Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

In 2022, the eyes of the world were on Ukraine.

In 2024, any fool could tell you Israel’s war with Hamas, in Gaza, is the major international news story/catastrophe of the moment.

(All the while, Ukraine is still battling Putin, it’s just we care less.)

As Americans, both places are on the other side of the world.

Out of sight, but not out of mind.

Haiti, however, is barely off the coast of Florida.

(700 miles from Miami.)

The island country where Christopher Columbus first landed in the New World, (a land mass Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic,) is in possibly the worst shape of any society on Earth.

For all the terrible stories you might have heard after their Earthquake in 2010, what’s going on now is nearly unprecedented in this hemisphere.

Pure chaos, where armed gangs rule the streets, killing, stealing, maiming, and causing mayhem at will.

(President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, in an as-yet-unsolved crime, and then no legal replacement government formed.)

According to news reports, these gangs control more than 80% of the capital, having attacked police stations, and the airport. And the unelected, replacement President was recently forced to resign, having been exiled to Puerto Rico.

The international community has done little, partly because there is so little publicity, so much misery fatigue, and so much chaos.

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Frankly, I didn’t plan to write this post today.

Haiti is not my fight, though I have read the news reports daily, with a numbed-out-sadness.

Bodies left in the streets, rotting, so locals have to burn them, to kill the smell and disease. Dogs eating corpses.

Horror movie stuff, happening every day.

I AM writing about it, though, because a Haitian artist/art teacher I follow on IG reached out recently, (as a DM,) asking how I was doing.

You read that right.

Mario Pierre-Louis checked up on me.

From an anarchy zone.

It’s the stuff of hacking dreams, so I will admit, I’m pretty sure it’s real, but can’t verify with my bare hands.

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Let me back up a second.

I think Mario followed me first on IG in 2021, but if so, I followed right back. (And noted a couple of other photo-world-people followed him too.)

He DM’d to say “Hi,” so I did the same.

His folk art paintings, along with those of his students, were cool. Charming. Inspiring.

I know the account as Atis Art when I see it, and always look.

The dude has never asked me for money.

Not once.

Nor funneled me to a GoFundMe.

I remember thinking when I first learned of him, is he real? Or is it a scam?

He seems so positive. Too good to be true.

So I looked him up at the time, and this outsider art gallery page came up. Looked legit enough.

Now I googled again, and saw someone set up a GoFundMe for him and his students last summer, and it seems active.

I can’t vouch for it, though.

But I’ve seen the paintings come up in his feed for years. We’ve DM’d once or twice since 2021.

Recently, I started seeing his photo posts of the chaos that said, no one is helping me.

If it IS real, then this Dude could use a lot of help.

And then he checks up on me? Asks how I’m doing?

Crazy stuff.

He seems like one of the nicest people ever, trapped in hell.

After I offered, he asked that I share some of his recent pictures from this week, so he sent them last night.

He wrote, “at the moment I am in the street by bandits have raided my house I am taking photos so that people can see what is happening here.

I have nothing to eat, I take photos so people can help me.”

Given that I can’t be 100% sure this is real, I can’t ask you to reach out, nor give money on GoFundMe.

As a journalist, I put this through a smell test in 2021, and again now, and feel comfortable sharing Mario’s photos, and his story as I’ve learned it, but I have not given any money.

At the moment, I’m choosing to believe this actual human being is on the ground in Port-au-Prince, and wants other people to know what’s going on.

Everyone there is suffering beyond belief.

So if there is a God, (and I hope there is,) we can only pray She/He/They sheds some kindness on Haiti.

If you can help in your own way, please do.