19426: Corbett: In the politics it's easy to forget the common suffering

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

I was touched by Bebe Pierre Louis's post.  He's obviously hunkered inside
for his own safety and at least took precautions to have some Barbancourt
at hand.  I'm hoping he has food and water as well.  Today, in between
posting 80 messages (so far, and many in queue), I cooked a huge fish
chowder.  The onions always make me cry.  But so did chopping the carrots
and potatoes today since I was thinking about the chowder I was making,
and how safe I am, a house full of food, a locked door and no one will
bother me, phone, electricity, water all safe and secure.  In emergency
the police or ambulance is a quick telephone call away, my next door
neighor, my own brother, would be here in an instant were I in need.

It seems to me to be so easy to get caught up in the shock of the
political/military/street action that one can forget just what this means
in hardship to those who already live on the edge.  My experience with so
very many Haitians of the underclass, rural and urban alike, is that they
live on the edge.  The very struggle for food is a daily one, and not
always successful.  Security of any sort is always precarious, and
transportation a major hassle.  Let anything go wrong in the country and
everything goes from very difficult, and struggling, to a desperate
needs and too little to eat, and drink; even staying and alive and
well is threatened.

My heart is deeply saddened by the political crisis and chaos in Haiti
now, but my heart goes out with more passion to the ordinary everyday
Haitian, especially those masses of the underclass on whom the greatest
burden of hardship falls.

Please, let's not forget about them in the press of politics and "news."
They seem almost never to count as "news."

Bob Corbett