Haiti's Cholera - A Growing Epidemic

Jenel Moise

April 9, 2017

ESL 100

Haiti’s Cholera – A Growing Epidemic

       Haiti cannot have a break from crisis. When it is not political, it is a natural disaster.

Haiti had not yet recovered from the powerful earthquake of January 12, 2010 ten months had passed when a cholera disease devastated all Haitian families. It was a huge situation for my family because we lived in a refugee camp and lacked basic necessities. However, the cholera spread across the country, and the disease entered all Haitian homes. It killed at least seven thousand Haitians and a few hundred thousand were sick. If the United Nations soldiers had not emptied latrine into rivers, there would be no cholera in Haiti. Thus, the cholera epidemic ravaged the Haitian people, and the epidemic spread due to poor sanitarian condition. My family was not exempt from the disease and we were subject to extreme hygiene rules. 

      Many people died in Haiti because some families could not afford to buy purified water to drink. Because there was no fresh water, people constantly refreshed their thirst on the shores. Meanwhile, the United Nations soldiers overflowed their latrines in rivers to contaminate Haitian water system with the disease. In this situation my family struggled to find fresh drinking water. Sometimes, we were embarrassed to boil the water each time we had to drink a cup. My family was sad and afraid to drink water from the river. It was a desperate moment in my life. At the same time, I didn’t even have a proper roof over my head, and my family’s house wasn't rebuilt from the earthquake when cholera struck Haiti. All water to sustain people was contaminated. My family and I were exposed at all time to catch the cholera epidemic.  

 

      However, to withstand against the worst cholera epidemic in history, my family paid very close attention to all hygiene rules. It was hard to believe cholera wasn’t going to catch up a member of my family. Consequently, in poor sanitary conditions and there were no hygiene rules in the camps. I thought a disease might be exploding at the slightest spark. In addition, my family was anxious for other people who lived near our plywood shelter who had already passed away from the disease. Many Haitian with the disease lacked drinking water causing diarrhea, dehydration and death. Fortunately, my family and I were lucky to avoid the cholera bacteria that contaminated Haiti’s drinking water after spilling along rivers. For some reason, we did not neglect to practice daily cleanliness. 

     Furthermore, due to the earthquake, my family had to take temporary refuge in a shelter. My family would not be afraid of the disease if we were not living under tent. The camp city was uncomfortable place to live and had a big impact on our lives. It was a desperate moment for my family to live in a refugee camp among contaminated people. Also, we didn’t have clear drinking water, and we didn’t have any access to electricity. It was horrible because the cholera epidemic wasn’t only in the water. It was everywhere, even in the air I breathed. I had difficulty to communicate with people, and I tried to stay away from my friends for a while. 

     In fact, the United Nations soldiers and the disease combined to create the epidemic. It was a complicated situation, and it was tragic. All Haitian families were devastated by the cholera epidemic. Some people who survived the earthquake succumbed to cholera. My family struggled to survive. If it were not for Haiti’s poor sanitary conditions it would not have spread the way it did.

  

 

 

Destiny

                                                                   Destiny

      I often have imagined that if I had sisters or brothers, then I have felt great. We could grow up together and help each other. How dare the government take away my sisters and brothers? Of course, the government did because one of the reasons was country development, the other reason was population control. At that time, due to population increases rapidly, many people didn’t have job, and they lived hard. The Natural resources couldn’t be provided.  In 1972, the government had an idea of family planning, and in 1980, the family planning was executed. I was born in the 80s. Thus, the policy of family planning ha

d directly affected my family and me.

 At that time, it seemed every new baby had a price, and if my parents wanted more than one child, then they would have to pay a lot of money. My parents were ordinary factory workers at that time, and they didn’t have a high income. From the time that I was born, they had been working very hard. Even though my parents wanted to bring me a sister or a brother, they couldn’t pay the penalty. The policy seemed to affect poor families more because rich families could pay the penalty for the second baby or more. That was why I always complained that the policy was just set for poor families.

     In addition, the family planning police were like a mountain, and it brought a lot of pressure to me. Because I am the only child, my parents always gave me the best things, even though they didn’t have enough money. For example, they wanted me to attend the good primary school, and they tried to find the best way to let me attend a good school in. When I attended middle school, and they always compared me to their co-worker' kids because they wanted to show the best to others. Of course, they also tried to participate in my future. They always told me what job was good, and they wanted me to study the things that I didn’t want. I know that they wanted to me be a good person, but they just did the wrong thing to me and put a lot of pressure on me. In the final analysis, I got a lot of pressure because of the family planning police.

     The family planning policy also brought my cousin and her husband a big problem when their parents got old. My cousin and her husband were the only children in their families. In the 80s of China, there were no good government pension or medical equipment, and my cousin and her husband's incomes were not very high. They also had to take care of their children, fine the nursery, buy the clothes and pay the medical fee, at the same time they had to give their parents living expenses. Because of this, my cousin couldn’t bear a lot of pressure and she lost her job.

     Many families were affected by the policy, and we were one of them. Looking back, because of these effects, I lived a different life and learned more about the life than others. Without a doubt, the policy also brought some benefits to China, like a reduction in resource consumption and the pollution footprints. However, because of the aging population and workforce, the family planning has been changing, but this policy has always been the destiny of every generation.

Effects of slave trade in my family

    In the year 1957, a great nation was born in West Africa called Ghana. Before that year, Ghanaians were slaves to the British and Ghana was not an independent country. The British occupied the country from the year 1471 to 1865. There was growth in cultivation of crops such as sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton in America. The British needed more labor to work for them on their farms. In search of labor, the British came to Ghana in search for strong people to work for them. They came in with items in exchange for people. The slave trade was horrific and broke apart families, including mine thus were never seen again. It caused an increase in poverty in the country and loss of dignity in the family.

    The first effect of the slave trade on my family was the loss of family members. Some of my family members were taken to outside countries and sold as slaves. They were sold to the British by our kings in exchange for items they couldn’t resist. They were put in ships to go to the new world, to work hard on their plantations in the country. Along the way, some of them died and some were killed because they tried to escape. When they got to America, some of them were sold again to different countries, so they moved from one country to another. Due to this, those that were taken never saw my family members left in Ghana again.

    In addition, the slave trade caused an increase in poverty in Ghana. Since the strong and active ones, especially the youth who were supposed to work to feed others in the family were taken away, there was hardship in my family. Also, my family went through a lot of difficulties and struggles. There was no money for school fees, so my parents became school dropouts, Due to this, my parents are illiterate, they cannot read or write. Furthermore, the number of people in my family reduced because there was a serious hunger in the family. Some of my family members starved to death because there was no food for them.

    Lastly, it caused a loss of dignity for my family. During the slave trade, human beings were being exchanged for items which were priceless and invaluable. This caused a loss of value and respect for my family. My family meant everything for my grandmother because she loved them and they were important to her. The dignity that the British took away caused psychological problems to my grandmother. Thus the slave trade took away our pride, extraordinary and dignity of my cherished and lovely family members. The honor and respect that should be given to my family was not given.

   

     After the slave trade, the effects that occurred affected my family members extremely. Most of them were sent to other countries and they never came back again. Also, the slave trade caused an increase in poverty in my family. Most of the family members died of hunger because there was no food for them to eat. In addition, there was loss of dignity that affected my family so much. The kings and the British did not show any respect for my family. The effects that happened after the slave trade has destroyed my family. Humans beings are important. It doesn’t matter where the person is from, they must all be treated equally.

Touch Your Dream

Touch Your Dream

I believe that knowledge can change one's life. One way to have more knowledge is studying in universities or colleges. Studying in universities or colleges is common now, but it was only a dream in China from 1967 to 1977. Chairman Mao announced a formal policy that all students should work on countryside after they graduated from high school, and he even canceled the college entrance examination during those ten years. The reason for this policy was that he encouraged labor and believed that people who had high education or did business would betray the country. People were not able to reject him and had to follow his policy. The college entrance examination finally restarted in September 1977. The resumption of the college entrance examination had a big effect on Chinese society. Many people could touch their dreams after that, including my father, my aunt, and me.

The resumption of the college entrance examination changed my father’s life. Although my father dreamed to go out of his hometown and discover a bigger world by studying, he had to find a job in his hometown, a small village in Guangdong, before the resumption of the college entrance examination. Luckily, the college entrance examination restarted before he graduated from high school. He passed the examination and entered a university as he had hoped. He went to Jiangmen where the university was located and found a nice job there after graduation. Most importantly, he met my mother while he was working in Jiangmen. He fell in love and got married with my mother in that city. If the resumption of college entrance examination had never happened, he would not have been able to study in Jiangmen or meet my mother, and everything would be different. Thanks to the resumption of the college entrance examination, he touched his dream.

My aunt also achieved her dream because of the resumption of the exams. My grandfather continuously hoped that one of his daughters could become a university student, so my aunt had tried her best to study since she was a child. She enrolled in a medical college after the college entrance examination because of her good performance. My grandfather’s dream was completed by her. Moreover, she dreamed to be a doctor so that she could help more patients to recover. After a long time of studying hard, she graduated from the medical college and became a doctor. As a doctor, she was professional and respectable. She usually needed to work on holidays instead of staying with family, but she was content. I think this is the power of dreams.

The resumption has had an influence on me as well. Thanks to the resumption of the college entrance examination, entering a university has become normal in China. It brought many advantages to me as a student. I have had more opportunities to explore the world and a fair chance to enter a university. I dreamed that I could be an accountant in the future and I learned more professional knowledge in the university. Those advantages were useful for my dream and my life. Moreover, I became more independent in the university. As an only child in my family, I never left my parents before I went to the university. Living in a dormitory, I became more independent and understood how to get along with other roommates. It is propitious to my dream and my entire life.

My family has been able to touch our dream because of the resumption of the college entrance examination, and many Chinese people have touched their dream through the college entrance examination as well. Each of them may have a pleasing job, a happy family, and a life without regret now. Moreover, it’s a good and easy way for companies or government to find suitable employees, and people who graduated from universities have more courage and knowledge to make their dreams come true. Therefore, the resumption of college entrance examination became an excellent decision in China because it has transported many talents to Chinese society since 1977.