Today I found a book in the "Travel Essays" section of the used bookstore in downtown Campbell. It was a small section so I was surprised that there was a book about Haiti. Coincidentally, the guy who wrote it lives in San Francisco and went to Haiti after graduating from college. But, he also had a wife and two kids at that point so it's not quite a cosmic miracle. The book is called "Best Nightmare on Earth" and despite the ominous title is actually a positive, but realistic, description of Haitian society. I guess soon I'll get to be the one to judge how accurate it is. He gives amazing descriptions, especially of people and relationships- both personal and societal.
This part made me laugh and think about my trip:
"Intelligent people clung to the dream of magical intervention. Some hoped for it, some feared it, everyone believed in it. In the meantime, I imagined the international do-gooders in seersucker suits on their voyages of inspection, hovering over Haiti in multinational hot-air balloons, looking for a starving child to drop a chicken on him. Normal procedure in Haiti would be for a government official to intercept the chicken in midair and offer to sell it to the child."
The author comments a lot on the differences between the mindset of the Haitian people and the international community- particularly Americans. Growing up in the US, most of us are raised with the idea that if you want something changed, you better start planning and get to work. Entrepreneurship is valued and encouraged. So in his imagery, the Americans are there, in their hot-air balloon, not close enough to dirty their seersucker, "doing" by attempting to fix their perception of a societal problem. It's interesting that in contrast, the Haitians, who have a long history of foreign intervention and more than their fair share of natural disasters, are instead looking for religious intervention. Have the people of Haiti really given up and ready to sit and wait for a miracle? Even from the little information I gathered reading a Haitian newspaper in preparation for my trip, this doesn't seem to be the case. Haiti just elected a new President and not only did they break records with the number of voters, but they elected someone who has said that rebuilding the National Palace (which has become a symbol of the extreme division between the elite and the poor) was not of any importance to him. He has said that his number one goal is to educate the children of Haiti- for free. I guess his emphasis on a free education is a comment on how some Haitians do feel that the government will sell the chicken to the child. Obviously no singular mindset can define a nation's population, but I am very interested to hear opinions from Haitians about how the country should move forward.
