forgetting Haiti

they are still counting ballots in Haiti to decide who won the election - the academic or the pop star and many Haitians have a general "why bother?" feeling about it all since a year has passed since the quake and over a million Haitians are still living in tents.

In just a few short weeks the rainy season will arrive there and with it, the still existing Cholera epidemic is expected to flare grossly out of its hibernation.

The crisis in Haiti has been overshadowed by all the other crisises in the news. The unknown extent of the nuclear crisis in Japan, the no-fly zone in Libya that seems to know be extending to the ground, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, elections and budget crisis in every nation has pulled the attention of the world's good will and charity from the victims of Haiti's quake and cholera epidemic.

Not to mention the fact that recovery of Haiti is without simple solutions or quickly rewarding gains. Haiti's economy does not have the reach and impact on other countries that Japan's does, or Libya. Quite simply, Haiti has little to offer in international currency so the drum the media beats about their cause only has fervor when there is nothing more dramatic to tell.

What we fail to see is the golden opportunity that Haiti represents to the international community. Helping Haiti to recover, rebuild and grow is something that can be achieved if a little focus is applied. The very lack of international interdependence and the smallness of the population and country make it an ideal proving ground to hone the effectiveness of compassionate rescue as an international community. If we can help Haiti to recover its standing, we will have learned a great deal about how to go about helping ourselves and others do the same.

It just lacks the glamour and ratings draw of disasters in countries that are more entwined in each other's economies. To choose to help Haiti would be an exercise in international compassion rather than merely an exercise in protecting interests.

For that reason, not allowing Haiti to be forgotten is of far greater importance to every country than bombing the shit out of someone we don't like over oil and ignoring the same atrocities being committed by the ones we do like (over oil). Because before we knew what to do with oil and for long after we have run out of oil - we will have each other. In the end, the primal fuel of the world is human endeavor. All these other fuels are mere tools for that engine.

MK is driving me insane. I have actually fled the house to get away from her endless poking. She is being driven crazy by the almost spring weather. One hour it is warm enough for me to have the door open and she can run in and out, then the temperature plunges and she is stuck with me.

She doesn't want to play really, she just wants to know that my attention is on her. So every time I turn my back to her she stands up and poke poke pokes at me with one paw (claws in) until I turn around and then she wanders away.

Its like having a permanent 3 year old in the house, only this one has been a toddler now for over 6 years. I catch myself looking at her and wonder what she would have been like if we had a more normal experience together instead of this constantly being alone together and piled up on each other.

Oh well....

Life is good, things I have been working on for years are coming to pass (and I am just going to write the last year off as a brain fart all around - who knew what I was thinking or doing? I have never been less of myself in my life then in the past year).

And on and on and on...

I am lusting after an e-reader.


c.2011. Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.