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Saturday, May 18, 2013
July 12, 2010

Brendan Hoffman: Haiti, Six Months Later

<p>A man wears a paper star as a hat, found in the rubble of a former school, on July 7, 2010 in Port-au-Prince. Haitians are less numb with shock and can focus on wringing small bits of joy from their daily lives.</p> <p>The destroyed cathedral serves as a backdrop to a small camp for people whose homes were destroyed in the earthquake. July 6, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</p> <p>A United Nations truck passes through downtown on July 6, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. UN convoys are still a frequent sight in Port-au-Prince.</p> <p>A man takes a wheelbarrow back inside a building to remove rubble on July 6, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Nearly all the cleanup is being done by hand.</p> <p>A man bathes near the rubble of a former school. July 7, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</p> <p>A boy who lost his leg in the earthquake plays soccer with a prosthetic leg in front of the destroyed National Palace on July 9, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</p> <p>People stand on top of the rubble of the destroyed national cathedral for a church service on July 11, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</p> <p>A brief rainshower hardly fazes pedestrians and vendors along Grand Rue on July 7, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</p> <p>A prayer session is held by candlelight in the basement of a house on July 5, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Many churches were destroyed by the earthquake, and congregations are forced to rely on makeshift spaces for the time being.</p> <p>Men in a barber shop watch Spain play the Netherlands in the World Cup final on July 11, 2010. Port-au-Prince, Haiti.</p>

Men in a barber shop watch Spain play the Netherlands in the World Cup final on July 11, 2010. Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Today is the sixth month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. (Please see Jon Lowenstein’s images and the BagNewsSalon discussion of the media coverage of the immediate aftermath.) Photographer Brendan Hoffman returned a few days ago, and sends us this update from Port-au-Prince:

I flew to Haiti fully expecting to find that not much has changed since I was last here in late February. For the most part, just walking the streets, that seems to be the case. In some ways, people’s lives have returned to something approximating the grinding poverty most experienced before the earthquake. In that respect, maybe Haitians are less numb with shock and can focus on wringing small bits of joy from their daily lives.

Grand Rue, one of Port-au-Prince’s main shopping streets, is again crowded with market stalls selling everything from blenders to beauty products, and most people seem to take pride in the daily chores of cooking and cleaning and taking care of their families. But there is a lot of frustration. There was honest hope that the tremendous surge in resources and attention focused on this small, dysfunctional country would change things for the better. Perhaps these hopes were too high, and change will come, just not overnight. But the window for convincing average Haitians that anybody is looking after their interests is rapidly closing.

Elections scheduled for late November don’t seem to be an important topic of conversation because there isn’t any sense that they matter. For all the thousands of NGOs working on the ground, the streets are still filled with rubble and hundreds of thousands of people still live in small shelters made of tarps, which degrade quickly in the brutal tropical sun.

The incredible tolerance for the press has also subsided quite a bit since my last trip. Everyone has had their story picked clean by the media, and displays a weary yet refreshing lack of interest in another fifteen minutes of fame. At least the aftershocks have subsided, and there hasn’t been a hurricane yet this season.

–Brendan Hoffman

PHOTOGRAPHS by BRENDAN HOFFMAN

caption: Women sit on a street corner along Grand Rue on July 7, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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  • Andy Levin

    Thanks for the report Brendan.

    Is it any wonder that the tolerance for the “press” has subsided? CNN, the NYTimes, ABC refuse to report on the deeper issues in Haitian society, specifically the control that perhaps 12 families have over most of the country and their relationship with the United States, not to mention the geo-political importance of Haiti, its proximity to the Dominican Republic. Haitians are not stupid, after all. There is only so far that AC360 will go….and certainly its way beyond what any individual photographer can do.

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