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Yoani Sanchez

Yoani Sanchez

Posted: January 15, 2010 09:59 PM

From Cuba to Haiti

What's Your Reaction:

An island that has seen a host of tragedies, invasions, dictators, today shows the wreckage of a disaster, a quake no less horrendous for being natural. In that Haiti shown to us by Carpentier in The Kingdom of This World, that the news has made us pity, misery has become chronic and crying an everyday language. More than a quake, the homeland of Jacques Roumain has been shaken by misfortunes that come and fall on the social instability, economic malaise and despair. For any nation, something like this would be a calamity, for Haiti it is a complete apocalypse.

This is not the time to play politics with the pain, nor to step in front of the microphones promising help, but rather to come to their aid unconditionally, without desire for recognition or gratitude. It especially frightens me that three months from now the suffering will no longer be a headline in any newspaper and people will have ceased to feel the urgency of the Haitian drama. I am afraid that we become accustomed to the misery and harden our hearts to the tragedy, focusing on our own problems without considering that others, next door, are screaming.

The seismograph may indicate that here are no new shocks, but the needle on the meter of life is reading red. It is the time for help, and we must do so immediately.

  • Currently several bloggers, along with others from Cuban civil society, are seeking a way to make our small contribution to the victims. We propose to collect clothes, medicines and personal care supplies, and bring them to the representative of Caritas in Havana.

Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.

 
 
 

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An island that has seen a host of tragedies, invasions, dictators, today shows the wreckage of a disaster, a quake no less horrendous for being natural. In that Haiti shown to us by Carpentier in The ...
An island that has seen a host of tragedies, invasions, dictators, today shows the wreckage of a disaster, a quake no less horrendous for being natural. In that Haiti shown to us by Carpentier in The ...
 
 
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10:02 PM on 01/18/2010
greetings...Ms. Sanchez, I hope that you and everyone else on the comments will read Murray Fromson's post on this same page......
09:35 PM on 01/18/2010
It is a "wonder" too that 26 patient died of cold in a psychiatric hospital in Cuba and no a single word has been raised in the international press........... but....... if a couple of patient die of heat in Canada it would surely be a world news that makes the way around the world 100 times and makes renounce the maintenance supervisor in the hospital up to the premier minister.
01:16 PM on 01/17/2010
it is wonder the PEOPLE of Cuba wish to help their neighbors!

and a shame the Cuban Government will not.

All while calling American Government Evil, Cruel, ect...
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SPQR1775
03:11 PM on 01/16/2010
so true!
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LMPE
I connect the most dissimilar things
10:59 PM on 01/15/2010
Cuba tried to send medical personnel to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city, but the Bush administration wouldn't let them in. Haiti has at least accepted Cuban help.
11:36 AM on 01/16/2010
It would be a ridiculous action of USA to accept help from a so poor and economical disastrous country as Cuba is thanks to the internal policy of castrofascist regimen. It was a propaganda movement of the tyranny that would cost to the people of Cuba more suffering than what they had.
The real cruel action was when the castrofascism decided not to accept the help of USA and the cuban nation in exile, just for political reasons, when a couples of hurricanes devastated the island last year.
01:23 AM on 01/17/2010
You have made absolutely NO sense whatsoever...
10:48 PM on 01/15/2010
Let us hope that everybody thinks about the success of Cuba under Castro which has been opposed by the US government and so made life in Cuba difficult but so much better in Cuba than Haiti. One day, Cubans who do not remember life before Castro will say there was a fate much worse than Castro. If only Cuba had been allowed to trade with the United States then it would be prosperous. After all, China has managed very well without democracy. Cubans are educated, fed (boring food but nevertheless they aren't starving), they have free health care and all of this without any help from America. Cubans who are hungry are Cubans who have not joined the amazing urban garden movement that feeds so many.
11:56 AM on 01/16/2010
For knowing how was life in Cuba before castrofascism just needs to read UN, FAO and WHO records about Cuba. You will find there that Cuba was one of the prosperous countries in the world, the cuban social laws were one of the most advanced in the world............ the health and the education were free and universal long before castrofascism.
For finding the true about any thing you can not pretend get the needed knowledge of political propaganda, you need to get it from independent and serious sources.
Cuba commerce with USA today more than ever. 85% of the food the island needs is bought in USA, and USA is the major and almost only supplier of medicine and medical supplies to Cuba. The real reason for Cuba's economical disaster is the internal blockade the castrofascism maintain on the people. Raul Castro self recognized this fact when confessed "75% of the land is in states hands and stands for 40% of the food production"........... with just a little math you can find that 25% of the land in private hands stands for 60% of the food production ....... the castrofascism only needs to put 100% of the land in private hands for getting an increase of 240% of the food production...... but they are too afraid of freedom.
10:37 PM on 01/15/2010
That is the generosity that I remember from the island where I was born. The last post before the quake was about being cold and hungry for breakfast. Somehow these problems pale with the aftermath of the quake in Haiti. Let us hope that Cuba and the US find a way to forget their differences and meet half way to cooperate in helping the Haitian victims of the quake.
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12:04 PM on 01/18/2010
We will never forget the fact that in 1962, Castro almost snookered Khruschev into nuking the East Coast of the US.