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Written by Andre Grant

The overarching issue of this year so far has been the earthquakes in Haiti. Rightfully so. The Haitian people have been so dutifully bellowed by the media as “The poorest country in the Western hemisphere”. Words have never been at their most misleading as when they are spoken out of context. They are poor only in name, not in body, not in mind and certainly not in soul. The people of Haiti should stand out as the epitome of that most basic human need. The need to be free. The need to be the designers of their own destiny. How many times has tragedy befallen them and they have started over? How many times has the world made them pay for daring to declare their independence from their colonial enslavers so very long ago? Could you imagine the person that has left you beaten and bloodied on the arena floor finding themselves now bloodied and beaten demanding you pay them for setting yourself free? Reparations they would call them, snarling at you between bloody teeth and rotting gums?

Haiti has spent most of their history fighting both the external forces of tyranny and the internal forces of greed and corruption.

Nothing illuminates this more forthrightly than first their debt to France over the issue of their independence and consequently their debt to the rest of the major Western powers over the issue of covering that original debt. That imaginary debt. That debt that only existed in the minds of their powerful former colonial esquires who became their economic Galactus swallowing up their monies whole and leaving nothing but debt. Le Grande Mort. But, the human response to the disaster has been angelic in its scope and execution.

Responding with over a Billion dollars in aid provided by over 30 nations, personal organizations, public organizations and private enterprises. And, it hasn't just been money. The United Nations, UNICEF, Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, Yele, and tens of other organizations have joined in the fight to try to provide adequate food and water, health care and housing to those affected by the disaster. There has been an unquantifiable outpour of prayer, moral support, civilian donations, thought, conversation, music, art and love that this earthquake has brought to Haiti's people from its fellow man. Through the tragedy and death the world has learned a bit of something about Haiti and I hope about itself. Haiti will not go quietly. They will rebuild. Hopefully, the world will exonerate them of their debt and they can truly have a proper start. There will be obstacles but they will persevere. And, not with the devil at the helm as a crazed Pat Robertson stated not days after they were stricken with destruction so rampant it can only be called an act of God. No, it will be with ingenuity and innovation and an indomitable spirit at the helm. Guiding them out of the forest of names. This is what I hope the world has learned. Naming something does not allow you the weight of understanding.

Perhaps now we can stop putting a complex human drama in black and white catch phrases. Perhaps now we will avoid the urge to dismiss an entire people based on a history we do not have any knowledge of. Like, Katrina and the Tsunami before it lets allow ourselves to really empathize with our fellow humans if only for a little while. These are the few times in our lives when right and wrong are so boldly written. Let us go the way of the right in us all and exonerate Haiti not only of its monetary debts but its social and historical debts as well. And, in this era of mass communication and information let us not allow this to fade from view. I look back sometimes and wonder how it could be five years since Katrina occurred already. Things so quickly become old news in our world but the wounds in Louisiana and in our Nation are as fresh as ever. We are in it for the long haul with Katrina as well as Haiti. That is something I am more than proud to say as a man, an American and as a human being.

-Managing Editor
5point MAGAZINE