Trans(actions) : Trans(acciones)

Haitian migrants at sea : borrowed from haupinc.org

By now most of the world knows of the catastrophic earthquake that has battered Haiti. I first learnt about it while listening to Radio Isla, a Puerto Rican station, on my mobile phone. The journalist, who patched together the breaking news with audio from CNN en Español, highlighted the fact that a tsunami wave might hit nearby island nations in the Caribbean. In those first moments, the spread effects of the quake were the primary concerns. Fortunately, no major calamities were registered outside the country.  Now the story turns back to Hispañola, where the 7.3 quake left a devastating trail of death and destruction.

The seismic activity is expected to leave hundreds of thousands dead or injured and many more without running water, a fundamental resource. In the face of mounting hardship, local and international aid workers and volunteers have flocked over to lend their expertise and offer primary goods to help the country recover. Considering the obvious need and urgency, I wonder how on-the-ground efforts will be coordinated and how aid will be distributed given that plenty of government buildings—located in Port-au-Prince—were left in ruins and state workers are amongst the many left for dead or without homes. Whether state institutions would have been capable of dealing with this calamity, even if left unscathed, is an interesting question, but matters do get more complicated without the assistance of bureaucrats who know how to navigate through the country’s social and political mazes. Even a failed state can be of some use than no state at all.

Another set of questions stem from these ruminations: how will the Haitian diaspora respond? What will be their role in the recovery and reconstruction processes? What will the country’s transnational citizens contribute beyond much-needed dollars? News reports point to some preliminary responses. The title of a recently-published piece in the NYT is telling: “Haitians in New York are Eager to Help, but Struggle With How”. The story explains how migrants have become accustomed to gathering donations and rallying together when a hurricane blasts the country or floods affect certain regions, but the current scenario is very different. With many areas left without communication and transport to the island becoming increasingly hard to find, remittances are hard to disburse. Those in New York, Miami or Boston ask themselves: where is my family? What can we send? How do we get it there?

International aid advisors are quick to point out how collecting canned foods, clothing and medicines amount to a drop in the bucket. The article posted reactions by Jocellyn McCalla, an advisor to Haiti’s UN advisor:

He had two bits of advice for those who wanted to help: Think beyond the short term, and expect to take trips to Haiti to provide on-the-ground help. “Haitians should be rolling up their sleeves and committing some part of their jobs,” he said. “Haiti will be facing storms like clockwork. They should be volunteering to provide support and expertise.”

Asides from dollars, knowledge gained outside from home will be crucial, social remittances will be in high demand. Furthermore, for migrants who lead transnational livelihoods, the devastating earthquake affects not just those they left behind, but their own lives. An article by Bianca Vázquez Toness, from WBUR in Boston, captures the complexities of living in transnational social spaces and underscores the uncertainty faced Haitian migrants, especially those who just arrived to the United States.

“They’ll need emotional help, like how to cope with the fact that the country that you just left within the last year has completely been destroyed,” said Rhode Milord Leblanc, who counsels new immigrant Haitians in Mattapan. “You’re here and you came here for a better life. How do you move on knowing a lot of people came here specifically to help their family back home? They don’t have a home anymore. They don’t have a family.”

Instead of sending millions of dollars home to help their families, they may now send it home to rebuild or to bring more family here and focus their attention on Boston.

What sort of responses—from within the country and abroad—will this grim chapter in Haiti’s history spawn is something that I’ll be monitoring. Refugees, expats, laborers and other migrants have a long history of working for the betterment of their home communities. Whether they act collectively—through hometown associations—or individually—by sending cash to their families—makes a difference.

Nevertheless, this might prove to be an important turning point in Haiti’s history. Instead of endorsing a negative view of what’s to come after the voyage down the long and treacherous road to recovery, I want to imagine some bright spots in the future.  Like Smith Atibon Nazaire, a Haitian who resides Boston, I feel that a turnaround is possible:

“Because with some creativity, this could be the renaissance, if you will,” he said. “This could be the start of something fantastic. As painful as it is, I’m going to remain optimistic. My home is going to be my home, in spite — despite — of whatever.”

Although the deck has been stacked against them for ages, the people of Haiti can execute a transformation. They have suffered too much and for too long.

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Need a primer on Haiti’s history and its current socioeconomic situation? Here are some multimedia tools that I’ve found quite useful:

The Kingdom of This World- A classic novel by Alejo Carpentier set in the aftermath of Haiti’s glorious revolution

Haiti’s history of misery- A news report by the BBC

Haiti—Paradise Lost- Part of a special audio report by Radio Netherlands Worldwide on “failed states”