Let them eat mud

As food prices around the world are skyrocketing, and hungry people are becoming even hungrier, the TV news asks whether Reverend Wright loves America, and whether, when Senator Obama was scratching his face, he was actually giving Senator Clinton the finger.

The other day I saw a photo, very much like this one, of a array of mud pies. Each one was neatly made and smoothly finished, with an artistic swirl. They are being made by starving people in Haiti to stave off hunger pains. When I tried to find the photo again I discovered a post called Mud Pies in Soleil at the blog Dying in Haiti, one of several blogs written by Dr. John Carroll and his wife, who live and work in Haiti several months each year.

I’ve been interested in Haiti for well over a decade, and visited the country in 1996, during a peaceful period in the presidency of Rene Preval. The constant media emphasis on Haiti’s problems — and the problems are dire enough — tends to overshadow the beauty and uniqueness of the country’s religion, music, art, and language. I hope the day will come when we read articles about those things. Until then, I can always reread Herbert Gold’s Best Nightmare on Earth.