Haiti: “It would be mean, when we are realistic, to talk about hope”

Roromme Chantal, Haitian of origin and political scientist at the University of Moncton, in New Brunswick, remembers the earthquake of January 12, 2010 very well.

I studied for a master’s degree and then returned to my country. A friend called me to ask if I had any news about Haitihe says.

I asked the question: what news? And he told me it was the apocalypse.

A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck 25 km from Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.

The toll is devastating: 280,000 dead, 300,000 injured and 1.3 million people homeless.

Roromme Chantal describes the moments that followed as the most dramatic of her life. He says he felt helpless in the face of this natural disaster.

We are far from our country, we would have liked to be there and contributehe confides. We lost parents and friends that we knew, with whom we were very, very close.

It is still a country to which I remained attached. When we have experienced a tragedy of this magnitude, no matter where we are physically, in reality, we are not immune to the after-effects and consequences..

After impotence, it is guilt that takes place, says Roromme Chantal.

It’s as if we had abandoned our country, even if the conditions were such that considering a return was not entirely too rational.

Neifide Antiope-Phaton, now a resident of Moncton, was in Dessalines, a two-hour drive from the Haitian capital, when the earthquake struck.

An unexpected incident had forced her to leave her home in Port-au-Prince a day earlier.

We felt the earthquake from thereshe said. The house I had left the day before was completely destroyed.

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Fabienne Innocent lived with her parents 45 minutes from the epicenter of the earthquake. His family evacuated the house for fear of another earthquake.

I’m not going to say that I was living very well before the earthquake, but I went through hell afterwards.she confides.

Despite time, these two survivors say they have difficulty overcoming their psychological trauma.

The holiday is over, farewell to the saints

Following the earthquake, the international community quickly contributed to efforts to help the victims of Haiti.

Professor of international relations and former official of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Haiti, Roromme Chantal notes that the country was not prepared to face natural tragedies.

Even before the earthquake struck, Haiti was an already destroyed country, in the midst of a political crisis with weak state institutions.

It was thanks to the invaluable support of countries like Canada, France and the United States and particularly of communities like Acadia that we were able, initially, to make the necessary interventions to help the survivors.says Roromme Chantal.

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If short-term aid was effective, the professor believes that international aid for the country’s reconstruction in the long term has been rather disappointing.

Today, 15 years later, the country has not been rebuilt and is even in a worse situation. Today, it is a country that does not exist.

It is true that the task of rebuilding the country falls to the Haitians themselves, but, as they say in Haiti: once the holiday is over, goodbye to the saintshe declares. We have not really seen and witnessed the fulfillment of the promises that were made.

Gangs street gangs and bandits in Haiti

If you have known Haiti before, please do not return there now as it will have a terrible shock on you.says Roromme Chantal.

Having grown up in the 1980s and having experienced the Duvalier dictatorship, he says he has often heard over the years that hope brings life to Haiti.

Fifteen years after the earthquake, the reign of Michel Martelly, the rise in violence and corruption leave Roromme Chantal skeptical about a future.

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I think it would be mean, when we are realistic, to talk about hopehe decides. What we are witnessing on this side is a descent into hell.

What my parents describe to me today, the way people live, even animals in a country like Canada couldn’t handle.

Despite the control of gangs street action on the country, there is no reaction from Haitians or the international community, he laments.

According to Roromme Chantal, what is happening in Haiti is a moral drama.

They can kill themselves, they can find themselves in their situation, and we are not, for example, going to send our soldiers [canadiens]he notes, before adding that his country will need help from the international community to rebuild itself.

With information from Janic Godin and Babatunde Lawani