There was apparently a minor riot this morning because someone falsely reported that there was water available at a certain point. They lack food, water, medicine, shelter, the equipment to move the rubble. There are supplies at the airport and out at sea and there is no way to get them safely to those who need them most.
Haiti has what is left of a government meeting in a police station that is barely standing. Communication is fractured. Effective decisions cannot be made because they do not know what is out there. They do their best. Their best is not going to be good enough in this situation. It is not their fault. They were already trying to govern a country that was so corrupt and poverty stricken and violent it was almost ungovernable. Haiti needs an army with guns to restore order.
But, in between, there are small pockets of hope. A twelve year old girl arrived at the makeshift hospital Tom is working in. She had a new born baby in her arms. She had delivered the baby. The mother had died so she had brought the baby to the hospital. Did she know the mother's name? No, the mother was a complete stranger. The girl herself is bloody and bruised. She may still need to have part of her foot amputated. They found some milk somewhere for the baby and she sat on the floor and fed it. It is one small hope for the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
And what would I wish my daughter to have witnessed/experienced by the time she's twelve? I could barely read to the end of this, Cat. I've been in the city centre today and there was nothing to suggest that there is anywhere in the world where people are dying - people who don't have to...people don't exist outside of themselves...
Yesm but it is precisely kids like this who suggest that there is some hope for the human race...
Hi
Lots of small hopes for the future - the baby, the girl, Tom, the people who keep the baby and the girl safe and looke after.
I always despair at the inhumanity people are able to inflict on each other. But this is always, always, always tempered by the equal amounts of humanity people are capable of showing towards each other in the face of tragedy, global or otherwise.
Take care
x
Post a Comment