Comments on: History for Haiti

By: Sean Kheraj

Sean Kheraj — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:09:20 +0000

Great post, Tom. I agree with Adam that this would have been terrific for the Globe & Mail. As I read about the “Friends of Haiti” meeting over the weekend, I was hoping someone would re-position the quotation marks: “‘Friends’ of Haiti”

By: What Historical Research Can Do For Haiti? « Andrew Smith’s Blog

What Historical Research Can Do For Haiti? « Andrew Smith’s Blog — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:49:36 +0000

[...] a website devoted to the practical application of historical knowledge, has an interesting post on how history can contribute to ourstanding of the crisis in [...]

By: Gregory Kennedy

Gregory Kennedy — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:43:05 +0000

Good points, indeed. Having looked a little at the environmental damage caused during the colonial period, it is difficult to underestimate the consequences of the creation of an industrial landscape of sugar. The words deforestation, soil erosion and climate change fail to capture the depth of the destruction. Any viable solution for Haiti needs to consider a workable economic base for the country, because the environment is simply so degraded as to be unable to support traditional family based initiatives such as agriculture and fishing.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:19:39 +0000

Great post, Tom. I listened to an episode of the Current on Jan. 20 with Jean Saint-Vil – a Haitian Canadian activist, which was totally fascinating and as a social justice-ey historian it was refreshing/inspiring to listen to his historical analysis of Haiti, slavery, colonialism and so on. I don’t think it was in the same show you linked to there. It’s part 2 of the show linked below.

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/201001/20100120.html

The blurb on the website reads:

“To discuss what role the United States and the international community should play in Haiti, we were joined by Thomas Donnelly. He’s the director of the Centre for Defense Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He was in Washington. In Oslo, Norway, Canadian Ilan Kelman studies in “disaster diplomacy.” He is the senior research fellow with the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research. And Jean Saint-Vil is a Haitian Canadian who is a social justice activist. He joined us from Ottawa.”

By: Adam Crymble

Adam Crymble — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:07:38 +0000

This post should probably have been sent to the Globe and Mail or National Post rather than put here. It’s timely, written by an expert and concise. Dream bigger.

By: Ian Milligan

Ian Milligan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:15:06 +0000

Christopher Moore posted an insightful link today to an article by Sidney Mintz, which concisely discusses many of the historical issues that have contributed to the state of Haiti today. It is available here:

http://bostonreview.net/BR35.1/mintz.php

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:42:51 +0000

Bill Moyer ended last week’s show with a powerful discussion of Haitian history:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01222010/profile3.html
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01222010/transcript3.html

Here is a quote from Moyer’s reflections:
“Every president from Ronald Reagan forward has embraced the corporate search for cheap labor. That has meant rewards for Haiti’s upper class while ordinary people were pushed further and further into squalor. Haitian contractors producing Mickey Mouse and Pocahontas pajamas for American companies under license with the Walt Disney Company paid their sweat shop workers as little as one dollar a day, while women sewing dresses for K-Mart earned eleven cents an hour. A report by the National Labor Committee found Haitian women who had worked 50 days straight, up to 70 hours a week, without a day off. If that doesn’t impact the tradition of child rearing and lead to social distrust, I don’t know what will.
So, once again, beware the terrible simplifiers and remember that through all its suffering Haiti is a country born of revolution, like our own, whose people sing of their forefathers breaking their shackles, proclaiming their right to equality, and shouting ‘Progress or Death.’”