This column was originally published on May 6, 2008 and is a reminder of our common humanity with people of Haitian descent. Clearly, every effort must be made -- from repatriation to border control -- in addressing illegal migration from Haiti and other countries. But the level of xenophobic vitriol and uncharitable and inhumane language directed at Haitians is unchristian and unbecoming of our democracy. From incorrect information concerning Mackey Yard to patently false allegations that Haitians are primarily responsible for our crime rate, there is a fever of scapegoating.
This bandwagon is being boarded by some politicians and even some pastors as well as those who have an obligation to seek the truth, verify the facts and not succumb to hysteria.
Not only are we all children of the same Creator. Our genetic and cultural bonds with foreign immigrants including Haitians are not as far removed as some would like us to believe, as close as a single generation and as far back as the beginning of the Bahamian story.
Less than a fortnight ago, a group of Haitian migrants' quest for a better life, was forever lost in calm waters between New Providence and Bimini. Their firm and luminous dreams ended in a mid-evening watery nightmare. This was not the first such incident nor is it likely to be the last. But each of these tragedies should be recalled in detail -- for the victims and by all of us left to mourn their untimely deaths.
Such an act of remembrance forces us to help forge policies and practices which may make these incidents as rare as possible. It also reminds us of the innate human dignity of the named and unnamed victims. A failure to lament this loss and memorialize those who perished diminishes our own humanity and moral sensibility.
Our elegy is a must for each of them as it is for us. Sometime after 8 p.m. on Saturday April 19th, approximately 24 to 27 people crammed into a 20-30 foot Intrepid class speedboat charging towards Miami via Bimini. The name Intrepid mocked the vessel they boarded.
An hour after departure, less than 20 miles northwest of Nassau, their go-fast boat capsized after quickly taking on water. With tragic irony, upon arriving at the scene, rescuers placed life-vests on the corpses in order to keep them afloat.
Three people survived, including, 23-year-old Rodene Fleresaint, 26-year-old Johnny Boucher and a Honduran marine mechanic who may have been the captain of the doomed venture.
Ms. Fleresaint, the daughter of rice farmers, though dreaming of becoming a nurse, barely survived by using a dead woman as a makeshift life vest-cum-raft. Mr. Boucher treaded water from approximately 9 p.m. Saturday night until 5 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
For all of their misery, they were fortunate. Due to advanced decomposition, one body was buried a week after drowning, and five others were claimed by relatives for private farewells.
Nine of the 14 bodies recovered were buried last Wednesday, including those of Marie Lorenete Belence, Roseline Almonor, Lucienne Charles, Liviania, Geralda Henrice, Silfida St. Louis nee Camille and an unknown male and unknown female.
Lorna Eugene was among those buried. Her family reportedly paid $5,000 for her passage to Florida so she could reunite with her fiancé. The family of Jean Fito Elisme -- whose body was among approximately 10 others not recovered -- came to the memorial service with a wreath and a photograph of the deceased.
Two days later, in an unrelated development, the government announced a $1 million dollar ex-gratia payment for the 29 people injured and the estates of the four people who died when the Sea Hauler and United Star collided on August 2nd, 2003. Obviously, the more recent human smuggling tragedy and the half-decade old August-Monday-weekend collision are essentially different. But they are not dissimilar with regards the loss of human life and the pain and suffering of those left to mourn their dead.
The ex-gratia payments are being made as a gesture of good will for the victims of that holiday weekend mishap. It is not legally required, as there was no finding of wrongdoing on the part of any government agency. The estates of our deceased Haitian brothers and sisters and those who survived, are not entitled to such ex-gratia payments. But there is a fundamental moral payment they are due.
They are due more tears and more moral empathy. Our moral horizons usually flow outward from family and friends to neighbours and fellow citizens. The sympathy we feel for the victims of the Sea Hauler and United Star accident is a demonstration of moral concern and decency. But our moral horizons must extend beyond the comfortable shores of our own kith and kin and compatriots. Yet, our moral record regarding our Haitian neighbours lost at sea is checkered.
Too often, upon hearing of these horrific events in our waters, we shrug our shoulders and evince a callous attitude towards those who perished seeking many of the freedoms and basic human goods we take for granted. In May of last year, a group of 10 Haitians drowned in the Exumas while attempting to swim ashore after being forced to jump off the boat that brought them here.
Then U.S. Ambassador John Rood expressed his outrage at the lack of public outrage regarding the episode. "I can't believe that 10 Haitians were basically thrown out of a boat and drowned and there hasn't been outrage." He continued, "Can you imagine if 10 Americans were pushed off a boat and drowned, what the response would be?"
A month after the Exuma incident five more Haitian bodies were recovered off Eight Mile Rock in Grand Bahama, following their attempt to get to the United States. But these are only the latest episodes in an ever-expanding chronology of loss. In May 2002 approximately two dozen Haitians may have died when a 35-foot boat carrying 73 people capsized west of Great Inagua.
This was preceded by a June 2001event in which 11 Haitians died in the hull of a sloop that was shipwrecked in shark-infested waters off Rum Cay. These events, though horrific, pale in comparison to two tragedies in the 1990s. In a report released in 1996, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. chronicled one of the more horrendous losses at sea.
"The most tragic case concerned a freighter seized by Bahamian authorities in August [1995] with 300 Haitians crammed below decks. It was later discovered that at least 100 more had been killed during the voyage, mostly by being thrown overboard for complaining about their conditions."
And on Independence Day 1990, 39 Haitians drowned when their boat overturned off Little Farmer's Cay in the Exumas, while being towed by a Defence Force vessel. According to The New York Times the dead were buried in a 15-by-15 foot mass grave on an uninhabited and eerily named Bitter Guana Cay. Despite an inquiry, troubling questions remain regarding why the boat sank and who was responsible for the deaths.
In his "Diary of Souls", playwright Ian Strachan, horrified by this and other events and our anemic response to them, probes our moral attitudes and practices towards those who would risk their lives in order to find a better life. His challenges and questions remain. Still, this latest incident has brought some welcome growth.
When a prominent religious leader lamented the lack of compassion and outrage following a previous mass drowning, he was editorially attacked by a leading newspaper as being too sympathetic to Haitian migrants. Today, most of the press covered the event with sensitivity, candor and balance. Some members of the Christian Council, including a number of Haitian clergy, held a moving memorial on the waters near where the incident occurred.
This was followed by a memorial service in which Haitian and Bahamian pastors joined voices to speak forcefully and publicly about the human dignity of the perished. Scores of Bahamians were deeply saddened by these tragic events. Perhaps as a tribute to the newly dead we can all say a prayer for their eternal souls and treat their living relatives with the basic respect and decency they deserve as fellow citizens of a global commons.
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