A Mudshow Season

Heard about the earthquake in Haiti at 5AM this morning on the radio. It's been much on my mind, as it's been rightfull much in the news. I can't think of a single Haitian circus reference. In 1984 we went to Haiti from Florida, roade halfway across the country in the back of colorfully painted trucks, and hiked two days up a mountain to what remained of the cloud rainforest. Even then deforestation in Haiti was massive with no realistic hope that anything could be saved. We spent two weeks stretching mist nets, running drift fences and doing a quick survey of what remained in the cloud forest. Mostly we were hoping for some sighting of a small arboreal mammal related to the hutia said to have recently extinct. We never found one. I'd seen great poverty elsewhere, in Guatemala when I was briefly in school there in high school, in Managua after the quake, but nothing like povety in Haiti. At the same time people of Haiti were remarkable. Slaves who had thrown off there masters in the colonial period, only to be later enslaved in a adifferent fashion by their own leaders. Haitians had a grace about them. In the decades since there have been revolutions and occupations and hurricanes. Poor Haiti. But nothing like yesterday's temblor. 100,000 may be dead. Haiti is often called a "failed state." We'll see more of that failure on Fox News or CNN in the days to come. But the Haitian people aren't a failed people. And I keep thinking about their grace.