ARTICLE - WE ARE TIRED, BUT NOT DEFEATED

DANTICAT: YES, HAITIANS ARE TIRED, BUT THEY ARE NOT DEFEATED
(Miami Herald) - By Edwidge Danticat

In the Greek myth, Sisyphus, a mortal, is condemned by the gods to endlessly roll a rock up a mountain, only to have it fall back down again. Each time the rock rolls down the mountain, he pushes it up, and in the most optimistic telling of the story, he hopes that it will be the final time. This is his punishment for defying the gods and for imagining his life, his fate, equal to their own.

Michele Pierre-Louis, a former Prime Minister of Haiti, second woman to have held that post, tells the story of Sisyphus in the Miami Herald-produced documentary, Nou Bouke: Haiti's Past, Present and Future, which I have narrated.

``Haitians are Sisyphean,'' Pierre-Louis tells us. From the native Tainos, who were wiped out by the Spaniards after decades of battle, to the enslaved Africans who defeated the French and created the world's first black republic -- -only to invite the world's scorn -- to the millions of current residents of tent cities, survivors of the worst natural disaster to have struck the country in its entire history, Haitians are Sisyphean and much more.

Sisyphus in Haiti is the grief-stricken father, who days after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, stands in front of the remnants of his house where his son's body lies buried in the ruble. Using a reporter's video cameras as a way of communicating with another son in the United States, he tells one brother of the other, ``Gibson is in the hole and we can't do anything for him.''

Sisyphus in Haiti is also the political activist and singer So An, whose short salt and pepper hair, one suspects, has grown grayer in the last year.

``Tout moun bouke,'' she says. ``The upper class, the opposition, the population. Everyone is tired. Imagine you have a country struggling like Haiti then you have a catastrophe like this earthquake and you simply can't see how you're going to get out of this situation. You're going to be tired.''

Sisyphean too are Emmanuelle Lundy and Wilfrid Macena, young people, who are rebuilding new lives after losing limbs to the earthquake. And Jerry Rosembert Moise, a graffiti artist, whose unique type of protest art covers the walls of Port-au-Prince with political-cartoon-inspired images and messages such as ``We Need Help'' and ``Haiti pap peri'' (Haiti will not perish), which has become a mantra for many.

And the dulcet-voiced, Vodou opera singer Fabienne Denis, who crosses class lines to practice and honor the religion she loves. And Levy Azor, a citizen volunteer who directs traffic daily for no pay while dreaming of the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Or the men and women who roll actual boulders up actual hills where some of the construction materials that failed so many are collected.

We also meet Sisyphus' punishers, a long line of whom have always haunted Haiti's history. The former United States assistant secretary of state who arrogantly declares that a former democratically elected president was basically irrelevant to the history of Haiti.

``That doesn't mean,'' he adds, ``we're suggesting that we have a right to change who the president of Haiti is, but that doesn't mean that we can't make sort of logical judgments about what's good for that country.''

Sisyphean Haitians are still waiting for the day when logical judgments about what's good for that country will be decided by Haitians themselves.

In the mean time, so many are tired. They are tired of living in tent cities. They are tired of the cholera epidemic. They are tired of the election stalemate. They will still be tired when the first year anniversary commemorations are over and they are left on their own again, dreading the next storm season, the next possible epidemic, the next set of election-related protests. It remains to be seen where this tiredness will lead.

However, as many of the Haitians interviewed for the film stated over and over again, even with all the tiredness one cannot lose hope. Because once you lose hope, you die.

Edwidge Danticat is the editor of the anthology ``Haiti Noir'' and the narrator of the film ``Nou Bouke,'' which airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday on WPBT2 with an encore presentation Thursday at 8 p.m.