High: Looking to Haiti following the tsunami in Japan

It’s hard to pull a positive out of the mess currently going on in Japan, and perhaps it’s too early to even try. After all, I’m still cringing and waiting for someone to denounce the tsunami as God’s wrath for (fill in the blank – blasphemy and legalized abortion are cards often comically played). Instead of looking at Japan before we truly know how deep the disaster goes, looking at how Haiti responded to their recent disaster may provide at least a glimmer of optimism. Or maybe at least something to look forward to further on down the road. Once the dust settled, many in Haiti turned to art as ways to make sense of the world, which often meant learning to make sculptures literally out of the rubble. People with no homes, no jobs, no caramel macchiatos, yet still finding ways to be optimistic about their world through the remnants of a catastrophe. Well, a catastrophe as long as you don’t listen to Pat Robertson, who was quoted as saying that Haiti made a “pact with the devil” back in the days of “Napoleon the third and whatever.” Click to buy Pat Robertson’s latest inspirational DVD. But despite their ancestors’ alleged dealings, the artists of Port-au-Prince have been going the other way in the face of unimaginable despair. Kind of makes you feel like an asshole for complaining about the long grocery store checkout line, doesn’t it?

Check out the Haiti clip if you have a minute.