Recently with my son we watched “Schindler’s List” as we watched this amazing piece of cinema I was amazed at the sacrifice that Oscar Schindler made in order to save the lives of people who were not his own. At the very end of the movie we saw one of the greatest scenes in movie history, where Oscar Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, says, “this car, why did I keep the car, ten people right there, ten people, ten more people. This pin, two people, they would have given me two more at least one.” Oscar Schindler breaks down and cries, he says, “I could have gotten one more person and I didn’t.”
I am half Haitian, although I claim no connection to the country as I was not raised a cultural Haitian. I was raised primarily by a single mom from Alabama. But as ignorant of the culture as I am, like most Americans I could not escape the stories of horrific poverty. One of the stories that broke my heart was hearing that Haitians were actually eating dirt. A business has thrived in Haiti where people are creating and selling mud cakes. If you look at the picture just imagine.
Brittle and gritty - and as revolting as they sound - these are mud cakes. For a long time these mud cakes had been eaten by impoverished pregnant women seeking calcium, a dangerous and medically unproven supplement, but now the cakes have become a staple for entire Haitian families. It is not for the taste and nutrition, it contains tiny bits of salt and margarine, but the salt and margarine do not disguise what journalist who have tried these cakes describe as eating dirt. This picture was taken in 2008 long before the earthquake that wreaked havoc on the poverty stricken nation.
Lets move a couple years forward; the recovery efforts in Haiti are proving nearly impossible, with poor leadership and mounds of rubble still uncleared, according to a report by the RAND Corporation. Unqualified and poorly trained government workers, general lawlessness, poor policing and bad prisons are among the concerns. A former United States special envoy to Haiti says while the humanitarian response was quick, very little rubble has been removed and few basic decisions have been made.
Out of a country that has been for many reasons a disaster, natural and otherwise a young savior has emerged, Wyclef Jean. Wyclef has been an incredible musician, but what are we to make of him as a potential leader of Haiti. I want to preface this by saying that I do not know Wyclef’s soul. I do know that he owns 37 cars. The auto collection Wyclef includes an ultra-rare, 543-horsepower Pagani Zonda C12-S, an exclusive Italian-built sports car that sells for $350,000 according to Motor Trend Magazine.
I read about other cars that Wyclef owns some of them so rare that less than 50 exist in the whole world. The prices of many of the cars were upwards of a half a million dollars.
Wyclef now cries in his public interviews, but he claimed in his open letter on why he is running for president, "I'm not crying for myself; I'm crying for the people of Haiti." In the midst of his tears I would ask him the question Schindler presented to the rabbi, how many could you have saved? How many could you have fed? I would ask him your $350,000 car, how many Haitians would not have eaten dirt, how many lives, and how much medication?
I am not critical of a man who makes a lot of money and indulges himself, but if you are to run for president of a country that is the poorest in the world, what does it say that you accumulated 37 cars while your people ate dirt.
You can view the last scene by clicking on Schindler's List in the first paragraph.
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