Canada For Haiti

January 23rd, 2010

I haven’t posted about all the terrible things happening in Haiti. Mainly because I don’t feel that anything I say would be adequate to convey the absolute heartbreak and terror that I feel when I think about the situation happening there since the earthquake. I keep typing sentences, reading them, and thinking “This isn’t enough. I’m not saying it right”. Deleting. Starting over again. It’s not working, so what you get is this.

I will say, if you can, please donate something. Our school immediately took money from the Winter Carnival fund and sent several hundred dollars to the Red Cross. It doesn’t have to be much. Rob and I aren’t rich – we can’t afford hundreds of dollars. But we sent all that we could. Even a dollar. My students took up a collection during homeroom on Tuesday and raised $30. Change from their lunch money. It doesn’t seem like much but it adds up. People need antibiotics. They don’t have them. They are dying from infections that could be prevented with a course of penicillin. I just took a course of antibiotics that cost $5 for 10 days’ worth. That $30 my class raised – medicine for 6 people. Solar powered flashlights. Clothing. Blankets. WATER. How many of us can imagine not being able to have clean drinking water, because it just isn’t there?

Canadians: I know you saw the concerts last night and already know it, but the federal government has promised to match every dollar donated via Canada For Haiti and any other official organizations. I’ve seen people mentioning on Twitter/Facebook etc. that we Canadians have given three times as much per capita as the US has -$67 million overall in a nation of 33 million. It’s true, and it’s wonderful, but that doesn’t mean we’ve given enough. Haiti was a pretty terrible place for most of its residents before all this started and it wasn’t something we saw covered by our media, but of course when a tragedy of this proportion happens a spotlight shines for a few weeks. Sometimes months. It’s going to take more than a few months to help these people. I’m hopeful that we won’t forget the people of Haiti when the media coverage fades, as it no doubt will.

Now, speaking of media… I’m want to share with you my favourite moment from last night’s Canada For Haiti concert.
K’naan was born in Mogadishu in 1978. He and his family lived through the horror of the civil war that began in Somalia in 1991. They moved to Canada, and he started learning English, some through hip hop albums. He began rapping, and is now an extremely successful hip-hop/Afropop artist. This song is amazing.

When I get older
I will be stronger
They’ll call me Freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag

And then it goes back

Born to a throne
Stronger than Rome
But violent prone
Poor people zone
But it’s my home
All I have known
Where I got grown
Streets we would roam

Out of the darkness
I came the farthest
Among the hardest survival
Learn form these streets
It can be bleak
Accept no defeat
Surrender retreat
(so we struggling)
Fighting to eat
(and we wondering)
When we’ll be free
So we patiently wait
For that fateful day
It’s not far away
But for now we say

When I get older
I will be stronger
They’ll call me Freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag
and then it goes back

So many wars
Settling scores
Bringing us promises
Leaving us poor
I heard them say
Love is the way
Love is the answer
That’s what they say

But look how they treat us
Make us believers
We fight their battes
Then they deceive us
Try to control us
They couldn’t hold us
‘Cause we just move forward
Like Buffalo Soldiers
(but we strugglin)
Fighting to eat
(and we wondering)
When we’ll be free
So we patiently wait
For that fateful day
It’s not far away
But for now we say

When I get older
I will be stronger
They’ll call me Freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag