41 – 26 – 23 … and Other Numbers from Haiti’s History
In the middle of downtown Port au Prince sit quite a few monuments to Haiti’s early history: statues commemorating founders of the nation such as Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe; an unfinished tower which was meant to commemorate the country’s liberation from slavery at the 200th anniversary of the nation’s founding (1804); the marble-fronted three-sided column with texts from Haiti’s first constitution, drafted in 1801 by Toussaint Louverture, who is my personal most-want-to-meet person from history, along with Queen Elizabeth the first.
Also in the heart of town is the MUPANAH, musee du pantheon national d’Haiti. (It’s the building with the tiled mosaic features – the museum is underneath those unique skylights.) This fantastic site is both a truly interesting museum with displays on Haiti’s history from the native-American era to the present — and also a symbolic pantheon (guides tell us the actual earthly remains aren’t there, more sort of symbols or something – I haven’t asked for specifics) to four of the most important early leaders and founders: Tousaint, Dessalines, and Christophe, along with Alexandre Petion. Which bring us to the numbers game.
On a wall at the end are photos or paintings of nearly all the heads of state in Haiti’s history. Having now led groups of
international staff on downtown tours several times, always ending at the museum, I’m digging into more of the details. Last time, I read all the details under some of the presidents’ photos, such as when the Palais Nationale was built — the 1880s if I recall right. (That’s the president’s palace, which was badly damaged in 2010 and not yet functional again.) I also did some counting, looking for other ways to frame this nation’s complex, impressive and at times rather depressing history. How many elected presidents has Haiti had? 41. How many unelected heads of state and interim government councils or military juntas or councils of ministers has it had? 26.
Toussaint’s constitution was the first, in 1801. I’m sure it’s unique in human history as the very first time any constitution stated that slavery shall not exist. After all, Napoleon’s reaction when Toussaint sent him the draft for approval was to send hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of soldiers. Not hard to understand that the 400,000 or so self-liberated slaves here pretty much reacted to that with a “fuck you very much.” How many other constitutions? The total number of constitutions this country has known, starting with that 1801 version, is 23.
Most Haitians I’ve spoken with will explain that the US has invaded twice. The first was in 1915, an invasion which lasted until 1934. Like the more-recent US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, Haiti continued to have presidents and a government formally its own…but with a bunch of American soldiers toting guns around, you can imagine how empowered that government and its citizens felt, eh? (And let’s be honest about white American soldiers occupying a black republic in 1915 and how respectful they likely were?) In the 48 years prior to that first invasion, Haiti saw 22 heads of state. The second US invasion was 1994, when the marines marched in to restore an elected president (Bertrand Aristide) to power and remove a military government. In the years between 1986 and 1994, Haiti had seen 10 heads of state and provisional ruling councils. Progress is hard to build and continue, when governance can’t be stable and transition reliably, and when outside powers and groups wield such influence, or invade at will.
Obviously the nation, its people and its history are more than numbers. Obviously there are human families, individual human stories of success and frustration, failure and achievement woven into the 225 years since the only successful slave revolt in human history rose and burned down the first colonial plantations on the Plaine du Nord in 1791. The numbers are but one way in – an invitation for those wanting to explore more deeply to do so. At this time, in these weeks and months to come following Matthew’s unwelcome visit, I for one am trying to remember this.
I’ve Looked At Clouds…
Sunday afternoon in Port au Prince. There’s a great big mass of clouds, wind and rain named Hurricane Matthew, currently a few hundred miles south of us in the Caribbean and slowly working its way north. Seems that tomorrow, parts of Haiti will see massive rain, probably flooding, and very likely substantial risks to homes and lives and communities. For now, not much to do but wait: hasn’t yet started raining. My tennis buddy is taking a weekend in the mountains, so I’m at loose ends while also behind on both sleep and de-stressing recreation.
So I started thinking about all the clouds I’ve looked at from airplane windows the past two months. Figured I’d share some of them with you.
Trip one: late July (all the files are named yymmdd so you can tell which flight it was, and numbered in sequence, so if you think of the plane’s route, you can guess as I do roughly what we’re looking at – some landforms are obvious, others less so), the first time on a flight from PaP to Maimi that we went as far east as we did. Usually, the flights have passed just west of Ile la Tortue; this time the plane clearly diverted to the east, and I think it must have been to avoid a storm system: I think the first photo you see above is that storm system. Nothing like Matthew…but certainly on that day, flights were delayed all across North America due to storm systems, and we here had our little flight adjustments as well.
Trip two: the return leg from Miami to PaP, from the same vacation trip, in later August. I just love looking down at the islands, sandy bottoms and coral formations of the Bahamas. Then watching the shores of Haiti creep slowly closer and become landforms, towns and cities that I recognize and can place on a map.
Trip three: from JFK down to PaP this time, leaving quite early in the morning on a clear Sunday. Saw the moon rise; saw rainbows in clouds as we approached a somewhat cloudy Haiti. Saw deforestation runoff coming into the bay near Port au Prince, and the bump of the Commune de Carrefour just west of downtown PaP. Saw the mountains to the south of downtown PaP, which I’ve explored a bit by car and on foot. Again – numbered in sequence from sitting on the runway at JFK, to a view at Jamaica Bay as we took off…and all the miles of ocean, clouds, moon and rainbows and bays and islands between.
Love Songs of the Golden-Cheeked Gibbon
On quiet mornings in Amsterdam I sometimes go for a run or walk around the perimeter of Artis, the zoo. I’ve come to long for the morning serenade of an animal that sings in long, soaring, other-worldly tones that feel half-bird, half human. Indeed, I’ve wondered if they’re apes on some of my runs – but the only loud primates I’ve heard of (aside from monkeys of the classic ooh-ooh ahh-ahh style, and humans) are howler monkeys, and these calls are far more ethereal than any howl I can imagine. Until this last trip, I’d never found time to go inside the zoo and find out directly. I’ve never been sure, and always wondered.
Last year and this, some of our sessions for the “coordination days” (in which heads of mission and medical coordinators debate and discuss issues of the day with our HQ management and support) have been held in beautifully renovated meeting rooms at the zoo, which is across the street from our hotel and down the block from our office. One afternoon during lunch, they offered a guided tour with the theme of “leadership and communication.” (Cute theme, for mission managers, eh?)
It was thus that I learned of the golden-cheeked gibbon, from southeast Asia – born golden, turning black after a few years, with females returning golden at sexual maturity. When a gibbon pair develops a beautiful harmony, so the docent told us, it signifies to others in the troop that they’ve bonded. I found the story nearly as lovely as the morning serenades themselves.
So herewith, in honor of the gibbons which sing for their mates, the lions whose children remind me of human teenagers I’ve known (the older two sleeping are parents; the younger two looking bored are the lion equivalent of bored teenage daughters, I gather), and of the baby monkey daughter with her high-ranking mother from the matriarchal-led society, I offer you a few photos from Artis, Amsterdam’s surprisingly central, larger-than-expected, and quite lovely zoo. (I indeed saw older monkeys scamper out of the way of this baby – they treated her like a princess!) Though I still have problems with the whole zoo concept, it was certainly a learning experience for me. Enjoy!
Seven Views of the Golden Gate Bridge … Four of Twin Peaks
I’ve known the city of San Francisco for so long – from a childhood summer in Berkeley, from living in the city and/or staying for long period quite often in recent decades – that I tend to assume everyone is aware that it’s surrounded by water on three sides; that it’s full of hills which give beautiful views of its other hills, of the bay and the ocean that surround it, or of lovely San Bruno Mountain which draws up its southern border…that it’s full of beautiful Victorian houses nicely maintained and painted for the most part…that it is chock-a-block with parks at the tops of many those hills, giving thus even better views with greenery and flowers in the foreground, hills and Victorians n the background. But I realize, when I return to work and my international team of folks from Haiti and around the world, that my little corner of the world is one to which most people actually have not yet been. And so herewith some photos from lovely sunny days where I enjoyed the freedom to stroll at will and to pull out my camera any moment I felt like it. They’re all named in a way that intends to inform you of what you’re seeing. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed those strolls :-).
On the Road to Musical Adventures
Two quite different views on two quite musical days: fairly typical vacation outing for me if I’m able to be around the Bay Area in August. I always look forward to the chance to hear some performances at the Cabrillo Music Festival, which my friends Gene & Howard introduced me two nearly two decades ago. This year I enjoyed two excellent evenings of contemporary music during the final season of their excellent long-standing conductor Marin Alsop. Day one, we drove down from SF via Route 1 for traffic reasons, and thus had far lovelier views and a chance to pick up fresh strawberries at a farm stand in the northern part of Santa Cruz county. I always enjoy that drive because so much of the west side of the peninsula and of Santa Cruz county remain very heavily agricultural, while of course the east side of the peninsula is silicon valley: economic (and visual) diversity, eh?
Day two we had a matinée performance of the contemporary Opera Powder Her Face produced by West Edge Opera in an abandoned train station right next to the freeway in Oakland. It must have been a very grand station before the rail lines were relocated to the north side of the major interstate that now runs right behind it. The opera was disturbing and quite well produced, and the train station made a great concert hall and interesting subject for architectural photography. I hope you’ll enjoy these glimpses of what I get up to given time and opportunity back home :-).
Dry Hillsides & Live Oaks
We’re reaching the end of a lovely three-week vacation back home in the beloved Bay Area. Realizing that I’d taken tons of photos as always, but not posted any of them whether to facebook or to the blog…let alone to instagram, which friends are telling me I should try out…I decided that before I head to the airport tomorrow for the flight back to Port au Prince, I should at least start sorting some of the pics and putting them up. I’ve been out on my bike even more than usual this time, because I have no motor vehicle up here; I’ve driven around a bit with friends down in the city (SF, that is) and the peninsula; and yesterday around Sonoma County with another friend who came for a visit…but those shots will appear in future posts once I’ve sorted the good from the bad. This post is all about the superb mountain-biking park that is semi-literally out my door, turn right, and walk til the streets end and the paths begin. Any time someone wonders why I’ve continued to pay state taxes in CA during all these years when I’m more out of the country, than in…well, state parks with toilets and drinking fountains (potable water than won’t give you cholera! piped fresh to a faucet near you! don’t take it for granted!) and maintained walk and horse and bike trails…well, if my taxes are going for that rather than bombing schools in various poorer foreign lands, they’re taxes I’m happy to pay. ‘Nuf said…oh except the mountain lion sign is for my brother Steve: these, you can be afraid of. Chickens, no; mountain lions, yes. Got it? 🙂
Metro PaP Miscellany
I’ve gotten off for another bit of a vacation at home in California, which has given me time to comb through my camera and folders for shots I’ve not yet done anything with. These are just a few bits and pieces of miscellany — from a ride-along I did earlier in the year when our outreach team did some sensitization work on services for survivors of sexual violence at a town on the northeastern side of PaP; plus a few other bits and pieces such as the lady with her little mobile copier set up on the square in Petion-Ville by the Mairie, police station, church, etc.
Once More From the Air: MIA–>PAP
It’s eight weeks since I returned from my lovely May break back home – from which the photos in the last entry emerged. Those eight weeks have been, as usual, mighty busy at work and I’ve not gotten out with my camera at all here in Port au Prince, let alone out of town. Also, I have to admit I’ve been pretty distressed at the state of the world — from Dhaka to Istanbul, Dallas and Orlando to Nice and London, it feels that these past weeks have brought a steadier diet of disheartening news of violence and people closing their hearts to each other than we’ve seen in quite some time. At such times, I tend to focus as locally as possible, on what’s in front of me that I can do. I also tend to look at photos of all the great people and places I’ve met around the world – memories of fonder times. And I did take some photos on that last flight from Miami to PaP – another set of mostly surreal-looking photos of islands in the Bahamas, and some of Biscayne Bay, as seen from an airplane window. Enjoy…and shed some light and kindness on those around you, please. 🙂
Paths and Parks, Poppies and Panoramas
In May, I spent a few weeks of holiday back in Sonoma County. As ever, I spent as much time as I could on the bike trails and in the parks. As you’ll see in these photos, the California poppies were in bloom, the days were usually sunny but sometimes – as when Amy & I climbed to the top of Hood Mountain — pretty cloudy and even occasionally rainy. (That’s rare for May in California, in case you didn’t know.) In Haiti, where I’m spending most of my time these days, I rarely have the chance to linger by streams with wading birds and gliding ducks, or to enjoy little irises or turkeys fanning out during a hike in the woods. I’ve also included a couple of shots taken at Dolores Park, one of my favorite spots in San Francisco, which has been under reconstruction much of the past year and now looks fresh, new and as popular as ever.
Sugar History & Houses on the Hills
Sugar cane has a long and mostly painful history here in Haiti. Before it became the Republic of Haiti, this part of the island generated huge profits for the slave-holding French colonists. So it was with a mix of interest and discomfort that I took in all the sugar-making implements and buildings at the Sugar Cane Historic Park (Parc Historique de la Canne a Sucre), a private park, meeting space, restaurant and tourist site on the eastern edge of PaP. I was there for a full-day meeting but enjoyed the breaks and the end of day to explore the site a bit, and as you’ll see it’s rather picturesque. Given its incredible and utterly unique history, its mix of rugged mountains and beaches, its quite unique and rich culture and art — Haiti by rights should be the biggest tourist magnet in the Caribbean in my opinion.The mix of poor infrastructure, weak security and health care baselines, and other obstacles make it more of an adventure-tourist or even “humanitarian tourist,” especially for all the one-week teen-aged missionary visitors that fill the planes from Atlanta in their shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops). But I know the government certainly hopes tourism can grow and I for one hopethat the baseline infrastructure and other conditions improve sufficiently that Haiti’s manifest attractions for tourism can be more evident to the masses of North Americans who seek a safe, interesting and warm escape from cold winters :-). It’s been months since I last posted, and I apologize. Given the long delay, I’ve thrown in a few other random shots from around PaP, mostly views of houses on the hills. Every photo file should have a name which will tell you roughly what it is. Hope you enjoy!
Springtime in Virginia
My Mom just turned 80. Happy birthday, Mom! She’s often chosen springtime celebrations farther south — this time she was interested in springtime gardens of Virginia, along with Virginia’s colonial and civil war history. I flew up for a few days with her, my brothers and sister in law, and my aunt (Mom’s sister). Here are a bunch of shots that I figured I should put up right away while the memories are still fresh and folks further north – or going into southern autumn – can appreciate the beauty of tulips, dogwoods, redbuds and other flowers and trees. I’ve never really been to Richmond before – probably drove through once or twice, but never stopped. Lovely city, fairly messed up history – not a coincidence that the only two historical monuments I decided to photograph are ones celebrating great African-Americans and their achievements. ‘Nuf said. Still…pretty buildings, eh?
Back to the Mountains
The year’s gotten off to a busy start – lots of work, long days and weeks, not quite the amount of free time that gives much chance to get out and about with a camera, or sort & post the photos once I’ve gotten out. Still and all, I did manage another hiking weekend back to the lovely Auberge la Visite, at Seguin. This really is a lovely if challenging hike. (Because it’s rolling, very steep ups and downs, and almost all in blazing sun unless you start really early or get a cloudy day…without rain: you would NOT want rain on this road). This time I walked again with a few work colleagues. We started really early, and in late January so the sun rose above the mountains too the east a bit later, and we actually walked in shade much of the time.
The stars at night were wonderfully clear and abundant – we spent time studying the milky way & deciding which were planets, which stars, and which satellites. On the way back we were actually surprised when we reached the end: if you look in some of these shots below, you’ll notice one can see the road most of the way – and we thought we had yet another village, and another down & up road segment, to cover before reaching our end-point. The end point, if you’re curious, is the last village that any regular 4-wheeled vehicles come to from the north. From the south, you can get to about where we spent the night and even a bit further – but the middle chunk of this road is so steep and rocky that it’s foot, mule, and motorbikes only. I, for one, would not have any wish at all to be on those motorbikes: it’s how I felt backpacking the grand canyon; I trust my own feet more than the mules (in the canyon) or the motorcycles.
There are mules here but mostly as pack animals: very few were being ridden by people, though I suppose after they drop off their carrots or scallions at the market or transport towns, the folks may ride them back home… (I’m sort of assuming there are brokers or agents in the village where we start, who buy up what all these folks are carrying, then shuttle it the rest of the way into the PaP metro area…but I haven’t investigated further.) The only real downside to this time of year for a visit is that the waterfall is more of a lovely water trickle, not much of a fall. Oh well. Enjoy the shots, even though they’re probably quite repetitive with the ones I put up last summer…haven’t checked but I suppose I will shortly, just to see how repetitive I’m getting! Happy spring, to those of you in northern climes where spring has sprung.
In this shot below, plus the one at the very end and a few others scattered through the post, you’ll see these rock-strewn hillsides. My current suspicion is that this is the result of erosion — deforestation, as we know, has led to a lot of Haiti’s topsoil being washed into the ocean. I figure these rocks may have become more and more exposed, as the topsoil has washed away…but again it’s something I’ve not checked into. They make for an interesting sight, though, eh?
The Bay on New Year’s Day
2016 dawned beautiful, bright and clear in and around San Francisco. And for the first time in many years, I saw my first sunrise of the new year in the bay area instead of out on another continent across a ocean or two. True, the next day I flew out again to head back to Haiti and my work here…which would be why it’s taken me nearly 1/6 of 2016 to get these put up: sorry! As you see, though – the view was clear enough to see easily and clearly all the way out to Mt Diablo, and all the way up to Point Reyes National Seashore. Enjoy these little views of my home region :-).
From the Air: PaP–>MIA
Mostly when I’ve flown out of the Toussaint Louverture PaP Int’l Airport, we’ve taken off toward the east, then circled around north-westward until the airplane has climbed to its altitude and established its flight pattern toward whatever US airport it’s aiming for. On my last trip, I had a window seat and I took full advantage: friends and followers may remember how much I loved staring out the window and capturing the views in PNG and over the Coral Sea between PNG & Australia…well, the views on this route are equally wonderful. All photos in this post were taken during one flight, following that trajectory up and over Haiti and on to Miami Int’l Airport. Two highlight full-size shots are kicking it off here, out of order, but the gallery below is strictly in order as the plane advanced along its course. I’ve named each photo and hope if you run your cursor over it, you’ll see which was when; where I knew I was looking at xx or yy geographic feature, I cited it. I find the contrasts between Haiti, the other islands and the finally Miami very interesting. And many of the shots nearly modern-art-like in their beauty. Hope you agree!
The Trouble with Trees…
Taking pictures of them, that is. Especially when they’re 2,000 years old, enormous, and have curious and fascinating extrusions angling off in interesting directions. Or when its just grand and full, and no photo your little pocket-camera can capture could ever convey the enormity of leaning against its trunk and scanning the grey skies through its dense crown. That’s all my way of apologizing for the inadequacy of my attempts to show two of the grand heritage trees that can be found at Jack London State Historic Park, where with Steve & Mom, I spent a chunk of one of the last days of 2015. Mom and I had been before, to learn more about the man and his family and ideals and history. Really remarkable stuff, and it was clear to me that Chuck (my eldest brother) would have been good friends with the guy – seems he was quite the cut-up, aside from being quite work-driven and really a fairly original thinker in many ways. (He tried to experiment with sustainable farming in the first decades of the last century — well before the dust bowl first made obvious how badly we were over-farming the continent!) Anyhoo — here are just a bunch of shots from a hike Steve & I took to a remarkable, lone ancient redwood. I guess it’s the only old-growth redwood left, i.e. the only one that didn’t get cut down and turned into planks for housing some time between 1850 and 1980 or so. I’m fairly sure we saw new-growth redwoods coming back in various spots along the walk, which is nice to know. So many SF tourists stick with Muir Woods, which is certainly lovely but also a great deal more densely crowded than the many magnificent state parks which dot the coastal mountains both north and south of the city. If you’re interested in redwoods and considering a trip to the city, do think about ranging further afield…it’s well worth it.
That’s Steve with the ancient redwood behind him, especially the multi-tiered burl, which may look like a fungus or problem but is apparently one way the tree can reproduce itself if it needs to. I’m not quite clear on the mechanism, but it’s clear the coast redwoods have multiples systems of reproduction. Further down there’s a shot of me & Howard & Gene at sunset on the last day of 2015, at Limantour Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore – another great bay area location well worth visiting. 🙂
(so much world, so little time....) 