a reflection on Haiti

I am so overwhelmed with sadness when I see these newscasts and online photos coming out of Haiti. The helplessness and hopelessness these people must feel weighs on me. The not knowing the whereabouts of your friends and family - or even whether they're still alive - has got to be heartbreaking. And then if you find out that your people are alive, but injured, can they even get medical help? Can they get food? Can they get clean water?

The Charleston newspaper ran a story in this morning's paper that ended with telling about a man who had just flown to Miami from Port-au-Prince before the earthquake struck. He left behind a wife and a young daughter for a short business trip. When he landed in Miami and learned the news, he started calling them. His quote: "I call. I call. I call. No one answers." Can you imagine how helpless this man feels? Or his wife and daughter if they're trapped under rubble? Or if they're alive and trying to get in touch with him and can't, knowing that he must be worried sick. It's the stuff of my nightmares.

I have never been to Haiti, although Jimmy was assigned there before our move to Brazil. He was due to start French training in Virginia when he was offered the job as the regional environmental officer in Brasilia. That job became open very unexpectedly because the woman who held that job was diagnosed with a very aggressive, terminal cancer. In the blink of an eye, our fate changed and we never made it to Haiti.

So while we've never been to the poorest country in the western hemisphere, we have lived in a country that is slightly poorer than Haiti in terms of GDP and per capita income. While there were a handful of wealthy people in Mozambique, the overwhelming majority of people there live in a kind of poverty that I could never even imagine in my most horrible nightmares. Today in Mozambique, the average per capita income is $320. And in Haiti? $400.

Do you understand that?

They have to spread out 400 measly dollars over 365 days. They have to raise their children on $400 a year. They have to eat, clothe themselves, provide shelter. That is less than 92 cents a day to survive.

And then an earthquake comes along and snatches away any little bit of anything they have.

I have heard the arguments that people give about these poor countries: the people must not be industrious, they must be lazy, they must be stupid.

These people are none of the above. They are simply trying to survive one day at a time. There but for the grace of God was I born to parents in the United States. Any of us, but for the grace of God, could have been born in the Haitis and Mozambiques of this world.

As bad as this awful global recession is in the developed world - and believe me, I am not minimizing the devastating effects that it has had on many, many people's lives - we all still live in a relatively comfortable world that's light years beyond what these people live in the best times their countries have ever seen. If you're reading this, you're on a computer, which means you have enough money to spend at least the $300 that the cheapest little computers cost now. In Haiti, that little computer would be 3/4 of your annual income.

This morning on the way to school, I heard the deejay on a Christian radio station talk about comments made by televangelist Pat Robertson. I haven't been able to get the full transcript. But here's part, in case you haven't heard these inflammatory comments.

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," the controversial televangelist said during an interview Wednesday on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

"They were under the heel of the French...and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.'"

Robertson continued: "True story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' They kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got themselves free. Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other."

Robertson went on to note that though Haiti shares the same island with the Dominican Republic, it remains desperately poor while its neighbor is "prosperous, healthy and full of resorts."

"[Haitians] need to have a great turning to God, and out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come," Robertson said.

He also called the earthquake "a blessing in disguise".

I think Mr. Robertson and I must be watching different coverage. I have seen footage of spontaneous prayer services and singing that have sprung up in the midst of this despair. I don't worship the devil, but it didn't seem like devil-worshipping to me. This is exactly the sort of stuff that gives Americans in general and Christians in particular a bad name all around the world.

I will get off my soapbox for now. I hope that you're remembering those people in Haiti, whether it be with your prayers or your financial contributions. They need it more we can imagine.