Although qualifying the damage and misery in Haiti following the January 12th earthquake is impossible, the ubiquitous images of the National Palace lying in ruins lends visual expression to the current state of Haiti and its people.
There are, however, other images of Haiti that must be remembered if the island's people are to regain any kind of self-confidence and maintain their famous resilience in the face of adversity. Those images come from football fields the world over and stretch back to 1974, when Haiti's national team scored an opening goal against the seemingly unstoppable Italian team. That moment of exhiliration came thanks to Emmanuel Manno Sanon, one of the most popular players in the history of Haitian football. Although Italy went on to win 3-1, there was a profound symbolic importance in making it all the way to finals and scoring the opening goal against a team who hadn't allowed opponents to score for the preceding 4 years. The sentiment was summed up by Herntz Phanord, who said "Although it seems naive, it's as though Manno beat Italy!"
This attitude is both understandable and healthy and has sustained Haitian football to this day. The Haitian National Team's most recent victory was making it into the final phase of the 2007 World Cup qualifier in South Korea. Having defeated Mexico, one of the best teams in the Americas, the Haitian National Team went into qualifiers full of hope and confidence, but with realistic expectations. "If we don't qualify but manage to do great things in each match, we can be proud of that and leave with our heads held high," said coach Jean-Yves Labaze in 2007. Labaze went on to describe the psychological importance of success in football for Haitians:
Common knowledge backs up Labaze's statement; success can in large part be a self-fulfilling prophecy and seeing others, especially one's countrymen, achieve greatness can act as much for the common good as any government initiative or international aid. And although the current state of Haitian football is uncertain and precarious like everything else in that blighted country, there are rays of hope and inspiration in the form of several high-profile international players. With Haitian talent leading clubs to victory from the United Kingdom to Chile, there is certainly no reason to assume that lack of means equals a lack of talent and ambition.
Once such international star is Jean-Jacques Pierre, a player from Leogane, which is directly on the epicentre of the earthquake that struck in January. Pierre plays defence for FC Nantes, a successful Ligue 2 team in France, as well as having been a member of the Haitian National Team. Fortunately, Pierre and his family survived the devastation of the earthquake, albeit with their home now in ruins.
Other Haitian football luminaries were not so fortunate. The revered Mr. Labaze, quoted earlier in this entry, perished at the football headquarters in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake. In fact, The Los Angeles Times reported that least 30 members of Haiti's football federation lost their lives in the disaster, thus striking at the heart of one of the nation's most cherished passions. But, sad though the situation is, it is important to remember the sense of hope and self-reliance demonstrated by the Haitian people throughout their history and expressed by Mr. Labaze in 2007. He pointed out that while other more successful teams had the means to study their opponents and plan their strategies accordingly, the Haitian team had only its skill, passion and intuition to go on.
Realising that raw human emotion and strength can carry anyone through a crisis is especially important for the Haitians right now. Their capital is in ruins and many of their most important national monuments, such as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, have been destroyed. Therefore, it is important to now focus on the most important treasure the country possesses: its people.
To relive the thrill of victory and see what excitment football can really inspire, check out a part of the 1974 match between Haiti and Italy:
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