Haiti 3

In my last Commentaries I talked about the importance of choice, and the intent behind the choosing, particularly with reference to the healers and helpers involved in the Haiti earthquake and its aftermath.  Now it is the time for the Haitians themselves, individually and as a group, to decide how they will respond to their challenges.  Already we have seen dignity, equanimity, natural grief, blame, expectation, exploitation, anger, greed, selfishness and violence.

It is a testing time for everybody there.  Let us hope and pray that the spirit of compassion is pre-eminent over frustration, aggression, controlling, and desire for visibilty.  It is ironic that planes carrying aid have had to be diverted in order to allow VIPs to land - and yet more of the great and the good are on their way.  Perhaps now is not the time?

Meanwhile, as bodies are shovelled into mass graves, the Haitians, in so many cases, are denied the opportunity to identify and mourn the bodies of their loved ones.  The haste is unseemly, and, I understand, not necessary on health grounds.  There have been so many instances of kindness: I pray that the love of a community for a community, within it and without, continues, along with it purity of intent, for the highest good of all of us.