Thursday, April 01, 2010

Frontline on Haiti


A couple nights ago, we watched Frontline as it covered the affects of the earthquake in Haiti. Wow, what an aptly named program. The video on this show has such an immediacy and completeness about it--the camera seems to be in the middle of things, instead of merely recording the action--that you feel as if you're right there.

As I watched the hour-long show, I jotted down a few words from the program. Here they are.

The world is coming to an end.

The first thing I noticed is the dust. And then the crying: one in ten people died.

People who live and work here found themselves in a strange land.

The earthquake decimated a weak and inefficient government.

With the city in ruins, makeshift camps appeared everywhere.

More than one million people in Port-au-Prince are homeless.

What pain I'm in, my God. What suffering.

For many Haitians, their faith rests only in the hands of God.

Haiti's story is one of a dream denied.

The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier

When I went to Haiti, I saw a country that abounded in economic opportunities.

There was a real spirit and hope that at last things were going to improve.

Per capita, Haiti has one of the highest concentration of NGOs in the world.

capacity- the entrenched elite, a handful of families.

Nearly half of all American households have contributed to Haitian relief.

We are already invested and we don't want that investment to go to waste. We want a postive outcome.

One toilet per thousand.

The stench has moved from bodies to the stench of the living.

But the big worry for everyone was the coming rains.

The above picture of Fort National was taken by missionary Karen Bultje.