Sunday, September 11, 2011

LOVE & CHOLERA


Love & Cholera
By Jeff Benjamin
Copyrighted 2010
An unimaginable and unbelievable story of love, death, destruction, pride and prejudice, of murder mayhem and rebirth of a nation.
LOVE & CHOLERA is a  story based on fact. It puts a human face to a tragedy that affected millions of people.
The author is Jeff Benjamin who is also running for  Mayor in the City Of Miami 2013.
The book is an an unprecedented true-life  story of the 2010  earthquake in Haiti with its  catastrophic magnitude of 7.0 A devastation that  occurred at 16:53 local time  on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 and by  24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. With an estimated three million people affected by the quake. The Haitian government reported that an estimated 230,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless.
In the aftermath a young American doctor falls in love with Marie, a Haitian nurse who lost her home and family in the earthquake. The book exposes the differing social and multicultural lives of the Haitian people. Moreover it gives us a quick example of how these conducts affect our society. Two of the behaviors observed, are prejudice and stereotyping. These were identified as the major causes leading up to the events surrounding the violence associated with the Earthquake and the Cholera epidemic. These behaviors manifest themselves in every aspect of the story. Including the behavior towards the Haitian people and a government being pressured for results. The book  expose the international community’s rational for the negative attitudes and perception about Haitians based on assimilation and stereotypes garnered through prior experience with former and past regimes. The story captures the age-old issue that has always existed in humanity, which we thought would have dissipated in the 21st century. Taking into account that in these days we are better informed and educated and should understand that one group's actions should not be applied to stereotype an entire nation.

Love & Cholera exposes how the Haitian community coped with the Earthquake the Cholera outbreak and their National elections all coming in the same Year. How the world had a predisposed picture of Haiti and the prejudice’s were simply an attitude that remained internal to its owner.  The book  explores every ones behavior; their negative attitudes on the basis of differences translate into murder and survival of the fitness. The end result is social inequity, death and disease and an entire nation in turmoil.

And in this jungle for survival one woman’s faith and love for her country. A love that transcends all barriers and an uncanny functional and respectful relationship between her and her people. Love & Cholera deviates to show prejudice and stereotypes can be a destructive force both in the world and in individual societies, especially when in turmoil.
Throughout the story, pride and prejudice becomes threatening when it reaches its most extreme form. Class survival and rush to judgment of a nation floundering to regain its dignity. This movie shows us the different points of view of a nation dealing with catastrophic events. It sheds light and gives us insights of the stereotypes we have built within our society, within the world. It invites us to see and understand how such a small stereotype and negative attitude can go a long way and affect a nation. Love & Cholera is a powerful symbolism of Love & Hope.
The movie will show how important it is that we learn how to control prejudice and the stereotypes we hold against other groups, since these are attitudes and feelings that are learned and are not innate. The key to this book is its powerful depiction of the children of Haiti who were affected. The movie exposes the assumptions that we make about others and questions how these assumptions arise and where they came from. Love & Cholera shows how one woman’s love saved a nation.
A powerful true life love story …. LOVE & CHOLERA

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