A New Idea

I haven’t posted anything like this on this blog yet so I guess I’ll try something different. I was reading some other blogs tonight and came across the following. What first pulled me to this piece was the name of Paul Farmer. He is a dynamic medical doctor who is making a huge impact in many lives in many countries which include Russia, Peru, and Haiti. But to me he is much more. I figure we all have persons we would really desire the opportunity to sit and talk with them for an hour. Well, Paul Farmer is pretty close to the top of my list. I hope you enjoy what he has to say.

Pity and Compassion are not Enough

Paul Farmer gave a talk recently at the University of Utah as part of Tanner Lectures on Human Values.

Paul talked about the fact that more than 80 million Africans might die from AIDS by 2025 with a similar toll on that continent by tuberculosis and malaria. He states that “these numbers have lost their ability to shock or even move us.”

Paul goes on to ask, “What sort of human values might be necessary to save a young man’s life (someone dying from AIDS, for example). Compassion, pity, mercy solidarity and empathy come immediately to mind. But we also must have hope and imagination in order to make sure that proper medical care reaches the destitute sick.

“Are the human values of compassion, pity, mercy, solidarity, and empathy all there is to it? How might the notion of rights reframe a question often put as a matter of charity or compassion?

“Do the destitute sick of Haiti or Kenya ask for our pity and compassion? Often they do. But can’t we offer something better? The human values required to save one person’s life, or to prevent children in a single family from losing their parents, surely include pity and compassion and those sentiments are not to be scorned. Often it is possible to save a life, to save a family. But “scaling up” such efforts requires a modicum of stability and the cooperation of policy makers and funders, themselves unlikely to suffer the indignities of structural violence.

“To move from pity and compassion for a sufferer...to the values inherent in notions of human rights is along leap. For many, especially those far removed from conditions such as those faced in rural Haiti, the struggle for basic rights lacks immediacy. But sometimes we can entrap ourselves into becoming decent and humane people by advancing sound policies and laws. The road from unstable emotions to genuine entitlements is one we must travel if we are to transform human values into meaningful and effective programs that will serve precisely those who need our empathy and solidarity most. In other words, we are not opposed to pity, but we’re anxious to press for policies that would protect vulnerable populations from structural violence and advance the cause of social and economic rights.”

Paul finishes with the following:

“The language of political rights has become meaningless to many people living in the world’s unimaginable poverty. Conversely, the language of economic rights is sometimes viewed as excessive, menacing, and irresponsible in the eyes of people living in the midst of plenty. This growing rift, I would argue is the most pressing human rights problem of our times.”

GUILT!

I’ve always been one who had a pretty easy time of not feeling too guilty about things that I’ve done or didn’t do. That attitude probably comes from my psychology classes in nursing school when we were taught that guilt really didn’t accomplish much of value except in the occasional instance when the guilt encouraged the person to do what he or she had been avoiding. So they emphasized that all we could do of value is to avoid the guilt feeling, admit what we have done to make things worse for ourselves or others, then go on with life.

With all that said I still find myself feeling guilty about not starting the clinics yet. You see, we returned to Haiti early in August since I felt a pressing need to get the clinic up and running by August 16^th, the day I had promised my patients that I would be back. Now, due to the almost continuous rains and the passing by of hurricane the roads to Prospere have been totally impassable. So on clinic days I write emails, get the cars serviced, putter around the house, do my leg exercises, visit friends in the hospital who are having surgery, and even blog.

But that still doesn’t take the guilt away. So for any of you who need an apology for my not reaching my goals, I am truly sorry.

Now, let this guilt garbage just go away. Now!

And so it goes!

John

THE ANNUAL PICTURE

It’s that day again. For about 19 years now we have taken a ‘first day of school’ picture. Before Jacquie and Jessica came along we never really got into the habit with only Jodie starting her first days of teaching.

I never really remember having my picture taken on a first day of school. In fact I don’t even remember a lot of years when my parents ever brought up the subject of a new school year beginning. I guess it’s a family tradition that my family never got into. But this leaves only two more years of pictures to come for us. After then is when I’ll really miss taking the ‘first day of school’ picture. Isn’t it strange how the time flies? Isn’t it strange how old I am sounding at such a young age.

And So It Goes!

John

First day of School 07

Here We Go Again

We tried again yesterday to have a clinic. I even had some good news that a friend of ours, Jan Flanagan, had agreed to come with me and help out for a while. I'm still limited on the amount of time that I can stand on my feet so she’ll be a great help to me.

But this thing that I wasn't expecting happened again. As we got within hollering distance of Prospere the roads began to be running with water and we again came to a place where passage was impossible. There were large ruts in the road and when I drove off road in the fields I came to areas of flooding that were simply mud. If I would have tried to get through them I would have ended up to my axles in mud and Jan and I would have spent most of the day out there waiting for the young guys to figure out a way that they could get my car out of there. Here are a couple pictures of the young guys that came around to talk. They were trying to convince me that I would have no trouble getting through. None of these guys drive anything more mechanical than a donkey. So we returned to town.

And So it Goes.

John

Lessons of the Hurricanes

We have been through a number of hurricanes since moving to Haiti and all of them seem to be somewhat different than the others, but there are some consistencies that we have discovered in all of them, at least so far.

Almost all hurricanes develop off the shore of Africa and become a REAL storm as they pass westward through the warm Caribbean. Now, there are advantages of this fact to us personally since our house is on the side of a mountain perched above Port-au-Prince. This location makes it necessary for any hurricane which would have any major wind effect on Port-au-Prince and especially our home to come directly over mountains to get to us. In most cases as hurricanes pass over elevations their wind speed decreases, which mean that in most cases a category 4 or 5 has little chance of reaching us. The worst I remember thus far has been that of Hurricane George back in (a long time ago) getting up into the high 80-90mph around here.

Probably the only way hurricane winds could devastate this area of Haiti would be if it were to pass Haiti, say on the south side, then reverse course, and head into the Bay of LaGonave. This would set up a very highly dangerous situation since Haiti’s capital has no protection from the west. If this scenario were to take place lives would be lost by the thousands in City Soleil alone and most of the city would be devastated. I have never seen this happen in Haiti, never knew of it happening, and certainly hope that it never happens.

Most of the problem we run into in our area is with water. The rain is usually heavy and almost unceasing. Thus we have flooding and also due to the lack of ground cover in many areas the soaking rain causes large layers of land to simply slide down mountains destroying total communities and the loss of life is great. This happened about four years ago in the area of Prospere, where my clinic is located. In one village that night almost 2000 persons perished.

So what about Hurricane Dean? We personally saw very little high wind. I would say the top speeds were possibly in the high 30mph range. Yes, there was a great deal of rain but we have yet to hear about any major devastation from it. Word is that there were three who lost their lives from the storm in Haiti

Please understand, I am not saying that Dean didn’t have any devastation on the lives of Haitians but simply that the effect was fairly minimal in our living area. Especially the areas near Jacmel, LesCayes, and Port Salute, where they were much nearer to the eye of the storm, the lives of many were simply devastated. Do keep these in your prayers as you walk in the sunshine.

Our Thoughts on Haiti

John