8070: re: 8067 reply from Darian Arky (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Darian and Veronika <bezdomovci@earthlink.net>

Senou wrote: "Hey Bro, you don't have to live in the Capital."

Ah, my friend, therein lies the rub; for I most certainly do have to live in
the capital -- that's where they always put embassies.  However, your advice
is well taken.  I also realize that someone from another country being
posted to the U.N. mission in New York might just as easily pose a question
similar to mine.  Please understand that my concern stems from a foreigner's
ignorance.  I admit this shortcoming because I know that I would not be
asking the question if I were being sent to Germany or England.  This will
be the first time in my life that I have lived somewhere where the color of
my skin will mark me as an outsider.  I suppose I might have done myself
more credit had I been honest enough to acknowledge that my insecurity stems
as much from that realization as from any musings about criminal psychology.
Though I've spent 15 years away from the United States, I suddenly feel that
the skills and experiences that have enabled me to be less of a stranger in
a strange lands will not do much to compensate for my fundamental
foreignness in Haiti.  Returning to the context of crime, it is often said
that the best way to avoid becoming a victim in a life-threatening situation
is to "humanize" yourself in the mind of your would-be assailant.  How could
I possibly hope to do that in a country where everything that I am
represents the very essence of what many Haitians might very well consider
to be primarily responsible for their own dehumanization?  I don't plan to
become preoccupied by these concerns, but I feel it's healthy to examine
them.