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“We soon stopped recalling
what once was unforgettable”.
(Rephrasing Borges)
Up to now, as soon as the first humanitarian reactions to tragedies were
left behind, human beings tended to forget and go on with their daily patterns
and routines, paying no attention to deep wounds that had not yet been healed. That’s
exactly what happened recently in Haiti. And, immediately after the earthquake
on January 14th 2010, I wrote in an article entitled “Briefly said: Haiti”:
“Leaders should know that the civil society shall find its own voice, especially
in the cyberspace, and it shall become louder and louder. We will be able at
last to look into the eyes of those who have survived and tell them: the time
for non-solidarity and oblivion, the time for disaffection has come to an end”.
I also echoed many times the words Forges used to repeat in his
vignettes: “And don’t forget about Haiti”.
I advised him: “You should keep insisting because you remind us that we
have a short memory when it comes to the December 2005 tsunami; the earthquakes in Peru, China... and Dafur... and the
events that devastated Haiti only 15 years ago”. I visited Haiti and wrote: “The last soldiers
/ went away / and peace broke out / in your lives, / when there were no
reporters / to show the world how you lived and died every day... / You will no
longer be killed / by bullets and fire. / You will die again / from oblivion. /
As usual”.
In a world that is armed to the teeth but where there is no technology
and no trained personnel to deal with natural disaster through a major joint
action coordinated by the United Nations... everything remains the same. We
must do everything possible against this seemingly inexorable course of events
so that international leaders become aware that the time has come to implement a
global and sustainable development as a substitute for the current economy of
speculation and war... To cast aside at once the plutocratic groups who have
been the masters of our common fate due to our own irresponsibility.
100,000 buildings have been destroyed, there are more than one million
displaced persons, 150,000 people have contracted cholera and more than 3,500
deaths should be added to the 300,000 victims of the earthquake. This could
have been a good reason to believe that their cries for help would not go
unheard... but because the UN were cast aside and the rulers of the world were
the most prosperous and powerful, international support was drastically reduced
and the great tragedy nearly felt into oblivion. Instead of stretching hands,
people were armed and raised their hands. And the big majority of distracted
people did not even realize that it is everyone’s responsibility to plant the
seeds of love and justice.
In January 12th 2020, only ten years after this tragedy, “El País”
published an article signed by Jacobo García entitled “Lessons from Haiti” who, among other things, said the following:
“... In just a few hours, the airport in Port-au-Prince had become too small to
welcome the dozens of planes filled with food, tents and firemen... President
Clinton held in Montreal a conference that was attended by donors and NGO’s
from all over the world... A decade later, famine is spreading in a country
where 1.2 million people live in a food emergency... 60% of the approved
financial aid never reached Haiti". Despite the extraordinary efforts of
United Nations and the Red Cross, Haiti’s vulnerability remains unabated. The
“lessons” learned have not been put into practice.
We should feel ethically compelled to prevent the same thing from happening
again with the “coronavirus lessons”.
All citizens of the world without exception -since, in the face of global
threats, there is no room for individual distinctions- must stop being abducted
and stunned spectators and become resolute actors so that no one forgets again
what should have never been forgotten; so that indicators of welfare are
measured in terms of health, participation, standard of life and creativity,
instead of taking solely into account the GDP which only reflects economical
growth and is still unequally distributed; so that a new concept of security is
established to protect not only the territories but also the human beings who
live in them, making sure that they all have access to food, drinking water,
health services, a protected environment and education; so that the governance
is no longer in the hands of plutocratic groups and an efficient democratic
multilateralism is restored; so that the 2030 Agenda (SDO) and the Paris
Agreements are finally put into practice, taking particularly into account the
irreversible processes.
In the midst of the virus crisis let’s bear in mind -so we can truly
learn the lessons of the past and can implement them everywhere- the situation that
prevails in countries that have always been neglected by the “big ones”, such
as the locust plague that is currently ravaging Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia;
the victims of AIDS and dengue fever; and the victims of the growing
international lack of solidarity with refugees and migrants.
In short: Now at last! Now at last!
when for the first time in history we have our own voice, “We, the peoples”
should not forget the lessons of Haiti and the coronavirus inducing us to start
a new era at a global scale and to radically change our behaviour as
individuals and as a global community, so that everyone and not only a few can
have the dignified life we all deserve.
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