Sister Haiti

Haiti, our neighbor, our sister...
You truly seem to be cursed.
Blow after blow, and no time to recover.
No time to stand up.
Just barely time enough to register a new punch in the gut, a new kick to the back of her head.

The magnitude of the tragedy overwhelms me, and I try not to watch the images on TV. Haiti has been had such a rotten luck, such a rotten deal, out of EVERYTHING that somehow this...

Slavery, war, disease, famine, floods, hurricane after hurricane, poor crops, depressed economy, and now an earthquake.

I don't know. Maybe the equations of suffering have nothing to do with past sufferings. September 11 shook the world, made us cry at the sheer amount of suffering contained in that single episode of American history. It was disconnected from everything else, yet it contained universes in anguish and horror.

Or maybe it does, softening the flesh and tenderizing the senses for the final blow, so that it can hold all the pain inflicted throughout the whole beating.

I mean, fuck!, these people were already eating mud!!! Clay cookies, with a bit of sugar and oil to make it palatable.

...

And reading on the NYTimes today, I learned of a new (old) outrage commited against the Haiti people.

Haitians have been punished ever since for claiming their freedom: by the French
who, in the 1820s, demanded and received payment from the Haitians for the slave
colony, impoverishing the country for years to come[...]

What the fuck!!!!
Since when does the victim of a rape have to compensate the rapist!!
What is the logic behind such a preposterous claim?

How much did the French receive?

And I hope to hell they are planning on giving it back. 'Cause the French have always been some of my most favorite people in the world, and if they don't make at least a gesture in this direction, I think I am going to hate them.

And maybe I have been misinformed on this point, but I heard the first international aid on the scene was sent by the Chinese... Like, really? There was nobody nearer? This thing happened on Tuesday, and the first ones to get there are the Chinese? Kudos on the Chinese; they clearly have taken this seriously enough.