In a blah mood today. I'm still feeling sort of overwhelmed by how awful this earthquake is, and will be, for Haiti. I find this more depressing than 9-11, Katrina or the tsunami. 9-11 was shocking, but the damage was very concentrated/contained. Katrina was sad, but even more it was anger-making because it was handled sooo badly. The tsunami was awful, but it didn't happen in the middle of the frikkin' capital.
When you're in dev areas and political science, you spend a lot of time reading and talking about possible solutions to the extreme economic and power inequalities in our world. And if at some point in your studies you don't feel overwhelmed by a feeling of hopelessness, then you're not (literally) doing your homework. Or maybe you're not old enough--maybe that feeling only comes if you're over 30 and you've been thinking about the topic for at least 10 years. I don't know.
The one country that seemed like the most complex, its problems the most difficult to untangle, was Haiti. They've experienced some really unique successes, like the only successful national slave revolt, and they beat off an invasion by Napoleon's army; but they've also been exploited for gold, had their Amerindian population wiped out, been repopulated by slaves, were colonized (even by pirates) and all the goodies that entails, were apparently so brutal to their slaves that 1/3 of Africans "died within a few years" (wiki); after getting rid of the French (two battles and a payment) they had a despot, then coup after coup, and multiple invasions by other countries; they were occupied by the US, which resulted in a genocide of Haitians who found themselves on the Dominican side of the newly made border; then it was rule by dictator, propped up by the US; then the questionable rule of Aristide, who was violent and stole from his people; and then his debated removal by the US; and just as things might have been getting a leetle bit better, a leetle more stable, this earthquake happened (besides the other tropical storms Haiti regularly endures.)
And that's just a simplistic summary of the bare bones wiki entry.
I'm so emotionally wimpy right now, if Céline goes on Larry King and sings "The Prayer" I'm gonna lock myself in the bathroom and cry like a girl.
1 comment:
"Or maybe you're not old enough--maybe that feeling only comes if you're over 30 and you've been thinking about the topic for at least 10 years. I don't know."
Nah, I wasn't over 30.
And I suspect you are probably in closer emotional proximity to this than me, with such a large Haitian population there. Me, I mostly feel outrage over the fact that my government has had such a direct hand in stripping the country of its infrastructure--and making disasters like this so much more devastating.
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