I've noticed something here I found odd... when you think of poverty (one global issue), you might think of places like here, Haiti. And that's right. But, when you think of things like global warming, animal abuse, littering and all that, personally, I think about modern societies. I'm starting to realise that that's not always the only case.
Just because the people here are living in poverty (relatively, because they are all still happy with their lives), doesn't mean they aren't contributing to the other problems I listed above or any of the other global issues for that matter. Maybe that seems obvious, but I'd never really thought about it. Over the last few days, I've witnessed a lot more than just poverty. There are a lot of issues with animal rights and trash disposal here and I wasn't exactly expecting that.
They don't have trucks that pass by each house and pick up trash. I mean, none of the houses here even have a trash can. On my first day here, I asked my Haitian mum where I could throw away my tissue. She looked at me in confusion, took it from my hand, and threw it in front of her: into the vast greenery of trees and grass. And this is what they do with absolutely everything. Whether it's biodegradable or not (usually the latter). They do it because they have no other system.
I was talking to some of the local people and they said that they really didn't like that there was trash everywhere, it made their home look dirty and that's not what they wanted... but, they are the ones putting it there. Yet, what can they do?Even if they put it all in a bucket… then what? What happens when the bucket gets full? They still have nowhere to put it after that.
(Even afterwards, at the conference in Forêt des Pins, we had garbage bags everywhere and made sure that no trash went into the surrounding environment. Our goal was to keep it clean. But then what happened? On the last day they took the big mound of trash that had been piling up from the last three days and the contribution of 150 people, and to get rid of it... they burned it. Isn't that just worse? I never would have thought to expect these things when I was here).
I sort of understand, they have no other alternative- not yet at least- it's just so horrible to see. It makes me wonder whether that could be one of my projects, to get a trash system here.
Another major issue I've witnessed is animal abuse. Several of the families here have pets, but even if they don't, there are animals around. Even the birds, that's a big problem: they take them and play with them without knowing that they're actually breaking their wings. There are pigs, horses, donkeys, goats, dogs, cats, birds, and more, and none of them are being treated fairly. But again, it's just a matter of never having been educated on these topics. To them, and I do understand because that's what they know, the animals are just there and there's no specific way they should be treated. If the dog is bothering you while you eat, hit it, so what? If the donkey that's bringing you up the mountain is too slow, hit it, so what? They just don't understand that the animals shouldn't be treated with abuse. We tried to explain, but they would always just laugh. We told them, well, what if the animal hit you back, then what?
So no, just because these people live in poverty, doesn't mean that's the only global issue they're associated with. I know that in Haiti, aside from poverty, trash issues and animal abuse, the country is also connected to labour workers, slavery (restavecs) and more. It might seem like common sense that the problems they face aren't limited to one, but I had never really thought about it this way.
LM
Just because the people here are living in poverty (relatively, because they are all still happy with their lives), doesn't mean they aren't contributing to the other problems I listed above or any of the other global issues for that matter. Maybe that seems obvious, but I'd never really thought about it. Over the last few days, I've witnessed a lot more than just poverty. There are a lot of issues with animal rights and trash disposal here and I wasn't exactly expecting that.
They don't have trucks that pass by each house and pick up trash. I mean, none of the houses here even have a trash can. On my first day here, I asked my Haitian mum where I could throw away my tissue. She looked at me in confusion, took it from my hand, and threw it in front of her: into the vast greenery of trees and grass. And this is what they do with absolutely everything. Whether it's biodegradable or not (usually the latter). They do it because they have no other system.
I was talking to some of the local people and they said that they really didn't like that there was trash everywhere, it made their home look dirty and that's not what they wanted... but, they are the ones putting it there. Yet, what can they do?Even if they put it all in a bucket… then what? What happens when the bucket gets full? They still have nowhere to put it after that.
(Even afterwards, at the conference in Forêt des Pins, we had garbage bags everywhere and made sure that no trash went into the surrounding environment. Our goal was to keep it clean. But then what happened? On the last day they took the big mound of trash that had been piling up from the last three days and the contribution of 150 people, and to get rid of it... they burned it. Isn't that just worse? I never would have thought to expect these things when I was here).
I sort of understand, they have no other alternative- not yet at least- it's just so horrible to see. It makes me wonder whether that could be one of my projects, to get a trash system here.
Another major issue I've witnessed is animal abuse. Several of the families here have pets, but even if they don't, there are animals around. Even the birds, that's a big problem: they take them and play with them without knowing that they're actually breaking their wings. There are pigs, horses, donkeys, goats, dogs, cats, birds, and more, and none of them are being treated fairly. But again, it's just a matter of never having been educated on these topics. To them, and I do understand because that's what they know, the animals are just there and there's no specific way they should be treated. If the dog is bothering you while you eat, hit it, so what? If the donkey that's bringing you up the mountain is too slow, hit it, so what? They just don't understand that the animals shouldn't be treated with abuse. We tried to explain, but they would always just laugh. We told them, well, what if the animal hit you back, then what?
So no, just because these people live in poverty, doesn't mean that's the only global issue they're associated with. I know that in Haiti, aside from poverty, trash issues and animal abuse, the country is also connected to labour workers, slavery (restavecs) and more. It might seem like common sense that the problems they face aren't limited to one, but I had never really thought about it this way.
LM
