1. Kreyol is an ingenious language.
Think phonetic french with only a few tenses. It's wonderful. Everything is said how it's spelled. All of the difficult French sounds are simply left off. (For those of you who took French, think back to first year when you could not yet hear all of the syllables in a word, and so you only pronounced the basic portions that were easily mimicked.) Not to say that I've mastered any part of the language, but...
2. Generosity can destroy.
Americans donate tons of food, clothing, etc. When given to the poorest of the poor, this is good. However, due to the vast amount of free products that come in to Haiti, there is no space for industry. (Think of the damage American industry has suffered due to cheap imports.) At one time, Haiti fed itself and clothed itself. Now it is dependent on others.
3. Haitians are a proud people.
They love their country. They love their culture. There is much more to be said on this, but I think it is a topic I will explore my entire time here and never fully comprehend.
4. Though much of Haiti is horribly polluted, the sea surrounding it is not.
That is, even with multiple applications of sunblock, and even if one spends all of his/her time in the water rather than on the beach, the sea does nothing to prevent sunburns.
5. In Haiti, the impossible is possible, and the possible is impossible.
I'll let you mull that one over.
-L
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For those of you who are not fond of my statement on generosity, my apologies. As my sister pointed out, the statement is philosophically incorrect. Generosity is good. It is our misuse of generosity that is not good, just like our misuse of anything: food, water, love, etc. My point was more that during my time here, I am sure to see many instances of good intentions gone wrong, and I wanted to let you all know that this is something I will be struggling with even after this year is over. Thanks, Andrea, for engaging the disucussion.
-L
Heh,
My wife notwithstanding, I think your statement was fine. You said "generosity can destroy." I think that's exactly right. Any virtue can destroy if it is out of synce with the other virtues. Generosity without wisdom guiding how it is offered can wreck lives in the way you described. As one could argue that the French Revolution showed, justice without mercy can be a terribly destructive thing (as can mercy without justice).
That's the annoying thing about virtues. Most of us like some more than others, but really we need them all.
I think that most will take your statement as a "teach a man to fish" reference as opposed to the "Get a Job you stinking bum" thing, but thanks for the clarification.
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