"The situation is extremely, extremely fragile and dangerous."

Advocacy isn't the purpose of this blog.

But this shook me.  As a person, as a mama:  it shook me bad.  So it's on my mind, and I'm putting it on yours.

I'll start with the full disclosure that makes me look like an obnoxious stereotype:  I had ordered a Starbucks latte--venti--in the UNL student union, folks, and I was standing around, waiting for it to be ready, wishing my friend Sonam were holding office hours there, like he does, so I could chat with him and pass the time, and flipping through a newspaper someone had left on a table. 

When my eyes fell on this image, they couldn't make visual sense of it.  I thought it was a drawing, a sick cartoon.  Those could not be arms.  Those could not be legs.

But it was a photograph, a little girl, a real little girl, someone's real little four-year-old baby girl, fast on her way to dying of hunger.

Read the full AP story here. 

So if you've seen or plan to see Quantum of Solace (partly set in Haiti--but the director filmed the Haiti scenes in Panama), if you were chilled by Edwidge Danticat's "Ghosts" in the latest New Yorker, if you've ever vacationed in the Caribbean or wanted to, please consider being more than a cultural tourist. 

Please consider helping the real people there.

It's not our job.  I know that.  And it's not your fault or mine, not directly:  it's the fault of unequal systems of distribution, decades of fucked-up politics, tropical storms that smashed through an already poverty-stricken country, the market-concocted food crisis--I know all that.  And it's also fair to say that it's not our personal responsibility to fix:  it's Haiti's, and the U.N.'s, and our government's, and other governments'.

You could ask, Am I my brother's keeper? and you'd be technically correct.   

But 26 children have died in the past month.  And 75 more children, including Venecia Lonis, are being treated for life-threatening malnutrition right now. 

A child should never look like this.  This should never happen. 

There are things so wrong they hurt to look at.  They hurt to know.  They make us want to look away, to ease our own sick hurt.  But that's choosing blindness.  Don't.

You can donate to food programs in Haiti through the UN's World Food Programme--go here and click on the right.  It's tax-deductible.  Ten bucks makes a difference.  And Doctors Without Borders, which is politically neutral and operates independently, is helping these children in Haiti right now, and you can donate here.

There are about 200 of us on this blog.  That can add up to a whole lot of food and medical help.  If you donate, please let me know.  Add a comment, or drop me an email.  "I donated $10."  Tell me.