In Farsi there is a phrase “ har ja sang ast ba payee lang ast ,” literally it means helpless is always left in the storm. For years and years people of Haiti were grappling with difficulties. This time the biggest earthquake, since 200 years, brought a human disaster for this country that awakened the world. For the last days, I was watching the news, I felt sick to my stomach. Last year, in the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York City, I met a journalist from Haiti. He told me that he was going to run for presidential election in 2011. He was telling me that if he becomes a president of Haiti I should be proud that I have met him. Since earthquake happened, I immediately sent him an e-mail but unfortunately I have no news of my Haitian friend “George.” At the Clinton conference we talked about politics. He liked Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai who has written a book about fixing failed states and he was saying me, Afghanistan shouldn’t have problem with having such considerable...
sporadic thoughts and reflections of an anthropology phd student