´óÏó´«Ã½

Port-au-Prince, the former Paris of the Antilles, is not even a shadow of itself these days; in fact, what used to be the spot in the Caribbean for the world's jet set, I remind you that Marlon Brando, Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, Graham Green, to name these few, were regular vacationers in this part of the world; with almost no trace of that glorious and glamorous past, this city has now reached its rock bottom.

The Republic of Port-au-Prince, as it is called because this is where the state is centralised, after many years of human devastations, was dealt a final blow by nature; indeed, overpopulation, widespread poverty, ill-built houses and buildings, bad governance and pollution are some of the main features that characterized this metropolis of 4 million people, before it became the ruin field it turned into today.

I live in this chaos, I survived the quake luckily; I was late for an appointment and a wall generously refused to mash me down-- most people didn't have this chance, more than 250.000 are declared dead; most Haitians believe the real figure is half a million; indeed a significant number of people either buried or burned their loved ones without any sort of ritual or death certificate to record the demise , and the rest was thrown in mass graves with no detail accounts, so officially those people are not dead, they're not even missing, at least not in the statistics.

I still remember that day, when blind destiny rocked our world, a stench of death embalmed the place, and the dead conquered the city, outnumbered the living; life became a scarce resource, and I, like most people, limped painfully in this hell to find some signs of life. Today more than six months later, I don't limp anymore, not because the situation has tremendously improved, but rather because I have learnt to walk in this chaos, I have adjusted to what has become my new normal.
What have people been doing in Haiti since the 12th of January? Well, more than 5.000 are learning to walk on crutches or wheelchairs, and no need to tell you they are not having fun. Oh! We had the World Cup, Haitians are big football fans, or to be more specific, big fans of Brazil and Argentina, so much so that these two national teams are major institutions in Haitian's life, mainly Brazil, it has the most fans. There were even a few cases of suicides and murders when Brazil was eliminated, and a major party like demonstration the day Argentina was ousted by Germany: the fans of Brazil are direct rivals of Argentina, the country is really divided between these two South Americans footballs giants; it's a "national derby" when they are playing.

Those two defeats however were a different ball game for the government, why? Because the people turned their focus back to their living conditions, and started to protest. The political opposition, surfing on the wave of this frustration, resumed its attacks against the president and the government for their slowness and lack of leadership in the reconstruction process; the day after the final, which people desperately watch in the absence of their glorified teams, marked the sixth month stocktaking. Most of the actors working on the field had a self-satisfactory speech, even the government said it did it best, though more could be done, but the real had a different say on the question.

Talking about the government, Haitians believe it's corrupt, inefficient, and not capable of addressing their needs. The international community is voicing the same opinion without much reserve, but they are the same ones who have cuckolded the government by channeling the aid and most of the economic assistance through the NGOs, and the national and international organisations. An empowered government would not justify their presence, so better keep it weak and ineffective since it is good for business--their business.

More than 4.000 NGOs are now present in Haiti; most of them have more cars and expats living lavishly than projects. The perception of the population toward those charities has dramatically changed, from being perceived as good Samaritans, they're now as seen disaster tourists; a few however, the medical organisations mainly, still have the favours of the people.

But what's making the news these days, are the coming general elections, they're scheduled for November, but logistically most sensible people think they're not feasible, at least not this year. Nonetheless a pageant of candidates is making the headlines, all of them want to become president to save Haiti; some of these messiahs even saw angels summoning them to run. My God! Please don't forsake us, don't deliver us to these presidential prophets.

The presidential campaign might be very glamorous this year, the rumour is brewing that Wyclef Jean, the Haitian hip hop star (who appeared on WHYS when the programme was here) intends to run; he withdrew his police record from the police headquarters this week, a requirement for all presidential candidates. A musician as president! That doesn't sound good to some down here, who think this might ridicule the country even more in the eyes of the world.

I don't share this opinion, I think his candidacy will put the country back in the limelight, all the world's media will rush back to Haiti to cover the event, it would be a breakthrough to have an icon of the disc industry as the president of the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Oops! What about the people in the camps? Well, I think the world is more fascinated by stars' life than people's plight anyway--sad fact.

When I look at this country these days, my head spins, the scale of the disaster is so enormous; the task of rebuilding seems so insurmountable. The attention has waned, and the promises are unmet, I really wonder if this nation will finally get on his feet. The history of this Caribbean island is a long ordeal, and today it's obvious we are not just dealing with an earthquake, but with more than two hundred years of history: the ante earthquake society marked by discrimination, exclusion of the mass, illiteracy, deterioration of the ecosystem, and political instability created the right conditions for this post earthquake tragedy.

Anyway there are some very positive elements in this depressing context, the heart of the country is beating again, and the spirit of the people seems unbreakable. The resilience of Haitians remains unequalled; a case study for experts. I have resumed teaching after working for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ for the past six months as a local producer, that was my pompous title, and I can't help being amazed at the eagerness of my students to learn; they want to move forward, push their limits, and mostly, they want to triumph over circumstances.

This attitude, I believe, will save Haiti, it has already saved my life. That what's up in July, that's Haiti man.

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