Wrapping up my trip to Haiti – off to the airport in an hour. This place always begs some reflection, I find, as you can’t witness Haiti without some kind of reaction. Having seen much of the country this week, from Gonaives I the northwest to Les Cayes in the southwest and Belladere in the east, a few hundred feet from the border with the Dominican Republic, I have taken in a lot of the country. Always here I am shocked by the environmental destruction you cannot escape. The country has been denuded of 98% of its forest cover. Consequently, the hurricanes that pound the island each year wash millions of tons of mud unto the city streets, especially in cities like Gonaives, as we saw last year after Hurricanes Ike, Hanna and Gustav. Downtown Port au Prince is perhaps the most polluted environment I have ever seen. There is no solid waste disposal system, and millions of city residents simply dump their garbage in the streets and canals of the city. At one site we visited yesterday, plastic bottles and Styrofoam containers several feet deep clogged a canal, it’s polluted and stinking water overflowing into local homes with each rainfall.
As I get a little older, I leave places like Haiti with more fear than I used to. The current economic downturn has been a wake up call, I think, for American used to living their lives in a bubble of rarified air, seemingly immune from the troubles that plague much of the world. Those troubles have come home to roost 1,000 times over in Haiti, and while I know that the US is far removed, still, from such blight, trips like this make me want to buy a piece of rural land, build a small, clean, comfortable house, and try to forget that the future is bleak for many so close to our shores.
May 1st, 2009 | by David in Travel | 1 Comment
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All Material © 2008 David Snyder
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Hi, David,
We’re keeping track of your important work via your blog. Thanks for the amazing photos and writing, and especially your first-hand perspective on other cultures.
Safe travels and keep in touch,
Jeff and Paula
Rockport, WA, USA