Haiti: Quo vadis?

Tonight I have a lot of work to do.

But my mind is on Haiti.

I was supposed to be in Haiti this week teaching a university Master of Education course on school leadership. It's something I've done for years and I have always enjoyed it.

But this year, the course was cancelled due to safety concerns for participants having to travel to the location just outside of Port au Prince. I have traveled two or three times a year to Haiti for the past 10 years as I support professional learning for teachers. This is the first time a trip has been cancelled.

Haiti is in the midst of a crisis. Yet, few people outside of Haiti are even aware of it. The issues are complex and yet they are also simple. The current crisis is really the boiling point of years of western interference and government corruption that has been exasperated through the collapse of Venezuela's discounted oil program with Haiti. If you want to read about some of the associated issues, I would suggest that you find articles by Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald and read them. Here is a good place to start (click here).

In the linked article above, the Archbishop of Port au Prince, Max Leroy Mésidor, states, “People cannot go on any longer. We are fed up.”

He is being literal in the use of the language "people cannot go on any longer."

I am hearing daily reports of people who haven't been paid in months, are surviving on bread crumbs, and who cannot travel safely. Children have not yet been in school this fall. Hospitals are regularly shut down. There is rarely electricity.

Haitians are protesting in the streets. There is real suffering. People are saying that it's a crisis like they haven't seen in decades.

My Haitian colleagues are not asking for western intervention. They know that the problem is one that they need to fix.

Yet, we need to do something. It is inhumane to watch idly as people suffer.

So what can be done?

Our Canadian political landscape has been dominated with election news over the past six weeks. It's time for Justin Trudeau and other elected leaders to stop looking internally and recognize there is a crisis in our backyard.

Haitians don't want western intervention but our government can certainly increase pressure on the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, to take real action in response to the suffering of the people.

Canadians can also use traditional news channels and social media to become more aware of the challenges - and the potential - of Haiti. Haitians want to know that they are not alone, that others know about their suffering. And that we care.

Haitians are marching and demanding change.

Quo vadis? Will we sit by silently or will we too demand and work for change?

Note: I am sending a version of this blog post to a number of Canadian news channels as an op-ed as part of my own efforts to mobilize knowledge around the situation in Haiti.