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Our translator in Haiti took us to where he grew up in Cite Soleil, an extremely impoverished and densely populated community in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in Haiti. Although he has escaped from this slum he comes back to head a recreational and education program for the children. He talked a lot about the ‘stigma’ this area and the people from it have faced over the years, even from the poor of Haiti.

When he was talking about stigma, I thought of our deceased son and the overwhelming stigma he faced that caused him great suffering. I remember how hard it is for me when others stigmatize people, be it because they are poor, have a brain disease or are just for saying what some do not want to hear.

A few years ago I wrote in the posting for the Diary of the Worm for March 22, 2009 a poetic essay that captured my feelings and still rings true today. I repeat

“Stigma Stains the Soul”

Stigmatizing a person
Is like calling the person morally defective,
A flawed human being.

In every stigma there is some truth,
The ‘mentally ill” usually are persons with a mental illness,
Persons who “talk too much” are usually very vocal.
“Terrorists” often do promote terror.

However, a stigma depersonalized the person receiving it,
Often justifying cruel and inhumane treatment.

It is difficult for one to accept the truth of the stigma,
Since accepting it often means accepting being less a human person.

Often, the people in the system that ‘treat’ the person with stigma,
The very persons that desire to stamp out the stigma,
Impose the biggest stigma of all on a person
By the way they treat the person with the stigma.
Sometime they are too condescending, talk about the person in their presence, like the person is a third party and not part of the conversation.

The best way, perhaps, to deal with stigma
Is to look at it as it as violence to the mind
And treat it in a creative non-violent way.
Thus not to react to it,
But to absorb it as it is,
No matter how much it hurts.
So that by not reacting,
Not letting it stick to one’s soul,
It will naked, exposed and made powerless,
Thus be seen for what it is,
A stain to be cleaned,
Hurtful not healing.

Then and only then
Can the person stigmatizing see it?
And stop it,
And the person being stigmatized
Not identify with the stigma
But use it to more deeply understand who they are.

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