The FGS Blog

It’s been a few months since my last blog for a myriad of reasons, none good enough to break a promise of continued writing, but I am ready to mend my ways. Curiously, moving to work after so many weeks away from this blog is like starting fresh. Everything on the site is new to me, as if I had never done this before. It makes one wonder about the intricacies of the human brain–and the calendar.

Today my blog will deal particularly with Haiti. After the earthquake a week ago, the world suddenly became aware of the poverty that incarcerates our neighbors to the south. The popular saying is that the Lord works in mysterious ways. In this case, news broadcasting non-stop from the desolate country has made it possible for everyone across the globe to become aware of the nature of the country’s plight and this realization propels some to come to the rescue of these humble people.

Every television journalist addressing the latest misery to sweep this marginal country is quick to mention the statistics that make Haiti one of the world’s poorest territories, certainly the poorest in the Americas. As television viewers, the cameras expose us to the havoc caused by the earthquake: the loss of life, of property, and of precious economic opportunities in a country that lives, since its independence 200 years ago, immersed in poverty. We come to the conclusion that the Haitian people are amazing survivors.

From the video footage we learn of the tradition and history of sustained corruption that plunders the national treasury and wastes resources sorely needed to foment among the people of Haiti a better tomorrow. And we also hear clearly the people’s gratitude for the handouts they receive after so many days without nourishment or water. We see them meekly thankful for as little as it may seem to us watching from a distance, surrounded by comfort and excess in comparison to what others have in other parts of the world. Subconsciously, we indulge in questions about divine justice, karma, and fate as we digest the visuals.

The daunting images confront us with the dismaying reality that exists a short few hundred miles away. We watch and admire selfless individuals working through charitable organizations that provide humanitarian help to these very unfortunate people. From one side of my family, a little cousin who works with the City of Miami Emergency Rescue is seen on television with several of his colleagues as they drag an elderly lady out of the rubble seven days into the nightmare. The survival of individuals whose time has not yet come is astonishing. From another side of the family, another little cousin, an orthopedic surgeon flown from Pittsburgh in a private donor’s aircraft filled with physicians and medical supplies writes of the ordeals she faced while on the ground without adequate equipment to tend to the gangrene, amputations, and other infections out in the open. And all these raw images also serve to shake us violently inside. They cause us to feel uneasy about our abundance and our ambivalence until now to do something to try to balance some of the inequities that separate us. 

Suddenly, we dismiss the high incidence of AIDS, the hepatitis, the dysentery, the dengue fever, and the tuberculosis that habitually plague these indigent people and, regardless of the risks involved, extending our hand too becomes imperative; raising our voice is now our duty. And we come full circle to the starting point: those of us with ears are now able to hear; with eyes, able to see. Clearly, we hear and we see that which until now was neither audible nor visible to us.  Yes, we clearly feel the mystery of the ways of the Lord.

In closing, I urge you to contribute to make this world more tolerable for those who have so much less than we do. The best known organization that makes life a little easier at everyone’s most serious hour of need is the American Red Cross: www.americanredcross.org. There is also the United Nations World Food Programme at: www.wfp.org. It takes only 25 cents per day for this organization to feed a child somewhere in need. Please donate as often as you can. So many need our help!