THE EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI

After the earthquake had destroyed three-fourths of Lisbon, the sages of that country could think of no means more effectual to prevent utter ruin than to give the people a beautiful auto-da-fe, for it had been decided by the University of Coimra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallibl3e secret to hinder the earth from quaking

I begin this commentary with a quotation from Candide by Voltaire. Candide is a satire that was written in 1759. It is about Candide, the disciple of Dr. Pangloss. It is with sadness that we have watched the results of the earthquake in Haiti. We have seen people alive long after we all thought nobody would come out of the rubble. At a time when hope is all we can have about people and their lives, I want to just say, we need to keep hoping that the situations of the world will change for the better. With Swaziland going through the most difficult of times because of money shortages that have been worsened by the termination of the Customs Union benefits, we need to start thinking about what we can do to make our country stronger. We need to begin to plan how to make each individual count.

I have asked myself many times how Haiti will cope with so many people who are maimed. But in a country where the roads, bridges, government offices are all gone, it is quite a question to ask. It is like asking where the fish would swim when rivers have dried up. Even this is a poor comparison for what has happened because we cannot liken people to animals. It is just the lack of words one has to express the shock about what has happened.

It is with great sadness that we express to the Haitian people our expressions of connectedness in this catastrophe. We feel sad with them and hope that the situation will improve. We are all joining in creating places where people can donate for the Haitian cause. Never in the history of a country have we seen a situation where everything went down at once. We are hoping that the world will join in rendering help to our fellow brothers and sisters and bring about a recovery. We express our sincere condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in this catastrophe. We hope that they will heal and gain strength from the fact that they are still alive and start building a future even thought it will be difficult to do so. As fellow human beings we have been called to be strong in the face of challenges. It is with this ability to live on and do the best we can that we ask the people of Haiti not to give up, but be stronger.