Among Haiti's Dead are the Best and Brightest of Its Community Leaders

[tekisui]

Source: McClatchy-Tribune News Service

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- They were the voices of reason and compromise in a country where words are often used as weapons of political warfare, where political turmoil is a chronic condition, like hardship and economic chaos.

And now these rising stars have been lost forever, swallowed in the rubble of the earthquake.

They were women's rights leaders, political militants, university professors, men of God.

With many still unaccounted for, the news of every confirmed death is gripping the country, even bringing tears to the eyes of its leaders.

"Every time you hear another name, you can't help but feel it," said Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who last week excused himself from a meeting with Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding, walked outside and broke down in tears. "There is only so long you can hold in the emotion."

Moments earlier, word was just making the round that Micha Gaillard, the university professor and firebrand political militant, who became known as the voice of the opposition during the movement to oust former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was dead.

more: http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2010/01/among_haitis_dead_are_best_and.html