Haiti- completing the revolution

Haiti is one of the most interesting and gloroius contries I could have visited. Like most Haitians I am, at least partly, a descendant of black Africans brought to the new world by the transatlantic slave trade. For me Haiti has almost a spiritual quality.Haiti was founded as the first independant nation in Latin America in the culmination of a succesful slave rebellion. It became the world's first black led republic, and in this history I see some of my own values- solidarity and freedom. Yet I also see the opposite as well. The history of Haiti is extremely complex and tragic. The blame for Haiti's problems lie both on the outside world, and with Haiti's own homegrown tyranical despots and indifferent bourgesie.

I visited haiti to volunteer with my skills as a new doctor. What I saw where I volunteered was heartbreaking poverty like I have never before seen but also some hints of hope. I worked with an organization run by a woman who had grown up in Haiti, and left. She chose to establish a charity which does extremely helpfull work. And it may be that if Haiti has any hope it is through people like her. Waiting for governments or the rich elites to help may very well be futile. These elites are often no better than a more genteel version of the old colonial masters that Haiti threw off over 200 years ago.

As a medical professional, I am interested in issues of health. I saw very quickly, that as much as Haiti could use a few more enthusiastic young doctors, doctors are not the solution to the problems of Haiti. The true solutions are better health literacy, and better public health and infrastructure. Take for instance the alarming rates of giardiasis- giardia parasite in the water supply that infects humans when the drink it. If more Haitians were literate they might be able to read warnings that you need to boil the water there before drinking; on the other hand if the infrastructure around water were better, Haitians would be able to get clean drinkable water without such effort. Ultimately the solution will come when more Haitians become literate and aware of the issue, and demand of themselves that they will build the infrastructure to get clean water out to the whole country.
In the wake of the earthquake  I think it is important that we remember history. I think we can look at the example of Warsaw for hope. This Polish city was pretty much knocked into the ground completely during World War II. It was not an earthquake but human insanity that turned a beautiful vibrant historic city into a pile of rubble. I have visited Warsaw, and seen with my own eyes how a city can rise again. Historic Warsaw was rebuilt to painstaking unbelievable detail in large part with money from the Polish diaspora. Only old photographs capture the truth that it once became dust. It is my hope that the same can happen to Port-au-Prince. I believe the Haitian diaspora, and perhaps even the broader African diaspora will play key part if the problems of Haiti are ever going to be fixed, because the problems are tremendous.
In my eyes the problems of Haiti boil down to the fact that a majority of it's population is locked into a cycle of poverty. There is no free education for all- so there is simply no way out. Haiti's literacy rate is approximately 50%. Adding catholic values, and a lack of contraception and family planning resources on top of this, it is easy to see that there is a possibility of generations of Haitians stuck in cycles of poverty and misery struggling to simply keep their many children alive. But this generation of children may be different.
If something good comes out of the earthquake perhaps it will be that it has put Haiti in the hearts and minds of people like myself. People who can see the problems and realize that what the country needs is no less than a completely new kind of revolution. I am not speaking of political revolution- but a revolution of consciousness. The problems of Haiti do not have to wait 6 generations to be solved by some sort of global capital trickle down that draws heavily on charity. With innovative solutions the problems of Haiti could see a solution in the next decade. In the 21st century, we, normal people like myself have unparalleled opportunity to plan and create solutions- to better our world.
I hope that my own personal contribution to Haiti will be to contribute some ideas about how to reach illiterate rural people with health care. But I have no delusions that my contribution will be a fairly small one. The real project that I hope that the Haitian people will take on is literacy. Literacy for all will be the ultimate empowerment of the people, and also reflect the true hope of the Haitian revolution-  liberty.

Poetry to an ex

You are poison
You run through my thoughts
faster than the blood in my veins
Hurting me, and everything I touch
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I've decided that maybe I should bloh out my negativity towards my ex, as well as everything else that runs through my head. I need an outlet for my opinions. Maybe that is one of the reasons people get married.