Can good sometimes come from misfortune?
The Courier had to make a last-minute change to the contents of this issue to include an article on the hell that descended on Haiti on 12 January. During the weeks since the earthquake, more information has circulated on this country, its people, its history and its culture than ever before.
The works and citations of all those who had sought to present this Caribbean republic in a more just light, generally without success, were all invoked. From André Malraux, André Breton or Jean-Paul Sartre to Sergueï Mikhaïlovitch Eisenstein, director of ‘The Battleship Potemkin’ and whose screenplay ‘Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ on the author of Haitian independence he never succeeded in bringing to the screen, to his great chagrin, although it remained a reference in the university courses he later gave. From Santana to Anaïs Nin, from Aimé Césaire or Léopold Cedar Senghor to Bill Clinton ... they all, in one way or another, considered Haiti’s contribution to the world to be exceptional. We discovered the violence to which Haiti had been subjected, the first country in the New World to experience the very first globalisation after 1492 and two years before it occurred in Cape Verde, the subject of this issue’s report. Haiti experienced torments and the most barbarous form of slavery that began with the arrival of Christopher Columbus,inflicted by constant threats from various powers throughout the 19th century and occupation by the Americans in the early 20th century. Also the struggles for freedom, including its support for the United States for independence in 1776, before its own independence, and the massive aid in terms of men, money and munitions for Bolivar and the liberation of South America.
In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the familiar clichés of Haiti were repeated; this accursed land that has known nothing but chaos. All the governments were tarred with the same brush, forgetting the elections and democratic governments dating back to the 19th century: from Nissage Saget in 1870-1874 to Tiresias Simon Sam from 1896 to 1902 – admittedly sometimes alternating with the most uncompromising of regimes – not to forget the period of enlightenment under Dumarsais Estimé from 1946-1950.
Then the intellectuals and a growing number of journalists started to tell the true story of this land, its people, its riches, its modest but not insignificant contribution to humanism, its many great writers, and its artistic heritage. Also highlighted are the beginnings of a renaissance in recent years, including 13 international prizes for literature and its writers in 2009 alone. The country’s progress too has been exemplified in terms of the political governance of recent years that has largely convinced the international community. Michèle Pierre-Louis is testimony to this fact, still prime minister before the earthquake when she granted The Courier the interview published in this issue. But for many it was the disaster that was the occasion to discover the truth about Haiti.
Were it not for this improved governance the solidarity on the part of the world community may not have been so great. Meeting in Montreal on 25 January, the donor countries may not have been so unanimous in deciding that the Haitian Government was best placed to manage the funds to rebuild the country, following the lead of the European Union that had already granted its support in the form of budgetary aid, a kind of mark of approval.
The Haitian Government says it is ready to begin reconstruction on more reliable bases. One example of this is the Haitian president’s urging of the World Food Programme in particular that emergency food aid should not destabilise local production and be used mainly to constitute stocks. This is not so removed from the problem raised in our articles on the global consensus against hunger or fishery agreements or even climate change. The reason the choices made by Haiti at this point in time have the backing of donors is that global governance has made notable progress in recent times, despite the major apprehensions that remain justified. Our dossier on the G20 and the developing countries illustrates this.
Does this mean that good can come from misfortune? It depends. Only time will tell.
