As the images of destruction in Haiti make their way around the globe, some are curious about what Haiti looked like before the earthquake. In response to some of those questions from viewers, this evening a local television channel (here in the NY/NJ area) posted pictures of the devastated presidential palace alongside pre-disaster pictures of it during a newscast. The reporter described the pre-disaster pictures of the palace as a beautiful testament to the strong will of the Haitian people, and mentioned that the palace had been built during the American Occupation. He concluded that the palace had been built to last and was an extremely sturdy structure, and if that sturdy structure was so devastated by the earthquake, then imagine how the other structures on the Island must have fared. Interestingly enough, there were no other pre-disaster pictures of structures in Haiti besides those of the presidential palace posted during the newscast.
The ironies...the bloody American media...
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A few hours ago, Georgia Popplewell posted this one on Twitter:
Assuming this img was taken post-quake, unsurprising that bldgs in traditional style have withstood the quake http://bit.ly/6pCXJk #Haiti
Note: And if it isn't a post-quake pic, its value (as a pre-disaster image) certainly escalates.
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Pre and post disaster images...unimaginable loss and horror...global comparisons and commentary...survival...
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm currently reading (almost through) the late E.A. Markham's autobiographical Against the Grain, and he makes the following poignant note about Montserrat in the wake of a volcanic eruption in 1995, which made most of the island unliveable:
When it seemed likely that 'home' would never again be habitable, people began to be concerned not only about what was lost, but what it was to lose 'the place where your family is buried'. . . Around the world there are examples of human abuse on a scale and with a ferocity that no one in Montserrat has experienced--groups massacring other groups, governments massacring their own (and other) people. That is much worse than suffering, collectively, the experience of hurricane and volcano where a certain psychic strength might be gained from the experience. In most cases of social breakdown the question to address is that of bad governance. One day the victims--those who survive--might hope for good government. But if your entire geography is put beyond use, the best you can hope for is to be a good migrant . . .
The need to revitalize some aspect of Montserrat's lost geography, may have been the incentive for Markham's book. He says:
After Hurricane Hugo in 1989 we raised money for relief. But when after the 1995 volcano, people approached me in England to 'do something', I was at a loss to know how best to react. I recall working in Germany in an art gallery in Koln, in the 1970s . . . What struck me as interesting, at the time, was how many of these artists were producing sketches of Koln and other German cities as they had looked before they were destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. So, hurricane and volcano in Montserrat bring the Koln image to mind. Something pre-disaster is required.
And back to Haiti...
It may be unfair, maybe even insensitive, of me to wish for more pre-disaster images of Haiti to be placed alongside the ones we're getting of its current disaster. Imagine the local media being asked to find pre and post disaster images of Haiti that are as awesome and jaw-dropping as those of the once gleaming white palatial presidential residence? Oh well, I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait for Danticat to do that something.
