Haitians – our neighbours in distress
The disaster of Haiti’s earthquake rightly continues to shock us as the scale of the casualties unfolds, and as the rescue operation receives ongoing criticism from the media. It seems that confused lines of authority and communication have led to ‘utter chaos’ in organising the relief effort. The former colonial power France accuses the USA of trying to occupy Haiti, while others wish that the USA would assume overall control of the operation in the interests of the desperate population. The UN is officially overseeing distribution of food and medicines but needs the US muscle to operate efficiently, so it seems. The Haitian government has collapsed, raising the question of how to implement a shadow administration as fast as possible.
The neutral observer of this dreadful horror might possibly suggest that Haiti temporarily ask to become a quasi state of the USA for a very short time. This could never happen given the history of Haiti during the 20th century, with US interference and of course French resentment and suspicion of Uncle Sam’s intentions. Haiti’s current tragedy stands in a line of misery going back to Spanish and French enslaving colonialism, to her heroic and uniquely successful slave uprising throwing off the French yoke, and then long history of deep poverty, constitutional chaos and dictatorial oppression.
The curious culture of Haiti’s mix of Catholicism and Vodoo has not helped to root a transparent and responsible political system. The Roman Catholic Church has a major responsibility here, and perhaps could play a much greater role in educating local people into the ways of democracy and aspiration, if for example the ‘base community’ model of Liberation Theology were backed with the central resources of the Vatican. It is a savage irony that Haiti was the richest agrarian economy for her Spanish and French slave masters, producing immense wealth from its sugar plantations as well as her gold mines. Haiti is indeed a stain on the conscience of the West.
The problem of suffering for Christian faith gained a fair airing on the BBC current affairs programmes, James Naughtie in fact showed some theological subtlety in his interview of the atheist philosopher AC Grayling who merely trundled out the aged dilemma of God being either almighty and uncaring, or not almighty and therefore not God. As Mr Naughtie rightly said, the problem with this crude atheist fork is the definition of God: God is the God who grants us freedom and contingency in the created order, all events are not directly implemented by a cosmic puppeteer.
Christian faith finds the fullest revelation of God at Calvary, where we find the deepest empathy with human suffering as God engages with sin from inside the human condition, and changes it. Hence the history of relief work is overwhemingly rooted in Christian charities and churches. We are not primarily philosophers but disciples seeking to do the will of our Father in heaven here on his earth, to be ‘Good Samaritans’ towards our neighbour in his desperate plight.