gchildress@heraldsun.com; 419-6645
CHAPEL HILL -- Laura Wagner's love for Haiti shines through.
During an interview Wednesday, the UNC doctoral student made it clear that she would rather talk about Haiti's recovery and the world's negative perception of the island nation and her people than her harrowing experience during the catastrophic earthquake that left more than 100,000 dead.
Wagner, who hails from San Francisco, was inside a house in Port-au-Prince last week when the magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck. The house collapsed, trapping Wagner, her landlord and another woman who lived and worked at the house.
While Wagner and the landlord were rescued by a man who worked at the house, the third woman perished in a tomb of concrete and timber.
But as gripping as Wagner's story is, she preferred to spend much of Wednesday's interview defending Haiti from what she contends are media reports that paint an unflattering, one-sided picture of the Haitian people she has grown to admire and respect.
"Can we talk about this, because it's making me crazy," Wagner said of media reports in recent days citing an increase in looting and violence in Haiti.
"This is what it was like before," Wagner added. "Everything that is Haitian is bad or criminal and backwards. So of course that is what they are looking for.
"You see on the news now that [reporters saying] 'We haven't seen any looting yet' and 'We haven't heard any gunshots yet,' and that's just what they're waiting for."
During her five months on the island, Wagner said people on the island were "overwhelmingly kind" and she got to know the other side of Haiti, one much different than the dominant narrative depicting looting, lawlessness and violence.
"I couldn't even buy food for myself because if I did I would end up eating twice. Everywhere I went, people insisted that I eat," Wagner said. "So many people were welcoming."
Wagner isn't totally discounting Haiti's problems, acknowledging that its government had a difficult time adequately providing for its citizens during the best of times.
"Even before the earthquake, it wasn't providing for the majority of its citizens," Wagner said. "Now, it certainly can't."
And the island has had issues with lawlessness and instability.
"I'm just saying there's something there other than desperate people who are consummate, suffering victims or criminals," Wagner said.
From her perspective, Wagner said, the relief effort has been hamstrung by Haiti's lack of infrastructure, a big problem even before the earthquake, and now physical impediments caused by the earthquake.
"It's also not clear who is in charge," Wagner said.
Wagner says the focus of her research -- she was studying human rights and household servants in Haiti -- would likely change, though she is not exactly sure what it will shift to at this point.
In the meantime, Wagner said she plans to raise money, become an advocate and make as much "noise for Haiti for as long as she can" to help improve conditions there and to try and change the world's negative perception of the island, which is often used to guide policy decisions.
She said she plans to return to Haiti as soon as it's practical.
"I'll go back when I can start to be useful," Wagner said. "If I go now, I'll just be another person who needs food."
