Tuesday, January 19, 2010

 

Haiti again

I feel so helpless and heartsick watching these images of post earthquake Haiti.I wish I could do more than text "Help" to Digicel's 5151 and go beyond involving myself with organising supplies for the dispossessed. I wish I had the means to be on the ground in Haiti even though I suspect the scale of the disaster would further overwhelm me. I want to help to pull people from the rubble. I want to hold a terrified child and tell him/her everything will be okay and make them believe it. I want to mourn with the people who have lost loved ones and so much more.

Instead, I am here pondering how life could be so unbelievably harsh. How for many living is an art as they struggle daily to beat enormous odds. It sobers me that that even though I am no better than the displaced my house is intact and my loved ones are safe. I can't make sense of why Mother Nature is battering Haiti like this and maybe there is no rhyme or reason. Maybe it just is.

Lately though, I am becoming turned off by CNN's coverage which is becoming too sensationalist for my taste. While it's a given that networks thrive on ratings and disasters are guaranteed to spike them it's a bit much. I surely don't need to see the same scenes being played over and over again and the gratuituous back patting. Enough already!

I hope that sooner rather than later we will see a semblance of a distribution sytem that will get aid to the suffering people. Until that is addressed desperate people will take matters into their own hands.

Comments:
I can't make sense of why Mother Nature is battering Haiti

Mama Nature doesn't exactly play fair.
 
Abeni,I know what you're saying is true. Those people are dying of thirst and we take for granted the water that we use everyday, On Sunday Jan. 31st my church is having a benifit concert for the people of Haiti.
For now celebrate the small miracles and ignore all the tasteless news.
 
I feel you. It's heartbreaking to watch. I wish I could be on the front lines too. I've moved to only reading about it what's going on and the relief efforts. I can't stomach the images or the bs news reporting.
 
i've actually avoided most of the cnn coverage cause I know they tend to go too far. Plus I'm tired of the foreign press' take on Haiti
 
jdid, Did you see this http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=letters&NewsID=8490 Perhaps the time has come for Caribbean leaders and academics should begin speak up and change the way the world sees Haiti.
 
I cannot agree with you guys more. I wish I could be there helping especially the children left behind struggling for themselves. I've made my donation to the Red Cross and my local organization here is sending water and baby milk..the little we can do in a mass relief effort.

I too am disheartened by the foreign press, more so the American media. It annoyed me that Haitian nurses and doctors could not get into Haiti to help but every (white) reporter was getting in for their photo ops and humanitarian stories to build their resumes. I am so annoyed.

Campfyah
 
everything you have said in this post is exactly how i feel.
 
True words Abeni. I just continue to pray.
 
I hate the noise that's come out of this tragedy, the ignorant statements, the silly view points, the endless blame.
 
Welcome zooms and thks guys for all the comments
 
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