Fri May 18, 2012
Erline Vendredi
Hope Survives Haiti’s Hell
By Erline Vendredi, Haiti – February 2010
I cannot believe I am alive today. One moment I was checking text messages on my friend’s bed and then suddenly my life changed. Fate pushed me out of her house that crumbled shortly after I stepped outside. I was one of the lucky ones.
Thinking back on January 12 – the day the earthquake struck Haiti, I do not know where I found my strength. My brother and I moved concrete and steel to save my little sister, Pepe who was buried beneath heavy rubble that was our home. I too easily remember the heavy weight of fear as I responded to my neighbor’s cries imploring my brother and I to save her five year old little girl who was trapped beneath boulders of rubble. We tried hard, but unfortunately it was a lifeless Sofonie that we pulled from beneath concrete debris.
Loss is profound in Haiti. You could probably cut it with a knife. Everyone has lost something valuable –fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, cousins, best friends, homes, sentimental possessions – all buried beneath the earth and now being buried in massive graves. Rich, poor, black, mulatto, white – so many people.
Looking back on that tragic day when our lives were turned completely upside down, I can’t help but believe that this disastrous tragedy could have rendered a different outcome. Although we are mere humans who cannot control nature, we could have avoided the extensive destruction that caused so many deaths and so much despair, fear, and utter hopelessness.
Greed, nepotism, and selfishness have contributed to the misery Haitians suffer today. It was shoddy business practices that caused three, four and five storied homes to collapse onto smaller homes that killed thousands.
Apartment buildings and big mansions built using cheap materials without proper foundations may have attracted people willing to pay high rent at one time, but those are wasted costs today. One building owner lost her daughter, her grandson, her sister in law and two others who rented a part of a house from her. Knowing now that the building would collapse and kill her loved ones, would the owner have paid more for better construction?
The very busy Caribbean Market is a graveyard that could have been avoided. Profits drove the owners of the building to add floors and sections to the store without consideration that the foundation wouldn’t support the additional weight. In just five seconds the building was demolished.
Rumors of text messages from someone buried beneath the market promised to award $30,000 to whoever could rescue him. But alas, money does not buy life. Rescuers couldn’t get to the people buried beneath the market.
The religious weren’t favored either. One pastor’s interest in transforming a small house into a big worship center in Delmas 17 contributed to so many unnecessary deaths. Not even God could protect the congregants from the poor ground on which the church was built.
Too many people allowed greed to supersede the protection of human life. Sadly this is all too evident in the aftermath of the quake. Many business owners who managed to keep their stores are currently selling food and necessary supplies at inflated prices because they can. Some even take great pleasure in this. At one store, a sac of rice went from 750 Gourdea to 1250 Gourdes. Texaco and Esso increased their prices without a rise in the price of oil on the international market.
Even the Haitian government has shown signs of stinginess with the funds they received from the International Development Bank (IDB). When we finally heard from Haiti’s President Rene Preval, he announced that foreign aid was coming but he did not outline how the government would work to help the people.
Fortunately many Haitians didn’t wait for the possibility of government to act. Many organized rescue teams. Without electricity, at night these teams wrapped clothes on wooden beams for torches so they could search for their compatriots still buried under the rubble.
Amidst this insanity, chaos and despair, many Haitians feel that the only way to move forward is with the international community taking charge and rebuilding Haiti so we never go through this again. It is doubtful, they argue beneath makeshift tents, that Haiti’s politicians will suddenly have an epiphany and decide to work towards the betterment of the country and the well-being of the people they are supposed to represent.
2010 was to have been a year of promise for Haiti. The country was moving slowly towards economic and political stability. The Haitian people and those in the Diaspora had high hopes that finally something good would come out of our country – especially since a new Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis took control without incident. The earthquake and the aftershocks seem to have shattered this hope.
But Haitians cannot let these circumstances break them down. Yes, we are living a tragedy but we need to understand that it is a useful tragedy because it provides us with an opportunity to rebuild a better Haiti. For 21 year old Jim and 23 year old Ady, both who lost their mothers and their homes believe that reconstruction can help create opportunities for the poor to make money and contribute to a better life – a life where rich and poor can work together.
We can do this only if those in charge of reconstruction efforts provide equal opportunities for all Haitians. No longer will the Haitian people tolerate a country where officials suck the blood out of the poor. Greed must be put aside and together Haitians must shout - Kenebela, pa moli! Hold on, don’t give up.
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