GEOGRAPHICALLY, HAITI is far closer to us than Miami, Toronto or London. Psychically, it remains a world away for many of us. For mainly linguistic reasons, we in Jamaica have traditionally paid Haiti little mind. It has occasionally served as a convenient reference point when people have wanted to throw Jamaican difficulties into stark relief 'it's not so bad, just look at Haiti' - but beyond that, we have largely ignored the country. Most Jamaicans know little about it and the background to its woes.
A hard-headed approach might well maintain this separation. Haiti's problems show little sign of spilling over into Jamaica. We can thus isolate Haiti, and since we stand to make few immediate gains from a more engaged policy, perhaps it might seem best to ignore it.
This would be short-sighted. While a Haiti in crisis may not hurt us, a more stable and prosperous Haiti would, over the long term, bring us obvious benefits. The governments of the region apparently recognise this, but engagement in Haiti will prove problematic. In particular, our level of understanding of Haiti being low, we may be prone to import interpretive frameworks that are inappropriate to its peculiar context.
Whatever Caribbean governments can do over the short term to help tackle the Haitian crisis, over the long term we need to produce better understanding. This requires the educational system, and especially our universities, stepping up to the task of widening our future leaders' horizons. In crisis there is opportunity, but it must be grasped with vision.
That vision needs the perspective of history, for Haiti at the start of the year marked its 200th anniversary as the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere and the first independent black republic in the world. Jamaica absorbed hundreds of refugees from the successful revolutionary war against French domination and has given refuge to several ousted Haitian dictators.
Those historical ties have waned but the regional kinship survives to the extent that CARICOM colleagues feel bound to help resolve the current troubles.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
