Political violence bred fatal habit

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This article was published 30/01/2010 (5908 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Decades of political violence doomed many Haitians to death in this month’s earthquake because they had learned to take refuge inside when danger threatened them.

Winnipeg’s Alix Jean-Paul knew exactly what was happening when the earthquake struck just as he and his wife Gertrude sat down to dinner with his relatives, so he got everyone in his sister’s house outside.

Many others died inside their homes, he told an audience at the University of Manitoba Friday.

"The tendency for a lot of people is to hide under the bed. It’s usually political trouble — you run outside, you get shot," said Jean-Paul, a native of Haiti and retired social studies teacher at Windsor Park Collegiate.

He and his wife had barely arrived in Haiti when the earthquake hit. They’d come to take part in building two elementary schools in a mountainside area with no water or electricity.

"I was among the luckiest ones — I am alive," Jean-Paul said.

He spoke at the culmination of a week-long fundraising campaign in which staff and students at the U of M raised $17,717 for the Canadian Red Cross.

His wife is a nurse in the emergency room at Concordia Hospital, Jean-Paul said: "That is a very good person to have beside you after an earthquake."

The family spent two nights sleeping on the street, which gave them a brief taste of what it’s like to be homeless. "I wish I had that experience before I went into teaching," Jean-Paul said.

"There is no word to describe the situation for people in Haiti now. There were people screaming because they lost two, three members of their family.

"How do you console a mother who lost four kids within 13 seconds?"

Jean-Paul said the Canadian government was ready to fly them out two days after the earthquake, but when he and Gertrude saw the resilience of the Haitian people, they stayed, she to assist with medical aid and he to act as a translator for doctors.

Jean-Paul appealed Friday to Premier Greg Selinger to allow him to bring 10 family members to Canada.

The group of churches and individuals with which Alix and Gertrude are affiliated will continue to build the two schools, Jean-Paul said, vowing to return to Haiti soon.

"More than ever, Haiti needs to get back on its feet," he said. People need jobs, he said, and they need hope.

"We do not have a precedent in our history that things will get better."

While Jean-Paul urged his U of M audience to continue donating to Haitian relief, he told them to make sure their money goes where it’s needed.

"We have tons of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in Haiti. They all have their own agendas," he said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca