A plain black bow adorns the coat of arms on the door of the Haitian Embassy in Tokyo, a poignant reminder to visitors of the hundreds of thousands who have died in the country since the devastating earthquake of Jan 12. It is a small gesture that belies the scale of the destruction wrought by the quake: the mountains of rubble, the mass burials, the hunger and loss.
The disaster has touched the lives of every Haitian on the planet, including Acting Ambassador Jean-Claude Bordes, who was safely ensconced 13,000 km away at the embassy in the upmarket neighborhood of Nishi-Azabu when the quake struck.
One of Bordes' close friends lived to tell of the moment when the earth shook, almost swallowing the country whole. That Tuesday evening, his friend was at home in the capital, Port-au-Prince, working in the garage as his wife read on the balcony, the ambassador explains.