Mermaids

Today we meet with Mario, and I need to get to gear up so I am going to talk about some of the hard stuff I have been trying to avoid.

Haiti isn't dangerous. Haiti is hard.
Maybe the State Department doesn't want people to come to see what a royal job we've done of screwing this place up. This beautiful place rich with history, music, art, and culture.

I have heard stories of people eating mud in the slums to survive. An estimate 1 in 10 children is sold as a slave either in country or abroad. The pollution is terrible, the roads are worse, schools are nonexistent in some places, the water filthy, trash in the street,& smell of burning plastic.

The US has assisted in ousting democratically elected Aristide- twice. When people gathered to protest in the streets- Military shot into the crowds. Then the UN was sent in- not to help the people, but to support the military. There are even more stories of the Brazilian UN soldiers killing people arbitrarily. The US embassy is a joke and as far as I can tell, we are most interested in privatizing water and having a vantage point close to cuba. We don't care about these people. These strong people- the first nation where slaves liberated themselves are now oppressed by us, their government, and immense poverty.

How can we even begin to talk to them about "justice" and the "rule of law." Justice in Haiti is not retribution. Justice in Haiti is to allow them the democratic freedoms we ourselves enjoy. Justice in Haiti is clean water, decent roads, schools, and food other than dirt. There is no justice for a woman who's husband was found shot dead in the sea, while she starves and her home is washed away by the hurricanes.

The story goes in Haiti that the slaves who jumped overboard on their way became mermaids and mermen. It's amazing that there aren't more of them in the waters off Raboto now, because often the future looks just as bleak.