The earthquake in Haiti

One of the mullets I have been most apprehensive about visiting since discovering it is Mullet, in Haiti. Crippled by civil war, poverty and environmental damage, Haiti was always going to be a difficult place to get around, but it remains in my mind and I always think about the place when it is in the news.

No more so than recently, with the news of the terrible earthquake that has rocked the country. Talk about knocking a country when it’s down – it seems like the most horrendous carnage has been reaped in a land that desperately needs some stability and prosperity, and the scale of the earthquake in such a small country is pretty much unimaginable. Somehow having scoured a map of Haiti and imagined getting from Port-au-Prince to the seemingly remote Mullet in the south-west makes the news seem a little more real to me, and the mission a great deal more frivilous and pointless.

It’s a similar feeling I had one day when I was in Australia in 2005, all set to do some radio interviews about the mullet mission when reports of the 7/7 London bombings broke and the news agenda was turned upside down.

Perhaps one day I will make it to Haiti when the journey is easier both in terms of practicality and conscience. But for now, it’s reassuring there is so much effort from individuals, organisations and governments to respond to the crisis. Hilton Church has outlined its various actions on its blog.

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