Dear Haiti…
As I sit at my desk and browse through countless internet clips and news articles covering the horrific events currently taking place in Haiti, my mind is in limbo. I find it hard to concentrate on the repetitive mind numbing financial data analysis that is my job, without being overwhelmed by the rush of emotion I feel with each article. I came across a clip that showed a young woman trapped under a collapsed concrete building screaming in a deafening violent rage while being pulled at the neck by family members in an attempt to save her. Something about seeing human life so close to the brink of nothingness really struck a chord with me. As my eyes began to water I lifted them away from the screen and started to scan the rest of the office. The people in my immediate view path continued to work diligently on their spread sheets or presentations, completely mindless and un moved by the current events of emergency that were clogging the airwaves and televisions. And like anything else I do, I want to figure out why. How can we watch this footage and remain indifferent. Our enslavement to work, individuality, and materialism, leaves us unhealthily emotionally detached from anything that doesn't affect us directly. We need to understand that there is a oneness amongst all living humans that is vehemently ignored. Life is not a singular phenomenon. Life is a plural. Me, you, the thousands of people dying in Haiti all share, and are connected through life. We all inhale and exhale, worry, get excited, become sad, worry, cry, scream and so on. We share the "collective" human experience, so to go unmoved by this baffles me.
We saw the same behavior during hurricane Katrina spear headed by the lack of government action to extend help to those in suffering. When there is disaster that causes or adds a great deal to human death and suffering is cannot be ignored. Action has to be taken. I am not writing this to urge people to fly to Haiti and start scooping people out the gutter to safety because it isn't possible or realistic for a lot of us. I urge you to awaken and move toward a shift in consciousness. A lot of us uppity, spoiled, pretentious Americans have already written Haiti off in our minds as a suffering hell hole that they want no parts of. A place that breeds violence and evil. Sadly these "learned" emotions have been perpetuated through ignorance and fabrication igniting stereo-types and a morbid sense of indifference." The problem with stereo types is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete." ©Anonymous. Learn your history. Haiti has a very rich history that the vast majority of us would never know about. The first step is getting informed and engendering your connectedness to the globe. I don't care how you feel about any group of people. To see human suffering for no reason is beyond unsettling. Wyclef Jean a Haitian native has campaigned in America to raise awareness of political and social unrest that's plaguing the island. Imagine living in a place where the sun barely shines and the grass barely grows. Imagine waking up to a morbid cloud of hopelessness and complacency. Imagine this being your home. And imagine waking up one day, and it's being erased building by building, vibration by vibration, in front of your eyes like the shake of a 1980s etch-a- sketch.
January 14th, 2010 - 01:33
Thank you for this. The realest thing I read all day.
January 14th, 2010 - 02:05
Thank you! I’m glad you felt it.
January 14th, 2010 - 01:56
I mess with it. I felt you writing
January 14th, 2010 - 03:34
Very well said… & I feel the exact same way, care 2 join the peace corps w/ me? lol
January 14th, 2010 - 03:39
peace corp?? lol…are you really thinking about goin?
January 14th, 2010 - 13:31
“Our enslavement to work, individuality, and materialism, leaves us unhealthily emotionally detached from anything that doesn’t affect us directly. We need to understand that there is a oneness amongst all living humans that is vehemently ignored. Life is not a singular phenomenon. Life is a plural.” mmmm Amen. perfectly articulated!!! what can we do to get more ppl to realize this? Have you sent this article in to any newspapers yet?
January 14th, 2010 - 21:10
How afffected are you by suicide bombers killing 18 children? How affected are you about the war in Iraq?? How much does it affect you when an apartment builind in the hood burns to the ground leaving no survivors. Compartively speaking these incidents dont share the magnitude of katrina or the earthquakes in haiti… but lives were lost. Similarly, human lives were on the brink of nothingness. The people at your job didnt come to work today waving the Haitian flag or greet you with a sa passe (sp) but that doesn’t mean they aren’t sympathizing or even empathizing with the cataclysmic loss over in Haiti. Just because you are unable to identify with their idea of “mourning” you can’t label them indifferent. Can you imagine shutting down life everyone time some major disaster struck… or if some isolated incident hit our individual lives. Life must go on if we intend to maintiain sanity.
Did you know theres a number of people suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts because of the movie Avatar. These people are so unsatisfied with life on earth that they wish they were able to share life with the Na’Vi people of Pandora, a fictional utopia of happiness, brotherhood and relentless apprecitation of all living things…….. Can you imagine hating this world that much because of all the natural disasters and unexplainable acts of violence that you would “wish” to share life with fantasy? Sometimes you just have to cut off the news…
Yes become educated, support financially or physically if possible… but life must go on…
January 15th, 2010 - 00:11
I see you your point, but this more so my singular account on the situation. “Seemingly unaffected” is the issue. Not in a “O you need to hop on the G4 and go save haiti”, but in a “im a (human) and we are all connected to let me not spend by days buying into (separatism) via our bipartisan political system, religion beliefs, and so forth). There is a joy in human interaction and connectedness. And with joy comes pain. I suppose I can elaborate on this point in another blog. Thanks for coming to the site though.
January 15th, 2010 - 01:47
ootstanding, spred the word. Well waid, don’t be a slave to the alighty $.
January 19th, 2010 - 02:25
I felt the same way! Watching the footage on Haiti my heart has broken into a million peices over and over again…Not only do I have a lot of close friends with family still living over there but to watch people in such need and all I can do from is sit here & donate $ as they sit, starve and watch their lives literally crumble?? I feel so utterly helpless…
THEN I walked into work and thought I would see what my co-workers thoughts on the whole thing were–they could not have cared less. Absolutely disgusting. They were far more interested in discussing Jersey Shore. *my face*:ARE U F*cking kidding me???
January 26th, 2010 - 20:16
Great piece JD.