Gaza to Receive 7.5 Times More US Aid Per Capita Than Haiti
Here’s a tip for Haiti. Start strapping bombs to yourselves and blow up buses full of Jews and Obama will make it rain cash…
Jewel adds her thoughts and experience with Haitian people:
I am a translator for the Haitians, doing their vital documents of all sorts. You would think, from the verbiage contained in a birth certificate, that Haiti was a first-world nation. Literate, well-crafted, precise documents executed in flawless French. Sometimes, though, curiosity gets the best of me and I actually Google the locations because not everyone is from Port-au-Prince. Sometimes I Google addresses, and always, without exception, the outcome is the same. Whenever I click on images (even before the earthquake) I see poverty and dehumanization everywhere. It is a giant garbage dump. Not a scenic picture to be had. And yet, with rare exceptions, the Haitian immigrants themselves here, in Lancaster County, have been an exemplary group as a whole. Not in the 12 years that I have been translating their documents have I ever seen a Haitian's name in the crime reports. Not once. You would almost think they don't exist.
Once, while standing in line for take-out at a Chinese restaurant, the blackest man I ever saw stood in line in front of me. Speaking French on his cell-phone, he asked "What do you want? Fried rice or white?" And when he got his answer, he hung up, and gave the cashier his order and then sat down at one of the tables.
I gave my order and walked over to him and began to speak to him in French, asking him if he was African, French or Haitian. He smiled and told me his name, and I recognized it as one of the many whose docs I'd translated.
I don't think, Jaco, that I can sufficiently describe the joy on his face when I told him that, but most of his dialog was praise. Praise to the God who preserved him, praise to the country who adopted him, and thanks to me for doing such a good job translating his documents.
His documents were not run in the mill. They included several birth certificates for him, his son, his wife, but also a police report detailing the rape of his wife, and an autopsy report of another son who was murdered. (Google the words Chimières Lavalas and behold the horrors.)
Needless to say, I went away from that restaurant with more than extra spicy sesame chicken and eggrolls. Such people - we are not worthy of them.
4 comments:
Good early morning to you,Jaco. Well-stated. I am a translator for the Haitians, doing their vital documents of all sorts. You would think, from the verbiage contained in a birth certificate, that Haiti was a first-world nation. Literate, well-crafted, precise documents executed in flawless French. Sometimes, though, curiosity gets the best of me and I actually Google the locations because not everyone is from Port-au-Prince. Sometimes I Google addresses, and always, without exception, the outcome is the same. Whenever I click on images (even before the earthquake) I see poverty and dehumanization everywhere. It is a giant garbage dump. Not a scenic picture to be had. And yet, with rare exceptions, the Haitian immigrants themselves here, in Lancaster County, have been an exemplary group as a whole. Not in the 12 years that I have been translating their documents have I ever seen a Haitian's name in the crime reports. Not once. You would almost think they don't exist.
Once, while standing in line for take-out at a Chinese restaurant, the blackest man I ever saw stood in line in front of me. Speaking French on his cell-phone, he asked "What do you want? Fried rice or white?" And when he got his answer, he hung up, and gave the cashier his order and then sat down at one of the tables.
I gave my order and walked over to him and began to speak to him in French, asking him if he was African, French or Haitian. He smiled and told me his name, and I recognized it as one of the many whose docs I'd translated.
I don't think, Jaco, that I can sufficiently describe the joy on his face when I told him that, but most of his dialog was praise. Praise to the God who preserved him, praise to the country who adopted him, and thanks to me for doing such a good job translating his documents.
His documents were not run in the mill. They included several birth certificates for him, his son, his wife, but also a police report detailing the rape of his wife, and an autopsy report of another son who was murdered. (Google the words Chimières Lavalas and behold the horrors.)
Needless to say, I went away from that restaurant with more than extra spicy sesame chicken and eggrolls. Such people - we are not worthy of them.
(Jaco, would you put this comment as an addition to the post? I think it would be interesting as an aside)
Spent 6 weeks in Haiti many years ago and I can second everything Jewel says about the Haitien people. To most of them, conditions in Gaza would look like paradise, their governments are invariably disasters, and yet they are amongst the nicest people I've ever met. Notice that despite dire warnings, there have been no incidents of violence against any of our troops or aid workers who have been sent there. I keep hoping these people will get a real break some day because they so deserve it.
Jewel,
Done.
Thanks.
Thank YOU, Jaco, you are a dear.
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