consider what Haiti is for a moment. I have hundreds of photos from my time there but they ain't scanned so I've had to rob some from elsewhere.
Haitians love to parade and celebrate their much misunderstood, ancient voodoo traditions


They have an excellent tradition in quality handmade arts and crafts

Indeed, Haiti has a very rich tradition of art and music. It is tightly woven into every fabric of life there.

Nowadays, Haiti is hardly mentioned in my home country of Ireland without telecommunicaions giant Denis O'Brien's Digicel adjacent to it. In the past few days, his company have pledged €5 million in aid, €3 million more than the entire initial EU allocation of aid. Their tower is down, so it remains to be seen whether the company's money will be pre-dominantly allocated to aid communications rather than providing water, shelter and food. He has major interests in the Caribbean, is a die-hard capitalist and I still feel like vomiting when I here about his supposed philantrophic traits.

Unfortunately, much of the aid money will be once again siphoned off by aid predators, though even if 1% of it trickled down to those who needed it then it would save many lives. That's the sad reality. Naomi Klein's 'disaster capitalism' warnings seems to be rubbing off in as obvious ways with Haiti as it did with post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia, etc. Even though Haiti has little or no tourism industry, it is already largely treated as a gigantic plantation and sweat shop by the US and others. The IMF have given $100 million in a strings-attached loan (when i should be much more and he form of grants) that will further impoverish Haitians by cutting public pay and privatising public industries.

It's depressing stuff, cause my memory of Haitians are of a fun-loving, hard-working people proud of their history as the first free 'slave' republic in 1804.

Ironically, former liberation theologian, Catholic priest Arisitide (nicknamed the Prince of BelAir for his many mansions) and his party (Fanmi Lavalas - the Avalanche party) remain very popular despite their corruption and inability to fulfil their promises to the poor. But how can you lift your people out of poverty when there are so many self-serving aid agencies and international governments out to serve their own corporate-self interest. Arisitide's demand for restitution of $21.5 billion from the French gvt. for their past theft of Haitian riches did not sit well with Paris and led to Aristide being overthrown and sent into exile in South Africa in 2004 through a coup by the Haitian elite and their supporters in the US and France.

Leaving aside he political situation for a moment, my community of Banagher in Co.Offaly have been supporting the work of my friend and former school principal Sr. Helen Ryder for over a decade. Every year I meet Helen a home and have a chat about her work and those we mutually know. I just hope they are all still alive. But given that the quake was during school/work time, it seems the casualty list may be very high. In fact, we will never now. The local and naional gvt. will inflate the figure to get more aid - but the true fatality amount will remain unknown. Haiti will soon blow over when a new disaster occurs. Such is life. The only Irish charity I think do good work in Haiti are Trocaire. Of course there are lots of local foundations that will be doing the core of the long-term work to help people build their lives back. If recent history repeats itself, they will see little of the international aid which is on its way.

Why aid is even the term being used in the context of supporting Haiti for past and current disasters speaks loads. Aristide believed the coup was connected to his relentless demands for reparations from France (their former coloniser) and the release of allocated UN money vetoed and withheld by France and the US against Aristide's victory in 2000.

Any good news? Well, not really. At least not from me. I'm in Warsaw, 11 floors up in a heated apartment having pasta, so what the fuck do I know.

But I do feel like I can guarantee one thing, that if you or I were on the ground over there, amongst all the grief people are facing, we would see enough great acts of solidarity to prevent us from ever talking about our own 'financial crisis' again. If you know of anyone who wants to make a donation to the poorest of the poor with no admin. fees, then Sr. Helen Ryder is one woman who can ensure your concern gets where you want and where it needs to be.