While this column is not specific to sport, it involves something more important–Haiti's massive plight. Sometimes, there are many more important situations than just sports. This is real life, and death, too! David Michael Rudder is renowned for performing the West Indies cricket team's battle hymn–"Rally Round the West Indies." That tune is accepted and incorrectly used as the anthem of the Caribbean, sung everywhere to commemorate West Indies cricket. Rudder performed another song which is so very apt now, a song that had identified the sorrow that is Haiti. That song is: "Haiti, I'm sorry!" When I played for the West Indies, I was known as a very hard man. Yes, I gave no quarter. Indeed, I am still regarded in many places as being the same, not least, by some of the undeserving cricketing non-achievers who represent us.
If you read a synopsis of my career, it is suggested I would have bowled a bouncer to my grand-mother, if she was the batsman. That is true too! This last week saw this "very hard man" shedding several tears for our beloved Haiti. I am very sure I was not alone. We should all be very sorry for, and about, Haiti. What is it about this place that allows it to be so decimated, year in, year out, by such bad luck? There is no country anywhere that has gone through as much adversity! This is the same country which produced one of the greatest Freedom Fighters and commanders of all time, Francois Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former house slave who taught himself to read and write. Had he been a sportsman, L'Ouverture would have been captain of any world team, such a great leader was he.
Even the late Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, whose holiday was celebrated in the US recently, could not hold a candle to the efforts and achievements of L'Ouverture, for it was he who led a great revolution in the late 1790s, against the French, to free the slaves, and to create the first republic anywhere to be governed by people of African descent; the Republic of Haiti. There is no country in the Western Hemisphere which has had more money for development thrown at it than Haiti has had during the last 100 years. The French, and especially the Americans, from 1915, have put zillions into the country's coffers, yet it remains the poorest country anywhere, per capita, and one of the most corrupt and worst run. How exactly did Francois "Papa Doc" Duvallier and his son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvallier, become multi-millionaires in such a poor country? Even the countries of Caricom have neglected to help manage Haiti properly. We should all be really sorry!
I have had cause to be directly involved with Haitians, in two distinctly different situations that have allowed me to respect them and love them. While living in Florida from 1981 to 1993, I taught English as a second language, evening classes at the Adult Education Centre, in West Palm Beach. These classes were for recent US immigrants, mostly Haitians and Central Americans, who were trying to get enough English Language skills to achieve a US High School Diploma. Regardless of how tired they were or how stressed they were with financial or family concerns, the Haitians who constituted the majority of my classes, were always, religiously, present. No one could understand my pride when, years afterwards, I would meet some of my former students who had become mechanics at some of the better car dealerships, or worked for US government agencies, or owned their own taxi services, or even became teachers themselves. They never forgot me either, and always thanked me. It is I who should have been thanking them!
Before I returned to the Caribbean, I had also returned to aviation, which I had paused while playing cricket for the West Indies. As a commercial pilot, I had, again, this time in more desperate circumstances, to be involved with the Haitians. In 1994, when Hurricane Gordon hit and again in 1998, when Hurricane Georges hit, both with much loss of life, I was involved in airlifts to bring supplies to Haiti's stricken inhabitants after almost everything edible had been destroyed. What is it that allows this country to have such bad-luck? Only God knows! As many as 250,000 could have died in that 7.0 intensity earthquake on the Richter Scale. Even the Eastern Asian Tsunami, in 2004, with 9.0 (Richter Scale), may not have killed more people. No one, anywhere, deserves this. Yes, Haiti, we are all so very, very sorry indeed!
According to Dr Jeffrey Masters, Director of Meteorology at Weather Underground Inc, the 2008 hurricane season was the cruelest hurricane year ever experienced by Haiti. Four Hurricanes–Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike–dumped mega-tons of water on Haiti that year, flooding away anything that the great winds had somehow managed to miss. Having lived through the third worst hurricane to hit Florida ever, Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, I know what hurricanes can do. Hurricane Andrew caused US$50 billion in damage. Florida is still cleaning up. Even Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, was not as powerful, only more deadly, mostly from engineering incompetence. I cannot imagine a country that could withstand such continuous bombardment as Haiti has. Pick any recent decade; Haiti had been hurt badly by mother nature's efforts. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel destroyed the country. Thousands died.
In 1963, Hurricane Flora killed nearly 10,000 in Haiti. In 2004, Hurricane Jeanne destroyed most crops and people too. Yet, even the continuous hurricanes were not the end of it, as earthquakes are much worse than hurricanes. Hurricanes can be predicted, can be prepared for, and will eventually pass. No-one, even the greatest seismologists alive, can predict when earthquakes, and their after-shocks, will occur. Haiti has also featured terribly in this too.
In 1770, another great earthquake hit Port-au-Prince. The death toll was mild; "only" 500 hundred died immediately. However, the results of the uprisings of the freed prisoners, and food poisoning afterwards, from eating Anthrax-tainted meat, killed nearly 50,000 more.
In 1946, neighbouring Dominican Republic felt the brunt of an 8.1 magnitude earthquake, but the resulting tsunami also still killed over 2,000 people in Haiti. How exactly does this country survive? Last week, a very close friend coordinated an international organisation's efforts for the earthquake in Haiti. She sent me the following text: "Crofty, you may have seen hunger in Asia and Africa; you may have experienced death and destruction in hurricanes. I can tell you that you have never seen anything like this. The news does not begin to tell of the suffering and the despair here. I know that I will never be the same again." After reading that, I can only confirm, sadly: "Haiti, I am so very sorry!"
