Understand Haiti: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

I picked up this video off of Scott McLemee’s blog, and the message here is exactly right. Essentially, this guy is saying, yes, by all means react in horror to the suffering currently going on in Haiti and help out, but don’t forget that this suffering is predicated on decades of under-development that the world was more or less satisfied to watch with sanguinity.

I agree completely that this is something we all are complicit in and should feel a sense of responsibility for. And if you are interested in a book that will help you attack the kind of benign neglect taken to task in the video, as well as reveal exactly how years of that neglect have worked over Haiti, then you must pick up Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. The book is no more than Kidder’s inspired tale of the amazing Dr. Paul Farmer, but that is quite enough (this is how journalistic non-fiction should be written). On one level, the book is worthwhile simply for relating what everyday life is like in Haiti and showing everything Farmer had to do to establish a charitable medical practice in Haiti, as well exactly how much good as little as a few million dollars can do in a place like Haiti.

But on another level, Mountains Beyond Mountains should be experienced for the chance it offers to come face to face with Farmer’s sensibility. I’m fairly sure that I learned to use the term “white liberal” in a pejorative sense after seeing Farmer employ it again and again in the pages of this book. And by no means is this the extent of Farmer’s attack on the kind of halfhearted sigh of outrage that too often passes for political action in this country. Mountains Beyond Mountains is a good kick in the ass for anyone (believe me, however much you’ve done to save the world, you haven’t done nearly as much as Farmer has), and in light of the message of the above video, it’s probably as timely a book to read as ever.

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