Mankind and Haiti
The tragedy that happened at Haiti had once again proved that mankind has its own cruelness and kindness. That through natural calamity mankind will reflect to himself on what he did to his environment, neighbors and self and what he will do after a tragedy. Will he fall or will he stand from his fall?
“Mountainous country,” this is where Haiti was derived and came from the language of the Taino Indians who inhabited the island before European colonization. After independence in 1804, the name was adopted by the military generals who are former slaves who barred the French and took possession of the colony known as Saint Domingue.
Early in 19th century, the United States occupied Haiti. They found eleven independent regions, and it was noted that in the seventy-two years from 1843-1915, Haiti had experienced “102 civil wars, revolutions, insurrections, revolts, coups and attentions (assassination attempts)”. The U.S. sent its military to Haiti under the so called patronage of creating peace and protecting the lives and properties of foreigners in Haiti and in 1917 a new American-written constitution was handed down, which allows foreign ownership of land for the first time. This change in the land ownership law had a tremendous impact on Haiti’s economy. Therefore capitalism came to Haiti and there were attempts to reinstall colonial plantations. By 1920s the Haitian American Sugar Company (HASCO), cleared trees from fertile areas to make way for sugar production, which marks the beginning of widespread deforestation and erosion.
Decades of poverty, population growth, and near anarchy have stripped the countryside of its forests and split farms into small, infertile plots. Deforestation had left the slopes too weak to be able to retain the downpour and in-spite that storms didn’t even make landfall on Haiti there are more than three thousand lives that were lost under floodwater and mudslides. “What you see in Port-au-Prince- the concentration of people in the slums, which creates violence, which creates disease-it’s because the people cannot produce more in the countryside,” said Max Antoine, executive director of Haiti’s Presidential Commission on Border Development, tasked with reforesting the area near the Dominican Republic. “So they leave their lands and come to the city hoping to find a better life. And of course they can’t find a better life. So what do they do? They have to eat. So they start being gangsters. They become susceptible to drug dealers. What makes Haiti’s problems so intractable is the complex and painful ways they feed on each other. The impoverished country depends on trees for 71 percent of its energy use: firewood in the countryside, wood charcoal in the cities. For an impoverished peasant, stripping the forests has become a way to get by. “If I’m a farmer and my crops are failing, what can I do?” Antoine further said. “Do I die today? Or do I extend my life for the next few days by cutting trees and selling charcoal so I can buy medicine? So I can buy some fertilizer so I can grow some lettuce?” When the forests are gone, the slopes can’t hold on to their soil. Entire villages are lost to mudslides. Roads and bridges are damaged. The slums continue to swell. Haiti sinks deeper into poverty. Pressed to survive, another farmer chops down another tree. “It’s not a vicious circle,” said Philippe Mathieu, the Haiti director for the Canadian charity Oxfam-Québec. “It is a spiral. Each time you make a turn, you have less space.”
Because of this, Haiti is considered the poorest country in the western hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world. A country of small farmers, commonly referred to as peasants, who work small private landholdings and depend primarily on their own labor and that of family members. “Real income for the average family has not increased in over twenty years and has declined precipitously in rural areas. In most rural areas, the average family of six earns less than $500 per year. ” There is less than one doctor per eight-thousand people at Haiti. Medical facilities are poorly funded and understaffed, and most health care workers are incompetent. The country’s economic,political and social problems have become entangled in its environmental woes, making all of its problems harder to fix.
It is said that the tragedy that happened in Haiti was worsen because of its poverty, political status, social status and its environment. The lack of infrastructure, the poor quality of construction in Port-au-Prince and the impotence of the Haitian government to organize any response are determining factors in this tragedy.These social conditions are the product of a protracted relationship between Haiti and the United States, which, ever since US Marines occupied the island nation for nearly 20 years beginning in 1915, has treated the country as a de-facto colonial protectorate. For an entire week, with the whole world watching, millions of Haitians have been left abandoned without medical care, food, water and shelter.
The tragedy that happened to Haiti however have some good results. Many people especially people who wear hospital uniforms, were awaken to share their expertise to Haitian people. Many people gave a helping hand in kind and in cash. Out of charity to Haitian people many people also gave their service and lives to help rescue many victims.
Due to these facts, who can say that man is purely evil or even purely good? We as humans contribute something to every calamities and even natural ones. God must not be blame. Still I believe that there are things that we cannot comprehend about God’s plan to the human race. Einstein said before that “God doesn’t play dice in the universe”. Surely this tragedy has reason.
