[My] critique is about the tone of unnecessary pictures and videos that show pieces of bodies, dying people, the nudity of people, or the misery/tragedy of people in line for food and water. Seriously, is this cruelty really necessary to mobilize massive humanitarian action? That’s Valérie Payen-Jean Baptiste, a Haitian elementary school principal discussing the [...]
[20 Mar 2010]
[T]hose with guns and the force of law behind them, are too often more concerned for property than human life. In an emergency, people can, and do, die from those priorities. … Two things go on in disasters. The great majority of what happens you could call emergency requisitioning. Someone who could be you, someone [...]
[1 Feb 2010]
There is an institutionalized racism in the way these poor black disaster victims are treated. The victims of Katrina were treated with so much presumption, as if you could assume they were going to loot, because they were black. Just like we know that the people in Haiti are bad because they’re black. And: When [...]
[22 Jan 2010]
Regarding the U. S. Marines’ presence is Haiti, holding M-16s, no less: Here is — they had no business being there. Sure, if there’s some way where you have an army of bandits, which we haven’t seen, on any mass scale going and attacking, maybe you might bring in some guys like that. But right [...]
[21 Jan 2010]
I first heard the story of the pact in late 2003. Protests against President Bertrand Aristide were rocking the small town of Petit-Goâve where I was volunteering for an international non-profit. My Haitian roommates explained that Aristide, as a poor Catholic priest, was involved in Voudou and had used the more violent lwa to build [...]
[15 Jan 2010]
Aid often conforms to needs of U.S. campaign donors over the needs of Haitian victims. Food aid, for example, reduces stockpiles of excess, subsidized U.S. corn better than it fights hunger. It sometimes even increases hunger in Haiti by undermining otherwise sustainable local farmers. When farmers cannot sell their grain because Uncle Sam is giving [...]
[14 Jan 2010]
This won’t be an earthquake post, although I think you should donate to Doctors Without Borders, Yéle Haiti, or the World Food Programme (all secular charities). Instead, this post is about Haiti and its relationship to the United States. A few items for your reading pleasure: UPDATE 2: Naomi Klein says beware of Haiti being [...]
[13 Jan 2010]