Many believe there is not, that they are a lost cause, that the country as a whole is in the predicament it is in because of the practice of voudoo and that God has forsaken them.
But I saw the hope and felt the presence of God there. In the eyes and smiles of the children, in the day-to-day drudgery of people seeking out their basic needs, in the worship songs of a church service, in their prayers, and in the discussions with others who have commited themselves to working there.
A friend from Global Orphan Project forwarded a link to this article. Read it and then tell me, do you believe there is hope for Haiti? And what is your responsibility now that you know of their needs?
My God is a merciful God, and he did not "punish" the Haitian peoples for this or any other thing. God did not send Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans to punish anyone there, either, and I grow weary of hearing people say as much. Who are we to even begin to fathom the intentions of the Lord? God does what he does for reasons that are beyond our ability to comprehend. A thousand years of Bible Study will not provide what one second at the untold knowledge there is to be had at the right hand of God. Then, and only then, will we understand.
ReplyDeleteI feel horrible for the people of Haiti, but probably not for the reasons that you might think. The earthquake in and of itself was a nightmare, no doubt, but the damage that resulted didn't have to be as bad as it was. The injuries. pain and suffering and even deaths didn't have to go the way it did. The Haitians today suffer because of greed. Poorly executed parasitic local governments have been operating there since the island was incorporated. The people of this country know that even if the US people send them hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions, that they will never see that money. The infrastructure of the island pre-earthquake was horrible, and it was that way because of corruption.
The US could not just step in and take complete control following the earthquake, as that would have been seen as a hostile take over by everybody. It is a really, really bad situation, and the losers here are the working class people, the poor, the children.
I was thinking about a part of the article however, when it mentions having nowhere to dump the rubble. It seems simple enough to me, why not start dumping it an edge of the island, and continuing with the intent to increase the landmass of the island? After the rubble spread, sand could be dredged and lay over the rubble forming another beach, and so on and so forth?
Let's talk Caterpillar into donating some equipment, and recruiting some operators to go down and train locals. Choose blocks that are more damaged and widen them, use smaller equipment for narrow work, push out debris into the newly made wider "streets" who then push it to a loading point that take it to the beach for our land mass project.
I feel if you give the people hope, real hope that change IS possible, they will take their "political" problems into their own hands and resolve it. No need to elaborate on that, is there?
Volunteers are the answer, not the military. The military will send improper signals to everybody involved and probably cause hostility.
These are just my thoughts, and I wait patiently and hopefully for small groups of people to grow tired of the corruption, yet still have the right direction.
Thank you, Tim, for your insightful comments. Love you, brother.
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