Sunday, February 07, 2010

Of Prisons Large and Small

Apparently, Haiti does have some jail space after all. At least enough to hold 10 Baptist missionaries accused of child trafficking. The Baptists say they were rescuing orphans. Haitians say the Baptists were soliciting children from desperate families. I'm sure the US and Haitian governments will come to some agreed resolution. In the meantime, I am also pleased to see that Haiti's public institutions function at some minimal level. Perhaps, too, some missionaries may learn that their missions are not always welcome or appropriate.

Beyond the 10 missionaries and the earthquake, most Americans know little about Haiti, that simply repairing the earthquake damage still leaves Haiti a desperately poor nation. Listen to Making Contact or read Ted Rall if you want to know how Haiti became an impoverished nation barely able to sustain itself at the most meager level. You will learn that, despite leading the world's first successful slave revolt, Haiti simply traded actual slavery for economic slavery.

Earthquakes just happen. Haiti we created.

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