Junkanoo in The Bahamas
On the first anniversary of one of history’s worst natural disasters, Haiti despair is still felt. “The earthquake drew a remarkable emergency response from the international community. It also prompted ambitious plans to reconstruct, even reinvent, the hemisphere’s poorest nation – to “build it back better.” Two-thirds of the 1.5 million Haitians left homeless by the quake still live in tents, and fewer than half the 45,000 t-shelters that the U.N. and other housing organizations had hoped to build by now have been erected.” There is a need to do more and the children of Haiti remains hopeful. “But the recovery process really hasn’t begun yet.” To add to their woes the people of Haiti have to deal with a recent cholera epidemic.
Today I pray for all souls (volunteers, leaders, the wealthy, dying) especially the poor, the hungry the unemployed all victims of persecution, injustice and discrimination of any kind.
Photographed by Orlando Barria
It is the official start of the hurricane season and the Caribbean ramps up efforts to be prepared. Tropical storm Agatha pre-empted the start of the season and ravaged Guatemala (Central America on May 29, 2010) and killed more than one hundred people. Dozens more are still missing after landslides destroyed communities. El Salvador and Honduras also suffered death and destruction. As our thoughts and prayers flit around the Caribbean we look back on the chronology of hurricane disasters in the region. Let us remember the displaced especially the many Haitians who are in camps due to the earthquake disaster earlier this year. Also pray for those Islands that are at sea level or are barely above sea level namely the islands of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayers.
Photographed by Anthony Asael
Can you believe that it is week 17 of 2010 and it feels like so many things have happened in so few weeks? Wow! We thought we said goodbye to the recession blighted old year of 2009. Now there is still financial crisis and recession which continues to shock the world, the growing fiscal deficits which call for the increase dependence on the World Bank and IMF. Many have sleepless nights over environmental risks; many mention ‘going green.’ Also there is the unpredictability of the weather leaving billions homeless and millions dead. There is ethnic strife, famines, increased civil wars, ongoing guerilla conflicts. So far this is quote an exhaustive list but far from complete, the losses of 2010 are profound. In contrast, hey, the upside is that gold has regained popularity with Central Banks across the world.
On a more local level when we visit the grocery stores we see prices increasing. To understand the conundrum that we are in we need to take a step back and see ourselves. We would be faced with obstacles no matter what. Let us put it this way the more mountains we climb the stronger our legs become, the fitter we get and the better we feel. Do not be sidetracked, be encouraged, and be excited by ‘tough times’ because these impediments would make us be the giant we all would like to become.
Folks have a wonderful day!
Photographed by Brenda l. McCartney
I remembered the first time I visited Montserrat after the volcanic crisis; a friend took me to visit the danger zone. Plymouth (the capital) was uninhabitable and totally abandoned, boxes of shoes lay in shoe stores, curtains blew from opened windows, and the town was so empty that you could hear an echoing sound from the wind in every direction. I did not cry and my friend asked if I was that cold. In hindsight, I realized there are certain losses that are deeper than tears. I carried the loss within me then and still now; for me it was a mixture of emotions.
In my later teens and into my early adulthood I enjoyed my island as everyone should. For example there were many Fridays I packed my clothes into a nap sack and did not return to my home until Mondays as I traversed every mountain trail, drank from many ghauts and rivers and rested under many trees that provided shade from South to North of Montserrat. I did not have a sleeping bag or tent but sheets and slept in the open under the sky. The spirituality of every track, soil, bank, hill, mountain and river that once thrust inside me had once again bonded me to those moments as I gazed at my ravaged town. I am thankful that I experienced those sacred places and they took me in before they were filled with debris or were obliterated.
Another of my memories was going with my mother to her work place which stood on St. Georges Hill. That location provided one of the most picturesque views of Plymouth and surrounding villages. Later, I visited the location during another visit where the impact from the pyroclastic flow blew out the inside of the building and banked the cliff the building stood on just seconds short totally obliterating the entire place.
One of the most amazing things is that while I am writing this post, is that I did not verbalize what I am writing but my daughter just stood beside me saying that she was painting a volcano. That is the power of connection. So even though she is a descendant who has not traversed the ghauts, mountains, hills and gullies of Montserrat there is soulful connection. Isn’t life a mystery?
As the news media is bombarded with various natural disasters Iceland, Haiti, India, China, Montserrat and so many others, I empathize with the losses but there is one thing we all have that can never be taken from us. That is our memories; the stories, the experiences and the collective understanding as these calamities are all unique as they have affected what we call home.
The Black pig's resilience made them a symbol for the Haitian people.
I woke up this morning thinking about the poem attached and about the countries and islands world wide that have been struck by devastation.
I wondered how many of us remember the displaced and the disadvantaged when their plight is not being sensationalized in the media? How many of us say a prayer on a regular basis and include them. For those of us who lead spiritual lives do we actually pray and fast for those who are in distress?
Today I pray for all souls (volunteers, leaders, the wealthy, dying) especially the poor, the hungry the unemployed all victims of persecution, injustice and discrimination of any kind.
Lord Hear Our Prayer
Daily rations
Infants
Barefooted squalor
Intrusive news reporters
Bulling armies
Grown men treated like children
Given orders
When to sleep, live, shut up
And when to die
Developed countries welcoming few
Condemned to their prison
Exploitation at new levels
A chance for the complacent to seem caring
Did you care for Haiti before now?
Do you know its history?
Will you care next year when it is not popular to care?
We long forgot Ethiopia, Somalia
the Democratic Republic Congo, Darfur, Cambodia,
Slaughter in India last year this time
We long forgot China, Japan
Mexico and other earthquake disasters
We long forgot the Philippines
And Tsunami prone countries
We still forget those killed in wars
30 dead in Iraq
We do not bat an eye
5 dead Afghanistan
We sigh and turn away
Death is no more significant than an action movie
Real life bodies piled up
While the hero moves on
No tears are left from those who do not feel this pain
-
Poem written by Enrique and Brenda McCartney
Life in Haiti is fragile
The shadows of devastation
The rain of human loss
Shocking after shocks
Broken once again
The vulnerable
The repeated tragedies
Less food on the table
Eighty percent lived on less than two dollars a day
The earthquake plowed
Emotions chopped
Tears collage
The world watch uncomfortable
Cathedral caught fire
Palace crumbled
The homeless slept in the streets
As millions wept
A canvas of massive destruction
The afternoon of terrified reactions
Lasted less than a minute
Unnerving, anxious yet disturbing
The pouring in of aid
After magnitude seven
Millions scrambled with unclenched fists
Other nations exhaled
Crashing emotions
Storm tangled
Registered our disbelief
The stench of death Hailed
Dragging carcasses
Fumy
The January scene of carnage
Undifferentiated mass of grey
Bodies lie in their blood
Splintered limbs
The limbless
Bundled like victims of massacre
The loosening of roots
Coffin passed through the streets on wheel barrows
The bereaved in search of empty crypts
To lay the dead
Millions left not being fed
No ceremonies
No large gatherings
No eulogies
Only a prayer
And time for a rapid succession of grief
Human side
Captivated the world
Wave of trauma
Generations of Poverty
Political persecutions
Hurricane catastrophe
Become symbols of degradation
Poem by Brenda L McCartney
Click here to help Haiti
Recent Comments