As much as rational analysis argues otherwise, some regions of the world appear to be cursed. Whether they find themselves at a nexus of tectonic instability, or blessed by natural resources that other societies want very much to steal, turmoil and conflict stain their histories, causing prosperity to be as elusive, for them, as tranquility. But even on a list of Earth's most cursed locales, Haiti stands apart. For the Atlantic hurricanes that sweep in to buffet this Caribbean island are as tempestuous as this impoverished nation's self-destructive politics. In Haiti After The Earthquake, Dr. Farmer and his associates attempt to give us a window into this nation and its history as seen through the recent, tragic events there. Unfortunately, they fail miserably.
On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Port au-Prince, the densely populated capital of Haiti. Destroying buildings and roads, hospitals and power grids, the devastating temblor, considered as of this writing to be the third deadliest in recorded history, lead to the deaths of 316,000 people, wounded nearly as many, and rendered a million more destitute. Overwhelmed by such widespread destruction, the Haitian government long-plagued by corruption and instability, was unable to respond adequately to the severity of the disaster, a reality which quickly triggered a humanitarian response from the UN and neighboring nations which rushed life-saving assets to the crippled country. Though many lives were saved as a result of the swift, international reaction to Haiti's crisis, it also complicated matters. For without strong intra-agency coordination, the logistics of trying to help so many, in a nation suddenly without functioning infrastructure, created a bureaucratic nightmare the likes of which the western world has rarely seen.
A book entitled Haiti After The Earthquake should have two, straightforward tasks: to describe the earthquake and its aftermath and to use the earthquake as a vehicle to inform the reader about Haiti and its troubled history. Dr. Farmer and friends fail on both counts. Though some effort is made to elucidate the magnitude of the earthquake, the authors blur their descriptions of the 12th of January, and the fearful days thereafter, with their own preoccupied and emotional reactions to the devastation. If these accounts actually conveyed some solid information about the destruction of Port au-Prince, the self-obsession of the narrative would be tolerable. Unfortunately, these 400-odd pages are consumed, in the main, by the authors expressing their shock, their dismay, their worry for family, and their admirable desire to help the afflicted. This tells us far more about the authors than it does about the actual earthquake and its victims.
The effort to inform the reader about Haiti's history is equally as feeble. Dr. Farmer makes a token effort, reserving a couple dozen pages in the middle of his piece to give us a crash course in 200 years of Haitian history. Not only is this section hopelessly pro-Haiti -- it discusses at length the many international injustices Haiti has suffered while making very little attempt to locate any blame for the decay of its modern-day civil society --, it is misplaced in the narrative. It ought to have been expanded and positioned near the beginning of the piece where the reader, having had his sympathies activated by the enormity of the disaster, is educated on Haiti's difficult past and how these struggles inform its present. Poorly done...
There can be no doubt that the contributers to Haiti After The Earthquake made heroic efforts, in the days after the earthquake, to give succor to an impoverished people. Their successes should be championed; their morality should be applauded; and their tenacity should be used as an example to the rest of the world of the great achievements that emanate from the application of human compassion. However, the extent to which Dr. Farmer and his associates are consumed by their own existential drama prevents the reader from fully appreciating these admirable accomplishments, much less extracting valuable lessons from Haiti and its history.
Uninformative and poorly assembled... The self-absorption of an author should never supersede fidelity to the subject at hand. One of the worst reads this year... (1/5 Stars)
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