The following is a translation from my friend Glenda Galán's blog post "Arte Entre Escombros", about the unfortunate current moment in Naif Art, in Haiti. You can see Glenda Galan's Blog Posts at http://glendagalan.blogspot.com/
(Approximate translation of "Arte Entre Escombros", a blog post in spanish by Glenda Galán, http://glendagalan.blogspot.com/)
"Art Among Debris"
It filled me with great sorrow to read in these days that the best from Haiti's cultural heritage was lost in the earthquake of January 12. The best world's collection in Naif Art exists no more.
Only around 400 oils have been rescued from the 15,000 that were part of Museum Nader of Naif Art. In addition, nothing is known about the luck of several Haitian artists and their artwork which they kept in their studios.
The only survivor was a minimal part of the artwork from great national artists, such as Héctor Hyfolite, Philomé Obin, Valcin, Benoit and Wilson Bignud. But the legacy from other important creators has been buried for ever. In Haiti, the Art lies, too, among debris.
* Naif painting is a synthesis of French Art and the Popular style born in XIX in Haiti, and evolutioned from its African origin. In XX, this style is outlined as characteristically Haitian, standing out in native and national themes, with local customs scenes and very bright colors.
See original post in spanish by Glenda Galan, at http://glendagalan.blogspot.com/
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Haiti: Borrow My Dominican Eyes For a Moment
I live in Santo Domingo, capital city of the Dominican Republic, country that shares the Hispaniola island with Haiti. Santo Domingo is about 278 km from Malpasse, a small Haitian town touching the Dominican border, just west of our Enriquillo Lake (distance I measured with my classmates during one of my university field trips, 1990). Last Tuesday, January 12, while everybody was going through their regular afternoon business, nature decided to play a naughty trick to the poorest country in America. An earthquake, 7.0 in ritcher scale, shook Haiti. Of course, damage beyond the imaginable was expected to happen. Haitian citizens had to add up this terrible burden to their usual painful daily struggle to feed themselves, food already an unreachable luxury for many.
Official reports inform of high death tolls, with huge margins ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 of fatal victims. Unfortunately, we know that this is a hopeful scenario... the real one has a painfully higher death toll. The extreme poverty of a country forgotten by many, now is exposed naked, for all to see what could have been avoided or at least lessened, but was neglected until this awful moment. Years of political and economical crisis in Haiti comes to pile up additional difficulties, for ways of channeling humanitarian aid and reconstruction. While the world now expresses profound sorrow and condolences for Haiti, all are willing to make amends and extend more than a helping hand. The trouble for the help to reach the affected is huge, and is what needs most of the attention right now. The ways around are all but easy.
Seventy two hours away from the catastrophe, people at Puerto Principe, the capital city of Haiti, were complaining about the lack of international help available for them. "Cannot be seen, eaten, or drank, it is just heard of", they say. "The radio says many things, but we see nothing. There are lots of trucks and people, but we have no water or food", says one of the hundreds of affected Haitians. (Source: front page of Diario Libre news, Jan 16, 2010; www.diariolibre.com).
You want to know about what is being done for helping Haiti? Just surf the internet for a second. All mayor sites, stores and many others with a web presence are united in the efforts of giving support to Haiti. No worries about touching people's hearts. The huge, immense and worrying problem is how to deliver all collected aid to the affected Haitians. Important government buildings were destroyed, among the many others that were reduced to a giant pile of debris. The airport at Puerto Principe is overwhelmed by aircrafts already. Due to the big difficulties for handing over help, Dominican Republic is acting as a center for international help on its way to Haiti. The United Nations Organization (U.N.) established an airspace bridge between Dominican Republic and Puerto Principe, using as operations base the Dominican airport Joaquin Balaguer, at El Higuero in North Santo Domingo. Maria Montez Dominican airport at Barahona (closer to Haiti) is receiving aircrafts with aid for Haiti, in the face of the current inability of Haiti's airport to receive aircrafts.
In addition, the Dominican main international airport Las Americas, plus Gregorio Luperon airport at Puerto Plata, are working without pause, receiving humanitarian aid, doctors, firefighters, canine teams, and people for logistic support. As of Saturday January 16, around 300 flights from Dominican Republic with humanitarian aid had taken place. Even the embassies are moving their citizens from Haiti to their original countries, through Dominican international airport Las Americas, due to the difficult situation in Haiti. No doubt the other Dominican airports not mentioned here,are currently working together for this cause, too.
At the Dominican Republic, supermarkets, stores of all kinds, TV chains, the Church, hospitals, and a long list of other entities, all have stepped forward to offer relief after this terrible tragedy. Dominican hospitals, normally overflowing with great amounts of Haitian citizens (Haitian births top the list of regular medical assistance at Dominican hospitals), now are beyond their peak of capacity. Nonetheless, the Dominican Government, in the person of the Dominican State Secretary of Health, is pushing above the limits to work against the clock and assist as much as possible. The constant incoming of Haitian victims just grows with every passing minute, and even borrowed properties nearby have had to be used for accomodating all.
The Haitian President, Rene Preval, pondered on the heavy solidarity extended by the Dominican Republic, and thanked the Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, the Dominican Government and all Dominicans for the great assistance to Haiti. "President Leonel Fernandez has been the first one to come, and came with a great amount of help. Besides the important humanitarian cooperation, Fernandez promised to help us in what is now one of our priorities, which is restablishing telecommunications, electrical power and communication by land. Thanks to the efforts from the Dominican Government, we have started to restablish these services", said Preval. (Source: Diario Libre news, Monday January 18, 2010).
While relief for Haiti is nicely being raised, the channels for distributing it are difficult. Dominican heavy machinery and personnel to go along, for lifting and removing debris, reached the affected place since the first moment. In the beginning, it was to help find survivors, now, to remove bodies... It wasn't without efforts that these machines and personnel got to their working sites. Now, for trucks with food and supplies it is a complete different story. Jimaní, a Dominican city close to the border with Haiti, is being used as an important center for distributing help to Haitians. But while personnel for clasifying items for aid is requested urgently, the needs of those Haitians affected will not wait.
Sacking and chaos have turned into great challenges for rescuers and volunteers. Despair has started to own the citizens of Puerto Principe, many of which have not tasted a bite of food since last Tuesday January 12. (Source: Diario Libre news, January 18) Scenes full of violence, specially related with food looting, start to spread in Puerto Principe. There are stricking photos to testity for this situation (front page of Diario Libre news, January 18; someone raising a hand with a knife, eyes apparently fixed in the back of another person walking unsuspecting). The distribution of food to over 600,000 affected is facing great difficulties for security reasons, said rescuers from U.N.
Meanwhile, the United States Army has opted for throwing food packages from helicopters suspended in the air above Puerto Principe. Violence during distribution has reached such alarming levels, that the food and water coming from Dominican Republic through the hands of volunteers, must be delivered in caravans escorted by military vehicules. With a government practically dislocated at Haiti, the situation turns harder, said Father Anthony Brice. Father Brice also explained that the lootings have affected small supermarkets and food stores, more than the international aid.
On the other hand, there is the terrible health issue to attend to. Vallerie Jolland, from U.N., informed that between 3 to 5 millions of Haitians were affected by the earthquake. She also said that one of the U.N. priorities is to avoid epidemic spreads. Bodies of the dead are piled on the street, under the buildings debris, and the risk for epidemic diseases is clear.
World's eyes focus mainly on Puerto Principe, but other places were severely damaged. Leogane, at South Haiti, was destroyed in more than 90%, as per U.N. reports. As if this tragedy was not enough to fill with dread the Haitians' minds, eathquake replicas have continued to shake the already and badly shaken poor country, making everyone remain scared to death, literally. No wonder a great exodus to other parts of the country has taken place among the Haitians since last Tuesday January 12.
Official reports inform of high death tolls, with huge margins ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 of fatal victims. Unfortunately, we know that this is a hopeful scenario... the real one has a painfully higher death toll. The extreme poverty of a country forgotten by many, now is exposed naked, for all to see what could have been avoided or at least lessened, but was neglected until this awful moment. Years of political and economical crisis in Haiti comes to pile up additional difficulties, for ways of channeling humanitarian aid and reconstruction. While the world now expresses profound sorrow and condolences for Haiti, all are willing to make amends and extend more than a helping hand. The trouble for the help to reach the affected is huge, and is what needs most of the attention right now. The ways around are all but easy.
Seventy two hours away from the catastrophe, people at Puerto Principe, the capital city of Haiti, were complaining about the lack of international help available for them. "Cannot be seen, eaten, or drank, it is just heard of", they say. "The radio says many things, but we see nothing. There are lots of trucks and people, but we have no water or food", says one of the hundreds of affected Haitians. (Source: front page of Diario Libre news, Jan 16, 2010; www.diariolibre.com).
You want to know about what is being done for helping Haiti? Just surf the internet for a second. All mayor sites, stores and many others with a web presence are united in the efforts of giving support to Haiti. No worries about touching people's hearts. The huge, immense and worrying problem is how to deliver all collected aid to the affected Haitians. Important government buildings were destroyed, among the many others that were reduced to a giant pile of debris. The airport at Puerto Principe is overwhelmed by aircrafts already. Due to the big difficulties for handing over help, Dominican Republic is acting as a center for international help on its way to Haiti. The United Nations Organization (U.N.) established an airspace bridge between Dominican Republic and Puerto Principe, using as operations base the Dominican airport Joaquin Balaguer, at El Higuero in North Santo Domingo. Maria Montez Dominican airport at Barahona (closer to Haiti) is receiving aircrafts with aid for Haiti, in the face of the current inability of Haiti's airport to receive aircrafts.
In addition, the Dominican main international airport Las Americas, plus Gregorio Luperon airport at Puerto Plata, are working without pause, receiving humanitarian aid, doctors, firefighters, canine teams, and people for logistic support. As of Saturday January 16, around 300 flights from Dominican Republic with humanitarian aid had taken place. Even the embassies are moving their citizens from Haiti to their original countries, through Dominican international airport Las Americas, due to the difficult situation in Haiti. No doubt the other Dominican airports not mentioned here,are currently working together for this cause, too.
At the Dominican Republic, supermarkets, stores of all kinds, TV chains, the Church, hospitals, and a long list of other entities, all have stepped forward to offer relief after this terrible tragedy. Dominican hospitals, normally overflowing with great amounts of Haitian citizens (Haitian births top the list of regular medical assistance at Dominican hospitals), now are beyond their peak of capacity. Nonetheless, the Dominican Government, in the person of the Dominican State Secretary of Health, is pushing above the limits to work against the clock and assist as much as possible. The constant incoming of Haitian victims just grows with every passing minute, and even borrowed properties nearby have had to be used for accomodating all.
The Haitian President, Rene Preval, pondered on the heavy solidarity extended by the Dominican Republic, and thanked the Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, the Dominican Government and all Dominicans for the great assistance to Haiti. "President Leonel Fernandez has been the first one to come, and came with a great amount of help. Besides the important humanitarian cooperation, Fernandez promised to help us in what is now one of our priorities, which is restablishing telecommunications, electrical power and communication by land. Thanks to the efforts from the Dominican Government, we have started to restablish these services", said Preval. (Source: Diario Libre news, Monday January 18, 2010).
While relief for Haiti is nicely being raised, the channels for distributing it are difficult. Dominican heavy machinery and personnel to go along, for lifting and removing debris, reached the affected place since the first moment. In the beginning, it was to help find survivors, now, to remove bodies... It wasn't without efforts that these machines and personnel got to their working sites. Now, for trucks with food and supplies it is a complete different story. Jimaní, a Dominican city close to the border with Haiti, is being used as an important center for distributing help to Haitians. But while personnel for clasifying items for aid is requested urgently, the needs of those Haitians affected will not wait.
Sacking and chaos have turned into great challenges for rescuers and volunteers. Despair has started to own the citizens of Puerto Principe, many of which have not tasted a bite of food since last Tuesday January 12. (Source: Diario Libre news, January 18) Scenes full of violence, specially related with food looting, start to spread in Puerto Principe. There are stricking photos to testity for this situation (front page of Diario Libre news, January 18; someone raising a hand with a knife, eyes apparently fixed in the back of another person walking unsuspecting). The distribution of food to over 600,000 affected is facing great difficulties for security reasons, said rescuers from U.N.
Meanwhile, the United States Army has opted for throwing food packages from helicopters suspended in the air above Puerto Principe. Violence during distribution has reached such alarming levels, that the food and water coming from Dominican Republic through the hands of volunteers, must be delivered in caravans escorted by military vehicules. With a government practically dislocated at Haiti, the situation turns harder, said Father Anthony Brice. Father Brice also explained that the lootings have affected small supermarkets and food stores, more than the international aid.
On the other hand, there is the terrible health issue to attend to. Vallerie Jolland, from U.N., informed that between 3 to 5 millions of Haitians were affected by the earthquake. She also said that one of the U.N. priorities is to avoid epidemic spreads. Bodies of the dead are piled on the street, under the buildings debris, and the risk for epidemic diseases is clear.
World's eyes focus mainly on Puerto Principe, but other places were severely damaged. Leogane, at South Haiti, was destroyed in more than 90%, as per U.N. reports. As if this tragedy was not enough to fill with dread the Haitians' minds, eathquake replicas have continued to shake the already and badly shaken poor country, making everyone remain scared to death, literally. No wonder a great exodus to other parts of the country has taken place among the Haitians since last Tuesday January 12.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
