"The Quake"– Haiti Through The Distorted Lenses of PBS' Frontline
If Americans watched the PBS/Frontline documentary "The Quake" last Tuesday, they would have learned that nearly half of all Americans contributed to the Haiti relief effort in the wake of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12, 2010. According to Hilary Clinton, the amount donated was over $700 million dollars. So, with such a potentially vast American audience, it would have been great if the writers and producers of "The Quake" had offered a documentary that was not only representative of the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake, but was also an accurate historical, political, and economic perspective on what has made Haiti so desperately poor and vulnerable to this "natural" disaster. Instead, Fronline chose to spotlight among others, former World Bank executive, Marc Bazin. Bazin was Washington's candidate in the December 1990 Haiti presidential elections. Bazin was trounced by Jean-Betrand Aristide, who won an easy victory with two-thirds of the vote. Marc Bazin came in a distant second with 14%.
Marc Bazin: former Haitian Prime Minister
and U.S. candidate for Haitian Presidency in 1990.Speaking of elections, perhaps the producers were unaware that Haiti has a popular political party with representatives that they could have tapped to speak on the political issues that this "documentary" attempts to tackle. It is at the very least symbolic that Fanmi Lavalas was also barred from the April 2009 elections and again from this year's rescheduled February elections.
Neoliberal Economist Paul Collier on his UN
role of finding "strategies that gov'ts
would find helpful" in Haiti.In this regard, Frontline is in line with the U.S. government, which learned a lesson from the 1990 elections. The lesson was that allowing a free election may result in the election of a populous, liberation theology Priest who may advocate for modestly higher sweatshop wages, for building the country's infrastructure and institutions (Aristide founded Haiti's first medical school) and who would want vital services like electricity, mill and cement factories and telephone companies to remain nationalized, not privatized, in order to benefit the local economy and people.
Raymond Joseph, is Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. He was
appointed by U.S. backed interim puppet gov't of Gerard LaTorture.
Joseph, who is the uncle of rapper Wyclef Jean, spoke of Haiti's
"proud" and "opulent" heritage during the period of slavery – when
Napoleon Bonaparte's sister had her palace in Port-au-Prince.
If Aristide and Lavalas' plans for Haiti had gone forward, who knows, perhaps the scope of the earthquake disaster would have been lessened. But, rather than include Lavalas's voice as a counter balance to the colonial and "entrenched" narrative, Frontline chose to provide a bully pulpit for Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki Moon, Edmond Mulet, Raymond Joseph, Jean-Max Bellerive and to trumpet the "economic opportunities" and "very low income area" that is Haiti –– by such luminaries as neoliberal Oxford economist Paul Collier. In Collier's view Haiti is a land of opportunities, no, of course he doesn't mean in the same sense as America is known as "the land of opportunity;" as in people will be flocking to Haiti for a better life, where they will succeed in their chosen field, where they can raise and educate their children to have a promising future. Be for real! What Collier, Bill Clinton and his "twenty" heads of companies and CEOs see is opportunity for the multinational corporations in "agriculture, tourism and especially in manufacturing." The privatization of Téléco (the telephone Co.) it turns out, isn't working out too well and labor organizers say that managers "mismanaged the company in order to justify its break-up." As for the plans for Haiti by the "international community," they are just more of the same."In a March 2009 New York Times op-ed, Ban Ki-moon outlined his development plan for Haiti, involving lower port fees, “dramatically expanding the country’s export zones,” and emphasizing “the garment industry and agriculture.” Ban’s neoliberal plan was drawn up [by] Oxford University economist Paul Collier. (Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff admitted, in promoting Collier’s plan, that those garment factories are "sweatshops.")Collier is blunt, writing (PDF), “Due to its poverty and relatively unregulated labor market, Haiti has labor costs that are fully competitive with China." His scheme calls for agricultural exports, such as mangoes, that involve pushing farmers off the land so they can be employed in garment manufacturing in export processing zones. To facilitate these zones Collier calls on Haiti and donors to provide them with private ports and electricity, “clear and rapid rights to land," outsourced customs, “roads, water and sewage," and the involvement of the Clinton Global Initiative to bring in garment manufacturers.
Revealing the connection between neoliberalism and military occupation in Haiti, Collier credits the Brazilian-led United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) with establishing “credible security,” but laments that its remaining mandate is “too short for investor confidence.”More Pain for Devastated Haiti: Under the Pretense of Disaster Relief, U.S. Running a Military Occupation by Arun Gupta | Black Agenda Report & AlternetBy the way, that medical school that Aristide founded in 2003 was shut down by the U.S. after the coup they orchestrated against Aristide. The shutting of the school undermined Haitian healthcare and "set the stage for the disaster." The existence of a medical school and trained Haitian doctors would have mitigated the misery and death toll from the disaster. The Haitian medical students who were left stranded by the closure were accepted by Havana’s Latin American Medical School (ELAM). These former students came back and reportedly worked "tirelessly" during the earthquake emergency. The Cubans were the first to set up triages and medical camps to care for the victims of the earthquake. Cuba has a tri-lateral agreement with the governments of Haiti and Venezuela to train medical students. The students are pledged to work in areas where they are most needed in their respective countries.
Dr. Mitchell Shuster works on the foot of Enis Turneau ValBrun,
a sixteen year old who lost his foot when he fell into a hole
while attempting to rescue his sister. Tragically, Enis' sister died.This Frontline "documentary" relied on the same old colonial narratives. Accordingly, they represented that the "corrupt" Haitians "resisted change," whereas the "reformist," as seen by Frontline, were those bent on instituting harsh structural adjustment and neoliberal policies in Haiti. If you believe Frontlines' rethoric, this heroic "reformist" bunch, have tried unsuccessfully time and again to bring Haiti kicking and screaming into the light of civilization to no avail. Frontline's premise begs the conclusion that Haitians are unable to govern themselves without the benevolent aid and support of the "international community." Half-way through the "documentary," the audience is presented with old footage of the brutal U.S. occupation of Haiti that lasted 19 years. From the old black and white footage, one is left with the impression that the pictures are supposed to represent old and abandoned interventionist U.S. policies, but realistically, was there ever a period in Haiti-U.S. history when Haiti was left to make decisions without the intervention of the U.S. government, its representatives or its allies in the international community?
It is Frontline's version of the political situation in Haiti that some will take the most issue with. In the "documentary" they address the future of Haiti only in terms of what the international community will do for Haiti, but neglect to explore the fact that Haitians are quite capable of determining their own course and finding the path to healing and recovery themselves. This paternalistic attitude is characteristic of the colonial narrative.
If Fanmi Lavalas is barred from any more elections, there will be another boycott and consequently political tension will escalate. Since the earthquake, there have been more than 50 protests. Most have been to protest the inadequate response to the crisis, but many have called for the return of president Aristide. The people want Aristide restored. They want Fanmi Lavalas to take part in any free and fair election. When Fanmi Lavalas was barred last April, the polls were pitifully empty of voters. The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) could avoid tensions by reversing their course and allowing real elections to take place.
Frontline may have avoided mention of Fanmi Lavalas, but the program did not sidestep political discourse regarding Haiti. Minutes into the narrative, Frontline explains: "There have been a lot of promises made about Haiti in recent weeks, but Haiti has a history of frustrating reformers, absorbing aid and resisting change" Who are these heroic reformers, you may well ask? Some will assume they are those who had just intoned dutifully supportive remarks on behalf of Haiti.
Obama: "To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction: you will not be forsaken; You will not be forgotten."
Ban Ki Moon: "We are with you. We will help you to recover and rebuild."
Hillary Clinton: "We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."These international figures speak a good game, but can they walk the talk? Why are Haitians today not rejoicing and enjoying in the bounty of opportunities, the raised standards of living, safe infrastructure and functional institutions that one would expect is the agenda of "reformers?" Could it be that this was not the goal of neoliberal policies that the U.S. forced the Haitian government to accept? Ironically, Frontline time and again brought up how weak the Haitian government is, but the core purpose or result of neoliberalism is to weaken a government which is subjected to its policies. A weak government will not put up any trade barriers or restrictions to protect its industries. A weak government will be forced to allow the multinationals to flood their markets with imports that destroy the local economy and industry. A weak government will allow the privatizing of local services, even such vital services as safe water, electricity and communications. Did the structural adjustment programs of the IMF, World Bank, IDB and World Trade Organization intend to "reform" Haiti? Yes, but not for the benefit of Haiti, it's government, economy, infrastructure, industries or people. Bill Clinton recently apologized for supporting trade policies which destroyed rice farming in Haiti. The policy led to the loss of an estimated 830,000 rural jobs according to Oxfam. Read more about U.S. trade policy and rice farmers in Haiti at "Harvest of Hunger."
"Shocking though they may appear, the latest round of impoverishing policies are part of a historical continuum in Haiti. Indeed, the presence of U.S. troops in Haiti is not new. In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson sent the Marines into what turned out to be a nineteen year occupation. Both the 1915 and the 1994 U.S. invasions were ostensibly about restoring democracy and stability. But both were in typical U.S. fashion very much about U.S. geopolitical and economic interests. The interests of Haiti's poor majority have consistently been damaged by U.S. military intervention and by U.S.aid programs.""This and the decimation of the invaluable Creole pig (because of fears of an outbreak of African swine fever), led to displacement of the peasantry into urban areas, along with the promise of urban jobs, fueled rural migration into flimsy shantytowns. It’s hard not to conclude that these development schemes played a major role in the horrific death toll in Port-au-Prince."Neoliberalism benefited the Robber Barons, not the Haitian people. Once they buy up a national industry, prices doubled, tripled, and quadrupled. Instead of investing in the local economy, these leeches take their profits and go home. What they leave behind are higher costs of living, and worse conditions for people who were living in desperate poverty to begin with. The one notable exception being Digicel, which employs a lot of Haitians and provides dependable cell service in Haiti. So with rare exceptions, these were the detrimental "reforms" that the U.S. wanted Aristide to institute, and when he didn't do it fast enough, the U.S. slapped an aid embargo against a country that their State Department routinely describes as the "poorest in the Western Hemisphere." Heroic wasn't it, to deprive the Haitian people of infrastructure, clean water, and basic social services! After Aristide's government was weakened, the U.S. concluded their orchestrated dismantling of Haiti's democracy by forcing him and his family onto a U.S. plane in the dead of night. They brought him half-way around the world to the Central African Republic, a former colony of France against his will. Later when Aristide was to receive asylum from Jamaica, in direct violation of international law, the U.S. warned him to stay out of the Western Hemisphere or risk "violence."Watching the section where Paul Farmer briefly spoke about the consequences and misery brought on by a series of unprecedented hurricanes in 2008 in Haiti, particularly in Gonaive, one wonders what he would have said if he was asked to explain as he did in his book "The Uses of Haiti," the U.S. role in Haiti's bitter fate. Unfortunately, Dr. Farmer seems to have lost his voice since he was made Bill Clinton's U.N. Aide. The fact is punctuated when you see the images of Bill Clinton with his arm around Dr. Farmer's shoulders. Clinton's gesture seems to say, see this is my boy now! Dr. Farmer probably couldn't tell you "Who removed Aristide," even if he wanted to.
Was this the same Paul Farmer who wrote:"[…] the Haitian poor know from long experience that they are not supposed to care about democracy. Perhaps post-coup Haiti's symbolic utility is chiefly as a warning to those who dare to care what democracy is. The coup is a warning to those who think that a country's wealth ought to be equitably shared among the people who live there.From Dr. Farmer's take on the situation back in the 90s, to the tea parties, and cries of "you lie," at Obama's first Senate address, to accusations of socialism and even Nazi symbols that purport to describe the current American President, there are a lot of parallels between the claims being made against the Obama administration and similar baseless accusations that were made against President Aristide. Ironically, both men are not extremist, instead they advocate for modest reforms to a corrupt system. Also, similar to Obama, Aristide angered and ignored his base. For Aristide, it was to lead to his downfall. Time will tell with President Obama whether his pandering to the Republicans and right-wing elements will truncate his time in the American presidency.Such was the plan of the Aristide government. From the perspective of the Haitian poor, The Aristide presidency, and not the coup, was a rupture with the past. Throughout his adult life, Aristide has made it clear that he thought the uses of Haiti should be altered in radical ways. Inspired by the idea of "an option for the poor. Aristide wanted, at a minimum, to provide a "decent poverty" for the majority of Haitians. This would require, he felt, greater popular input into decision making: it would require an end to the most flagrant injustices and the redistribution of some of Haiti's wealth. The Council of Hemispheric Affairs, noted that Aristide's victory "represented more than a decade of civic engagement and education on his part," heralded lavalas as "a text-book example of participatory, 'bottom-up' and democratic political development."
Constrained by a new world order that was more concerned about making an option for the rich, and constrained too, by his cabinet of moderates, Aristide's government was less about socialism or anti-imperialism than it was about a modest, reformist nationalism. His eight months in office saw significant reforms against tremendous odds. But, as Noam Chomsky has noted, it is precisely such dangerous notions as reform that are most likely to bring down the wrath of the international elite."
-- "The Uses of Haiti" p.195 by Paul Farmer
There were some good moments in the documentary. The rescuers and medical personnel were authentic and real. Their actions were heroic and they often went beyond the call of duty and showed real leadership and heart. Witlet Maceno, a Haitian-American nurse volunteer was tenacious, gutsy and energetic in seeking out life giving blood for a pregnant woman in distress. Maceno is symbolic of the heros and heroins who volunteered in Haiti and who performed to the best of their abilities with the limited resources they had. Maceno finally found the blood he needed at the Haitian Red Cross in Port-au-Prince. Which is significant, since that particular resource is in-country, and came through for Maceno when others like the Red Cross, and the UN did not.In fact the UN in the aftermath of the quake failed Haitians miserably. The heroes were those who worked tirelessly on the ground to help the victims, Haitians helping Haitians and those countries which responded quickly, like Cuba, Israel and individuals and international aid agencies from around the world.
Most striking were the statements made by the UN Head of Mission Edmond Mulet. Mulet in effect said that the UN threw up it's hands and "deliberately decided not to coordinate aid. "How can you coordinate, I mean… the border was open with the Dominican Republic. Thousands of volunteers coming in. Airplanes landing. Imagine if the government of the UN or any other organization tried to coordinate that. We would have bureaucratized the process. And I think it would not have been effective. Martin said (perhaps incredulously?), "It would have prevented aid from getting through? Is that what you're saying?' Mulet acknowledges; "We didn't have the capacity to really organize the whole thing. Such good will and generosity from everywhere and I think it would not have been effective."
Mr. Mulet, how effective was the alternative?
It was instructive to see a photo op in the documentary where the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was with President Preval. The faces on both individuals showed the stress and tension each felt towards each other. Frontline's Martin Smith asked Mrs. Clinton about the relationship."Is Preval a reliable partner?" asked Smith.
"He is a reliable partner, but he is a partner with very serious challenges when it comes to capacity."
Smith: "What do you mean by capacity?"
Clinton: "Well, that the government has a political structure, and a social structure which is very entrenched in the way it does business."
No kidding. This is coming from a woman who went up against the Washington lobbyists for the health care industry and blinked.
The interview cuts off at this point. I guess the rest is "off the record" as they say? The disembodied Narrator takes his cue from Clinton's remarks:
"What Clinton is talking about is Haiti's entrenched elite. A handful of families who control everything. From the local economy to many key ministries. And while Preval is not considered corrupt himself. He is weak. And many think unlikely to survive Haiti's fall elections."
Good summary Narrator, but not exactly a surprise since Preval has already announced that he would not be seeking another term as president of Haiti.
Since Clinton knows from experience about battling entrenched power structures, why isn't there more cooperation and empathy between President Preval and Secretary Clinton? Probably because "entrenched" power structures isn't the real issue.
What was a surprise was the admission by Frontline, that Preval is not corrupt--deviating from an oft-stated mantra throughout the presentation. They conclude that it is an "entrenched" system, (which is not unlike the system which exists in the U.S. and worldwide when you think about it) where a few well connected families control most of the wealth, industry and power.
During the presentation, Frontline made a point of noting the negative graffiti that abounds in Port-au-Prince about Preval. A popular one reads: "Preval = K K" – meaning Preval equals excrement. What Frontline cameras did catch, but predictably ignored, underscoring the problem with this skewed "documentary," was the graffiti off to the side. The one that read, "Aristide Wa [King]."The Quake can be viewed online at the PBS Frontline website.
UPDATE 04.06.2010: The transcript of the Frontline interview with Hillary Clinton is on the State Department website.
UPDATE 04.06.2010 8:02pm:
Haitian Prime-Minister Bellerive revealed this week that Haiti has oil. Contracts have been signed and investments have been made by the World Bank and IMF. "For a project worth billions of dollars.""Bellerive and a consortium of well-known Haitian figures such as Reginald Boulos, worked on a document concerning the economic future of Haiti. The text does not explore the amazing opportunities offered by the exploitation of Haiti’s mining and oil resources, nor does it mentioned any of the serious studies done on the subject. Instead it presents agriculture as the main alternative to resolve’s Haiti’s problems. By ignoring the question of Haiti’s natural resources, it is as if the message was: there will be looting, pillage but we will give you a little piece of bread. Even more deceiving is that they managed to get the help of left wing Michel Chancy, to caution this masquerade. The paysans may only receive little leftovers from the NGOs but at least they will eat bread…. One bag of rice against one bag of Gold."
UPDATE 04.06.2010 9:16pm:
Statement of Cuban Foreign Minister. H.E. Bruno Rodríguez Parilla,
Minister of Foreign Affairs | Republic of Cuba at UN Donors Meeting on Haiti | UN Headquarters, NY, March 31, 2010"The international community has a tremendous debt with Haiti where, after three centuries of colonialism, the first social revolution on the American continent took place, an act of boldness that the colonial powers punished with close to 200 years of military dictatorships and plunder. Its noble and hardworking people are now the poorest in the Western hemisphere.[...] The program for the reconstruction and strengthening of the Haitian national healthcare system, drawn up by the Haitian government and Cuban governments, with the cooperation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and other countries and humanitarian organizations, will guarantee wide health coverage for the population, in particular the low-income sector.
[...] From almost immediately after the earthquake, Cuban specialists have been dedicating their attention to the population affected. To date they have seen 260,000 patients, performed more than 7,000 operations, delivered close to 1,400 babies, and administered close to 100,000 vaccinations. More than 50,000 patients have undergone rehabilitation therapy and more than 75,000 children have received psychosocial therapy, in the presence of some of Cuba’s most eminent professionals.
A total of 783 Cuban and 481 Haitian doctors, plus 278 health professionals from 28 countries – all of them graduated in Cuba – are working on this program.
[...] During the 11 years of work prior to the earthquake, the Cuban medical brigade, which has a presence in 127 of the 137 Haitian communes, saved 223,442 lives, treated 14 million people, performed 225,000 operations and delivered 109,000 babies. Via the Operation Miracle program, 46,000 Haitians have had their sight restored or improved. During the same period, 165,000 Haitians have become literate in Creole.
If we evaluate the medical services provided in these 11 years and the training of medical personnel in Cuba, it would represent $400 million throughout the period.
The medical program that we are proposing, in its entirety, will benefit 75% of the poorest population of the country at a minimum expense.
We invite all governments, without exception, to contribute to this noble effort. For that reason, we attribute particular importance to this conference, and aspire to its success.
Thank you very much."
On Jan. 12, 2010, one of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history leveled the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Those responsible for handling the catastrophe, including the Haitian government and the United Nations, were among the victims. FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith bears witness to the scale of the disaster and takes viewers on a searing and intimate journey into the camps, hospitals and broken neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. Featuring never-before-seen footage of the moments after the earthquake and interviews with top officials from Port-au-Prince to Washington, The Quake ultimately asks, how will the world respond?
"Beyond immediate relief efforts lies a harder task," says FRONTLINE's Smith. "The world has to decide whether to simply patch up Haiti now or to take on the far more ambitious goal of building a functional Haitian state."
The Quake explores the recent history of aid efforts in Haiti and the prospects for real change, and draws on interviews with, among others, former President Bill Clinton, special envoy to Haiti; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Dr. Paul Farmer, deputy special envoy to Haiti and co-founder of Partners in Health.
Haiti has more NGOs per capita than any other country in the world. For years, foreign assistance bypassed the Haitian government, leaving it weak and vulnerable. The Quake examines how, this time, things might be done differently.
"This is an opportunity to rethink how aid works and how we, the most powerful country in this part of the world, can work with our oldest neighbor," says Dr. Paul Farmer. "So I think all that possibility is built into this tragedy."
What's Behind the Poisoning of Afghan Girls
AOL News
(April 26) -- For girls in Afghanistan, getting an education has always been difficult, if not impossible. But their struggle appears worse than ever recently as a series of poison gas attacks on girls' schools has sent at least 88 girls, some as young as 7, to the hospital.The attacks in Kunduz province, in the north of the country, come amid heightened Taliban influence in the region, raising fears that ultra-conservative elements in society are becoming bolder in their efforts to exert influence over social behavior. But no military defeat of the Taliban is likely to banish even violent opposition to female education, which has deep cultural roots in a large part of the country.
"Attacks like these spike in unison with the strength of insurgents," says Jennifer Rowell, head of advocacy for CARE International in Kabul. "But we have to remember: not all insurgents are Taliban, and not all attackers are insurgents. It's likely that the attackers, whoever they were, had a problem with the idea of girls' education."Fulad Hamdard, APA medic checks a schoolgirl in a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Dozens of Afghan girls have been hospitalized after poison gas attacks on their schools.It's still unclear whether the attacks were intended to kill or only terrorize female students into staying home. Girls at the schools reported seeing fellow classmates fall unconscious after smelling a strange gas in the air and then succumbing themselves.
Similar attacks a year ago also hospitalized dozens of female students, but all recovered. A police officer in Kunduz, requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media, says the investigation is focusing on criminal elements rather than the Taliban, who in a statement to the media condemned the attacks. "This is the act of miscreants who just don't like the idea of girls being educated," the police officer says.
The broader implications of these sorts of attacks underscore the challenges Afghanistan's girls face even if the Taliban are defeated.
The root of the problem lies not in any one militant group, but in a broader and persistent aversion to girls' education among some segments of Afghanistan's ethnic Pashtuns, the same ethnic group as the vast majority of the Taliban. Culturally, the Taliban's rigid interpretation of Islam, including the banning of education for girls, is part and parcel of Pashtun society.
"There is no way around it," says Bashir Khan, a businessman in Kabul who counts himself among the staunchly anti-Taliban Pashtuns. "In Pashtun culture, a woman's place is in the home. Even some of the most educated Pashtuns believe this. I'm willing to let my daughters go to school but only to a point, maybe until they are 11 or 12 years old. After that, why do they need an education? Their life will be in the home."
Pashtun men like Khan resent the emphasis Western nations have placed on girls' education, arguing that they are trying to destroy Pashtun culture. "It's an insult to our way of life," he says. "We will not allow it. We see what happens to women in the West; we see it on television, in their music videos and movies. We will never let our women become so corrupted."
And the problem is not about to go away anytime soon. The U.S. and its NATO allies continue to make girls' education a pillar of their vision for a future Afghanistan, yet even by the most optimistic estimates only about 30 percent of school-age girls are enrolled in schools. And Washington now admits that the Taliban have a legitimate role to play in Afghan politics and society, since they represent the Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group by far, comprising 42 percent of the country's population.
But even a pacified Taliban will still bear the earmarks of Pashtun culture. Some Afghans, and a growing cadre of Western NGO workers, are gradually coming to accept the reality that improving women's rights will take generations in a country like Afghanistan. And that forcing Pashtun culture to change too quickly could be disastrous.
"Yes, there is some pushback," Rowell says. "There are still some pockets of cultural resistance to girls' education. And we are seeing a rising trend in the number of attacks on the education system in general over the last few years."
But she hastens to point out that Afghans in general are open to educating girls, if sensitivity to the culture is maintained. There are some members of the society, however, who will never accept change. And the grim reality is that more innocent girls will have to suffer before these elements disappear altogether.
via aolnews.com
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Study Settles It: Shocking Black & Latino Imprisonment Rates the Result of Racist, Punitive Impulse
April 21, 2010 |
For decades, journalists, scholars and activists seeking to understand the soaring number of people locked up in U.S. prisons over the past 40 years have uncovered -- or just looked clearly enough to see -- overwhelming evidence of systemic racism at every level of the criminal justice system. Yet, there has been a wide reluctance to name racism as one of the primary factors fueling the prison boom; as sentences have gotten longer and parole granted less often, even the starkest racial statistics -- like the fact that African Americans and Latinos make up 70 percent of the incarcerated population -- have often been treated as an unfortunate byproduct of the war on drugs.
Now, two criminologists have concluded, in a new study investigating public attitudes behind harsh sentencing, that the warehousing of African Americans and other minorities is no accident. Rather, "racial resentments are inextricably entwined in public punitiveness." In other words, racism and the rise of "tough on crime" policies go hand in hand.
James Unnever of the University of South Florida-Sarasota and Francis Cullen of the University of Cincinnati acknowledge the "lengthy roster" of previous studies on race and the U.S. prison system; yet theirs manages to contribute something crucial to the current debate: "… [G]iven the large body of research that documents a substantive association between punitiveness and racial animus," they write, "it is somewhat disconcerting that theories of the mass-incarceration movement do not place race and racism at the center of their explanation for why the United States imprisons so many of its citizens."
This conclusion echoes the work of civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander, who, in the introduction to her new book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, admits that even she was once skeptical of how central racism was to the rise of the modern American prison system. "Quite belatedly, I came to see that mass incarceration in the United States had, in fact, emerged as a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow."
Alexander argues that the U.S. prison system has so sweepingly and consistently targeted African American men that it has effectively created a new racial caste system. That most Americans would deny such a caste system exists speaks to how insidious it is. "Like an optical illusion," she writes, "one in which the embedded image is impossible to see until its outline is identified -- the new caste system lurks invisibly within the maze of rationalizations we have developed for persistent racial inequality."
Unnever and Cullen's study makes it that much easier to see what Alexander describes.
Racial Resentments
To conduct their study, Unnever and Cullen used the results of the 2000 National Election Survey, which featured interviews with 1,620 Americans who shared their views on a range of social issues. To assess the "punitive attitudes" of participants, the authors considered their answers to questions weighing the social roots of crime versus the need to punish those who commit crime. For example: "Do you think that the best way to reduce crime is to address the social problems that cause crime like bad schools, poverty, and joblessness or to make sure criminals are caught, convicted, and punished, or that we should do something in between, or haven't you thought much about this?"
The authors also measured respondents' support for the harshest sentence of all: capital punishment. When asked if they favored or opposed the death penalty for convicted murderers, 55 percent of respondents "strongly favored the death penalty." Eighteen percent "did not strongly support it." The rest did not know.
These were the authors' "dependent variables" in assessing three popular theories on the "social sources of punitiveness": "Escalating Crime-Distrust" (the idea that crime is on the rise and the courts are doing nothing to stop it); "Moral Decline" (the belief that our society is being threatened and corroded by non-traditional notions of family and "newer lifestyles"); and the third: "Racial Animus" (otherwise known as racism).
Racial animus was measured using two scales: "Racial Resentment" and "Racial Stereotype." The former looked at the responses to such statements as:
Irish, Italians, Jewish, and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without any special favors.
Over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve.
It's really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites.
Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class.
"Responses to these questions," the authors write, "included 'agree strongly,' 'agree somewhat,' 'neither agree nor disagree,' 'disagree somewhat,' or 'disagree strongly.'"
"Racial Stereotype," meanwhile, asked people to "rate blacks on a scale of 1 to 7" on such characteristics as intelligence, trustworthiness and work ethic.
The conclusion: "The Racial Resentment scale significantly predicted greater support for a more punitive approach toward crime and for capital punishment."
"Our data also show that one of the most salient and consistent predictors of American punitiveness is racial animus," the authors conclude. "Importantly, this finding held even when controlling for two competing theoretical models … When added to the large body of evidence on the effects of racial animus … this finding suggests that a prominent reason for the American public's punitiveness -- including the embrace of mass imprisonment and the death penalty -- is the belief that those disproportionately subject to these harsh sanctions are people they do not like: African American offenders."
'Race and Racism Matter'
There is no shortage of Americans who believe that the courts routinely let hardened criminals go free and that the decline of the nuclear family is responsible for the worst societal ills; Unnever and Cullen acknowledge that such beliefs, which define the other two measures of "punitiveness," operate in tandem with racist attitudes in attracting public support for "tough on crime" policies.
via alternet.org
Submissions are Now Open for the
2011 Novello Literary Award (2/26/2010)
CHARLOTTE -Authors who wish to submit their work for the 2011 Novello Literary Award must have their submissions postmarked no later than May 1, 2010.The contest gives Carolina writers an opportunity to have their work published and distributed nationally. The winning author receives a book contract with NFP, which includes publication of the work and a $1,000 advance against royalties. The winner will be announced in Fall 2010, and the work chosen will be published in Fall 2011.
The award is underwritten by the Cold Mountain Foundation, which was founded by award-winning and best-selling author Charles Frazier and his wife, Katherine.
"This is a unique opportunity for authors to submit their work to a publisher that focuses on emerging writers from our region," said Amy Rogers, NFP Publisher.
A group of five finalists was announced for the 2010 award, whose work will appear in: Topograph: New Writing from the Carolinas and the Landscape Beyond. The most recent individual winner is Dale Neal, whose book Cow Across America was named winner of the 2009 Novello Literary Award, and was released in Fall, 2009.
Novello Festival Press is the award-winning publishing project of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. It is the only public library-sponsored literary publisher in the nation. NFP books are available at branches of the public library, area book stores and online retailers. Proceeds support the library.
For more information, call (704) 416-0706, or visit www.novellopress.org. A full listing of submission guidelines follows; both the guidelines and a Frequently Asked Questions page are available on the website.
Novello Literary Award Submission Requirements
- The contest is open to anyone age 18 or over who is a legal resident of N.C. or S.C.
- Submissions should consist of an original, unpublished work of literary fiction or literary non-fiction, 200 to 400 pages. Only one manuscript per author, please. No agent submissions will be accepted. No genre fiction such as romance, thrillers, sci-fi, etc.
- The work must be for a general adult audience.
- Manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, on 8-1/2 x 11" white paper. Good quality photocopies are acceptable. Pages should be numbered consecutively.
- A one-page cover letter should accompany the manuscript, containing the author's name, address, phone number, email address, brief bio, and a short summary of the work.
- No manuscripts will be returned. If you would like confirmation of receipt, please enclose a stamped, self-address postcard.
- Previously submitted manuscripts will be accepted as long as the above requirements are met.
Deadline is May 1, 2010. No manuscripts postmarked after that date will be considered. Submissions are judged by the staff of NFP and members of the literary arts community whom NFP may designate. Judges will not critique submissions, nor will they enter into correspondence with authors other than those whose work is chosen for publication. Send manuscripts to:Novello Literary Award
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
310 N. Tryon St.
Charlotte, NC 28202
via plcmc.org
James Laughlin Award Guidelines
The following guidelines are current and complete for the contest opening January 1, 2010. The James Laughlin Award guidelines are updated each year in December. The judges for 2010 are Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Major Jackson, and Michael Ryan.
- The James Laughlin Award is given to honor a second book of original poetry, in English, by a living citizen of the United States. To be eligible, a poet must have published one book of poetry in a standard edition (40 pages or more in length and 500 or more copies). Additional books on a smaller scale, such as chapbooks and limited editions, will not disqualify a poet.
- To be eligible, a book must have come under contract with a United States publisher between May 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010. Submissions are welcome from small presses, university presses, and trade publishers that have previously published at least four volumes of poetry.
- Although an eligible book may already have been published, it must be submitted in manuscript form (or page proofs) so that the jury can compare entries without considering the books' appearance. Bound books or galleys will not be accepted.
- Publishers must send four copies of each manuscript. The author's name should not be included in running heads or appear on any page, so that the manuscript can be read "blind." Suggested length is between forty and seventy-five pages.
- Entries should be postmarked no later than May 15, 2010. Each entry must be accompanied by a completed entry form (or facsimile) signifying the publisher's acceptance of these guidelines.
- The decision of the jury is expected by August 2010. The winning publisher agrees to publish the selected manuscript no later than June 1, 2011.
- The Academy of American Poets will award the winning poet $5,000.
- The Academy of American Poets agrees to purchase for distribution to its members copies of the winning book. The Academy may purchase additional copies of the book for its own use, but not for resale. No royalties will be paid to the author on the copies purchased by the Academy.
- The publisher agrees to sell the books at a special discount based on a percentage markup of the unit cost.
- The winning book will be announced and published as the "Winner of the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets," and will be so identified on the front of the dust jacket of the hardbound edition and on the front cover of the paperbound edition. The publisher will also print a description of the prize on the half-title page of each edition. The jacket and half-title copy must be submitted to the Academy for approval prior to publication.
- If the winning book is published prior to the jury's decision, the publisher agrees to sticker all the books in its possession with a label that reads "Winner of the James Laughlin Award of The Academy of American Poets." Any subsequent reprintings of the book must comply with the stipulations set forth in the previous paragraph.
- The decisions of The Academy of American Poets as to eligibility are final. Manuscripts will not be returned.
via poets.org
ALL US POETS ELIGIBLE!
Contest Deadline: Entries must be postmarked by May 15th
Winners Announced: August 15th
$1,000 cash prize, plus publication by Lost Horse Press
Entry fee: $25 check or money order only, please.Send submissions to:
The Idaho Prize
Lost Horse Press
105 Lost Horse Lane
Sandpoint, Idaho 83864Send manuscripts of 48 or more pages of poetry, no more than one poem per page, no smaller than 12 point type in an easily readable font. Poems may have appeared in journals and chapbooks, but not in full-length, single-author collections.
Name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and title of poetry collection must appear on the cover letter only. The goal is “blind” judging. Author’s name should not appear anywhere in manuscript except the cover letter.
No restriction on content, style, or subject—we’re looking for the best manuscript.
All checks or money orders for entry fee—$25—should be made payable to Lost Horse Press. Submissions without a reading fee enclosed will not be considered. A $50 fee will be charged for returned checks.
Include SASE (number #10 business envelope) with sufficient postage for notification of finalists and winner. Manuscripts will be recycled. We are sorry but manuscripts cannot be returned.
If manuscripts arrive postage due, they will be returned.
Use white, lightweight paper. Quality paper won’t impress readers the way a quality manuscript will.
Typed and printed on one side of the paper only. No handwriting should appear anywhere on the manuscript.
Entries submitted by e-mail or fax are not permitted and will be disqualified.
Interview with Chika Unigwe
Just this week I was reading that JD Salinger's narrator in Catcher in the Rye is supposed to have said that a good book is one that makes you want to talk to the author on the phone. Well, here is the 21st century version of that - an email intervew. I am so pleased that Chika Unigwe, author of On Black Sisters Street so generously agreed to be my first ever interviewee, following our discussion of her book at the Black Reading Group's January meeting. It has been a real pleasure to put this together with her and I am sure that you will enjoy her responses which are both thoughtful and positive. Also, we seem to have outed' ourselves as ABBA fans!
We were really taken by your book, totally drawn into the lives of the women whose stories you chose to tell. What inspired you to follow this theme?First of all, thank you very much for your interest in my book. I struggled for a long time with the idea of writing as a career and comments like yours validate my choice. Thank you.
One of the greatest cultural shocks I had was seeing half dressed girls in display windows waiting for customers. I became intrigued when I heard that many of the African prostitutes in Antwerp were from Nigeria (mainly from Benin City). I wanted to know why anyone would come that far to feed the sex industry here.
How long did On Black Sisters’ Street take you to write?About two and a half years and fourteen re-writes. I wasrelieved when it was done as it was a very hard book to write. Hard in the sense that it took a lot from me, emotionally. But writing it, researching it, has changed me fundamentally and I am grateful for that.
Tell us about the research that you did and how long did it take?I went to the red light district dressed in a mini skirt and high boots with killer heels, dragging my husband for safety with me. I went to a bar called 't Keteltje where many illegal Nigerian prostitutes work out of. It's pretty much like the 't Teepotje of my novel. I also talked to the prostitutes who worked behind display windows.
Do you see any of the women who told you their story? What do they think of the book?No. It's a bit selfish but I went primarily to get fodder for my novel and not to establish any sort of relationship. These women also, while they are friendly are proprietorial about their emotional/private space. They would not give me their phone numbers, for instance. But I hope that if any of them reads my book that they'd recognise a certain sense of empathy in the way the narrative is told and in the way the women are portrayed.
Which character did you identify with the most?Ama. Probably because she grew up in Enugu, same as I did. And she loves ABBA (I think).
Can relate to that – whenever I hear their songs, I am totally surprised at how I have come to know all the words.
Of course, most of our book club discussion was about Sisi, we felt that she was the one that could have taken a different course and we felt that she was compelled by greed to her final fate. Do you think that we were on the right track or are we being too harsh on her?I think that Sisi, like some of the women I met during my research, could have survived in Nigeria, she could have survived but she wanted to do more than survive which is her right to want. I don't think it was greed which propelled her to look for a better future but a sense of entitlement to a better life. Living in Nigeria where the gap between the rich and the poor is unfairly high, where the right qualifications doesn't necessarily translate to a job (unless you know the right people), where she sees no way of breaking through the cycle of making-do, I am somewhat sympathetic to her desire to flee.
Can you tell us more about Polycarp? We could not decide whether he really loved Alek or whether he had planned it that way all along?I have never really given Polycarp a lot of thought because I just hate what he did to Alek. I was sorry to have made him good looking. What he did was very unfair, cowardly and really mean. But thinking of it now, I am pretty sure he loved Alek. He certainly did at the beginning. He was not strong enough to fight the tradition which his mother embodied. He probably thought he was doing Alek a favour, sending her abroad where she could live a better life. I haven't re-read the book in a while but I don't think SenghorDele ever told him the truth about the nature of Alek's job.
Is there a back-story to Segun?No. Not as far as I know. He is probably Madam's or Dele's relative, socially unsuited for any other job. His gratitude to this relative for providing him with a job is translated into dog like loyalty. He'd do anything that is asked of him by his benefactor.
We have all had the ‘bus stop’ conversations that you described towards the end of the book, but I just wanted to check whether or not you had used clothes softener on your hair?No. But a woman came to me once to ask what I'd recommend for her African son's hair. He had adopted him from Rwanda and had no idea what to do to with his hair short of shaving it off. She said she had tried all sorts of clothes softener on it but to no avail. I could not believe it. Clothes softener! I've heard more clothes softener confessions since then. Hilarious! I used to play this game where if I saw a bunch of black kids, I could spot which one had white parents by the state of their hair.
Can you tell us about the reactions to the book in Belgium and Nigeria?Have there been differences to the way that the countries have responded to it?On the whole, the reactions have been more or less the same: it is a revelation to many, even those who know of the phenomenon of Bini prostitutes in Europe.
You are the first African writer to be published in Flemish, did you originally write the book in Flemish?No. I worked with a translator. I have a non-fiction book I wrote in Flemish, Diep in Uw Schoot, in which I document my experiences as a newcomer in Turnhout but also tells stories of six others. It was very therapeutic to write that book as it helped purge me of a lot of emotional baggage I was still carrying around.
In England we know that the Dutch/Flemish speak better English than us, because nobody from outside learns Dutch or Flemish, how did you take to learning the language?I took intensive lessons at the University of Leuven and am still picking up a lot of vocabulary from listening to people.
Do you dream in Flemish?Depends on what I am dreaming of. If people I'd normally speak Flemish to appear in it, I'd speak Flemish.
What is your favourite place in the world and why?London. For many different reasons: my favourite cousin, Susan (from whose kitchen I can see the London eye); My favourite shoe shop; the multitude of bookshops, the South Bank Centre and Oxford Street
Will you be visiting London soon?I hope so!
Some of the members of the group are budding writers. What advice would you give to encourage them?Read a lot. Write a lot. Challenge yourself by setting goals. Take part in reputable competitions (it's a good way to get discovered) I wish them the very best of luck
Did you always know that you’d be a writer?Yes. I always wanted to be a writer but I did not always think I had enough talent and will to survive it
What is your ideal writing day?Mugs of hot cocoa, plates of rich tea biscuits and lots of inspiration. I have days like those when I do a short story at a sitting. I don't have them often but when I do, I feel so blessed
What would you be if you weren’t a writer?Boef. I don't know. A university professor.
Can you tell us what you are working on now?I am working on a collection of short stories and a novel. I can't talk too much about them because I fear that if I do, i'll jinx it
Which authors do you most admire?Atwood. Bernadine Evaristo. Ali Smith. Caryl Phillips. Murakami (sometimes),Tahir Shah (I'd read all of his travel books!)
Who are your literary influences?I am influenced by every good writer I've read
What book(s) are you reading at the moment?Norwegian Wood by H. Murakami (in bath); Dahl's Omnibus (in bed), Atwood's Moral Disorder and Other Stories( in my bag. I carry this everywhere as I dip in and out of it quite regularly. I am always re-reading it)
What book would you recommend to a reading group such as ours?Evaristo's Blonde Roots, Chikwava's Harare North, Aminatta Forna's Ancestor Stones, and Caryl Phillips' In the Falling Snow (taking into account that you are a black reading group) and Atwood's Moral Disorder and other Stories , and Pauline Melville's The Migration of Ghosts.
Which blogs do you read?Maud Newton, Petina Gappah's,Laila Lalami's, Jude Dibia's, Bernadine Evaristo's and a bunch of others
I know that I have asked a lot of questions, but what question would you have asked yourself?This is a difficult one. I think I've learnt a lot about myself through writing OBSS and I like talking about how the experience has changed me. So, How have you been changed by writing On Black Sisters' Street?
Photo Credit: Rocio Forero B
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On Black Sisters' Street, By Chika Unigwe
Friday, 3 July 2009
Not many novelists would wander around the seedy red-light district of Antwerp in a mini-skirt and thigh-high boots to carry out research. But this is what Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe did for her novel about the lives of African sex workers in the Belgian city. She also spent time persuading these women to share their stories.
Her diligence has paid off. On Black Sisters' Street is a probing and unsettling exploration of the many factors that lead African women into prostitution in Europe, and it pulls no punches about the sordid nature of the job. Four naive young women, Sisi, Joyce, Ama and Efe, fall under the money-making spell of pimp-daddy "Senghor Dele" in Lagos.
Rich, vulgar, ruthless, he specialises in exporting girls to work in Belgium for a modest fee of 30,000 euros. This they must pay back in monthly instalments over many years of turning tricks ten hours a day. They don't all know that this is what lies in store but, fake passports withheld, the consequences for those who try to escape are dire.
Sisi, around whom most of the novel's suspense revolves, is an ambitious graduate unable to find suitable work. Efe is a teenage mother struggling to raise her son with no support from his father. Ama has escaped an abusive childhood only to find her dream of escaping Nigeria crushed by a dead-end job. Joyce, without family, home or money, is abandoned by her boyfriend. The women's dreams come in different sizes, from financial support for struggling relatives back home to the allure of big houses, fancy cars, gold jewellery and expensive plait extensions.
Unigwe's vigorous prose is at its best when describing the utter humiliation Sisi feels when forced to dress like a hooker in "a gold-coloured nylon skirt" that rode up her legs when she walked and "showed her butt cheeks when she bent". So too with the degradation of her first encounter with a client in a toilet: "She baptised herself into it with tears, hot and livid, down her cheeks, salty in her mouth, feeling intense pain wherever he touched, like he was searing her with a razor blade that had just come off a fire".
Men in this novel are generally drunks, murderers, rapists, weak, cold-hearted, pathetic - although Unigwe avoids the fallacy of women as passive victims. Hers make choices, for which there are consequences. But their choices are restricted by circumstance and the Lagos they leave behind is a harsh place to survive, where "on any given day one was likely to find a corpse abandoned by the roadside".
She shows what the women become, too. Sisi, who felt she was living the dream on her first day in Belgium because she was eating jam, can "no longer bear to look at herself", while Efe's plan is to run her own brothel one day when she has paid of her debt. What Unigwe does brilliantly is to delve into the psychology of each woman, eliciting different levels of empathy.
This is an important and accomplished novel that leaves a strong aftertaste. Unigwe gives voice to those who are voiceless, fleshes out the stories of those who offer themselves as meat for sale, and bestows dignity on those who are stripped off it.
Bernardine Evaristo's 'Blonde Roots' is published by Penguin
>via: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/on-black-sisters-street-by-chika-unigwe-1728899.html
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On Black Sisters’ Street - A Review by Ikhide R. Ikheloa
- By Ikhide R. Ikheloa (Nnamdi)
- Published December 13, 2009
- Reviews
- Unrated
Ikhide R. Ikheloa (Nnamdi)
Ikhide R. Ikheloa has written some of the most popular articles on this website and the Internet today under his pseudonym "Nnamdi." Ikheloa who calls his writings "moonlighting" also writes poetry.
View all Entries by Ikhide R. Ikheloa (Nnamdi)Chika Unigwe’s book, On Black Sisters’ Street chronicles the sad odyssey of an army of young women prostitutes drawn from various parts of Nigeria (and the Sudan!) who invade Europe desperate to do for themselves and their clans what waves of prostitute African governments have neglected to do for them. The ladies, Efe, Ama, Sisi, and Joyce are the main characters in a set of stories that collectively narrate epic struggles in the face of fear and despair. In this well-researched book, Sisi leads this pack of warrior-sisters on the streets of Europe determined to force down the doors of poverty and hopelessness that forced them away from home. They go out daily in search of lonely men - and wealth, the new measure of respect back home in Nigeria.
There is plenty to like in the book. It is rich with environment, populated by colorful, pleasant details that do not overwhelm the senses. It is a book that will take you a few days to read – the prose is languid, seemingly in no hurry to get to a climax. I like the way Unigwe introduces side issues into conversations and they stick with you – issues like sexism and the treatment of women as chattel in Africa. It is a neat trick, how she tucks weighty issues into throw-away sentences.Every character in this book is driven by a deep hunger. Perhaps the monotony of yearning is the story of a Nigeria gradually turning soulless from material lust. In the process, we have learnt to hate ourselves. Energy seems reserved for mimicking the otherness that resides in the West. Unigwe’s book showcases Nigeria as a nation of people deeply invested in acquiring the trappings of an otherness that emanates from the West.God must be exhausted and Nigerians are to blame. The book captures the ceaseless supplications for more and more and the pious request for God to annihilate our enemies that stand in the way of our more and more. God must regret the day the devil tricked her into creating the Nigerian; we are such a needy group. We see the new Christianity as the new plague sweeping across a nation of uncritical thinkers.The absurdities of life in Nigeria are expertly captured. Lagos is filth and dust at dusk advertising the meanness of neglect: The chapter named Ama was the best. It hearkens to the beauty of Chinua Achebe’sThings Fall Apart, of what happens when language is not in the way of the story. Here, Unigwe writes with confidence and her literary muscle barrels her voice into a full-throated roar. The expert way she weaves local Igbo and onomatopoeic idioms into the English is sexy, kpom kwem.The book offers plenty to frustrate the reader. The prose is uneven overall; as a result the book sometimes has the consistency of pulp fiction. The use of Pidgin English in this book added nothing to the book. Unigwe’s knowledge of Pidgin English seemed tentative or perhaps watered down to make it more palatable to a broader market. Pidgin English has an image problem. In the hands of Nigerian writers it undergoes an extreme makeover and acquires an inferiority complex.The book’s chapters are not numbered; they are repeatedly named after each “sister” or the street Zwartezusterstraat. There are about thirteen chapters named Sisi. Confusing. The chapters see-saw between multiple consciousnesses; the reader is force-fed the future up front and in the next chapter, the past walks up to the day. The reader learns of the future death of one of the characters – on the first few pages of the book.The book is not quite convincing in its analysis of how the girls chose prostitution. It is not for lack of trying. Indeed, Unigwe is guilty of an over-analysis of the characters’ motives. She obviously interviewed a lot of prostitutes. One wonders if they held back from this sister who went to too much school.The plight of Nigerian girls in Europe is the most visible symbol of the wanton rape of generations of youths by badly behaving Nigerian rulers. Unigwe appears however to have no stomach for conflict. Europe harbors a huge contingent of ladies from Edo State in Nigeria. There seems to have been a deliberate attempt to avoid this reality. The chapter namedAlek (Joyce) is my least favorite. It reads like an exhausted affirmative action afterthought. The character was developed as coming from Sudan, escaping the war, ending up in Nigeria and then Europe after her soldier-lover got bored with her. Darfur does not belong in this book. The chapter sits like a patronizing ode to the notion that prostitution is universal.
On Black Sisters’ Street is a good story fiercely resisting flight because it is airborne on timid wings. This is a shame because Unigwe has the muscle to communicate proprietary feelings using Standard English. My humble advice is that Unigwe should relax and take maximum advantage of her mastery of loose limber prose and let the words fly recklessly with her imagination. That would be quite a book.>via: http://www.africanwriter.com/articles/470/1/On-Black-Sisters-Street---A-Review-by-Ikhide-R-Ikheloa/Page1.html
We are not your weapons – we are women
Haiti — By Guest Author on April 23, 2010 at 10:46 amBy Amanda Kijera, civic journalist and activist in Haiti
Two weeks ago, on a Monday morning, I started to write what I thought was a very clever editorial about violence against women in Haiti. The case, I believed, was being overstated by women’s organizations in need of additional resources. Ever committed to preserving the dignity of Black men in a world which constantly stereotypes them as violent savages, I viewed this writing as yet one more opportunity to fight “the man” on behalf of my brothers. That night, before I could finish the piece, I was held on a rooftop in Haiti and raped repeatedly by one of the very men who I had spent the bulk of my life advocating for.
It hurt. The experience was almost more than I could bear. I begged him to stop. Afraid he would kill me, I pleaded with him to honor my commitment to Haiti, to him as a brother in the mutual struggle for an end to our common oppression, but to no avail. He didn’t care that I was a Malcolm X scholar. He told me to shut up, and then slapped me in the face. Overpowered, I gave up fighting halfway through the night.
Accepting the helplessness of my situation, I chucked aside the Haiti bracelet I had worn so proudly for over a year, along with it, my dreams of human liberation. Someone, I told myself, would always be bigger and stronger than me. As a woman, my place in life had been ascribed from birth. A Chinese proverb says that “women are like the grass, meant to be stepped on.” The thought comforted me at the same time that it made me cringe.
A dangerous thought. Others like it have derailed movements, discouraged consciousness and retarded progress for centuries. To accept it as truth signals the beginning of the end of a person–or community’s–life and ability to self-love. Resignation means inertia, and for the past two weeks I have inhabited its innards. My neighbors here include women from all over the world, but it’s the women of African descent, and particularly Haitian women, who move me to write now.
Truly, I have witnessed as a journalist and human rights advocate the many injustices inflicted upon Black men in this world. The pain, trauma and rage born of exploitation are terrors that I have grappled with every day of my life. They make one want to strike back, to fight rabidly for what is left of their personal dignity in the wake of such things. Black men have every right to the anger they feel in response to their position in the global hierarchy, but their anger is misdirected.
Women are not the source of their oppression; oppressive policies and the as-yet unaddressed white patriarchy which still dominates the global stage are. Because women–and particularly women of color–are forced to bear the brunt of the Black male response to the Black male plight, the international community and those nations who have benefitted from the oppression of colonized peoples have a responsibility to provide women with the protection that they need.
The United Nations, western women’s organizations and the Haitian government must immediately provide women in Haiti with the funding that they need to build domestic violence and rape crisis centers. Stop dividing Black families by distributing solely to women, which only exaggerates male resentment and frustration in Haiti. Provide both women and men with job training programs that would allow for self-sufficiency as opposed to continued dependency on whites. Lastly, admit that the issue of racial integration might still need addressing on an international level, and then find a way to address it!
I went to Haiti after the earthquake to empower Haitians to self-sufficiency. I went to remind them of the many great contributions that Afro-descendants have made to this world, and of their amazing resilience and strength as a people. Not once did I envision myself becoming a receptacle for a Black man’s rage at the white world, but that is what I became. While I take issue with my brother’s behavior, I’m grateful for the experience. It woke me up, made me understand on a deeper level the terror that my sisters deal with daily. This in hand, I feel comfortable in speaking for Haitian women, and for myself, in saying that we will not be your pawns, racially, politically, economically or otherwise.
We are women, not weapons of war. Thankfully, there are organizations here in Haiti who continues to fight for women’s human rights like, MADRE, SOFA and Enfofanm.
Rather than allowing myself to be used in such a fashion, and as opposed to submitting to the frustration and bitterness that can be born of such an experience, I choose to continue to love and educate instead. My brothers can be sensitized to women’s realities in Haiti and the world over if these are presented to them by using their own clashes with racism and oppression as a starting point.
They must be made to understand the dangerous likelihood of the oppressed becoming the oppressor if no shift in consciousnesses takes place and if no end to the cycle of trauma occurs. I intend to see that it does…by continuing to live and work fearlessly with justice in mind, through the creation of a safe space for women in Haiti and by creating programming for Haitian men that considers their needs, too. Weapons annihilate, dialogue bears fruit.
It’s the fruit I’m interested in now, no matter how strange or bruised it might appear.
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
A document Haitian Women’s Rights Organizations worked on (available only in French):
(Onward for Women! An Advocacy Model in the Struggle Waged by Haitian Women’s Rights Organisations)
CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/20/haitian.womens.movement.mourns/index.html?hpt=C2More on Myriam Merlet:
http://mongoosechronicles.blogspot.com/2010/01/myriam-merlet.htmlThe Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/earthquake-kill-haiti-feministsWomen’s E-News:
http://www.womensenews.org/breaking-newsWomen’s Media Center:
http://womensmediacenter.com/blog/2010/01/she-wanted-women-to-hold-their-heads-high-haiti-mourns-the-deaths-of-three-womens-rights-leaders/Read more Haiti Watch, Press Watch.
via race-talk.org
====================
Haitian Women Testify
by Adam Stofsky 
Take Strong Action Now to Stop Gender-Based Violence in Haiti
“The way you saw the earth shake, that's how our bodies are shaking now” described one woman of a secondary humanitarian crisis facing the women and girls of Haiti.
As Haiti’s earthquake toppled buildings, it also toppled social structures that provided Haitian women some protection against sexual violence. Rape was widespread before January 12, but the hundreds of thousands of women now living on the streets or in camps, often without their family and neighborhood networks, are more vulnerable than ever.
Special thanks to Harriet Hirshorn (ttp://www.raboteau-trial.info/) for shaping and editing this video.
>via: http://vimeo.com/11091051
Alexa Apr 9, 2010 21:40
I have seen the video "The Quak".It thought me and showed me that you are all in need of help, supplies,and amidit care.After seeing the video I decided that i will start savings acount for the people of hatiti.Your President did not spring into action as George Washington Bush did not to the city of New Orleans.WE are in deep prayer for you.Mike Sherman Apr 7, 2010 14:48
I can not wait to go back. This video is so moving--I have ordered itCATHY DAVIES Apr 5, 2010 12:37
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/13/our-role-in-haitis-plight
This is the type of misinformation, disinformation, no information in the Western Mainstream Media that has dodged Haiti throughout its history and has allowed the western powers to maintain and enforced a system of apartheid towards the vast majority of the Haitian people without them ever being call on it. blabla Apr 5, 2010
00:50FRONTLINE's Editors Respond:
The role of the U.S. and western powers in Haiti's history is addressed in this report (see chapters 3 and 4 of the streamed video), and it is also covered in greater depth on this Web site. The section called The Way Forward, for example, deals with how for decades foreign aid has prevented the growth of a strong Haitian government and infrastructure, and why it is time to rethink the foreign aid model. And in their interviews, Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. Raymond Joseph and journalist Mark Danner offer background and commentary on U.S.-Haiti history.
And we'd like to note another critical review of FRONTLINE's report from The Haitian Blogger.
WAITIN FOR COMMENTS???
STEREO stereo Apr 4, 2010 21:32
Haiti needs the worlds Help!
Laura.Laura Cruz Apr 4, 2010 19:09
The first order of business in Haiti should be to address food security and the availability of cooking fuel. A suitable replacement for the Creole Pig would restore the prior informal economy and the US should dump charcoal into the country to eliminate the cutting down of trees for firewood. It would be a stop-gap measure until more suitable technology/fuel could be introduced that is affordable by the majority of the population. Pigs were also largely displaced by goats which are far more damaging to the envrionment than pigs because they kill trees by chewing the bark off. Peter Apr 4, 2010 17:49
I have been working with a team that has assembled some plans and basic information about earthbag building that is being offered to individuals and relief agencies online at www.earthbagstructures.com. Much of what is presented there has been fashioned to mirror the cultural distinctions unique to Haiti.Kelly Hart Apr 4, 2010 00:30
Haiti needs justice and deserves billions of dollars in reparations from France, US, and Canadian for responsibility of foreign interventions (example see: Ottawa Initiative on Haiti) that have denied basic democratic and human rights to the Haitian people. Haiti has not yet seen a day when Western countries weren't contriving to subvert and overthrow any elected official who would have challenged power held by the elite families and have seen the standard of living for the majority of Haitian move from grinding miserable poverty to a level of "dignified" poverty.
I reject the general claims made in this documentary that Haitians are weak, corrupt, and unworthy of handling their own affairs. I instead assert that former US presidents Clinton and Bush are criminals, should be indicted on numerous charges, and definitely not be allowed to serve as special envoys to Haiti. Aristide should be allowed to return to his country and Haitians should be given the opportunity to rule their own affairs without foreign intervention for a change.nothing nitwit Apr 2, 2010 20:21
Dorothy Pearce Apr 2, 2010 16:04
Another aspect is while the international community was responding to a natural humanitarian disaster, in most of African nation, the response is about responding to political and man made crisis. How can we in Africa explain about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Rwandan genocide, the Kenyan post election violence and the synonymous macabre of violence in Somalia that takes new dimension every time. I think the Haiti crisis was a wake up call to African nations to get their acts together, by being responsible as human beings and take charge of their affairs. International community should be left to respond to natural disaster like Tsunami, earthquakes etc and not man-made political crisis that plague Africa.
It is a high time for the International community to start responding to African man-made crisis by carrot and stick. Move in for the sake of the innocent civilians but ensure engineers behind the crisis face the full wrath as a result of their consequences.Frank Apr 2, 2010 06:21
$ 75,506.20 , that means we bought 96 full boxes, and had a share in another 14 boxes. Or 1,100 people will have a chance to start over in a dry place. Here's out site :
The TM Fish Camp
http://tmfishcamp.blogspot.com/
We are looking to do a more long term effort in Haiti, nothing big, just sustainable.
Our donation page -
http://www.justgiving.com/Colorado-BobColorado Bob Apr 1, 2010 15:14
I have seen a lot of fires against the haitian Government about their response in the Crisis. The Haitian Government has nothing in its hands and nothing in their pockets and yet with a lot of responsibilities and no means but about 4,000 police officers for the whole country. Have anyone asked what was the UN doing with so much more ressources, about 9,000 troops and 2,000 civilians? I am encouraged by so much money the international community is pleadging for the rebuilding of Haiti. I am also confident that Prime Minister Bellerive and President Clinton will do great things, but we have heard many more pledges and many more promises... We'll see. Mwen se St Antoine, m'ap chita gade. Jean Lans Apr 1, 2010 14:17
Marie G. BastienMarie G. Bastien Apr 1, 2010 13:31
Regarding immediate housing needs - move people out of the damaged areas into these small communities North of Port that had no damage (ie: the road from Pont Sonde to Mirebelais is dotted wiht many small towns and has a lot of open land - stay out of the irrigated farmland). Place them in tents, under tarps, whatever, for this rainy season. Use churches and schools as shelters for them when hurricanes threaten. Our small village of Verrettes has over 20 churches and I'm sure all would agree to take people in for the short term as long as the burden of feeding them was not on their shoulders.
Put these refuges to work building prefab 2 room homes of wood and tin, that are designed to be hurricane and quake proof. Next winter when the rains end start relocating the people back to Port, taking their new homes with them. Have them build on their original homesite. Provide food and a small amount of money for the work.
There should be one or two home designs that are approved by all NGO's and the plans made available on line, on the street corner, etc. tominhaiti Apr 1, 2010 08:49
It’s funny when people like (Jan) who never visit or learn about Haiti history think they are expert on a country based on the lies the media constantly feeding them.
The media is missing a valuable opportunity to explain why Haiti is so poor. Once again, Americans are receiving a hefty dose of misinformation. They are learning that Haiti is simply a poor country where bad things happen all the time. Always blaming the Haitians by making them look like savages or portray their government as week and ineffective. The media does nothing but reinforce bias and racism toward other countries. They have always been irresponsible and bias when it comes to Haiti and their irresponsibility has contributed to Haiti's misery. The focus on poverty, with the repeated tagline "the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere" and references to crime and unrest, make it hard for viewers to imagine any other aspect of life in Haiti.
It is a myth Haiti is not an overcrowded country. Haiti, with 27,560 sq km of land mass, is 3rd largest nation in the Caribbean. Haiti is big Country for the Caribbean La Selle massif rises 2700 meters above sea level Port-au-Prince (almost 9000 feet) Compares to 14,300 ft Mt. Evans above "mile-high' Denver (~ 9000 ft)
Haiti has Low population density compared to her crowded neighbors. Large rural areas are virtually unpopulated. The majority of the Haitians live in the urban areas. "Haitian Outback' Neither barren nor lifeless as hysterical news media stories claim!
They claimed that Haiti has no resources. the truth: Important natural resources are largely undeveloped: Haiti is rich in oil, natural gas, gold, limestone, bauxite, copper, sisal, uranium
There is evidence that the US found oil in Haiti decades ago and due to the geopolitical circumstances and big business interests of that era made the decision to keep Haitian oil in reserve for when Middle Eastern oil had dried up. There is also good evidence that these very same big US oil companies and their inter-related monopolies of engineering and defense contractors made plans, decades ago, to use Haiti's deep water ports either for oil refineries or to develop oil tank farm sites or depots where crude oil could be stored and later transferred to small tankers to serve U.S. and Caribbean ports.
Here is the reason Port- au –Prince is overcrowded:
Thirty years ago Haiti has a thriving agriculture industry & imported no rice. Today Haiti imports nearly all its rice. Though Haiti was the sugar growing capital of the Caribbean, it now imports sugar as well. Why? The U.S. and the U.S. dominated world financial institutions – the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – forced Haiti to open its markets to the world. Then the U.S. dumped millions of tons of U.S. subsidized rice and sugar into Haiti – undercutting their farmers and ruining Haitian agriculture. By ruining Haitian agriculture, the U.S. has forced Haiti into becoming the third largest world market for U.S. rice. Local Haitian farmers, unable to compete with these prices, leave their farms and move to the city to try to find work. So to whatever extent the earthquake was made worse by the overcrowding.
In 2002, Bush stopped hundreds of millions of dollars in domestic loans to Haiti & also persuaded the international community to follow suit. These loans were to be used for, among other public projects like education, roads. These are the same roads which relief teams were having so much trouble navigating now!
The US government bear a very heavy responsibility for their country's foreign policy in this hemisphere. It has been established for almost two centuries during which only Haitians licensed by Washington have been allowed to rule.
The basic problem is that the American public are utterly oblivious or indifferent to the evil that their governments do, abroad, in their name. (And they are not that bothered about what it does at home either.)
Anybody who truly wants to help Haiti, should not go to Haiti with handouts, but go to Washington with questions and demands for better, more humane representation of the US citizenry abroad. Ask Washington to stop its abuse in Haiti, its bullying, its endless IMF/World Bank debts, financial colonialism and neoliberal, privatization programs that maintain and sustains Haiti's containment in poverty. JamieP Apr 1, 2010 00:47
One last observation. Upon landing, we looked for the Immigration office. The sign was hung - upside down - in a window.
If those two experiences are any indication of how our two governments operate, it might be a good idea to turn Haiti over to the N.G.O.'s, who, God bless them, DO care about what's happening to Haiti's people. JMF Mar 31, 2010 23:03
Why is it, be it cosmic law or some other divine or natural reason - the most beautiful places and creatures on earth can conspire with nature or custom; an absolute paradise to be the amongst the most deadly and poisonous on earth?Christopher Carnovale Mar 31, 2010 21:58
I particularly liked the part about the reasons why the Haitian government is ineffectual. Yes, as we have all heard, the Haitian government is corrupt and incompetent. But there are various reasons for the governments inability to provide basic services to its peopel. A big part of that is that the government has been replaced with aid. The way aid is delivered needs to change. It needs to more directed at results, accountability and helping the local people to help themselves out of poverty. Paul Farmer is a revelation. His model is the way forward, not throwing money at the problem and hoping something sticks.Debbie E Mar 31, 2010 21:20
Even after much research I'm not sure which organizations are doing the most good for the Haitian people. Could someone PLEASE let me know. Are there any organziations that are planning on building houses? What will happen when the rains start? I feel so powerless in all of this. I'm a broke student, but I have the pleasure of going to a food pantry, but these people have no where to go.
The media has to play a bigger role of keeping the current images of Haiti impressed in the public's eyes. Otherwise the world will forget...again. I believe the purpose of living is to help other people.
Are we still human? ord2world@hotmail.com Rebecca G. Mar 31, 2010 19:39
They show us Port-au-Prince, but where are the other cities and the great hospitals? Why do they give so much money to a corrupt government, ask nothing in return?
I invite you to read my article HAITI: POLITICAL EUTHANAGIA, published on September, shortly after visiting my country. http://artunivers.org.over-blog.com/article-36436893.html
I am the author of Le Guide de la réforme haïtienne, book on a general reform.
Rony Blain Mar 31, 2010 18:58
The international community must end indirect aid to Haiti.
Foreign Aid/loans should go to Haiti directly to build its infrastructure, not the churches and the NGO false charity industry imposed on Haiti. They must support and respect Haitian sovereignty, not boost NGO profits and power in Haiti.
They must support community organizing, community policing, transparency and participatory democracy.
Haiti's largest political party can’t continue to be banned from participating in elections as has happened in Haiti ever since the 2004 Bush Regime change and UN/US/Canada/France occupation began.
Respect Haitian human rights and dignity. Stop criminalizing the poor in Haiti.
NGOs like charities and international aid groups are extremely powerful in Haiti - they too must respect the human dignity and human rights of all people.
Relief, rebuilding and redevelopment should be designed by Haitians and their collaborators, not USAID, the UN or the “international community.”
Reform USAID policy, international agencies and the over 10,000 NGOs over Haiti. Their grip must be loosened if a new paradigm is to be installed for the people of Haiti that promotes Haitian self-reliance not Haitian dependency
USAID has a history of mistreating the Haitian majority, feeding dependency, starving democracy, promoting the neoliberal death plan that contains-Haiti-in-poverty and creating and financing the anti-democratic sector that excludes, impoverishes and terrorize Haiti's majority.
End free trade, began fair trade.
Support domestic food production, indigenous Haiti manufacturing and job creation. Stop IFIs policies that limit social spending, require that Haiti remove tariffs on food and other imports, privatize public enterprises, exempt foreign investors from taxes on their profits. Support grassroots, indigenous Haiti capacity building organizations.Sammie Mar 31, 2010 16:04
I just finished reading Mountains beyond Mountains by Kidder. Kidder was interviewed on the Rachel Maddow show right after the quake. I was glad to see Partners in Health personnel given a lot of chances to speak on last night's Frontline. Kidder talks about Graham Green's The Commedianne, so I borrowed that from my local library and am reading that too. We Americans have certainly been kept in the dark about the history of an Island so close to the continental united States. Could it be from embarrassment of the government?
As Captain Bruce Braithwaite states, we probably won't see much change in Haiti with the corrupt government allowed to be in office and the Tontons Macoute still very much in control.
Thank you Paul Farmer and Partners in Health for all you do and try to do.Lorraine Mar 31, 2010 10:59
what the people of Haiti had to go through. It was definitely heartbreaking and calls for us to
continue to act and not put Haiti behind us because it is not in the headline every week. As one who studies hurricanes I am very much afraid for the people of Haiti this summer and in the years to come. The people do not have enough protection from tropical storm or hurricane force winds or heavy rain. I don't know where the government can move so many people if there is a TC threat. We should be putting the best minds, especially those from Haiti, and elsewhere around the world on this problem now. We have 61 days before the start of the hurricane season and the clock is ticking. The people of Haiti deserve our best global efforts along with our prayers. Greg Jenkins Mar 31, 2010 08:54
The modern history of Haiti was inadequately explained and explored, the economics and business of Haiti were almost tossed aside altogether. A few important basic facts about the disastrous 'disaster relief' were put forward and illustrated, but not really analyzed nor covered in depth.
The interviewees offered little really concrete information. None of the several successful leaders of tiny poor-but-healthy Caribbean / Central American nations were interviewed for their wisdom.
No detailed analysis was provided of the aid efforts before or after the quake, and some major scandals were ignored (American Red Cross withholding blood, Larry Jones' 'Feed the Children' not actually feeding Haitian children with the millions they solicited ostensibly for that purpose, Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort scheduled to arrive after most critically ill would die, U.S. military and Florida government feuding over whether to airlift critically wounded Haitians to Florida hospitals, a complete lack of effective national U.S. operating protocol for dealing with such a catastrophe right next door, etc.).
In short, a whole raft of Katrina-esque fiascoes were swept aside with a few summary comments about the lack of adequate response, and some gory video.
This episode of Frontline seemed to be chiefly a vehicle for its star reporter to ask 'tough' questions of high-profile people on national TV. It was more 'journalistic' grandstanding, rather than serious in-depth analytical reporting -- and far less valuable than it could and should have been, especially about such a life-and-death issue.
I'm very disappointed at how little new info or perspective I learned from this episode -- quite unlike most other Frontline programs.
RH Mar 31, 2010 06:02
Study, analyze and discuss Haiti not only in first-world terms, but from the perspective of 'successful' third-world ('developing') nations.
Frankly, saying the U.S. and France know how to fix Haiti, is like saying millionaires understand how to rehabilitate the homeless.
People closer to Haitians' experience need to be the leaders in the nation's renovation -- people who understand how to have a viable tiny Caribbean coastal/island nation.
The Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Belize -- and even American colony Puerto Rico -- have a far clearer grasp of the issue than Washington or Paris. Nicaragua, Chile and Peru know more about rising from the rubble of devastating earthquakes. Frankly, Cuba and Venezuela, despite their obvious ulterior motives, probably know more than most American leaders about how to effectively help Haiti rise from the ashes of desperation.
The absence of foreign views on American media coverage of this issue (even on PBS Frontline) is a major shaping influence on the defects in dialoge and decision-making on this issue.
RH Mar 31, 2010 05:44
I just finished watching the Frontline documentary on Haiti. I was heartened that the documentary gave as much airtime to Partners in Health as it did. From what I can tell, Partners in Health is one of the best NGO's in Haiti, employing Haitian nurses and doctors to provide the highest quality health care possible under extremely difficult circumstances. The network of hopsitals and clinics that are run by Partners in Health could in the future serve as the foundation of a public health care system for Haiti.
I was dissapointed that the documentary did not explain the reasons why aid was so slow in reaching the Haitian people. During the first 24 hours after the Quake, the US government took control of the Port-Au Prince airport, deciding what flights could and could not land. While millitary planes containing US soldiers were allowed to land (some 10,000 US soldiers arrived in Haiti during the first week after the quake), flights containing vital aid from other countries were turned back and forced to land instead in the Dominican Republic.
Then once the US soldiers were on the ground in Prot-Au Prince, they were used in the first few days not to distribute aid, but rather to establish order. Only once the US millitary decided that there was sufficient order did the US millitary begin to distribute aid to the Haitian people. The US millitary also did not rely on the Haitian people to help distribute aid. The US millitary did everything in their power to keep the Haitian people disempowered during the aid distribution process.
The US millitary also established green zones and red zones in Port-Au Prince, as the US millitary did in Baghdad after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Only the airport, the downtown area near the presidential palace, and the small wealthy section of Port-Au Prince were designated as green zones. The rest of Port-Au Prince was designated as a vast red zone, and the US millitary made the decision not to distribute aid to these areas during the first weeks following the coup (though I believe some of these areas have now received some aid, albeit far from what is needed).
It must also be noted that while the US government has spent in the vicinity of US $1 billion dollars on aid to Haiti since the earthquake, much of this money has been spent on the US millitary presence. This millitary presence was ostensibly to establish order, yet there was not a significant problem with violence in