The Plenary Review

AP Photo by Ivanoh Demers

First, let me say major kudos to CNN for its extensive coverage of the earthquake that has devastated Haiti. I tried to work last night but found myself riveted to the television coverage of the disaster, the country’s history and earlier turmoil and its recent attempts to build itself.  

I’m a big fan of Edwidge Danticat, the Haitian-born author of phenomenal works like “Breath, Eyes, Memory.” In an interview with CNN, Danticat talks about the country’s past turmoil and resilience, and her own search for family members:

It is a catastrophe beyond measure, because even when we’ve had mudslides or floods, it has overwhelmed the capacity of the country to handle it: to absorb the wounded, to help people find medical care. But this situation is something far beyond anything the country has ever experienced before.

In Haiti, most people cannot afford basic medical care, so imagine now, the primary hospital in Port-au-Prince is said to have been severely damaged. It’s truly an extraordinary catastrophe for a country that’s already suffered so very, very much.

The sad thing is that the country seemed to have been on an upswing. There was the beginning of some tranquility. There were recent stories about some new, even fancy, hotels in Jacmel and Port-au-Prince. And Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy to Haiti, had recently hosted an investors conference in Port-au-Prince with investors from Latin America as well as the United States.

There was a sense after the four storms last year that there were some positive things happening, and this just grinds everything back into the ground.

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We Haitians are known for our resilience, because we’ve suffered so many natural and political tragedies over the years and have always somehow managed to bounce back. We’ve never had to face something like this, so this time I think it might take a lot longer. But there is an extraordinarily strong spirit in the Haitian people. It looks extremely bad right now, but Haitians will rebuild. Certainly, Haiti is going to need a great deal of help, but the people have it in them to rebuild, and they will.

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We will need help from all our neighbors, from the international community. We will need individual donors and government donors. I would encourage people to support organizations that are already on the ground and can immediately start helping people. Organizations like Partners in Health, Doctors Without Borders and the American Red Cross. Humans have a tendency to pull together in tragedy. You can’t imagine a more tragic day for Haiti than this. We will need everyone. 

If you have not made a donation to the relief efforts, please consider doing so now.