- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 We Don’t Have Enough Water to Make Tears
- 2 What We Have, We Share
- 3 Pearl of the Antilles
- 4 Maroon Man
- 5 We Will Carry You On
- 6 You Can’t Eat Okra with One Finger
- 7 Fragile as a Crystal
- 8 Children of the Land
- 9 Grains and Guns
- 10 The Ones Who Must Decide
- 11 Our Bodies Are Shaking Now
- 12 The Creole Connection
- 13 We’ve Lost the Battle, but We Haven’t Lost the War
- 14 Social Fault Lines
- 15 Monsanto Seeds, Miami Rice
- 16 Home
- 17 For Want of Twenty Cents
- 18 The Super Bowl of Disasters
- 19 The Commonplace amid the Catastrophic
- 20 Beyond Medical Care
- 21 Hold Strong
- 22 Mrs. Clinton Will Never See Me Working There
- 23 The Central Pillar
- 24 Elections
- 25 We Will Never Fall Asleep Forgetting
- Epilogue
- Index
Hold Strong
Hold Strong
The Pros and Pitfalls of Resilience
- Chapter:
- (p.168) 21 Hold Strong
- Source:
- Fault Lines
- Author(s):
Beverly Bell
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
This chapter examines the pros and pitfalls of resilience shown by Haitians in the post-earthquake period. Haiti serves as a reminder of the remarkable capacity of humanity to survive, create positive change, sustain culture, and hold joy. Courage, resistance, and survivability are among the most valued traits of the people of Haiti, both in the personal and the political. The highest compliment you can give a woman in the movement is to call her a fanm vanyan, a strong woman. An expression used often and with great pride is Nou se wozo, nou pliye nou pa kase (We are bamboo, we bend but we don't break). Haitians are extremely proud of turning something meager into a great resource. Degaje is a verb that roughly translates as deploying ingenuity and creativity. This chapter considers how resilience can be a double-edged sword: while foreigners often praise Haitians for being resilient, everyone seems to be taking advantage of that resilience.
Keywords: resilience, Haiti, earthquake, courage, survivability, degaje, ingenuity, creativity
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- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 We Don’t Have Enough Water to Make Tears
- 2 What We Have, We Share
- 3 Pearl of the Antilles
- 4 Maroon Man
- 5 We Will Carry You On
- 6 You Can’t Eat Okra with One Finger
- 7 Fragile as a Crystal
- 8 Children of the Land
- 9 Grains and Guns
- 10 The Ones Who Must Decide
- 11 Our Bodies Are Shaking Now
- 12 The Creole Connection
- 13 We’ve Lost the Battle, but We Haven’t Lost the War
- 14 Social Fault Lines
- 15 Monsanto Seeds, Miami Rice
- 16 Home
- 17 For Want of Twenty Cents
- 18 The Super Bowl of Disasters
- 19 The Commonplace amid the Catastrophic
- 20 Beyond Medical Care
- 21 Hold Strong
- 22 Mrs. Clinton Will Never See Me Working There
- 23 The Central Pillar
- 24 Elections
- 25 We Will Never Fall Asleep Forgetting
- Epilogue
- Index
