Laurel Anne Hill

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The Murder of Ms. Liquid Amber (by Laurel Anne Hill)

The Brazen Ms. Liquid Amber

Okay, I confess.  This week I put out a contract on Ms. Liquid Amber, a senior citizen and longtime member of our front yard garden club.  Oh, my husband and I had tried to trim back her lofty ambitions, but she kept leaning over the neighbor’s roof on windy days while inching her toes toward critical parts of our home’s foundation.   I really had no choice.

Alas, I even photographed her agonizing demise.  Talk about a chain-saw massacre!  For all of you sap-thirsty homeowners, I have included photos.

David and I will miss Ms. Liquid Amber’s splendid autumn foliage.  During any season, the front yard won’t look the same without her imposing 70 to 80-foot form.  But we will sleep more peacefully at night in her absence.   Especially during storms. 

 

 

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Haiti: A Patient with Hope (by Laurel Anne Hill)

Photo from the Sacramento Bee, 8/17/10, Getty Images/Joe Raedle

Some organizations really understand the meaning of patience, perseverance and creativity. 

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is one of them.  UMCOR, a charity with a 70-year history of relief and recovery work around the world, went into Haiti following the earthquake of January 12, 2010.  That quake left 300,000 dead, 300,000 injured and 1.3 million homeless.

According to the August 22 Washington Post, most of those Haitians rendered homeless by the earthquake still live in tents or under leaky tarps.  Much earthquake rubble remains in place, as depicted in the Sacramento Bee’s photo blog of August 17.

That would strain anybody’s patience.    

“We knew from the beginning we would have to be creative,” Melissa Hinnen, UMCOR Director of Communications, said during our recent telephone conversation.

Talk about an understatement!   

The RAND Corporation, a California-based think tank, released its report, “Building a More Resilient Haitian State,” on August 13, 2010, accompanied by its research brief.  According to RAND, Haiti’s history of poor government was largely responsible for the extent of the devastation and near total dependence on outside help to deal with the consequences.  Acute problems piled atop chronic ones, like when a cancer patient has a heart attack.

Yet Haiti is a patient with hope.

UMCOR, like many other organizations, responded to the crisis and now helps to lay a foundation for Haiti’s future.  One of UMCOR’s current projects is to build nine temporary schools–capable of withstanding hurricanes–at a resettlement camp in Corail.  Hands On Disaster Response (HODR), a US-based, volunteer-driven nonprofit started constructing ten temporary schools in Leogane last February.  A video of HODR’s work was posted August 2 on YouTube.  Temporary schools are being built because the Haitian government moves slower than a one-legged turtle when approving permanent structures.  Obtaining government permits of any sort takes time.

For example, want to register a business?  Plan on 195 days.  To register a property title, wait 405 days. 

UMCOR will be able to reuse a majority of the temporary-school materials when they obtain approval for transition to building permanent schools.  In Haiti, usable materials aren’t wasted.  Resources are scarce and the best tool to predict movement of unloaded goods through the port system may be a Ouija board.  UMCOR has been working with UN Operations to develop a turn-key solution for these temporary schools given procurement and port issues.

Food crops also are a less-than-abundant resource.  Local agriculture once provided 60% of Haiti’s food.  Now 60% is imported and food is expensive.  According to the August 30 Taiwan News, a Taiwanese agricultural mission stationed in Haiti is experimenting with a new rice variety to increase Haiti’s annual rice production.  Oxfam America has sponsored a small irrigation project to bring a reliable water supply to approximately 150 Haitian farmers.  Yet substantial strengthening of Haitian agriculture will present a challenge, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, as long as Haitian rice must compete with subsidized rice imported from other countries.     

“Frankly, everything in post-earthquake Haiti is a challenge,” wrote Rev. Cynthia Harvey (Head of UMCOR) in “Navigating a Landscape of Hope on Haiti.”  “We can blame government, the lack of infrastructure, and red tape for the difficulties and impediments, but that is not productive.  The one thing that is not only productive but fruitful is to remain faithful to our call to love our neighbor.”

The people of Haiti are our neighbors and have amazing inner strength.  When Melissa Hinnen went there in April, the people’s spirit and resilience touched her.  A Haitian woman had lost her home and her mother in the disaster.  When Melissa expressed sympathy, the woman said, “We go on.  That’s not all there is.”

“To survive,” Melissa told me, “the Haitian people find something deeper than what we are used to in our own safe culture.”

I agree!  Just contemplate survival in a country where, before the earthquake:

  • The average daily income for most was less than $2.
  • 54% of people had access to improved water and 30% to an improved sewer system.
  • 40% lacked access to health care.
  • One-half of the population was illiterate, including some judges.
  • 75-85% of people in prison were detained pretrial for an illegally long period of time.

On August 13, NPR published key RAND Report recommendations to address Haiti’s problems.  Now that the Interim Haitian Recovery Commission has approved a new round of projects (August 20, United Nations Radio,) I hope some of RAND’s recommendations will be addressed.

The people of Haiti hope so, too.

UMCOR and other organizations encourage Haitian communities to take ownership of their problems but grass-roots reform isn’t enough.  Patience, perseverance and creativity only go so far.

To rebuild Haiti, Haiti must rebuild its government.

Warm regards from,

Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com

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Pakistan Needs Our Help! (Slide Show Posted by Laurel Anne Hill)

Pakistan Needs Our Help

Today I received a power point photo presentation in an email from one of my  relatives.  Please use the link below to view the photos taken during the Pakistan relief effort.  Then please, please, please, donate to the Pakistan flood-relief agency/organization of your choice.

Heroes Arise, guys!  It’s time to make a difference by helping those in need.

Continuing Pakistan Floods saad

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Why HeroRATs? (by Laurel Anne Hill, Author of “Heroes Arise”)

Eeeek, a Rat! Oh, it's only a HeroRAT. He must have seen the title of my novel, "Heroes Arise."

I’ve been receiving lots of positive feedback on my recent opinion piece published by AOL News on August 17, 2010.  I’m happy to report, “Support your Local Hero Rat” is a success.

So why did I choose to write about APOPO HeroRATs?  How did I even learn HeroRATs existed?

Things started with a discussion between some members of my church.  We had heard about the horrendous number of buried, unexploded landmines in Angola, and the resulting unavailability of otherwise good land to cultivate crops.  Angola had a problem with self-sufficiency.  Farmland was vital to their economy.  All methods to detect and deactivate landmines were time-intensive, money-intensive, or both.  Might there be better methods awaiting discovery?  Might people discover such methods if they were aware of the magnitude of the landmine problem–a problem often neglected by the U.S. media?

I did some online research about demining and contacted some experts in the field.  I found out about HeroRATS on a google search.  At first, I wondered if HeroRATs were for real.  After all, landmine experts I had communicated with via email had mentioned nothing about the critters.  So I went to the APOPO website and read their 2009 annual report.  As weeks progressed, HeroRATs were mentioned a number of times in various blog entries, YouTube videos and online news reports.

I decided HeroRATs were for real and started writing an article.  Gina Misiroglu  at Red Room suggested pitching my essay to AOL.

The HeroRAT website now links to “Support your Local Hero Rat.”  What an honor!  I hope a lot of people read the piece and start thinking about more low-tech solutions to a big problem.

And I’m really delighted over the plans to bring HeroRATS to Angola.

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill  (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com

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Now on AOL News: Support your Local Hero Rat (by Laurel Anne Hill)

A HeroRAT in Training (Photo by APOPO)

Giant pouched African rats have a nose for success.
 

APOPO, a registered charity in Belgium and based in Tanzania, has trained these long-whiskered critters to sniff out unexploded land mines and save human lives. Working for rewards of banana slices and peanuts, “Hero Rats” schooled in Tanzania have become amazingly proficient at smelling TNT on the job in Mozambique.

The problem is, APOPO’s rats need the support of more humans. Even heroes need heroes.

Read the rest on AOL News.   

And while you are reading, keep the following in mind.  Seventy countries have buried, unexploded land mines–deadly remnants of war.  Six million land mines lie buried in Angola, alone.  In 2008, land mines claimed 5,200 casualties worldwide.  To add to the toll, the presence or suspected presence of land mines in agricultural fields has removed significant acreage of fertile soil from use in affected countries, reducing the ability of vulnerable communities to provide for themselves.

By the way, Gina Misiroglu of Red Room put me in touch with the AOL editorial staff, which is one of the wonderful ways she is bringing traffic to Red Room and getting attention for Red Room’s authors.  Thank you, Gina!

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com