It is hard to know where to begin or what words to choose. Writing about an event so cataclysmic as the January 12th earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince Haiti, seems almost impossible. No text can capture the sadness, the loss, the suffering. So, here I will write a few words and post a link to the Boston Globe’s photographs, (at the end of this post) which helped me see what took place. First though, let me urge you to donate to Doctors Without Borders. This is an efficient and competent organization whose workers have been in Haiti for several years. They know how to help and they are already there. Consider a donation of any amount. Everything helps.

From the distance of America, it is hard to read about and watch the suffering in Haiti. One feels urged to go help, to donate, to do something. I urged my students at AU to at least read or watch everything they could about what happened, to enter the experience in some way. This can be a learning opportunity, for those of us at a distance.

My friend, poet Michael Gushue posted some historical information to his facebook page and I want to share some of it here. It is useful to read and consider.

1780’s - Haiti - then called Saint-Domingue – is known as the ''Pearl of the Antilles,” one of the richest islands in France's empire. 60 per cent of all the coffee and 40 per cent of all the sugar consumed in Europe comes from Haiti.

1804 - The people of Haiti gain their independence, the only country to gain independence as the result of a slave revolt.

1825 - France demands that Haiti pay the French government 150 million gold francs ($21.7 billion in current dollars) to "compensate" French plantation slave-owners for their "financial losses" and in exchange for France's recognition of Haiti's independence. This is ten times Haiti's total 1825 revenue and twice the price of the Louisiana Purchase. All the public schools in Haiti are closed in order to make the first payment. In the ensuing years, up to 80% of government revenue goes for debt payment.

1915 – The U.S. invades and occupies Haiti, in part to force repayment of the debt, much of which the U.S. has assumed.

1947 – Haiti makes its last payment on the debt (plus interest), 123 years later.

2004 - President Jean Bertrand Artistide makes an official request to France for restitution based on the “unjust debt” principle and France’s recognition that slavery is a crime against humanity. The French government places Haiti on a list of "undesirable" countries not to be visited.

2009 – a meeting of international diplomats pledges $750 million per year for development. Haiti's current external debt is $1.9 billion, or 253% of the $750 million yearly commitment.

Currently, in Haiti: 98% of land area deforested, 80% of population under the poverty line, unemployment rate is 75%, 80 deaths per 1,000 live births, 149th out of 182 on the Human Development Index, 168 out of 180 on the Corruption Perceptions Index. This is all prior to the earthquake.

One can see why Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. It has been the victim of colonialism’s greed, as well as a series of dictators who ravaged the land and its people for their own luxury. It has been forced to pay on unjust debts for most of its national existence. Thus, Haiti is left today as near a failed state as one can be. Yes, there is a government, but as we see now, it is a government that barely functioned before the earthquake. Today, it is a government in name only. While I am no historian, I know that America’s involvement and promises to Haiti have largely been fitful. We have invaded, to protect  our own interests and have backed dictators there, also to protect American companies using Haiti’s land and resources.

Many American individuals and organizations have been remarkably generous in Haiti. As we see now after the earthquake, people in this country are willing to give and to help as they can. This is surely a hopeful inclination upon which we can build.

Perhaps one step we can take is to let this awful event of nature, urge us to reflect upon how we see our connection to other people. Do we have a responsibility for the well-being of Haitians? What would it mean to answer that question with a “no” or a “yes?”

I sometimes think, while watching news accounts of the earthquake and its aftermath, this could be the place where we make intelligent use of the world’s largest military. With the nominal government’s permission, why couldn’t the US, with other countries, go in and truly organize the relief effort so that it is effective? Wouldn’t this be a good use of the massive military we often use so unwisely?

It seems to me this earthquake is one more example of the need for each of us to develop a more competent and compassionate engagement with the world. Why don’t we have experts in our government, imagining in advance, how to help a country devastated by hurricanes or earthquakes or floods? As a country and as individuals, we need to make the cause of people all over the world our own. We need to teach our children geography and history far more intensely than we do. We need to travel more so that we feel less at a distance from places like Haiti, Rwanda, and Congo. Perhaps this awful earthquake can serve at least to soften us up a bit, to learn, to act.

Here are some photographs from the Boston Globe which helped me to see the human edge of this earthquake.