once i had a neighbour that his mother used to live in Haiti (she still lives there and luckily she was found alive). every summer when he went to visit her, he used to bring me t-shirts with the print 'Haiti' on them. i felt so special that i used to wear them for the whole summer, until they were
practically decomposed. even my friends from high school remember me as the one with the 'Haiti' t-shirt...
the horrible earthquake (with still unknown number of casualties) who attacked the Caribbean country is the latest in the chronology of disasters made by nature and men.
the beginning was promising. inspired by the French revolution, the slaves on the western part of the island Hispaniola (brought by the french to work in the sugar cane fields) upraised against the french troops and defeated them in 1804. they then founded the only nation in the world born on a slave revolt. to defend the island against future French attacks, the new king Henri I, constructed the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere -
Citadelle Laferriere (a world heritage site by UNESCO).
in the following 200-year history, Haiti has seen 32 coups. the US occupied the island between 1915 - 1934
. from 1957 - 1986, the Duvalier family (Papa And Baby) reigned as dictators, turning the country into a hermit kingdom with a personality cult and corruption. under pressure of the US, those two went to exile leaving the country in a political chaos between attempts for democracy, coups and corruption.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. it has no natural resources and the most available fuel for domestic use is wood. in 1925, Haiti still had 60% of its original forest but since then, the population has cut down an estimated 98% of its original forest cover. the deforestation has caused soil erosion and flooding leaving more then 3000 people dead after the tropical storm in 2004
. what a sad story
present
future
this airport, one of Europe’s three iconic pre-war airports (the others are Croydon airport in London and Le Bourget in Paris) was first opened in 1923. in 1926 the German airline company Lufthansa was founded here. its main building, constructed in 1927, was the largest building in the world, before it was beaten by the Pentagon building in 1934. Tempelhof however, is still the largest building in Europe. as part of Albert Speer's plan for the reconstruction of Berlin during the Nazi era, Prof. Ernest Sagebiel was ordered to replace the old terminal with a new terminal building in 1934. the new terminal was built between 1936 - 1941 and one of the airport's most distinguishing features was its large canopy style roof that was able to accommodate most contemporary airliners until the early 70's. it’s considered by many to be an architectural masterpiece. the architect Norman Foster described Tempelhof as no less than 'the mother of all airports' (sounds a bit like a middle-eastern expression. Saddam Hussein's threat before the first golf war 'the mother of all wars'...). after the war, the airport became famous during the Berlin Blockade (1948 - 1949) where it was used for the Airlift, the Lufbrücke. on 30 October 2008, despite the efforts of some protesters to prevent the closure, the runway and air field lights were switched off. in the present days the empty terminal host events as Bread and Butter, concerts and the Berlin marathon fair. as for the future, it is still not clear and the city of Berlin is evaluating dozen of suggestions, but that is for another post.
