There’s no such thing as a silly job

By Emmanuel — June 4, 2010 | 1 comment

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Inozile Jean Wisguen is more than a victim of the earthquake; his story has been complicated since he was five years old.  Born in 1983, Inozile’s father abandoned his son with his mother, who died in 1988.  The boy was obliged to live with his grandmother, who decided to move them both to Port-au-Prince.

Inozile did his early studies in Port-au-Prince, but they moved back to Verrettes afterwards for his Secondary classes. During that time, a foreign program called the Crosby Fund decided to sponsor him with a scholarship and additional funds for the school year. Ever since then, they have supported him through school

Inozile finished his Secondary studies in 2007, which meant he was ready for university. He wanted to take Environmental Science, but due to a lack of enrolled students in that program, he couldn’t find a university that carried the necessary courses.

Facing no other choice, he decided to take another program, this one in Computer Science.  Even though he worked as hard as he could, it was a completely new program and not what he had prepared for and he wasn’t able to pass all his courses.

Inozile had a chance to take a make-up exam, but the fee was $500 Haitian dollars.  He tried to call the organization about it, but unfortunately couldn’t reach them.  He tried to borrow money from friends or family members, but nobody had that amount of money.  In the end, he lost the entire school year and would have have to start over. Fortunately, by this time another university was offering an Environmental Science class, so withhelp from the Crosby Fund he switched universities and programs.

Then, January 12th and the indelible earthquake arrived, and collapsed his university.  Three months later, the university opened again — but not the Environmental Science class.  Inozile tried to switch again, but the university’s policy did not allow any newcomers in mid-session, so he would have to wait till September to start.

Meanwhile, Inozile decided he didn’t want to stay and do nothing.  He was able to borrow $300 Haitian dollars, and opened a small business which consists selling cell phone cards, phone to phone recharge and public phone calls. This kind of franchise is one of the easiest to run, with very little know required — all you need is enough money to buy the equipment. The profits, however, are not high: only $8 Haitian dollars for every hundred in sales.

But Inozile has not forgotten his training in Environmental Science.  He told me he has noticed, with the knowledge he acquired from his year and half at school, that the removal of city refuse cannot continue the way it is being done.

According to him, the removal process should begin in every house, by separating the organic trash from the glass and plastics — having them all together is a complete waste and very bad for the environment.  Throwing all the rubbish into one place and burning it pollutes the atmosphere, and this pollution is transported through the air and the water. At this point, trash on its own can begin to cause lots of health problems.  Poor health means not being able to work, and not working slows our economy.

Before we were finished the interview, a five minute rain began to pour down.  The rain caused so much damage to the soil around us, that Inozile said he wished he had a device to tell him how far the productivity of that area had been affected in just that short time:

As a Haitian citizen, he seized the opportunity to thank the NGOs, which have hired a lot of young people to help with the removal of rubble and trash from the streets.   At the same time, he added that university educated young people should think twice before taking these jobs.  In his mind, taking these kinds of jobs is almost anti-patriotic: when you’re waiting to be hired to clean up your own streets, it’s almost like waiting to be be paid to clean up your house. Where are the citizens’ obligations?

Despite his fickle route through higher education, Inozile’s dream remains the same – to learn enough to be among the ones to rebuild a green Haiti. Once it is possible to involve every Haitian in the mentality of putting Haiti first, then we will only need international support in the way it should be, limited help for limited needs.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet earlier this year.

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