This Makes Sense to Me

 

(Photo by John Carroll. Malnutrition Annex, Hopital Albert Schweitzer.)

Eighteen months after "bagay la" ("the thing") brought Haiti to its knees, Haiti is still on its knees.

Sorry, but it is.

Big timers and little timers have tried to help Haiti and many have done some good.

But Haiti needs a government. And after Haiti has a government, it needs a government that is decentralized.

And Haiti needs the post earthquake 10 billion dollars pledged from the international community to help Haitians that need the most help.

Michele Montas-Dominique, in Paul Farmer's book "Haiti--After the Earthquake", quoted a Haitian farmer:

"Why can't the donors buy food from us and distribute that food to the affected regions?"

That sure makes sense to me.

Just think if a Haitian farmer was given 100 dollars from international funds for a certain amount of rice and beans. And that rice and beans was then given to people who are starving in Haiti...and I have seen many kids starving in Haiti during the last 18 months.

If this happened, the farmer could use the 100 dollars to support his family, and grow more food. And the kids would eat rice and beans bought for them by funds from the international community. And the kids hunger pains would be much less and their mothers would be much happier. And maybe the kids could even go to school and stay awake and learn something valuable that day.

And this little example that I give could and should be extended to many other jobs for Haitians in Haiti.

There is much work to be done in Haiti and there are many Haitians to do the work. They need to be paid fairly for their work so they can feed their families.

This can't be so hard.