Wednesday, January 20, 2010

SELF-DETERMINATION

Haiti was the first country in which 400,000 Africans enslaved and trafficked by Europeans rose up against 30,000 white slave masters on the sugar and coffee plantations, thus "undertaking the first great social revolution in our hemisphere...", Fidel Castro. What does Haiti need now? Ben Dengl writes, "...doctors not soldiers, grants not loans, a stronger public sector rather than wholesale privatization, and critical solidarity with grassroots organizations and people to support self-determination of the country."
The people of Haiti have the historic legacy of resisting foreign domination but when we see US military personnel on the ground I wonder if this is another takeover leading to occupation and exploitation or genuine humanitarian aide in camouflage.
Edith Hamilton wrote, "to suffer is to be alone." We suffer one by one like a woman in travail. A world of children born one by one. So, in Haiti they suffer alone in a house of grief. "At times I almost wanted to believe you When you implied the times of Sorrow were buried in the past", John Trudell. The US and other "white-ruled countries, would not accept a nation run by ex-slaves who had risen up in a bloody rebellion." Nick Coleman.
They say that the distance between the heart of an adult to the brain is 14 inches, but that can be the greatest distance we ever confront. I've heard that some people are as far from their spirit as a hawk is from the moon.
My friend Mary H has been studying Mandarin and learning to make Chinese words on paper. She sent me my name, Anna. It is so gracefully expressed. Like a flower that blooms under the full moon, calm and bright in the night. She also sent love, hearts that hold hands and walk slowly together. She also shared an Alaskan proverb concerning men. "The odds are good, but the goods are odd."
MLK Jr, "Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."

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