Crisis in Haiti hits home at SEAS

More than 200 people, including dozens of University employees transported by shuttle bus from the Harvard Business School and the Longwood Medical Area, attended a somber but hopeful service at the Memorial Church in Harvard Yard today (Feb. 11) for victims of the earthquake in Haiti, and their families ...

The final speaker was Harry Dumay, associate dean for finance and chief financial officer at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He sounded the only political note of the day, mentioning that he and other Haitians were “uplifted by the unprecedented show of support” but also “humbled if not shamed by the airing of our dirty laundry.” He pointed out that while news reports often mention the poverty of the country, they rarely note its “considerable achievement” as the world’s first black republic or how its poverty had its roots in the international community’s fear of “a thriving nation of free, black people.” (The country was in debt after France granted its independence in 1804 but demanded compensation for the revenue it would lose in the former slave colony.)

Still, Dumay grew upbeat in remembering the “spirit of people who burst into song in the midst of complete desolation.” He concluded by saying the disaster was a chance to rebuild Haiti as a modern nation, adding that, going forward, he would like the international community to see the country not as a charity case but as a financial opportunity. With proper investment, he said, people there could step up the ladder of economic success.

“Where there is life,” he concluded, “there is hope.”

Read the full article in the Harvard Gazette