I am currently back in Haiti to do an assessment on violence
against women in elections (VAWIE). Conducting an assessment means millions
upon millions of meetings. I have been meeting from sun up to well past sun
down and have a ton of information that I have to sort through. Except I can’t
because in a short while, I have to go for more meetings. Today’s meetings
start at 8am and end at 5pm. With the heat and humidity, I am reduced to
nothing by the end of the day.
However, I would be so sad not to blog once. I would love to
take a moment and try to describe Haiti. This would take a lot more time.
Instead, I’ll sum it (Princess Bride!)
Whenever I am not in Haiti, I always say, “Haiti is one of
the most difficult places I have ever been to. I think Haiti is right up there
or not too far from South Sudan.” South Sudan! I think I am being dramatic, and
then when I return, my pithy summary does not do justice to this complex and
catastrophic place.
Because I have been meeting so many people, I now have
absolute clarity about how true that statement is. I don’t have time to unpack
it though, so I will tell one story.
We arrived at a Ministry which I won’t name. We had two
meetings scheduled. One with the Secretary General of the Minister and one with
the Minister herself. We were escorted to a waiting room and then the Secretary
General came and got us and moved us to her office, which was outside this main
building, in the back of the compound. We crammed in (4 of us, including our
interpreter Edwich.)
After introductions and protocols, she began to answer my
questions. She started with “Violence is everywhere in Haiti,” which is how
everyone begins talking when I ask my first question. She told us that every
Monday between 30- 45 survivors of sexual violence come to the Minstry for
service. The Ministry!
We continued talking and then were interrupted when the
Minister herself came in. Ana, my colleague, and I were like, “wait, that’s the
Minister? Why is she coming to get us? She walked all the way here? Huh.”
Once we get to the Minister’s office, we make introductions
and then she starts telling us about her work. It was all fluff. She kept
saying she had a vision and that we all needed to follow it, but didn’t say
what that vision was. A few minutes into it she starts complaining about the
other woman to us and how she should not have met with us before the Minister
met with us. It got awkward. I asked Edwich to stop translating at one point.
We talked a little longer and then the other woman walked us out. The Minister
smiled and shook our hands.
A few hours later, we met my other colleague at another
Ministry and she told us that the Minister we met with in the morning was
extremely angry that we met the other woman first. Huh? She was on a rampage
and as a result of her wrath and our disobedience of protocol (huh?) she was
pulling all of the participants for our two day meeting that was starting the
next day. Wait, huh?
Our team in Haiti explained to us that they absolutely
followed protocol and asked for a meeting with the Minister and that it was her
office that scheduled the meetings the way they did.
I won’t go into all the details, but in sum, apparently she’s
known for her “personality” and apparently she and this SG have been battling
during her short and fiery tenure. For me, this is emblematic of the failure of
governance in Haiti. This woman lost it over a misstep in protocol (made by her
office) and not only couldn’t let it go, but then, with furious vengeance, made
her best effort to torpedo the rest of our visit.
It doesn’t torpedo it. What it does do is tell us that we’ve
lost a vital partner and that Haiti has lost yet another opportunity for good
leadership and on such a critical issue.
So it’s a minor incident in Haiti, a minor one for us, but
it is unfortunately indicative of the one step forward, two steps back approach
to democracy that plagues the country, along with extreme poverty and violence.
This is a tough place.
