The other day @ work my co-workers and I were having a discussion and the topic of Haiti came up. For those of you who may not know, we here in the Bahamas have had an influx of Haitians since I knew myself; and to this VERY day MANY Bahamians have a lot of HATRED and are VERY PREJUDICED towards them. Where I understand the frustration of my people, I tend to take the position that they are human just like us and if they risk life and limb to get here by boat, then something MUST be wrong where they live.
So back to the conversation I was having with my co-workers…I wasn’t surprised that @ least one of us HATED Haitians…This young lady went as far to say that we need a shoot on contact order when our marine officers see their boats in our waters as they are trying to come here. She went on and on about how they are bringing us down and they need to be sent back to Haiti…born here OR NOT! I guess something is wrong with me because I’ve heard the many stories of how they came here and are taking away jobs (mostly minimum wage employment), taking over our medical service (most of us don’t use it) and sending their money out of the country…yet I don’t have a single piece of hatred in my heart towards any Haitian.
So as I made my way home yesterday, I heard about the earthquake in Haiti. I thought oh no and my mind IMMEDIATELY went on my co-worker who doesn’t care for Haitians @ all. I couldn’t wait to see her and ask her how she felt about Haitians now…As she made her way to her desk I threw her the question…I didn’t think that her feelings would change, but I didn’t expect her to say, WELL THAT’S A FEW THOUSANDS WE DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT! I just looked @ her, shook my head and went to my desk. I was trying so hard to fight back the tears and take my mind off Haiti because I didn’t need to go off on her on my temp job. I could accept ignorance AND hatred towards me for being gay, but these are our brothers and sisters. How can anyone feel like this? Her out of touch~ness could ONLY mean that her heart is in her feet and she is walking on it.
I can only wonder who planted the seeds of intolerance that she carries wit her? Yes we are different, but the TRUTH is we are all more alike then we are different. How can she NOT see that? How can the many Bahamians that are like her not see that the sooner we get beyond this HATRED for Haitians, the better off we all will be? We cannot walk around with mirrors our entire lives and think it is okay!
I am sorry that so many died and that their deaths will ONLY mirror the commonly held false belief that Bahamians have about Haitians. We call ourselves a “Christian” nation but I often wonder how much of God is inside of us (THANK GOD I DON’T DO RELIGION!). I believe that it is NOT enough that we live, but we MUST live for each other. Our lives should centre around creating joy for others, working for the betterment of society and sharing what we have…How can we NOT try to bring some sort of HOPE to the lost in Haiti?
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