Why Haiti is Worth Helping

Earthquake damage in Jacmel, Haiti.

My uncle could've been killed in Haiti when a gun was pointed to his head while he was being robbed for money...or died in the car accident that left him seriously bloodied and injured...or met death at the hands of robbers in another ambush.

But my uncle is a survivor.

Although his co-worker had later bled to death after escaping a crumbled building in the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake in the Caribbean nation, my uncle made his way out of the rubble and dirt in the same structure to evade the same fate.

Not long afterward, he sat in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, questioning whether it was all a dream. Limping and bruised, he eventually walked past much of the chaos and countless dead bodies and made it home to find his house damaged but not completely destroyed. He lived in his car and ate whatever food he could find before making his way to the Dominican Republic, where he eventually got on a plane bound for Florida.

Death also did not seize some of my other family members in Haiti — but tragedy did.

Yet despite losing their homes and many of their material possessions, many Haitians, including my family members, have kept their courage and will to survive through horrible circumstances — a rich spirit that perhaps few other people can claim.

Just consider the beat-the-odds mentality Haitians have displayed to the world throughout their history.

Haitians suffered through slavery, revolted and freed themselves more than 200 years ago. They were economically wronged upon self-emancipation, facing a nation, France, which took the step of requiring them as the victors in their revolution to pay reparations. The obligations of reparations helped engineer a dysfunctional national experience, and Haitians also lived under brutal dictatorships, political intimidation and coup d'états. Haiti eventually saw nearly 20 years of American occupation, misguided leadership that fostered massive deforestation and many problems. And they have endured several natural disasters, including four hurricanes in 2008. The list of travails goes on.

Now ponder what we've recently seen in the media:

Amid the quake-wrought shambles, Haitians sang in the streets. Although they also take time to weep, they have not given in to hopelessness. Haitians have chosen to move forward.

I have witnessed their toughness and struggles during visits to Haiti. In 2007, I saw poverty so massive that it made our problems in the United States seem like mere inconveniences. Many of the Haitians who live on roughly $2 a day make their wages by selling miscellaneous items, begging and hustling on tattered streets. Power outages were a common occurrence.

Several years before 2007, beggars jumped on a car my family was in, apparently desperate to pry some money from us.

If Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, surrendered to hopelessness in such circumstances, people would probably understand. But they haven't.

As a Haitian-American, I have seen this fight for survival in how my family is dealing with this tragedy. We support each other — financially and emotionally — and hold on to hope, even when we find out that friends in Haiti have died.

Does that mean our attitudes are not based on reality?

No.

They're partly based on the knowledge that Haitians are expert survivors in life. Consider my uncle, who rose from poverty, received part of his education in France on a scholarship, got a good job in a country where unemployment is as high as 70% by some measures, and works hard enough to have a home in Haiti and Florida and support his wife and kids — all in the face of difficult and even life-threatening situations.

Such survivor's instincts are part of the reason that my single mom — who raised two sons while going to school and working and, in Haiti, experienced days without eating — has made a success of her life in spite of seemingly insurmountable problems. That spirit is why Haitians have achieved some civic and governmental successes despite having the deck stacked against them since the day they won their freedom.

Making good come out of bad circumstances — and keeping the courage and the will to live — is commendable. Doing so after years of many devastating circumstances is remarkable.

Earthquakes and aftershocks may shake Haiti but they will not destroy the Haitian people, because we're survivors.

All is not well, to be sure. Haiti definitely needs help.

I talked to my uncle over the phone recently. He landed in Florida on January 26 — traumatized, thinner and sleep-deprived. He doesn't have a habitable home in Haiti for now.

As we spoke over the phone, my uncle told me that our family members — those we've heard from, at least — are well (in the sense that they are alive).

Yes, they have lost their homes and have suffered much. But, he repeated, they are well.

Samuel Richard is Managing Editor at the L.A. Watts Times.

Photo from U.S. Deparment of Defense.

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