Rights Readers Authors on Haiti

As is often the case, Rights Readers authors have special insights into events that concern us most and the Haitian earthquake is no exception. (Amnesty International's concerns for Haiti going forward are outlined here.)

Tracy Kidder comes forward in the New York Times (Country Without a Net) with an analysis of Haiti's development problems and a plug for the subject of his book Mountains Beyond Mountains,

But there are effective aid organizations working in Haiti. At least one has not been crippled by the earthquake. Partners in Health, or in Haitian Creole Zanmi Lasante, has been the largest health care provider in rural Haiti. (I serve on this organization’s development committee.) It operates, in partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Health, some 10 hospitals and clinics, all far from the capital and all still intact. As a result of this calamity, Partners in Health probably just became the largest health care provider still standing in all Haiti.

Certainly, Partners in Health would be a very worthy place for your charity dollar.



Amy Wilentz (The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier) is a local favorite with appearances on an informative KCRW program, and in op-eds for HuffPo, and the LATimes, where she tries to stay optimistic about Haitian resilience,

The tragedy is tremendous and the threats to life ongoing in a situation in which the ground is still trembling and disease likely. But the capacity of this people for survival and, indeed, for greatness in the worst of conditions has been demonstrated for more than two centuries. These are the descendants of people who overthrew an indecent, inhuman, overpowering slave system. Many of those still alive grew up under a vicious dynasty and rose up to oust it.

And finally, of course, Edwidge Danticat (Brother, I'm Dying) has been sharing her concerns for family and the country of her birth at Democracy Now, NPR, CNN and no doubt other outlets. More moving though, may be this video recitation (starting at about the 11 minute mark), made after a different disaster, of the high points of the intertwined history of Haiti and the United States. May we draw on and strengthen those bonds now.